Downhere

Donate to the Downhere Foundation

2009-06-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

We have had a rather trying couple of weeks as far as the van is concerned. Only by the grace of God did we make it to every show, but it has been rather expensive as we've had to pay for multiple repairs, truck rentals, etc.

Many of our fans and friends have been asking how they could contribute financially to help offset those expenses. For starters, let us say thank-you. I firmly believe that we have the most generous and gracious supporters in the industry. Time and time again we have been blessed unexpectedly, whether in the form of goodies at a show or financial gifts. We have recently set up the Downhere Foundation which will allow us to accept your gifts and give you tax deductible receipts in return. If you would like to contribute to the Foundation please click on the button below. This will take you to a secure page where you can give whatever you would like.

Thank-you in advance. We are so thankful for you and are humbled that you would want to help us out financially as well. We look forward to seeing you on the road!

Done!

2009-05-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

Good news! The Christmas record has been completed after much hard work in plenty of time for its release in September. We're calling it "How Many Kings". We'll likely add ":a Christmas album", or something like that to the title to better describe the record's contents. Marketing. It's important. So I have to say that the record sounds like Downhere, and it sounds like Christmas... kind of a Christmassy, Downherey type deal - with a couple of stylistic surprises. There are epic moments, quiet moments, lighter moments - everything to suit the many moods of the Christmas season. Usually, after we finish a record, I'll send it to my family and some close friends. But this time it's different. If some other artist said me "hey I just finished my Christmas record, wanna hear it?" I think I'd be inclined to respond "hey, um, I'm really happy for you, but let me enjoy the summer and fall first... but I CAN'T wait to hear it!" But truthfully... I can wait. And so must you, my friends, and even my family.

-Marc

Studio Time

2009-02-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well we've officially started recording for our Christmas album and I've gotta say I'm pumped. I always thought this would be a fun thing to do so I'm excited that we are finally here. We've spent the last couple of days finishing writing the originals we wanted to record as well as finalizing the song list for the album. I think we're going to have a really fun record and can't wait to hear it when it's done.

Today we worked on We Wish You A Merry Christmas. We had a lot of fun with it. The idea behind it was us showing up at your door with a bunch of random percussion instruments and "caroling" the song. By random I mean that I played Jason's Juno Award as a percussion instrument today. It's even got the dents to prove it! Below are some clips I just put up on YouTube from today. Enjoy!

GL

Christmas Recording

We Wish You A Mery Christmas

What's In Store For 2009?

2009-01-16T07:38:00.000-08:00

A belated Happy New Year to you! The beginning of the year for me is always an exciting time. I like to wonder about what may happen before the Big Apple drops again next year. I started 2008 by running a half marathon and full marathon in the same weekend at Disney World. My wife and I bought our first house, I ran another marathon, our newest addition Bramwell was brought into our lives, Downhere released another album and had its highest charting song ever. Jeremy and Erin welcomed their first child Liam into their lives. Then we ended the year with the Bethlehem Skyline tour which was so much fun. SO much can happen over 365 days.

We don't know what 2009 will give us but here are some things we are looking forward to. Potentially recording and releasing a Downhere Christmas album, (not for sure but we are working towards it). Playing in Northern Ireland and Norway this year is always something to look forward to. We'll be releasing Hope Is Rising and My Last Amen to Christian radio so here's hoping for another top 5! Then as 2009 closes we'll be hitting the studio for our next album! Time flies.

We hope your year is looking to be an exciting one and that we'll be able to see you somewhere along our journeys.

Glenn

A New Addition and the Bethlehem Skyline Tour

2008-12-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

For those of you who follow our blog we should fill you in on what's been going on in the last week. We started the Bethlehem Skyline Christmas tour 4 days ago with fellow Centricity artists Jason Gray, Jamie Jamgochian, Daniel Kirkley and Lanae Hale. It's been real great travelling together and working together with so many talented people not to mention that we're all good friends too! I really hope you'll have a chance to see this tour, if not, hopefully we can make happen again next year.

When this tour started our very own Jeremy Thiessen was road managing for all of us but just before we played our first show he got a call that his wife's water broke and she was going into labor. So Jeremy played most of the show then hopped in a car and drove back to Tennessee from St. Louis. He made it back in time and now they have a beautiful baby boy named Liam Jeremiah Thiessen. He must have been anxious to meet his parents since he arrived 22 days early!!

Thankfully we have on the road with us doing our lights an excellent drummer named Tim Twinem. Tim has stepped up and learned the songs very quickly so that the tour could continue and people could still hear these songs as we all want them to. Thanks Tim!!

So tonight we are near San Antonio and you can see the rest of the schedule on our web site at downhere.com. Hope to see you soon!

Glenn

Best of 2008

2008-11-19T08:22:00.000-08:00

Check this out! We made the Christianity Today Best Albums of 2008 list! Number 4 even. To see who else made the list and read the full article click here.

#4
Ending Is Beginning
Downhere
Centricity Music

This one's no surprise since Downhere has made our best-of list with every album they've released—and for good reason, as more and more fans have come to discover on their own. What's truly impressive, though, is how consistently strong Downhere has remained, continually improving with every release. The interplay between lead vocalists Marc Martel and Jason Germain is still an appealing draw, and the band as a whole gets better and better with age and experience, mixing in beautiful ballads with anthemic rockers. But what truly sets Downhere apart from other pop-inclined bands is their songwriting, and it's not just their ability to craft a tuneful melody either. Most artists are either subtle or clichéd when it comes to expressing their faith, but this band gets it just right by openly sharing God's Word with original lyrics that stimulate the mind as well as the heart. Ending Is Beginning offers fresh perspectives on rebirth through grace and the hope of life after death—old ideas expressed in new ways. Christian music needs more of what Downhere has to offer, maintaining a balance between artistry and ministry. We hope they'll continue to lead the way for years to come.
Click here for the original review.

On the Road Again!

2008-10-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

Today we're back on the road for a solid amount of time - 10 days, to be exact. We've had the last couple of weeks off (basically) which have been fantastic. My wife and I were able to get the nursery painted for our upcoming kid (Baby Rockstar is due Dec. 26th), we attended a couple of baby showers, we watched some football, and we were even able to have some people over for dinner! I know the other guys enjoyed their time off too - getting some regular exercise, finishing up projects around the house, reconnecting with friends, pursuing hobbies, etc.

And now that all comes to a screeching halt. For the month of November and the first two weeks of December we will be BUSY. First November: we'll be wrapping up the second half of the Ending is Beginning Tour with The Michael Gungor Band. We've got shows scheduled in OK, MO, TX, GA, PA, VA, and TN. Then we get almost a week off to recover (i.e. eat lots of pumpkin pie and turkey!) before we start the Bethlehem Skyline Tour with shows in OK, TX, AL, PA, MI, and WI. Lord willing (and please feel free to pray for this with me!) my son will wait until his daddy gets home off the road before bursting on the scene.

So it's going to be a full next couple of months - but good at the same time. Make sure you're signed up for our email newsletter via www.downhere.com - there will be more information and updates coming via the newsletter early next week.

Blessings to you all - thanks for being such faithful supporters! We look forward to seeing you on the road as always...

Jeremy

"Here I Am" in the Top 5

2008-10-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here's our big news of the week: "Here I Am", our current radio single, broke into the Top 5 at Christian AC Radio this week! You can check out the chart here. To read a post about the song and listen to it, go here. If you get a chance, call your local radio station and thank them for playing our song!

A Couple of Days Off...

2008-10-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

"Day off"? What is that? That's something my wife and I are wrestling with. This week we have a few days off, but Tuesday we played in the rain out at Debate 08 in Nashville - so much for a day off (it might have been easier to swallow if it wasn't raining so hard out that hardly anyone was there... but no one could have expected that). I'm looking forward to just hanging out at home today (after running a few errands this morning) taking care of my sick, pregnant wife. We hit the road again to Arkansas on Saturday for a show before having nearly two weeks off - that's going to be glorious! We may disappear off the radar for some of that time... and if we do, just be praying for lots of rest. Thanks!

Jeremy

Manufacturing Issue Delays Delivery of Pre-Ordered CDs

2008-10-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey all! We've received a few emails in the last week about this and so I wanted to make sure everyone knew what the situation was. Much to our chagrin, it appears that a number of you have STILL not received your pre-ordered CDs. Unfortunately, we have absolutely no control over this - all of this stuff is handled by a third-party company. We double-checked to make sure these albums would either arrive early or on time (we had some problems with this on the last album) and were assured they would.

However, before I completely throw our distributors under the bus, the real culprit THIS time around was the actual CD manufacturer. They went bankrupt and closed their doors without telling anyone. Our label didn't find out until they went to pick up the product days before it was to be shipped out to all the retail outlets (including the online distributors). Needless to say, they missed the deadline for shipping which has resulted in some pretty major consequences: some of your CD orders have been delayed, and our CD will not be available in mainstream outlets (i.e. Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, etc.) until January.

So... I say all that to hopefully help some of you understand why your album has not arrived yet. For others of you you'll have to work a little harder to find the album (it should still be available in all Christian bookstores). Thank-you for your patience and understanding - we wish it was a different story, but the Lord knows exactly what He's doing... we've just got to hold on for the ride.

Thanks so much - looking forward to seeing you on the road this fall!

Jeremy
Check out my blog!

First "Ending is Beginning" Tour show a success!

2008-09-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day here in Virginia... and I'm exhausted. Last night we played in Uniontown, PA for the first show on the "Ending is Beginning" tour. It ended up being a great night, but as all first days of tours go, it was a LONG and tiresome day. Our hosts were great - we played in a really cool old theater and Len the theater "dude" was a great help (sometimes with venues like this the "dude" is extremely unhelpful). With this being our first time setting up the lights, meeting and working with Michael Gungor and his band, and just getting everything ready to roll, we literally started loading in at 9:20am and didn't stop for a break until 11pm when we arrived at the hotel at the end of the night.

Then this morning we hit the road at 6am so that we could drive to Williamsburg, VA for an outdoor show tonight. I'm excited about tonight - we're going to see some great friends and it sounds like they've done a superb job promoting this show. It's being billed as a "release party" for our new album and they're expecting around 1500 people - I hope we've got enough CDs for everyone! Regardless, it's going to be a fun night - I just wish I wasn't so tired! Oh yeah - and Michael Gungor had to leave his driver at a hospital in Uniontown this morning as he went in for an appendectomy. I'm thankful I'm not him today!

So with setting up the lights and sound for a second day, a messageboard chat this afternoon, and another early morning tomorrow (we leave for the airport at 5:15am to fly to TX where we'll be launching our record on-air at K-LOVE with Jon and Sherry Rivers) we've got a lot to think about today. Your prayers for health and strength would definitely be appreciated. Take care, and I hope we'll see you on the road!

Jeremy

Highlight Video

2008-09-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

We recently played in Grand Rapids Michigan for the folks at WCSG and they posted a highlight video from our time there. Here's a link to their site to check it out! Enjoy

http://wcsg.org/

Glenn

A quick update

2008-08-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Glenn here. I'm writing from the 5/3 ballpark in Grand Rapids Michigan. I drove here today with my sister Krista since it wasn't all that far from home. The other guys are flying in from Nashville. So that means a flight to Detroit then a connection to Grand Rapids. They got to Detroit fine but when they left on the flight for Grand Rapids it sounds like one of the planes engines blew shortly after take off. I'm not sure what that means but they had to do an emergency landing in Detroit. Everyone is fine we're just wondering when everyone will arrive for the gig now!

I'll update you later. Keep up with our Twitter status as that's a little easier to update quickly.

Glenn

Sneak Preview

2008-08-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

For those of you itching to know more about the new album "Ending is Beginning" here's a great site for you to check out.

http://mylastamen.wordpress.com/

It's a song by song explanation/devotional for each of the songs on the new album. Jason and Marc took lots of time working on these and we think it'll give you some insight into each of these new songs. Enjoy!

Glenn

downhere message board

2008-08-06T07:04:00.001-07:00

For those of you who spent any time on our previous message board I figure you need an update. We hoped to have the new board up and running by now. When we made the switch to the new site a bunch of things needed to happen in cyberspace so that it would all work just right. Well, after time there were things that we just didn't realize needed to be switched so now there are essentially some broken links that we are trying to get fixed. Once we get there we'll have it up. I'll post here when it's all ready to go.

With some help from Oldiesmann I think we've managed to keep a great deal of what was on the last board and we'll have a much improved board. Stick around and we'll keep you updated!

Glenn

More Glitches

2008-08-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed our pic from this page is missing. I guess it's that glitchy time of year for downhere web material. We're doing what we can to get it fixed up. Thanks for your patience!!

Glenn

Updated!!

2008-07-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

I took a bit of time today to get this page back up to date and I think it's looking pretty good. Thanks to Marc for the image above. It makes me laugh but suits the picture well. I added our "Tweets" over on the sidebar too so if you want to subscribe to those there's a spot for it!!

Please add us to your blog roll if you are a blogger and tell your friends about us here. This is where we will be posting news/blogs/updates. This should be your source for the latest Downhere info!!

Glenn

New Myspace Home

2008-07-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

www.myspace.com/thebanddownhere is now the new official home of downhere on myspace. We have been having problems with our old address and now (as you may have noticed) we don't even have it anymore. So until we can get that sorted out, if we can get that sorted out this is where we'll be. You can hear our music here including some of the new tracks from Ending Is Beginning. You can follow our blog here and leave us comments! This is where we will look!

And how about the new design? I think it looks pretty snazzy. I think snazzy is a word one of my old grade school teachers used to use. I like it though, kinda sounds like jazzy with a little sna to it! We'll keep this new site updated with the latest info on our upcoming release "Ending Is Beginning" and you can pre order it here too! I'm telling you, this is a pretty cool place to be! thebanddownhere on myspace is it!

Tell your friends, send bulletins, post blogs! We're only allowed to send out up to 400 friend requests a day so it's going to take your help to spread the word! We love you all! Thanks!

Glenn

New Video Posted

2007-10-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let you all know that we've posted a new video from on the road in Mount Rushmore.

Click here to watch from our website. (Highest quality)

Click here to watch or subscribe on YouTube. (YouTube quality)

Click here to subscribe to all our videos on iTunes. (Best quality and you can watch them over and over again and share them with everyone you love!)

New Video Series On The Way

2007-09-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well I've been working on a video for quite some time from a trip we did back in February and March. It was a long trip with a lot of footage. The resulting rough cut video was over an hour!! So I just get to it now and then in little pieces.

As I was working on it recently I decided I needed to figure out how far we traveled during that trip. Take a look at this map to see the results. You'll need to click on it to see a bigger version. Crazy!!

So the video will be released in parts hopefully within a couple of weeks. Each segment will last under 10 minutes. Look for it to show up on our web site, our new YouTube page, YouTube.com/TheBandDownhere and in our podcast on iTunes.

Glenn

Time to move!

2006-08-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

We have started blogging over at myspace now too and soon when you click on the link from our web site you will be directed there. So it looks like our days on blogger will be coming to a close. It may not be as pretty to look at but many more people will read it which is great. So come visit us on myspace and check out our blog there.

If you happen to be one of the very nice people who links to our blog please change the link to this:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=23104425&MyToken=c031e01f-805d-4c4f-b5b6-908f05108554ML

Thanks!!!!!

Glenn

Weekend Of Travel

2006-08-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Hope you're doing well... I just wanted to drop you a quick line and let you know what's going on with us. We're currently in Concord, NH where we are playing at the Inside Out Soul Festival - it's a great festival (one of our favorite) and we had a great time yesterday playing twice - once at the top of a ski hill (we actually had to take the guitars up on a ski lift!) and once on a late-night stage. Today we play on the mainstage early afternoon (although it's looking pretty wet right outside right now - I feel bad for those sleeping in tents!) before racing off to the airport to fly out to San Jose, CA to play at Spirit West Coast Monterey tomorrow.

Speaking of airports... we had a rough start to our crazy-travel weekend when we were delayed for 4 hours in Chicago (we sat on the tarmac in the plane for 3 of those hours) for lightening storms. We were supposed to arrive at our hotel at midnight - instead, we pulled up around 5:30am... it definitely made for a rough start.

So that's us, and that's what's going on - we'll get caught up with you more next week AFTER we get home on Sunday. Later - thanks for checking in!

Jeremy

A Blog From Jessica

2006-07-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

This is my first chance to blog for downhere! Oh the stories I could tell... I could be here all day. So let me just keep it to the past few weeks! Since the videoshoot, we've had some time off the road to do --- off the road stuff. (You know, the usual stuff you do when you have time off.) Our first show after a week and a half off was July 14th at the Nashville Sounds baseball game. We played for about 45 minutes before the game and had a pretty good crowd, despite the HOT and HUMID Tennessee weather. With the heat index of at least 105, we were all soaked in sweat about 10 minutes after we began setting up for the show. After the show, we were treated to skybox seating (with air conditioning!) and baseball food: hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. Apparently "Sara Lee" was a sponsor for the game, and as people were leaving, volunteers passed out hundreds of loaves of whole wheat bread. We all cashed in on the goodness; we could take as many loaves as we wanted. Some people were taking whole pallets. Jason kept handing Heather more and more packages of bread... I think they'll have enough bread for sandwiches and toast for the next few months. On a side note: as I'm writing this, my husband Dave just walked in the room eating 2 plain pieces of Sara Lee bread... weird.

The next day (after the Sounds game) we left for Dayton, Ohio. We loaded in and sound checked on Saturday night - and lead worship for two Sunday morning services at Far Hills Church. This was especially exciting for me, as I was in familiar territory; I used to go to college around there - and my brother and sister-in-law live in the area. It's always fun to see family when we're on the road. The people at Far Hills were so great to work with; we had such a great time worshiping with their church. They responded well to "A Better Way" "Little is Much" and "Surrender."

After church, our friends from Far Hills took us to PF Changs for lunch. It ended up being an afternoon event rather than just lunch (meaning it took all afternoon to get our food!). But we enjoyed the conversation and time spent with our new friends. As we finished our meal, one of the waitresses informed us that someone had ordered and paid for dessert for all of us! A note accompanied the kind gesture; it was a "thank you" from an anonymous family who attends Far Hills church and enjoyed the music from downhere that morning.

Sunday evening we drove to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. On Monday morning, we visited Star 88.3 WLAB where we did a little mini concert for their staff. We then drove back to Ohio for another radio interview in Mansfield at WVMC where the guys did an on-air interview and played some new music. We then drove to Mt. Vernon to interview at WNZR, where Josh Peterson, our record label marketing guy attended college. Josh then took us out to eat at one of the best pizza places in Ohio - Elm's Pizza (owned & operated by his family... and seriously, the best pizza....)

Dave just came back eating another piece of bread...

For Tuesday, we had more radio stations to visit. WAKW in Cincinnati had us for the morning show... We did another quick interview in Hamilton at WZFR, then grabbed lunch at Red Lobster with Tony Smith, a Berean music buyer, and ended the day at WJIE in Louisville, KY.

Next week we will be in West Palm Beach, Florida - leading evening worship for a week long camp. It's then on to Soul Fest in New Hampshire and Spirit West Coast in Monterey, CA! There are lots of things coming up - so keep checking back for more stories of what happens next!

It's been a pleasure informing you.

jessica (road manager)

Video Shoot

2006-06-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this at 1:47pm CST after waking up about 30 minutes ago. And I'm still feeling pretty tired.

Yesterday's music video shoot turned into an all-night affair. Our producer/director Andy flew in from NYC yesterday morning and started shooting around noon. We finished sometime around 5:30AM I think!!

If you are out of the loop about this first go to www.downhere.com. Then go back there once a day so it never happens again. So, we just filmed a video for our song "The More" which is the first track on our new album "Wide-Eyed and Mystified". It's the first music video we've ever done so we are really excited to see the end result.

I'm not sure how long it will be till it's completed now but we will let you know as soon as we do!

My highlights from the video: since you have to exaggereate everything on film, everyone was pretty entertaining to watch. Jer was flailing quite a bit and Marc was . . . well, himself. He's a natural. That guy was born for this. Andy got some really great shots of Marc's performances. A shot of Jay singing in the bridge looked really cool, hope it gets used. And though I never got to see my own footage I look forward to seeing that. I kind of felt like a monkey in a cage doing tricks for everyone. It's actually a little scary. But, once I decided not to care it was not big deal.

So there you go, some thoughts on the music video. Here's a couple of pics too. There are more pics at our website too.

Our road manager and make-up artist for the shoot, Jessica, also posted about the shoot on her blog. So check that out too!!

Glenn

Long Overdue Update

2006-06-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well we are back from . . . . . . . . it seems like everywhere, but most recently Denmark. The last couple of weeks went great. To those of you who purchased our CD the week it came out, thank you!! That first week is so important to a band. And for those of you who still don't have it . . . what are you waiting for???

We had a lot of fun on the west coast during release week. We rented an RV for a bunch of it and got to travel along the coastal highway between San Luis Obispo and Santa Clarita twice, which was beautiful. If you ever get the chance to drive out there do it. I can't wait to bring my family some day.

We have really been enjoying playing the new songs. It's great to add some freshness to our set. While on the west coast we visited and played at a bunch of different radio stations and stores ending up at Spirit West Coast - Del Mar. Del Mar is just outside of San Diego. So while we were there Marc, Dave and I got the opportunity to do some surfing. That was my second time and man is it fun . . . and tiring. Especially when the undertow is so strong.

Actually the day we surfed was the same day we played at a church in Carlsbad. The interesting thing about this church is that the father of two Switchfoot members pastors it. So while we were there they were of course advertising a Switchfoot show coming up. It would be pretty cool to be in the youth group at that church I bet! We had a great time there. We played the Saturday night service and two services on Sunday morning. Our host families were wonderful!!

Man, there's a lot to catch up on. Sorry we've been so long in posting here.

After that we took off to Alabama for a Student Life camp. This isn't the kind of 'camp' that you would normally think of. This one had over 1000 people there and the living conditions are pretty good for the week. We led worship all week, once in a while interjecting some of our songs. We love playing these camps and had fun getting to know the students while we were there.

From Alabama we drove to Atlanta then flew to Denmark. Those European crowds sure know how to rock. We need them to come here to give us some lessons. We played a two-hour show for between 2000 and 3000 people and had so much fun. The sun only goes down for a few hours at night this time of year there so the whole experience of being messed up for sleep, not knowing the language, and night never really coming really made it all feel pretty surreal.

So now we are home. A short break before a few more shows. We will soon be recording a music video for "The More". So we will try to keep you in the loop with that too.

Until next time . . .

Glenn