Hawk Nelson – Miracle Moments

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Who are we to think or say that, “Miracles don’t happen in the world today?” Why, so often, do we think so small when it comes to matters of a big, big God? Well, for one, He—as Hawk Nelson front man Jon Steingard says—is very “mysterious.” There are so many things that happen in our world, sometimes right before our very eyes, that we cannot explain. Miracles? Steingard…he would say, “Yes!”

So, given his open mind, maybe it’s not such a stretch to think that this theme of “miracles” isn’t a big deal to a band whose bass player’s leg had been ripped open several times by surgery to finally be replaced by the advancements of modern medicine? Or, that they finally achieved a Billboard Number One single after ten-plus years as a band—”ancient,” by some methods of measurement? Or, that their current project—yes, aptly titled Miracles (Fair Trade Services, Apr. 6, 2018—buy)—almost didn’t happen due to his own personal setbacks, bout of depression, and writer’s block due to the pressures of following up success?

“In my experience, when thinking about miracles and how God intervenes in our lives, most of the time, it’s in these subtle, little ways,” answers Steingard. “And if we make a habit of seeing them, then we start to see God in everything,” he adds as he and his Hawk Nelson band mates recently release Miracles. As we catch up with Steingard in our Nashville headquarters, we quickly gather that he’s not delivering lip service—or just figuratively stopping to smell the roses—for this father of one (with number two on the way!) is now thinking in both big, and small ways, and very seriously looking for God in all of life’s little details…and His many, many miracles.

CCM Magazine: Take us through the creative process for your new album Miracles, and the task of following-up your most successful album to date.
Jon Steingard: Sure… It’s interesting, right? I mean there’s a lot you can unpack there. Obviously when you make an album or you write a song or whatever—or if you have a radio show, or if you’re a plumber, whatever you do—you want that thing to be something that’s successful and that meets the goals that you might have. In Christian music especially, you also hope that that is something that’s meaningful to people in their lives. And that’s why we’re here, right?

With [the album] Diamonds (buy), we saw a number of songs really resonate with people, which was amazing. And it was so gratifying to see God use so many of those songs in amazing ways. But there is something that happens that’s really strange when you work toward something for a long time and then it more or less happens in some form: It’s really anti-climactic. So I remember where I was when I found out that our song “Drops In The Ocean” went No. 1 at AC Radio, and that’s the first time we’d had a song do that, and by that point we’d been a band…