Tag: Grammys

The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 2. Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com.

The 2025 GRAMMYs telecast will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Donate to the Recording Academy’s and MusiCares’ Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort To Support Music Professionals.  

Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted before the onset of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The artist has since addressed the situation. 

Forrest Frank joins our Zoom call early, marker in hand, a stack of CHILD OF GOD album inserts set before him. With several boxes’ worth still to be signed, the 29-year-old singer/songwriter anticipates the task will take “all day”; luckily, he’s perfected the art of the quick autograph.  

“I didn’t have a signature originally, so I’d just print ‘Forrest.’ At some point, I just decided to figure out how to do it in cursive, so now it’s like a big ‘F’ and the rest… you can kind of pick up on the squiggles enough to see that there are letters in there,” he grins as he holds one of the freshly inked inserts up to the camera.

The fact that Frank has formalized his autograph — coupled with the sheer volume of inserts awaiting it — is further proof that his first Christian LP has been a massive success. Upon its July release, CHILD OF GOD debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart, where it stayed for 13 weeks, marking the largest Christian album debut of the year. In October, Frank took home GMA Dove Awards for New Artist of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for the album’s lead single, “GOOD DAY.” And in November, the 20-track project earned Frank his first GRAMMY nomination, as CHILD OF GOD is up for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album at the 2025 GRAMMYs.

Along the way, he sold out the entirety of his North American headline tour in support of the album, prompting a second leg. He’ll hit the road for another 26 dates starting in March.

The album’s resonance is partly owed to its fresh and forward-thinking approach to Christian music; CHILD OF GOD conveys sentiments classic of faith-based music in a breezy, catchy fashion. It’s the same buoyant sound that has attracted listeners to Frank’s secular music for the past eight years, just under different monikers: first, as one half of surf-pop duo Surfaces, then as Forrest., Frank’s indie-pop solo venture. And it’s no coincidence that his latest project uses his full name — for Frank, CHILD OF GOD is his truest expression of self yet. 

“When I was growing up, I didn’t necessarily have cool Christian music to listen to. If I was going to the gym or if I was at the beach, it seemed like there weren’t really any Christian songs that would fit those facets of life… So, I aspired to make Christian music that I think is cool,” he tells GRAMMY.com. “I’m just making it the way that I love it. I think that authenticity is what kids resonate with.”

While Frank is aware that Christian music isn’t for everyone (he even admits he “couldn’t foresee any success from it” when he first started making it), seeing the reaction to CHILD OF GOD has been both fulfilling and reassuring. But he refuses to accept any of its glory: “It’s felt like God is just holding my hand through it, so I can’t take any credit for it.”

He also recognizes the power of the message he’s sharing, especially in hard times. Amid the wildfire tragedy in Los Angeles, Frank looked to his faith, urging others to do the same. “It’s hard to even begin to fathom the loss that our friends and family in the LA area are going through… I’m praying for an increase of supernatural peace to everyone in the area,” he shares. “And to my listeners, I hope you can find a glimpse of God’s hope and joy in my music. His love is always present, regardless of our circumstances.”

As Frank continues sharing God’s message in his own way, he’s excited for his music to continue reaching and inspiring new audiences — whether they consider themselves religious or not. 

On the heels of CHILD OF GOD‘s GRAMMY recognition, Frank chatted with GRAMMY.com about pivoting from pop to Contemporary Christian Music and why he credits all of his success to God.  

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What was going through your head when you found out you’d been nominated for your first GRAMMY?

It’s just been this open door after open door. It’s not like I grew up with a crazy voice. Music was more of a vision I had, like maybe I can make a song. It started as that, and then it became, Maybe if I put music on SoundCloud, people will appreciate it. They did, and then it became, Maybe I can put this on Spotify, and I did.

Each thing was just like I think I can do this, let me do it, and it’s just hilarious to get a GRAMMY nomination from that posture. This certainly wasn’t a goal; it wasn’t like I woke up like, I’m going to go get a GRAMMY nomination.

Has it been difficult to accept and process your success, especially since you attribute all your achievements to God?

It was maybe difficult before I started doing explicitly Christian music, but this journey of the Forrest Frank brand and making Christian music has felt like a complete blessing. It’s felt like God is just holding my hand through it, so I can’t take any credit for it. And I know that’s such a cliché thing to say, but with everything in my being, it feels like he’s holding my hand.

Some of the songs that have been massive successes — like “LIFT MY HANDS,” for example, I was just in the shower, and I heard the whole song in my head. I was like, Okay, God, I’ll go make that song. I just traced it from my brain, which is so abnormal. The typical process is you clock in, attempt to make a good song, and then make seven songs, and none of them are good enough to put out. To have it come out backward, it’s just like…I didn’t write the song.  

In 2021, you took a step back from Surfaces just when the band’s commercial profile was on the rise. You’ve said you felt God telling you to slow down, so you did. Did you have any reservations about following this directive?

Thankfully, I had enough experience in my relationship with God that I kind of recognized his voice and this guttural feeling about the decisions I needed to make. My wife and I started to have these weird, guttural feelings towards offers. An offer would come in and it would be $100,000 for a 45-minute set, which seems like a no-brainer. But we would get the offer, and it just didn’t feel right. Then the next one would come in, and it still didn’t feel right, so we just kept saying no. The hardest part was that I was saying no to my friends’ and colleagues’ source of income — that really hurt my feelings because I wanted to be a good team player, but they were all understanding.

It was probably a year or so of saying no to stuff. In this quiet, my wife and I had a baby, and it was cool timing because we didn’t have anything on the books to have to say no to; that felt kind of serendipitous. And in this quiet place, I started writing Christian songs. 

I couldn’t foresee any success from it. If anything, moving from a successful pop act to a Christian act would result in more internet flack and less financial gain. For whatever reason, the music resonated with a lot of people.

I see comments from people who are like, “He’s just taking advantage of the Christian system…he’s crafty.” I honestly don’t know what I’m doing; it just happened to work. God gave me the music, he gave me the ideas for social media, and then it all just blew up. If I were to educate someone on what I did, I probably could give them some tips for success, but my learning process was all beyond me.

Surfaces’ sixth studio album, Good Morning, came out in June. You’re credited on the album. How much of a presence in the album-making process did you have and how involved do you intend to be going forward?

For that album, we did a writing camp for about a week, so I was involved in that. What’s interesting is Surfaces was a band and had an album out before I ever joined. I met Colin [Padalecki] on SoundCloud, and we talked about writing a song together, so we did, and it was super well received. Then we were like, let’s just do an album.

In my head I was like, This will be a nice side project, because I had my own project, Forrest. I dropped my album Warm [with alternative hip-hop musician Biskwiq in 2018] and we dropped Surf [as Surfaces in 2017]. Both brands were kind of moving at the same rate. Then, Colin and I did a second album, which had the song “Sunday Best,” which blew up. I put my personal journey on the back burner because I was like, Whoa, maybe this is where I’m supposed to be. So, I put all of that energy toward Surfaces, and then when I felt like taking a step back, I took a step back.

My commitment to Surfaces feels like it’s kind of the same as it initially was. I’m here to contribute wherever I can, but I have taken the hustle out of it. If you want to do a two-week writing camp and keep making albums, I’m certainly down — there’s just a lot of reasons why Forrest Frank feels like it’s where I’m supposed to put my attention. 

How does the Forrest. portion of your career differ from Forrest Frank?

I’m a big introspective; I would almost consider myself like a philosopher, and what I’ve come to realize is the Forrest. period was me hiding from my last name because it was an escapism project. It was, “I don’t like my current situation, and I don’t like myself,” so I would escape to what sounded like this technicolor reality on the beach.

With Forrest Frank, it’s just me. I have a son now, and I’m responsible for my last name and continuing the generational torch. And explicitly or implicitly, it’s interesting that the album’s intro is my granddad, and my son is on the album cover. It’s kind of like the passing of the baton, and it feels like the generational spiritual wealth, if you’ll call it that, is paramount.

How did you come to embrace your full name and reach the point where you were ready to pass that baton?

I just had a gut feeling that it was time to just be me and start Forrest Frank. The first song that I released as Forrest Frank was called “Slow Down,” which is kind of interesting.

Surfaces is secular, but it does seem like your faith lyrically influenced some of the music.  

100 percent. When I was writing lyrics with Surfaces, it was like, How can I put as many Christian values in this without people knowing? It was almost like talking about the fruit of godliness versus the source; it was everything but the source. So, it’s really relieving to be able to talk about the source.

Was this always intentional?

I think it goes back to the flow state. Sometimes I would look back and be like, I’m talking about a Christian lifestyle here, and I wasn’t trying. At other times, it was more intentional. 

I remember with my Effortless album under Forrest., I prayed for the listener on every song and then turned it to a super low decibel, just so the frequency would be in there. But in the lyrics, I’m just talking about having a good time.  

Can you hear your prayers on any of the songs?

I don’t think you could, maybe in an outro where the elements come down, but it’s so low that you probably wouldn’t.

It was a stream of consciousness, like, “Lord, I pray for whoever’s listening that they be freed from the attack of the enemies holding on to them, to break the chains of any generational curses” — just speaking blessings on their life and their family.  

You’ve mentioned that performing — particularly as Surfaces — never felt comfortable for you, but that changed when you began performing as Forrest Frank.  

In a performance setting, I always wrestled with it because I felt like I was receiving a lot of attention, and that was kind of ending with me. When I was doing more pop-leaning music, I could attempt to give glory to God, but it wasn’t the full meat and potatoes; it was more like breadcrumbs because the music itself wasn’t pure. But now it’s 100 percent to God, and I can sense from the crowd that it’s the same for them as it is for me. I’ll look out at the crowd, and everyone has their eyes closed and hands raised, and it’s like, Oh, this is so cool. I get to be this vessel to send glory straight to God, and that makes me feel alive and gets me buzzing.

The response to your music as Forrest Frank has challenged the notion that young people won’t listen to or connect with faith-based music. What do you make of that?

There are a couple of things to it. When I was growing up, I didn’t necessarily have cool Christian music to listen to. If I was going to the gym or if I was at the beach, it seemed like there weren’t really any Christian songs that would fit those facets of life, but there was great Christian music within the church and for worship. That actually kind of broke my heart; I would cry about it, and I’m not the most emotional guy.

So, I aspired to make Christian music that I think is cool. Not everyone’s going to like it, but I think it does serve a role in the sense of it being music that kids think is cool and want to have as their baseball walk up song when they go up to the plate and listen to when they hang out with their friends.

The other part is, I think every genre is set in its ways, and when you treat it as your job, you start to fit in with the genre and listen to what the industry’s saying. For my song “NO LONGER BOUND,” the radio stations were like “We can’t put this on the radio because the kick hits too hard, you need to change that.” I was like, “Oh, then just don’t put it on the radio.” I don’t care; I’m just making it the way that I love it. I think that authenticity is what kids resonate with. 

Would you say that part of the reason why people are gravitating towards Christian music, even if they don’t identify as religious, is because of the consistency, purity and authenticity of its messaging? We live in such a trend- and algorithm-based era, but Christian music is rooted in sentiments that transcend fleeting cultural shifts.  

This generation is waking up to a lot of things. There’s a sort of a distrust — or maybe not a distrust, but a questioning happening. There’s a second-guessing to almost everything now because it seems like corporations have taken over the airwaves.

For me, for example, I used to have a whole laundry list of health complications, and when I would go to a doctor, he would say, “You have this, take this medication for it.” I’d still have the issues, but then I’d have a medication overriding it and the side effects from it, without a real solution.

Then, I finally went to a naturopathic doctor who was like, “You’re gluten intolerant. You’re allergic to corn, and you’re eating this all the time. Take these foods out of your diet and switch to organic and whole foods.” I did, and all of my symptoms went away.  

I think more people are doing this style of questioning because they’re like, man, the system’s just trying to sell us this and sell us that. And I think kids are waking up to the fact that what you put in comes out; what you listen to and what you consume matters.

I think people often underestimate the influence of music on how they think and perceive the world. Sonic frequencies have been used for therapy and healing, so why wouldn’t the music we listen to have an effect on us?

100 percent. And I always try to create the strongest chorus or hook because I want it to be an addictive mantra of truth and blessing in your head. So on “GOOD DAY,” it’s like “I’m about to have a good day,” you’re speaking that over yourself.

When you think about the lyrics of some very popular songs, you would hate if what’s in the lyrics actually happened to you or if you witnessed it. Some of the music that’s generally on in a grocery store or on the radio…if you visually saw what they were talking about, it would be rated R. There’s no way you would let your kids watch that, and you probably wouldn’t watch that.

When CHILD OF GOD went #1 on iTunes’ All Genres chart, you said you felt “a cultural shift taking place.” What do you think is driving it?

We’ll be able to tell in a couple of years, but there certainly may be a revival happening in our country. A lot of people throw that word around, but I got to go to an event called Unite[US] with my friend JP. They go around to different college campuses, and they completely fill up their basketball arenas with kids [to gather and be baptized]. I think maybe 2,000 kids that night gave their life to Jesus. And it made me think back, because I gave my life to Jesus in college, and it’s just so real.

I think maybe there was a wave of fruition for a couple years or decades where people could choose a lifestyle rooted in sin and have success, but it’s not working now. Well… it’s always going to work, and there’s always going to be some form of success, but still, I think there might be a revival happening. I’m excited to see what happens with that.  

Is there anything you’d say specifically to the listeners who found you through TikTok or another platform and don’t necessarily identify as religious, but have come across your music and are curious about the faith and Christian music?

My main message is that Jesus changed my life, and every song is a reflection of that testimony. He saved my life.

If you haven’t considered Jesus, then I would consider Jesus, ’cause that’s really all I have to offer — that’s all my music has to offer.