Steadfast Worship aiming for a ‘Louder’ new year

The up-and-coming Catholic youth band Steadfast Worship’s new song “Louder” is rippling soundbites within Toronto’s Catholic community, following its official release last month. 

The single unofficially debuted this past July at the Steubenville Atlantic Conference in Halifax, and more recently at Renew, the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Renew Young Adult Conference in November, days before the track’s official premiere. Following the Nov. 11 launch date, “Louder” has been available on all major streaming platforms and has registered over 5,500 streams on Spotify alone as of Dec. 17.

Joseph Fabie, Kevin Vallon, Gabe Marania, Camille Herrera, Rhowin Dacut, Erica Cinco and Adrian Gill — the young faces behind the GTA-based praise and worship group — were looking for a more upbeat repertoire to perform at future Catholic youth events. Although each musician comes with a different set of talents, spanning from singing to instrumentation, “Louder” was a true group effort.

The group, which got its start at the Archdiocese of Toronto’s summer EDGE Camp in 2019, admitted that writing uplifting songs comes as more of a challenge, so they have sought divine inspiration. After many prayers, the band’s finished composition “Louder” gave the young ensemble an “immediate sense” that the song would be an opening to a new season. The band hopes that the single will serve as an encouragement to listeners to proclaim the goodness of the Lord and to lift their praises, their voices growing “louder” with confidence. 

In a promotional post on the Steadfast Worship Facebook page the day before the track was unveiled, its members teased the thematic intent of “Louder.”

“Friends, God is so good and we can’t help but tell you all about it! We aren’t here to whisper. We aren’t here to hide away. We aren’t here for subtle hints. We are here to shout His praise from the rooftops and sing of what He’s done!”

In an email to The Catholic Register, Steadfast Worship offered expanded thoughts about the message of the new tune.

“The essential message behind the song is to unapologetically praise the Lord and proclaim what He has done. The ‘noise’ we sing about refers to the lies we hear in our culture that often contradict our beliefs as Catholics and thwart our voices from being heard. We wrote ‘Louder’ to encourage all believers to lift their voices so as to let their voices rise above the noise.” 

The band believes listeners should interpret “Louder” literally by its title, that is, to be “audible.” However, this interpretation comes with a caveat.

“Sometimes being audibly, or externally ‘Louder’ is not the best response in the face of the lies of the world. Oftentimes, the best response is to simply allow the truth to be ‘Louder’ within our hearts. It’s this internal disposition that leads us to proclaim and be heard.”

In the new year, Steadfast Worship hopes to release an EP. The Catholic praise and worship band hopes to include past singles, including 2020’s “Great Things,” “Living Bread” from 2021 and “Louder.”  

Visit youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0NIY38Rsg&feature=youtu.be to hear “Louder.”