INFLUENCE MUSIC

Influence Music is a faith based record label and artist collective birthed out of Influence Church in Anaheim Hills, California, comprised of artists Matt Gilman, Melody Noel, Michael Ketterer and Whitney Medina. Marked by the desperate desire to create a culture and language of worship for every person, both in and outside of the church, Influence Music aims to create songs with an eternal shelf life for the single purpose of bringing God glory. Their debut album “Touching Heaven” was released in May 2018 as a result of a one-week songwriters camp in Big Bear, CA. The goal of this camp was to see what could happen when seasoned worship artists and season LA based pop writers collaborate. The project was a breakout success, hitting Billboard #1 on the Christian Album charts, #7 on emerging artist chart and #1 on ITunes. Audience sizes grew to over 50K Facebook fans, 80K YouTube subscribers and an average of 500K monthly listeners on Spotify. “Mistakes” sung by Noel was in the top 25 on the Christian Radio Airplay charts, while “Spirit Lead Me” sung by Ketterer emerged in the top 20 of Christian Billboard Hot Tracks. The real treasure, however, were the lives being touched by the music; a suicidal teenager leaning on the words of “Spirit Lead Me” to pull him through, a woman undergoing chemo listening to “Why Not Now” in order to access hope, an entire women’s prison in Salem, Massachusetts worshipping to “Mistakes” as an anthem of their identity in Christ.

Rebels, the newest album by Influence Music was released on 7.19.19, and is a departure from the typical worship sound and substance, taking a head-first dive into a melding of pop sensibilities and a raw, immersive exploration of the plight of the every-man in his or her pursuit of the Divine. Directed at those who feel left out, hurt or rejected by the church, this album communicates a heart of deconstructed worship through narrative, sung from a place of genuine encounter. In the same breath of innovation and evangelism, Influence Music began to dream of how to visually communicate this message in a new way — here, the short film was birthed. In one fluid motion, the Rebels short film is the collective narrative depiction of the songs, “Rebels”, “Redeemed”, “Hallelujah” and “City On A Hill”, featured on the album. A worship experience through visual content, the ethos of the film is to release another way for those removed from church to be touched by the gospel, as well as for the weekly church-goer to be challenged both creatively and conceptually. Rebels was created to give language to the silent cry of the hearts of humanity searching for and being challenged in their relationship with God. This collection of songs is curated to illustrate the rebellious nature of God’s love — so rebellious in fact, it would never stop in seeking out those in darkness.