Steve Fee remembers standing on a stage before his high-school peers with little musical ability and even less worship leading experience. How times change. Since the early days, he’s been featured at Passion and Catalyst conferences, at 7:22, and also as worship leader at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, one of the nation’s fastest growing churches. Steve is also the frontman for new INO Records signing, rock-worship band Fee, which releases its debut album We Shine this fall.

Joined by fellow worship leaders Matt Adkins (guitar), Heath Balltzglier (bass) and Brandon Coker (drums), all members of North Point, Fee the band not only serves North Point and 7:22 (the Tuesday night single adult ministry) but travels the country leading worship at student camps and conferences.

“North Point is extremely valuable to us as a church-home. When we go on the road, we see Fee as an exportation of what God is doing in our lives, homes, church and songwriting,” says Steve. “Our platform before college students is important to us because we believe that the college experience is a pivotal time where students are deciding their futures and targeting their calling. We want to make it known to them that Jesus is the thing in life most worth living for – Jesus is the greatest thing.”

A pivotal moment with a college student in 1999 is where the story of Fee begins. “I read somewhere, ‘Steve Fee, one of the people behind the Passion movement,’ which is amusing because we’ve always viewed God as the driving force behind the passion movement. Plus, when I was asked by Louie Giglio to lead a nine month, 120 date, vision casting, worship-driven, college campus tour, culminating at a 20,000 student worship gathering called OneDay, I felt drastically unqualified,” says Steve. The tour kicked off with Giglio, Chris Tomlin, Candi Pearson and Steve, and after a few dates, narrowed down to Pearson and Fee.

“Back then not many folks even knew Chris, so even fewer knew Candi or me. But Passion has always been about drawing attention to the movement of God and us deciding to move with Him, to do whatever He desires. The names involved have always come second. So as Louie and Chris popped in and out, Candi and I led this tour. We were casting vision for Passion, leading worship, connecting with pastors and calling students to Memphis for OneDay.”

“During that journey, God seared into my heart a passion for leading worship. I just wanted to do something with my life that really mattered for The Kingdom and God began to open these massive doors for me to go through. I began to see each opportunity as another way to draw attention to God. I was singing about something worth living for. Being part of the Passion journey with Louie and the worship leaders, Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman and Charlie Hall, has been the single most shaping thing for me as a worship leader.”

Steve became rooted in the local church at North Point Community Church and contributed songs to different worship projects over time. He recorded an independent record and the group of church musicians playing with him evolved into an established band – Fee. Steve continued to handle the business of the music even as Fee played at home in Atlanta and around the country. “As we visited different church bodies and parts of the country, Fee’s aim has been to see people move forward in God’s kingdom. We simply want everyone to experience what happens when the people of God come together to worship.”

The collection of songs now known as We Shine started to spread, and Steve started to think the larger message within needed to be heard by a wider audience. “I feel like this is so much about God’s timing. I have talked to a lot of record labels over the years but I was still content doing my own thing. Now we believe that there is a message here that is so good and so timely that we want everybody who can hear it to hear it.”

On We Shine, Fee introduces 12 original worship songs, which are already leaving a mark in worship circles. “Some say that this is the most victorious set of worship songs they have ever heard. The record is a reminder that God’s already won and we have the victory. There is a lot of bad stuff that can happen in life but we serve a God that has victory in all of it and there is victory for everyone in Christ.”

The band melds celebratory and significant lyrics to its energetic, relevant rock. The tone of We Shine is set through the spirited album opener “All Because of Jesus” (also recently covered by Casting Crowns) and first radio single “Glorious One”. The title cut “We Shine” is a raucous jumper and a shouting experience, while “Grace Will Be My Song” and “Beautiful the Blood” escalate with powerful confessions to a Savior who calls his people to freedom in him.

In a day when worship music abounds, Fee offers an album of accessible songs with plenty of upbeat rock ’n’ roll and worship choruses that will resound triumphantly with worshippers from start to finish. “I believe the reason many worship songs ring true in worshippers is because God has put songs in us already. When you hear a song that makes you say, ‘That’s what I want to say,’ that was a song already in your heart from God. God has interjected songs in the hearts of people and he’s working to draw those songs and expressions out of his people.”

“There is a message for us here and now, for this day and age, this era and period in church history. I’m confident that these songs which echo the victory of Christ are exactly what we, the Church, want to say and they are how we can say it, and God, in his timely way, put songs in us for We Shine.”

“The Church, God’s avenue for reaching the world, is Plan A, and we want to write songs for the Church to sing, not just to listen to. Fee is one of many that simply want to equip the Church to see massive things about God and do massive things for God. We are a part of a body that lasts forever.”