Nathan Tasker & We Are Messengers:
The Backstage Interview

Award-winning Australian singer-songwriter, Nathan Tasker has been a mainstay of Australia's Christian music scene, touring extensively with renowned artists such as Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Michael W Smith, and Amy Grant. Back in the spotlight supporting We Are Messengers on their national tour (for a second time), Lesa Scholl caught up with Nathan at the Melbourne concert. Also jumping on the couch was We Are Messengers frontman Darren Mulligan.

"Is this couch big enough?"

Joking around backstage, it might be hard to tell, but in the middle of a whirlwind trip to the antipodes, both Nathan and Darren are exhausted, but at the same time love touring New Zealand and Australia and are excited to connect with their audiences.

‘We’re running on absolute empty,’ Darren said. ‘But we’re honoured to be here, privileged, exhausted, but expecting these nights to be really special. We’re going to work really hard to make sure that happens.’

According to Nathan, the best thing about touring with We Are Messengers was the truth on stage. 

‘No one’s going to be trying to sell you anything,’ he said. ‘I’m so over people getting up on stage and pretending,’ Darren added. ‘We feign authenticity and we feign vulnerability, and we feign it just enough so that it might actually feel real or true.’

‘I think the key is to come as you are,’  Darren continues. ‘What’s the point in me standing on stage and telling all these people “come as you are,” but yet I don’t? Be vulnerable. Be authentic. Tell the truth,’ he said. ‘It’s worth it because it allows other people to tell the truth, too.’ 

Nathan reflected on the woman in the gospels who poured the perfume over Christ’s feet. ‘She knows that she’s been forgiven, and so she’s able to experience grace and mercy in a deeper sense,’ he said. ‘The more we pretend, what we actually lose is a deeper experience of the grace of God. 

'But she also had to have the courage to go into that room,’ Darren added. ‘How often do we say things like “You’re welcome, everyone is welcome,” and then when people come with their divorces and their abortions and their relationship breakdown, we get weird and funky about it?’

Darren said his art was about paving roads for people to get to Jesus, creating an environment for people to encounter God. Nathan pointed out the story in John 8 where the adulterous woman was brought before Jesus and He said let the one without sin cast the first stone.

‘His next move is to stoop down and draw in the sand,’ Nathan said. ‘There’s conjecture about what he’s writing but it doesn’t matter.’

‘He’s doing something creative in order to give space for the people in front of him to actually get what he said.’

Nathan said creative art does a similar thing, creating space for people to consider the things of God. ‘Both Darren and I write about our faith and its impact on relationships, life, our families, the world.’