I’ve been asked so many times in the past few weeks who the new band is that I thought it might be time to tell you. They have played West Seattle four times so far and people are getting into it. The number one question: who are they? The band is Ashborne, led by band leader Lance Moore. I gave Lance a phone call to answer some of the most asked questions about the band.

Where does the name come from?
Ashborne’s name is inspired by the passage in Luke chapter 3 where John the Baptist states that Jesus will come baptizing “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” In Jesus, we are saved; we die to sin and are reborn, baptized in the fire of the Holy Spirit.

How did you get here?
Before I moved to Seattle I lived in Michigan and was a worship leader with my church there. My job relocated me to Seattle last year and I visited the West Seattle campus on Easter of ’07 (my first Sunday in town), which was MH’s second Sunday in the WS building. I felt called to get connected and serve.
That next week, I talked to Pastor Lief in Ballard who got me connected to Joel Brown, who is the music director for Mars Hill. I had an audition in May, found the rest of my band at Making the Band in August, and here we are now.

What are your musical influences?
We have influences all over the rock spectrum. I personally try to listen to a lot of alt-rock-with-piano bands, such as Coldplay, Keane, or The Fray, to get ideas, but we all study cross-discipline and try to bring those elements into our sound. For this reason, I classify our sound as Eclectic Rock; we all bring something very different to the band.
Also, all of us have been worship band leaders before, so for us, it’s not a show, but another opportunity for us to worship & pour our hearts out to God.

What is the vision for Ashborne?
This is the third campus we’ve played at. We are all very stoked to be playing at West Seattle; it has been awesome so far, and we have been so well received here. As we keep playing together as a band, we are looking for opportunities to sound more sophisticated while at the same time looking for ways to simplify things, if that makes any sense. …All to the glorifying of Jesus.

Who is Ashborne?
Lance Moore - Lead, keys
Jackson Rohrbaugh - Guitar, vocals
Yugo Sato - Drums
Chris Landry - Keys, vocals
Steve Ross - Bass

Can we hear some of your music?

Right click on the song title then hit “save target as…” to download.

Psalm 25

Emphasis

Down at the Cross

For more on why Mars Hill does bands the way we do, check out this post on the Doxologist blog.