Luke Smallbone of for King + Country Talks About The Duo’s New Christmas Concert Movie And Christmas Album

Popular hit-making duo for King + Country has achieved worldwide success since starting in the music business. The duo—which consists of brothers Joel Smallbone and Luke Smallbone—have achieved four Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award and 10 GMA Dove Awards. And the duo has garnered two billion streams with their 13 number one hits.

Impressively, seven of their hits have been consecutive chart-toppers including the 11-week platinum smash, “God Only Knows,” “For God Is With Us,” “joy”, and “Together” (featuring Kirk Franklin and Tori Kelly). Two of their albums, What Are We Waiting For? and Burn the Ships, debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 album chart. They have collaborated with an array of talented artists including Dolly Parton, Hillary Scott, Jordin Sparks, NEEDTOBREATHE, and Timbaland.

Now, for King + Country is making waves on the big screen. Joel Smallbone made his directorial debut in the biopic, Unsung Hero, which is about the Australian singers and their family’s immigration from Australia to America. Notably, Unsung Hero won the GMA Dove Award for Feature Film of the Year.

In addition, for King + Country have released a new concert movie, A Drummer Boy Christmas Live: The Cinematic Concert Experience, which is in theaters now through December 12. The movie showcases the festive music and high-energy stage show the brothers have been performing for the holiday crowds the last several years. It coincides with their new album, A Drummer Boy Christmas (Live) The Cinematic Concert Album, which features 15 tracks including the brothers’ original song, “Heavenly Hosts,” and their take on Christmas classics like “Silent Night” and “Little Drummer Boy.”

Also, for King + Country is touring in support of the releases in Los Angeles, New York, London, Nashville and other cities.

We are pleased to do this new interview with Luke Smallbone of for King + Country. He talks about the new movie and live concert album, what Christmas is like in Australia, and how he and his brother created what they dream will be a new Christmas classic.

BC: You’ve been doing a holiday show for several years based on the music from your studio album, A Drummer Boy Christmas. Tell me about the movie that’s about the concert.

Luke Smallbone: The Drummer Boy: The Christmas Tour is the biggest tour that we do every year. Last year, we realized that we can’t bring the tour to everyone all at once. If you go to the west coast of America, you get the east coast mad at you, and if you go to the east coast, the west coast gets mad. We can get 12-14 shows a year during Christmas. So we thought to ourselves, how could we bring the Christmas tour to everybody all at once? We filmed the movie Unsung Hero and we thought…what if we were to take that same crew and bring them to a concert and film the concert? We did that last year at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. And we are now releasing it all over the world, which is accomplishing our dream of trying to bring this tour to everyone all at once.

BC: Were you involved in much of the production aspect?

Smallbone: Always. I mean, the for King + Country way is being involved in all of the different aspects. Our brother Daniel is the show designer, and so we work on all of these things with him as well as our younger brother, who is one of our managers. It’s definitely a family affair. We grew up out on the road with our oldest sister (Rebecca St. James) who was an artist, and I was a lighting director and my brother Joel was a stage manager. Live production is kind of in our blood.

BC: What did you envision for this movie?

Smallbone: The vision was to be able to bring what we do to the people as seamlessly as possible. I think that you realize with live events, even if you’re at the concert, sometimes you don’t always have the greatest seats, and you might think to yourself…I wish I could be down on the floor, or I wish I could be over there. Our hope was to bring a front row view to the concert, and in theaters you’ve got a great sound system. You’re getting the greatest viewpoint that exists. Live concerts are expensive, and we wanted to give a cost-effective way to experience the concert and make a Christmas memory with your family.

BC: How does the Christmas experience in America compare to what you experienced growing up in Australia?

Smallbone: It’s very different in Australia. That’s one of the things that most people don’t realize, but in Australia when it’s freezing cold, you’re doing summer things (in America). But at Christmas time, which we joke about it in the show, when you’re talking about “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Frosty the Snowman” and all those things, those songs don’t make any sense in Australia (because it’s warm then), but they do make a lot of sense here. So you obviously miss the fact that it’s hot and that you can make these Christmas memories in a very different climate. But the biggest thing you miss obviously is this family in Australia. Other than that, I think that we prefer a more on-brand Christmas here in America.

BC: Didn’t you record the original studio album in the summer here?

Smallbone: Yes. When we recorded the album, one of the gifts of the live theatrical performance was that it was Christmas time, but the actual album was in the summer. That is always pretty hilarious because you start working on a Christmas album in almost springtime, and then you’re probably finishing it up in the dead summer so maybe it did remind us a little bit of Australia in that moment. But we didn’t have to deal with it much on this current project.

BC: What’s it like revisiting that original album on the live concert? Have you’re able to take it to another level?

Smallbone: I think when you’re revisiting something live, you’re just trying to accentuate the good. I’m really proud of the album that was created. but there are certain things that you want to do live that you may not be able to do in a studio. And I think that this affords us that ability to relook at things. I don’t ever like to live in regret. So there’s not a ton of things that I wish I could have changed, and I finally get to change it. But I do think that you’re able to apply that energy that comes with a live show that otherwise is difficult to find in the studio.

BC: Do you get to perform most of the Christmas album live?

Smallbone: Thankfully we do because when you come to a Christmas concert people want to see your biggest (hit) songs, but they do want it to be a Christmas night. So we play virtually the entire Christmas album along with some of the favorites (hits). The show ends up being a two-hour show with most of it being Christmas.

BC: You and your brother, Joel, co-wrote one of the Christmas originals, “Heavenly Hosts” (written with Benjamin Backus, Matt Hales, Tedd Tjornhom & Tony Wood).  How did that come about? There can be a little pressure competing with those all-time standards.

Smallbone: No, you’re right. It is interesting that you should bring that up. I think that is maybe one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever been a part of writing. You always hope to be able to write a Christmas classic, and I’m not saying that it is. But you’re right; the standard is extremely high. I think that brings something out in you when you’re trying to write a song that is about something as wonderful as the birth of Jesus.

This song came about one summer during the pandemic, and we had planted some potatoes and I was out there harvesting the potatoes and a friend of mine had sent me the piano part. So I started singing along to it, and that was essentially the song that became “Heavenly Host.” The first lyric is, “My world’s standing still on this moonlit hill.” I was actually up on a little hill harvesting these potatoes. We talk about it being a bit like the shepherds, what they must have gone through. But I was actually on a hill feeling that I wasn’t herding sheep, but I was trying to corral potatoes. I felt maybe a little bit like those shepherds that night.

BC: You and Joel tackle a lot of the Christmas originals for the album and show, but you do it with your own spin on them. Is there a particular one or two you could talk about?

Smallbone: “Little Drummer Boy” has been a favorite of ours for many years. Also, “Silent Night” is a favorite. A lot of people sing it, but we tried to figure out a way to do an upbeat version, and we’ve just released it as a single. To sing “Silent Night” with thousands of people every night with the flashlights on their phones, that’s a pretty unique and special moment for us.

BC: You’re a Contemporary Christian band, but you’ve been able to introduce your music to broader audiences.

Smallbone: It’s interesting. Christmas affords you the ability to reach out to people that otherwise may not listen. I love celebrating the birth of Jesus every year. I think you forget that this Savior of the world came as a little baby. It’s very disarming, and I think that’s part of the reason why every year at Christmas time, people start to fall in love with Christmas and these Christmas songs every year. It’s a joy for us to be able to sing these songs for people.

If you want to go make a Christmas memory with your family, we would love to see you guys, in theaters and sing some of the greatest songs ever written in the history of the world because these songs are old. You know what I mean? You’re not talking about a few decades old. You’re talking about hundreds of years old. And I think that’s a great gift.

Bill Conger has been a freelance music journalist for more than 30 years, writing feature segments for shows on the former TNN and Country Music Television. He has written for various publications including Bluegrass Unlimited, Bluegrass Today, Fiddler, American Songwriter, CMT.com, GACTV.com. He can be reached at [email protected].