CHARISSA CHEONG reports from the UK on Scottish musician Andrew Mitchell’s bid to create a music production environment that prioritises intimacy with God…
UK
The COVID-19 pandemic took Scottish-born Andrew Mitchell from crying in his kitchen to launching his own worship music production company.
SAFEHOUSE UK was set up in June, 2021, encouraging songwriters to create original worship music without being overly concerned about making money.
Andrew Mitchell and his family. PICTURE: Supplied.
Eighteen months ago, Mitchell and his family were facing the possible repossession of their stately home near Edinburgh after lockdown put their business in jeopardy.
His estate ran a number of group events that could not be held during the pandemic. Mitchell faced significant financial loss and struggled to support his 70 staff members. Like many others, he was left wondering how to care for his family without access to nursery cover or the ability to visit older relatives.
During that difficult time, the Christian musician continued to compose and was inspired to write a new worship song called For All You Have Done.
“I was feeling this oppressive sense of anxiety and concern about the future,” he said. “I remember looking at my two-year-old daughter and just seeing how joyous she was, unaware of what was going on.
“Crying quietly at the kitchen sink, I felt myself uttering these words like a deep moan out from my spirit: The peace of Christ into our lives, the peace of Christ into our hearts. The song came spontaneously into my spirit and I just felt completely changed.
“I made a choice to trade all the human emotions from the last 18 months for resting whole in the transformational reality of who Jesus says He is.”
In June, 2020, Mitchell released the song under his own newly launched music production company, SAFEHOUSE.
He hoped to create a production environment that prioritised intimacy with God over a business-orientated mindset.
“Worship has become just a gravy train,” he said. “There’s a great deal of it being written and released every day but a lot of it is quite nominal.”
“So often, the business of worship becomes more important than the One we worship. I want SAFEHOUSE to be a rediscovery for people of who Jesus is. We won’t be a song factory.”
Mitchell, who became a Christian at age 10 when a children’s missionary group visited his village, had corporate ambitions to work in law. In his early 20s, however, he said that he felt called by God to become a worship singer and went on to record three Christian albums in Nashville.
Just as he was beginning to receive professional recognition, he turned down the chance to record with Integrity Music, a production company known for songs such as Open The Eyes of My Heart and Give Thanks. He did not want to become too focused on the money-making aspect of songwriting.
For All You Have Done was written by Mitchell during a time of enormous personal difficulty, in what he described as an intimate encounter with God.
“What I hope and pray is that people will hear this song as an invitation to stand up and believe that regardless of how awful today can seem for so many, God, out of His abundant love, has gone ahead of us and prepared our futures with an extraordinary array of blessings,” he said.
“His goodness will always outweigh the deficiencies of our lives.”
SAFEHOUSE is planning to release a number of Mitchell’s new songs before Christmas including His Name is Majesty and Here Comes Christmas Day as well as Oh Blessed Victory, a collaboration with award-winning American musician Krissy Nordhoff.
You can download ‘For All You Have Done’ at https://forallyouhavedone.com/.
