A BAND FOR CHRIST
By Asian Beacon
CFOURJ, a Christian band whose main inspiration is the love of Christ, was formed in 2004. The Christian music band was founded with Jacob on Vocals, Jeshurun on Lead Guitar, and Joshua @ J-Co Josh on Drums.
The name CFourJ was coined by Jeshurun, as it referred to the four founding members’ initials, which all begin with “J”. Aside from that C-Four-J also meant “Come 4 Jesus”.
There were some changes since the band’s conception. In 2005, Justin joined as the band’s bassist but after a very short stint, he left the band in 2006 due to commitments. In 2006, Jeshurun welcomed Michael and Jason as new additions to the band as their drummer and bassist respectively. They were also joined by Chris a rapper.
Since they started, C-Four-J started playing in churches and concerts all around Malaysia. But at the end of 2007, the band decided to slow down their activities as the members were at that time still students and needed to focus on their studies.
After a long hiatus, the band began to come up with a new lineup of songs, and riffs. The break, as Jeshurun explained, was used for them to refresh themselves and to come back much stronger. With a renewed focus to reach out to everyone regardless of age, culture, and ethnicity, CFourJ once again began to go around to churches. Thanks to their persistence, they finally released their debut album titled “Agape to My Friends” in 2014. From there, they have travelled around South East Asia, performing in Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Laos.,
CFourJ’s music is mainly inspired by the motive of sharing the love of Christ. But its influences come from contemporary Christian music and Christian rock bands such as Casting Crowns, Hillsong, and Planetshakers.
“Currently, we have been travelling all around Asia, reaching out to others to share the love of Christ. Starting from Singapore, we have now even made our way to Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, and even other continents by performing in Christian concerts and festivals. We have also been requested to perform at several praise and worship events in churches of different countries,” Jeshurun explains.
This, he adds, is in accordance with the band’s shared vision, which is to share the love of God with everyone across this world.
In present times, the band has grown in numbers. The current team consists of Jeshurun the band’s vocalist and guitar player, Gabriel Daniel the bassist, Michael Raj another vocalist, James Ding the keyboardist, Solomon Aaron Guitarist CFOURJ, Azareel Zedek Drummer CFOURJ, and Sang Lee Dass Band Manager.
Jeshurun who co-founded the band is a very prolific singer who has travelled all around the world. He has been featured on many television and radio shows throughout the world. Many of these interviews are about Jeshurun’s impressive feat of travelling 39 countries in just 30 months. Since then, he has travelled a whole lot more to many other places. Jeshurun loves music and he grew up listening to bands such as Petra, Megadeth, Metallica, and S.O.A.D. He has been playing the guitar since the age of 14 and has been playing for his church in Kajang, since the age of 16. A talented songwriter, he has created most of the song’s epic riffs. He is also the financer and producer for C-FOUR-J’s first debut album “AGAPE To My Friend”.
Gabriel, who is nicknamed “Gabby”, is the young and talented bassist from Kajang. He is also a church musician for the past 3 years. An experienced sound-man, he lends his ear of expertise to the band. Still a student, his passion has also led him to study “Multimedia” at a local college in Kuala Lumpur.
Michael, the band’s other vocalist, is a passionate singer in the church who has dedicated his life to doing the Lord’s ministry and reaching out in missionary works. Also called Mike for short, he is a huge fan of Father Berchman’s music and also Hillsong. Michael is a graduated Civil Engineer but now works as a full-time while serving the Lord.
James is the youngest member of the band. An enthusiastic keyboardist hailing from Setiawan, he joined the band in the early years of his degree at his university, which is University Kebangsaan Malaysia or the National University of Malaysia. Despite his studies, he manages to balance his time playing for the band and keeping up with his assignments.
Solomon, also known as Solo, is the band’s second guitarist. Solo is a vibrant young adult who has been serving the Lord from the start since he was young. A multi-talented musician, he has the gift of playing with many instruments. After graduating with a degree in Software Engineering, he is currently pursuing his Theological Studies in order to fulfill his dreams as a Pastor.
Azareel, also known as Aza, is the percussionist of the band. A passionate drummer, he keeps the band’s beat together with his drumming. He also jokingly refers to his drumsticks as the “Hammer of God”. Most of his drumming techniques are picked up from the music he is most passionate about. These are the rock genres of the 70s and 80s.
Finally, what would any band be without a band manager? Sangli Dass, also known as Chain Dass, is the very passionate band manager for C4J. He balances his time between managing the band and ministry and missionary work, as Sangli has been serving the Lord full time since 2013.
Thanks to God’s provision, the band has just released their second album. It has just been launched recently on June 22, 2019, at Praise City Church, Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. It was a large and joyous event, with more than a hundred guests attending.
There was a special turn of events in the launching as the parents of each of the band members were invited to join their children in the grand hall of PCC. Church members of the bandmates came from all over Selangor to give their support for the launching too.
During the event, Jeshurun and the other band members were invited up to the stage, where they each gave a speech about their journey and how they were inspired to collaborate to make music for God.
The night of the launching of CFOURJ’s second album, XYZZ.
On top of that, those who had helped contribute to the band throughout the year were also mentioned and appreciated. The launching of the album was a media-worthy event, with the parents of all the musicians coming on stage together for the big launch and surprise announcement.
The surprise was that the band declared that each of the guests that night would receive a copy of the band’s album free of charge at the end of the event. The reason, as Jeshurun explained, was for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.
The name of the album is called XYZZ. The reason is that the band believes that they are now living in the end times and Jesus Christ is coming soon. As such, the band explained, the urgency of producing this album. On top of that, they hope the song would also help prepare the hearts of the church and saints for the return of Jesus Christ.
As such, CFourJ will continue its mission to share the love of God with many others throughout the world. With an increased interest of new members to join the band, as well as more plans to travel to new countries, CFourJ will continue to grow stronger year by year in their quest to win souls and glorify God.
