A BAND FOR CHRIST
By Christopher Quah
CFOURJ is a Christian band whose main inspiration is the love of Christ was formed in 2004. The Christian music band was founded by 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 begun 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 that time were still students and needed to focus on their studies.
After a long hiatus, the band begun to come up with a new line up of songs, and riffs. The break as Jeshurun explained was used for them to refresh themselves and come back much stronger. With a renewed focus to reach out to everyone regardless of age, culture and ethnicity CFourJ once again begun to again around 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.
The CFourJ’s music is mainly inspired with the motive of sharing the love of Christ. But it’s 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 bands 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 consist of Jeshurun the bands 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 in 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. But 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 song-writer, 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 bands other vocalist is a passionate singer in 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 balanced his time playing for the band, and keeping up with his assignments.
Solomon, also known as Solo, is the bands 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 fulfil his dreams as a Pastor.
Azareel also known as Aza, is the percussionist of the band. A passionate drummer, he keeps the bands 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 it 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 guest 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 band mates 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 the stage to each give a speech about their journey, and how they were inspired to collaborate to make music for God.
The night of thte launching of CFOURJ’s second album, XYZZ.
On top of that those who had help 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 surprised announcement.
The surprise was that the band declared that each of the guest 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 because the band believes that they are now living in the end times and the 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 continued their mission to share the love of God with many others throughout the world. With an increase 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.
