In Gospel, there has always been room and place for soloists, choirs, and quartets. Over the last decade or so, the presence of hip hop has grown, and its acceptance in the marketplace as well.

Perhaps the toughest presentation to have a sustained presence over time is that of the male contemporary group.

The first in the genre can be traced back to the legendary Rance Allen Group. And certainly, serious traction was gained in the early 80's with the inception of The Winans and Commissioned. As these groups heavily impacted both the Gospel and mainstream marketplaces, they opened the door for many other contemporary male groups.

Fast forward to the late 90's where both groups began to fade into the background. The torch needed to be passed. Enter Isaac Carree, Bryan Pierce, Lowell Pye and Michael Bacon —Men of Standard.

Gospelflava.com spent some moments with Isaac Carree and Lowell Pye discussing the group.

"Between '90 and '94, Lowell and I sang for John P. Kee," says group co-founder Isaac Carree. "God released us and we wanted to start immediately, but sometimes God will sit you down and make you wait. He sat us down for about two years. Both Lowell and I started doing just regular 9 to 5 stuff. But we knew it wasn't our calling."

"I started doing stage plays. And Lowell and I really wanted to start a group, so in '96, we said that it was our time. I met Bryan while I was doing plays, and I asked him to be a

Album: New Day

With a single listen to the opening track "Just Like You", it's easy to hear how the group has continued to mature with both their vocal stylings and their musical arrangements. You know this one's going to be hot just by checking out the musicians who've lined up to be part of it..... See full album review.

part of the group. And a friend of ours that sang with John [Kee] while we sang, introduced us to Michael. The interesting thing about it, is that the first time we sang together was when we did 'Trust in God'. We had never sung in high school together, or anything like that. We just started like that and we've been going ever since," says Carree.

In today's music world, it seems nearly impossible for one group to retain the same members over time. Yet, over eight years, Men of Standard have stayed intact with their original lineup.

"I believe it stems from the love that we have for each other and being able to talk about our differences," states co-founder Lowell Pye. "Everybody has their spats and things like that. We've learned how to talk about them. You come to a common ground where each individual is happy, whatever the common ground is. It's easy to be together because you love each other. You want to be there to help one another. We really genuinely love each other and that's where it starts off at. We're like brothers and that's what has sustained us this far."

While other sub-genres within gospel continue to grow, the presence of dominant urban contemporary male groups seems to be fading. But Men of Standard remain standing and have become the millennial standard bearer for others to follow.

"It's nothing but God," admits Pye. "We've been together for eight years. There have been groups that have come and gone, but for some reason God has allowed us to sustain and stay together. We still have a work to do. I believe that we're just now coming into our season. The first seven years were some trials and tribulations that we had to go through. Once we went through that, God says that now it's time for us to be able to show the world what it takes to stay together and to build His Kingdom."

With eight years of experience and four albums under their belt, the group has developed over time. Their latest release, It's A New Day, reflects their continued growth and development.

Interview with Producer Noel Hall

Gospelflava.com interviews producer Noel Hall: "I guess what might distinguish my style of producing is the way that I interpret a particular piece. For example, there was a season of my life where I listened to jazz. There was a season where I listened to nothing but worship music, then I listened to classical. What I got out of all of that, is that this music lives inside of me. So when I hear music today...." See full interview.

""We've become more mature with our music and we're more involved with our music," reveals Carree. "I produced all of the vocals [on the latest album]. Bryan and Mike did a lot of the writing and arranging for the album. Noel Hall did a lot of the producing for us as far as the music is concerned. But we kind of pieced this whole album together. We sat together and prayed and talked to God to see what direction He wanted us to go in."

"We were doing concerts and shows and travelling all across the country singing the same songs for two years," continues Carree. "I think it's pretty amazing when you can just get with God and all of a sudden, He starts birthing brand new songs in your spirit and they come out just really hot. We've grown. We hear the voice of God more clearly and we know exactly what to record to get the people to respond to our music."

On It's a New Day, Men of Standard stray away from sequencing in favor of live instrumentation, which had a dramatic impact on the outcome of the project.

"The band brings a live element to the picture. Sometimes, when you get so caught up in sequencing and programming, it becomes more computerized. But when you go back old school, the way they used to do it, where they used to use straight up live bands, live horns, organs, and drums, it gives it something special. It makes you feel like you're playing it live in a concert, which is our first love anyway... singing directly to the people. When you're doing a live concert, there's no 'stop and let's fix that'. What you hear and what you do the first time, is what you get. A lot of time, God was just so heavy in the studio with us, we did a lot of one takes. A lot of people don't have that testimony. That's something that we haven't even done on our prior three albums. There were a lot of one takes. The song rolled and we got in there, did our leads, and did it from the beginning to the end. We didn't touch anything. We didn't fix anything. We just went to the next song. It was just that amazing doing this album. You have to have an anointing and a special love for what you're doing to be able to pull that off because people just don't do that."

One of the many stellar talents featured on their latest release is Pastor Nancy Wilson (see album review). Not only is Wilson an exciting vocalist, she's Carree's mother. So, naturally, that makes for a fun-loving combination.

"It was a dream come true to have my mom on the album singing with me," says Carree. "My mom is more into the live element of things. She would say 'just give me the mic and l'm gonna go for it'. She played a major role in Men of Standard back in '96. She sat down with Lowell when we mentioned that we were looking for the name of our group. She said, 'I have the perfect name but with this name comes responsibility and no compromise.' So she gave us the name Men of Standard."

"It's not been easy. But God has sustained us and kept us to raise a standard in the industry. We saw a disturbing trend in the church when it came to men," admits Carree. "We really want to stand in the gap for men who are struggling to be men and men who are men but are ashamed to be men of God. We understand that it's not easy. It is a responsibility. However, you can be a man and love God, take care of your family and your responsibilities. You can be more active in your church and in your community. You can stand up and be the man that God's calling you to be. That's the role that we take and with Mom giving us that name, it played a crucial part in establishing our careers."

As the industry has grown, urban male contemporary groups have become an endangered species. Where this avenue was once dominated by the presence of artists like Commissioned, The Winans, and Take 6, now, it's as though Men of Standard is the only name that comes to mind in this field.

"It's tough when you look at people who have went before you who set the tone, like The Winans and Commissioned, and you come right behind them and you're by yourself," expresses Pye.

"Commissioned had The Winans. The Winans had Commissioned. Those were practically the only two groups that were out there at that time. But with us, we're out there holding down the fort ourselves. It gets a little tough some times, but with the help of the Lord, we're able to do what we do and do it effectively."

Many look to form a singing group and make a large name for themselves. However, Men of Standard recognizes that forming a group isn't for everyone and offers sound advice to persons interested in artistry.

"You have to be called to it," reveals Pye. "Everybody that's with you has to be called to do it. Once you're called to do it, it becomes easy. You have to know what you're purpose is and what your vision is. You have to have a vision. You have to come together. My vision may not be the way that you see it, but if we can just come together, everybody's vision can become one and we can move forward. Once you do that, it's easy. It takes time and it takes work. You have to have a genuine love for one another. You have to have a genuine love for ministry. You have to want to minister and build God's Kingdom. Once you have all of that and you're on one accord, it becomes easy. The other stuff doesn't even matter anymore, because you know what your goal is."

As leaders in their field, Men of Standard has come to understand the differences between a good performance and true ministry.

"Paul said it best when he said become all things to win souls," says Pye. "Sometimes you have to do some things differently as far as your beats, to attract these young kids because that's what they listen to. Everyone's not listening to 'Amazing Grace", especially our young people. When you go in that atmosphere, you have to know how to adapt to what they've been listening to. Once you do that and get their attention, you're able to pull off ministry like never before. A lot of groups fail to do that and come down to these kids' level because they always think they're so high minded. It's like the groups say 'we're so holy that we can't stoop down. You've gotta come up here.' That's not the way it's working. Ministry is about meeting the people where they are. Once you're able to do that, God's Kingdom will be full of saints... especially these young kids."

Men of Standard has managed to stay together and be effective, outlasting many groups that have come down the pike. Certainly, their success has not come without struggle. However, the struggle has been minimal.

"If there's a difficult part, it's the fact that we all live in four different corners of the Earth," says Carree. "Michael lives in Dallas. Bryan lives in Charlotte. Lowell lives in Detroit and I live in Atlanta. So, I think the hardest part is not being around each other as far as being able to rehearse and taking advantage of those rehearsal times and bonding times. Other than that, I promise, we don't have hard times. We really take the easy route to where we have to go. We're not lazy. We love to work. We don't want to have a whole lot for nothing. We don't mind getting out there and hustling and being in the grind doing what we have to do. To whom much is given, much is required. We don't mind bringing our A game and doing what we have to do."

On their latest release, Men of Standard travel in different directions than on previous projects. They experiment with the resurging quartet sound, but for reasons unrelated to its growing popularity.

"For years, we wanted to do it and when we did the live album, we knew this was our opportunity," says Carree. "We wanted to go back to church on this album. That's why songs like 'I Made It' and 'Testify' present that churchy, quartet element. Understand where we're coming from. There are a lot of groups who do quartet that try to mimic and try to make a mockery of it because they think it's the 'in' thing. We did it because we respect it. Quartet is a style of music. It's just like Gospel rap, contemporary Gospel, or traditional Gospel. Quartet has its own arena. We do it because we respect it. That's why you don't hear me trying to sing on the vamps of any quartet songs because that's not me. That's Lowell. We respect that style of music and it just happens to work for us. We pride ourselves on being able to sing any and every kind of gospel music there is. That's why you hear a little praise and worship on this album. That's why you hear quartet on this album. That's why you still hear us in our contemporary vein. We try to hit every aspect of gospel music so that there's something for everybody on this album."

The group even features holy hip hop on the project. Now, they don't flow themselves, but they brought in Corey Red from Corey Red and Precise (see album review) to spit some fire.

"Corey Red was on the Evolution II tour," says Carree (see tour recap). "They came to Atlanta and I went to hear them at New Birth. I'd never heard them before. When they opened up their set, they did a freestyle rap, just introducing themselves to the industry and to those who didn't feel that whole Gospel hip-hop, rap thing. They moved me. I'd never heard anybody flow like that. Because R&B and the hip-hop industry has made rap so popular, I love hearing rappers who are speaking straight Word. Precise wasn't able to do it but we got Corey Red to do it. I called him and he was honored to do it. We sent him the track and he called me at 12 o'clock one night. I'll never forget it. It was Christmas Eve. He said that he was sleep and God woke him up and gave him this and he spit exactly what's on the album over the phone to me."

Without question, it is a new day for Men of Standard. They've weathered a number of storms and have emerged successfully with an awesome testimony and a powerful ministry. Never ones to stay stagnant, the group continues to forge ahead to bigger and brighter days.

"We want to get into a lot of producing and a lot of writing for other artists," says Pye. "I think once we do that, it's going to be busy between working and reproducing other people. We also have some individual goals like acting and real estate. We're going to be busy. We're excited about what God is doing."