Elevation Rhythm has spent the better part of the last decade trying to answer a deceptively simple question: What would worship music sound like if it were built for the way teenagers actually experience music today?
The answer wasn’t found in a writers’ room or by studying streaming data. It happened after youth service.
About eight years ago, one unexpected moment changed the band’s entire creative philosophy.
“It was one of those moments where we all kind of stepped back,” Davide Mutendji told RELEVANT. “We were in a youth service doing church songs and the kids were there, they were singing. Then we went outside and gathered around this tiny little speaker playing Drake, and they were just lit on fire. We looked at each other and asked, ‘Why do they feel more freedom to dance to something that’s not about Jesus than they do when we’re in church?’
“The dream became, no, we want to give these teenagers a soundtrack so that even when they’re not in church and they’re hanging out with their friends, they can play songs that uplift their spirits but also sing the truth of the Gospel.”
That question has guided Elevation Rhythm ever since.
Rather than trying to compete with the music Gen Z already loved, the band set out to understand why it connected in the first place. They listened to hip-hop, pop and whatever sounds were dominating TikTok—not because they wanted to imitate culture, but because they wanted to understand the musical language teenagers already spoke. The challenge wasn’t making Christian versions of mainstream songs. It was creating worship music that felt just as immediate and alive while remaining rooted in the Gospel.
That philosophy still shapes every writing session.
“We’re asking, ‘What’s the sound that’s connecting right now? What’s the trend?’ But then the question becomes, ‘How do we make that live in church?’” Mutendji said. “At the end of the day, we’re not just musicians playing these songs on a Friday night. These songs live in our churches and our youth ministries. A lot of times we’ll hear a song and ask, ‘What is it about that sound that makes us want to jump out of our seats?’ Then we try to capture that feeling in a way that points people to Jesus.”
The approach has helped turn Elevation Rhythm into one of the defining voices in youth worship. But Mutendji says the band’s biggest discovery hasn’t been musical. It’s been spiritual.
After another summer leading worship at youth camps, he believes many adults have misunderstood Gen Z.
“They’re desperate,” he said. “This generation is desperate like I haven’t really experienced before. It feels like they don’t just want the hype. They want to know the truth of the Gospel. They’re asking questions about the Bible. They don’t just want to sing songs and jump up and down because the lights are cool or because they love a certain worship team. They want to know, ‘What are the truths that you’re actually getting me to declare? And how does that actually apply in my life today?’”
It’s a striking observation at a time when Gen Z is often described as spiritually disengaged. Mutendji says he’s seeing something almost entirely different. The students filling youth camps aren’t looking for bigger productions or louder worship nights. They’re looking for a faith that can withstand real life.
“The thing that I’m excited about is I can see that they’re not just wanting to sing songs in church because their parents made them go,” he said. “They’re wanting to make the Gospel their own. They’re saying, ‘Help me have the right language so I can help my friends meet Jesus. Help me have the right language so when I’m in a desperate situation, I know exactly where I can turn.’ Church isn’t just the place where they check a box. It’s where they get the tools to walk out their life outside the four walls.”
Those conversations became the heartbeat of Washed, the group’s new album.
The record almost looked very different. After finishing 2025’s Victory Lap, the plan was to record a live version at summer camp with a couple of additional songs. But the writing sessions kept producing new material, and when the band started introducing those songs to students, they realized they were hearing something different.
“What was supposed to be two more songs became six or seven,” Mutendji said. “Then we started seeing them at youth camp, and our youth ministry really latched onto a lot of the newer songs. We kind of looked at each other and thought, ‘Maybe this isn’t just an extension of Victory Lap. Maybe this is a whole other thing.’”
The result was an album centered on one defining message: because of Jesus, your old identity no longer gets the final word.
“We wanted to give this next generation a soundtrack to say, ‘We’re not who we were because of the blood of Jesus. We’ve been washed. We’ve been made clean,’” Mutendji said. “It’s a declaration of independence from our old lives and taking on the new creation of Jesus Christ. We wanted every song to carry that same spirit.”
Washed has resonated far beyond Elevation Church. The title track became Elevation Rhythm’s first No. 1 song—a milestone Mutendji says the band never saw coming because success was never the objective.
“We write these songs primarily for our youth ministry,” he said. “You just write these songs hoping that one person, maybe three people, connect with it. When Washed connected with the broader Christian community, we just kind of went, ‘Whoa, OK, God. You’re clearly doing something with Rhythm, and whatever it is, we’re on board for however long this lasts.’”
Now, as the band prepares to take Washed on tour, Mutendji says they’re thinking beyond the music itself. The hope isn’t simply to fill rooms but to help create communities that continue long after the band leaves town.
“We’re trying to build a community more than just rock up into a city and sing songs,” he said. “We’re trying to connect people to each other. We’re hoping friendships happen. We’re hoping small groups develop. We don’t want this to be a consumer mentality. We want people to realize they’re just as much a part of this as we are.”
For a band that started by asking why teenagers danced harder to Drake than they did in church, the mission hasn’t changed: write songs compelling enough to capture a generation’s attention, then give them something worth holding onto after the music ends—a faith that’s entirely their own.
