The bishop and the barrel

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: music from two unlikely recording artists.

One distills whiskey for a living, the other is a bishop in the Church of England. Both of them have new albums.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: WORLD’s music critic Arsenio Orteza spoke with them about their work—and how their music connects to their day jobs.

ARSENIO ORTEZA: When told that a whiskey distiller and a Church of England bishop have side hustles as recording artists, you might expect the bishop to be the one composing overt songs of faith. 

But in the cases of Eric Jett and Bishop Andrew Rumsey, you’d be wrong.

MUSIC: [“My Only Comfort” by Fepeste]

This is “My Only Comfort,” a song from Jett’s latest album, This World Ain’t Mine to Change. He records under the name Fepeste, which comes from a band that fans of early Christian pop-punk might remember.

JETT: So Watashi Wa was a punk band out in California in the, like, late ’90s, maybe early 2000s. On their first album they had a song called “¡Fepeste!” It’s a song that, for me, was important when I was growing up. And it essentially is about the sufficiency of God.

The album This World Ain’t Mine to Change focuses on that sufficiency and our struggle to acknowledge it.

MUSIC: [“That’s Okay” by Fepeste]

“That’s Okay” is the song in which the line “This world ain’t mine to change” recurs. The song finds Jett reminding himself of what he understands to be true, so that he can experience the peace that passes understanding.

But thoughtful introspection isn’t Fepeste’s only calling card. There’s also its sparkly, psychedelic-surf sound. Jett’s a Beach Boys fan, so it’s no accident.

MUSIC: [“Doom Surfing” by Fepeste]

I asked what he sees as the connection between creating music and distilling whiskey.

JETT: First of all, a love of crafting something, something that hopefully other people can enjoy, but you know, crafting a whiskey that I enjoy drinking, crafting music that, you know, part of me is in there that I enjoy listening to. So I would say just a love for attention to detail, attention to the art in both.

And what does he say to people who question whether a Christian has any business crafting whiskey in the first place?

JETT: My understanding is that the consumption of alcohol in and of itself is not a sin. In fact, the Lord instituted it at the Lord's Supper... he drank wine with the disciples, his first miracle was transforming water to wine at a wedding, and it was the best wine that these people had ever had. And, you know, we're told that wine makes the heart glad. But, at the same time, we're told to avoid drunkenness. And it's a very fine line to walk.

The lines walked by Andrew Rumsey as a music-making Anglican bishop aren’t quite as fine. The Church of England, after all, isn’t exactly known for its puritanical streak. Besides, most of the songs on his new album, Blank Arcades, barely touch directly on faith at all. But, according to Rumsey, at least one does.

MUSIC: [“Pilot Light” by Andrew Rumsey]

This is “Pilot Light.” Rumsey first recorded it years ago with his band the Effras—but the new version, in keeping with the song’s subject, is more diaphanous.

RUMSEY: It’s about the creative flame, but it's also about, I would say, the Holy Spirit. You know, it's about the flame of God's presence, which is the creative spark, as I understand it. In John's gospel, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit abiding, making His home within us. And it's like this little flame, you know, and sometimes it fires up and sometimes it dies back down again, just a single flame. But actually that is the flame of love and creativity, which is the only thing that warms all spheres of one's life.

Blank Arcades is the third in a series of folk albums that Rumsey has released, preceded by Evensongs in 2023 and Collodion in 2025. 

The sessions for each took place in one day in a different historic English church. He records in churches because the acoustics are great and because, as a bishop, he has easy access. He records in one day because, as a bishop, he doesn’t have a lot of free time.

He’s also an author. His last two books—Parish and English Grounds—deal specifically with the covenantal role of place. Not surprisingly, many of his songs do too, including one about a place in Oregon he’s never actually visited.

MUSIC: [“Fall in Eugene” by Andrew Rumsey]

I asked why the idea of place had become so important to him.

RUMSEY: I've always had a very strong kind of intuitive, like many people do, attachment to place. And I think that genuinely, that's from growing up in a local church, which is really embedded in the stories of a community. That’s grown from being the climate of my upbringing and my experience through to academic interests in what? You know—what’s the impact of place upon who we are? How does where we are shape who we are?

As a soundtrack for pondering that question, the music of the Right Reverend Andrew Rumsey is hard to beat.

MUSIC: [“Trebarwith Strand” by Andrew Rumsey]

I’m Arsenio Orteza.

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