Bio : Judah & The Lion

At the beating heart of Nashville band Judah & The Lion is a story of a deeply loyal chosen brotherhood. Starting back in 2011 when Judah Akers and Brian Macdonald became bandmates in college, they’ve ridden the highs of achieving their arena-sized rock and roll dreams, and the lows of struggles with mental health, alcoholism, grief, and divorce. Across the last decade and half, five albums and five EP’s, that brotherhood has been the safe haven for writing, recording and performing their most vulnerable and emotional lyrics, an authentic alchemy that keeps their sonic evolution moving forward, and a shared love of creating cathartic anthems to sing with their fans.

As Brian puts it, “We've lived a lot of life together, and that bond is something that's really special. Having that intense proximity to each other, combined with going through a lot of hard things in life and a lot of ups and downs as individuals and as a band, has only strengthened our relationship over the years.”

Judah adds, “We really became men together. And I think that you can hear that throughout the music. Our relationship in a lot of ways is very much the same as it was when we started out, 'cause we're both pretty consistent people, and then in other ways it's drastically different and has morphed into this brotherhood that I think is super, super special. And while we are very similar we are also very different. I think our radical acceptance of each other, and those differences also comes through in the music and at our shows. We want everyone to feel loved and included and it doesn't matter your belief systems, or where you're coming from. We want a Judah & The Lion show and our music to evoke this kind of unifying nature, and I think Brian and I are position-A of that.”

Their newest and sixth album, I Am A Prism, came after a period of soul searching and another life milestone - this time a joyous one: Brian becoming a father again. Meanwhile, Judah and Brian found themselves needing a reset and refocus. The last three albums had documented some personally heavy topics - mental health and depression (2019’s Pep Talks), heartbreak and divorce (2022’s Revival), and charting the stages of grief (2024’s The Process). On the other side of this trilogy of hard times and heartbreak, Judah & The Lion was at a creative crossroads. They took some time off, parted ways with their management, and asked themselves some tough but necessary questions.

Judah explains, “We wanted to get really honest with ourselves about those kinds of deep internal questions. Is our music adding to the noise? What do we bring that no one else brings? Why do we wanna make another record? Not like we were wanting to quit, but it was just like, let's get back to the “why" of when we first started making music together. Are we actually helping people, or are we just doing this because we make a living off of it? And the answer was, we don't do it because of the fluff. We don't do it because of, quote-unquote fame or popularity or, affirmation. We do it because we want to help people. That's the heart behind this. We really do want people to feel less alone in what they're going through. And if our music can cut through the noise and get to that one person, it's worth it.” 

“We use our music to propel us through hard things in life and shoot us forward into a more hopeful space, without ignoring the really tough parts of being human, and that is why our fans relate to it,” Brian adds. “Defining why somebody is connecting to the music that we're putting out was a really important thing for us to discover before we went into making I Am a Prism. Not that we didn't know that before, but I think we pinpointed it and vocalized it.”

Case in point, Judah & The Lion fans will likely recognize two songs on I Am A Prism from the band’s live shows last year - lead single “Maybe The Best Is Now” and the album’s midpoint track “Gravel Roads”. 

“Maybe The Best Is Now” is a callback to a song from their last album, 2024’s The Process called “The Best Is Yet To Come”. It was introduced into their set last Spring as an encore, and Judah began teaching the chorus to their audience, treating their fans to a new song, and with a plan to include them in what was to come. While the crowd was singing along to “Maybe The Best Is Now,” the tape was rolling.This was a reintroduction of an idea that the band hadn’t used since “Take It All Back” from 2016’s Folk Hop n’ Roll.  Judah and Brian knew that when they got to the studio later that summer, they wanted to incorporate the voices of their fans into the studio recording. The work of exploring ways to ground their next album in what mattered most to Judah & The Lion had begun, finding the continuums that would celebrate their growth and evolution.

“A lot of this record is trying to connect the thread between our beginnings and this point,” Judah says. The album opener “I Am A Prism” is a powerful example, with multiple links to the opening track of their 2022 album Revival called, “Open Your Eyes”. The first lines of that song are: 

Open your eyes
And see the colors
That the black and white
Has tried to cover

Four years later, Judah felt as though he was singing these hopeful words back to a younger, and struggling version of himself:

Was a dead man walking
Now I am reborn
Open up your eyes, kid. 
Watch me while I transform.

“I Am A Prism” not only represents Judah’s personal transformation, but the transformation of the album itself after its title track was written, as well as who it was written for. After so many years writing and recording music that spoke to Judah’s personal battles, family hardships, grief and loss, Judah’s older brother Eli finally revealed that he had struggled to listen to any Judah & The Lion’s albums because the lyrics just made him too sad. This realization that his words and music had meant so much to a massive fanbase but hadn’t been able to reach his own brother, was difficult to discover, but the conversation challenged and motivated Judah to to write songs with Eli in mind, with simple and more universal lyrics that he could connect with while maintaining the emotional depth that comes so naturally to Judah. After this illuminating conversation, Judah sat alone at his piano and wrote “I Am A Prism”. Noting that unlike their past albums which had their titles early on with a clear central theme, they were already halfway through the writing of this one without having a title. Brian says, “It was the turning point when Judah wrote ‘I Am A Prism’. The title of the album became clear, and we shifted the whole meaning of it.”  This revelatory and honest moment between brothers had crystalized what this album wanted to become, who it was for, and how to get there. 

Another important lyrical song on the album, “Powerless” speaks to Judah’s belief that the beginning of any spiritual journey is the radical acceptance of being powerless. He shares, “Each person could probably name something that they're powerless to. And this just felt like a record that was important to admit my own flaws. I've been singing a lot about my family and I think that's really important. But this record was me taking ownership of my own shit and being like, this is who I am. I think I used to feel ashamed about being powerless to drinking but I'm not ashamed of it anymore. And once we can cut the shame of feeling powerless to whatever we're powerless to, then there comes this beautiful strength.” 

“As The Crow”, the most emotional song of the record for Judah, was written in the midst of a week where he lost someone who was like a grandmother to him, and his eight year-old cousin from brain cancer. They died just a couple days apart. Judah explains “That song is about this conversation with love, with God, with the universe. Love is all around us no matter if we can see it or feel it or not. So that song really feels like it anchors the record.” 

Yet, even with these heavy topics, Judah kept the promise he made to himself to make an album that his brother could listen to. Sonically, the album is as kaleidoscopic as its title, with lighthearted, loose, and unexpected turns. Brian describes one of his new favorites, “Gut Punch”, as a “super fun, and really musically fulfilling song to make” even as they were experimenting in the studio, searching for the right combination of instruments. Judah recalls, “There’s an element of surprise that we identified early on in this process of reconnecting with what Judah & The Lion is, and ‘Gut Punch’ really exudes that. Me and Brian were playing the mandolin and banjo over this kind of early 2000’s dance beat, and I’m not great at the banjo but I was playing it like a child, and it just felt like new territory for us. At that moment it all clicked into place, and came together really quickly.”

The atmosphere and production style in the studio was what allowed Judah and Brian to experience free, childlike moments like that one to happen. For the recording of I Am A Prism, Judah & The Lion teamed up with Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter and composer Jeremy Lutito as their co-producer, who encouraged them to lean all the way in, to embrace everything they are, and not hold back in any way sonically. From folk to rock to big pop anthems, he challenged the band to be unapologetically and fully Judah & The Lion. One might imagine that achieving a sound that went “swinging for the fucking fences” would mean going big on production as well. But mirroring what Judah’s brother Eli had shown them about song lyrics, Jeremy seemed to understand that the best path to getting the absolute most from the band and these new songs was simplicity. As always, the songs know what they need. And they were listening. Freedom was found in the intimate recording environment of Jeremy’s backyard studio. The spirit of creative fearlessness and hopeful rebellion of their early days was rediscovered by streamlining everything to the very essence of the band. Less, indeed, was more. Every sound, from the quietest moments (like the album’s title track) to the most bombastic (the freewheeling “Can You Relate”) was made by the hands of Judah, Brian, and Jeremy, with the help of an audio engineer. Coming back to themselves allowed them to go deeper and deeper with the music. 

Now, after an amazing fifteen years of becoming a beloved favorite band to hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and sticking together through some of the most difficult of times, Judah & The Lion are ready to share this victorious moment with their fans. At its thematic core, I Am A Prism is a celebration of the full spectrum of life, dark and light. This affirming message is perhaps best captured in the song “Miracle”: 

It all comes back around—was it then or is it now?
And I’m waking up

I’m living in the middle of a miracle
I’m seeing stars shooting through the physical
I’m living in the middle of a miracle

Brian shares, “That song really encapsulates the simplicity that we're going for on this album. I think it's just a beautiful representation of the stage of life that both of us are in right now. Especially with me having kids, “miraculous” is truly one of the only ways one can describe that feeling.”

Judah reflects, “Life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. If you think about the simplicity of life, we're all here breathing, we're all here for a reason. Some people think that a miracle has to be some big, dramatic event. But it's like, what if a miracle is waking up in the morning? What if the miracle is a cardinal showing up in your yard after your grandpa died? What if a miracle is the flowers growing? What if a miracle is being there for a buddy? It’s these types of small things. Especially with how negative the world is, let's think about the things that are beautiful. My mentor always says, the body keeps the score, but the body knows the way, and the only way out is through. It's about going through the door, even if the door looks scary. And then the miracle is all of it. It's the process. And the process is perpetual. It never really ends. Life itself is a miracle.”

And this is the simplest and most beautiful reminder everyone needs. 

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