Australian rock duo JSP have finally unveiled their debut album, a 10-track long triumph of an alternative rock collection produced by Disciple’s Josiah Prince. The album is available everywhere and follows buzz-generating singles “Taking it Back,” “It’s Not Your Fault” and “No More (feat Kevin Young).”
The husband and wife musical pair James and Sarah Petterson have both been making music for decades, but No More is the culmination of a new chapter of life: a chapter of healing from many different kinds of abuses and offering that redemptive new perspective... Read More Australian rock duo JSP have finally unveiled their debut album, a 10-track long triumph of an alternative rock collection produced by Disciple’s Josiah Prince. The album is available everywhere and follows buzz-generating singles “Taking it Back,” “It’s Not Your Fault” and “No More (feat Kevin Young).”
The husband and wife musical pair James and Sarah Petterson have both been making music for decades, but No More is the culmination of a new chapter of life: a chapter of healing from many different kinds of abuses and offering that redemptive new perspective to listeners through brand-new songs.
“After the unexpected passing of Sarah’s mum in 2023, we both separately dealt with not only grief, but other significant issues we had faced in our lives — including abuse we had both encountered in Christian environments,” James explains. “This process brought a lot of closure for both of us, in particular to the disillusionment we had encountered in the Christian music scene. During this time, Sarah was asked: ‘What has your dream always been?’ The answer was to do music. To which the reply was, ‘So why not?’ This was the first time we had heard these words.”
That “why not” led the couple to reach out to Josiah Prince of Disciple, a renowned producer in the Christian rock space. They made peace with the idea that they might not hear back at all. Instead, they heard back the very next day. A new era was born.
Together, the creative team consisted of the Pettersons, Josiah Prince producing, Matt Arcaini mixing and Sam Moses mastering — a team of rock experts who have been dominating the Christian rock charts in recent years. Musically, Sarah takes lead vocals while James helms guitar and piano. Dane Allen (Honor & Glory, Loyals) filled in some additional backing vocals, with Kevin Young featuring on the lead single ‘No More.” The result is rich in tone and deep in dynamic, drawing frequent comparisons to Evanescence.
“The return to music has symbolized the closure of this journey of the hurt and pain we had been carrying for many years,” James vulnerably reveals. “We wrote many new songs that, at their heart, are the testimony of what we went through during this process. The end result is music that we are passionate about because every word of every song is our lived experience.”
One such song is “Lie,” a song the couple initially started working on over 15 years ago.
“For a long time, I struggled with wanting to be loved and accepted, and I would change myself and be what I thought everyone else wanted me to be, but it wasn't real,” Sarah recalls. “I found myself living in two different worlds, acting one way around Christians and another way around everyone else. I felt God confronting me on this, showing me that I needed to make a decision to be comfortable with the person he had created me to be. It wasn’t until I learned to love myself and simply be who I was, who God created me to be, that I found true love and acceptance.”
Similarly, “Games” addresses the false expectations and performative pressures often imposed by those in the church and the broader Christian music community. Prior experiences had left both of them burned, knowing what it’s like to play by the rules of the gatekeepers and still be ultimately rejected. Out of that place of exhaustion came a desire to step away from the façade entirely — to stop playing the games.
James says, “One day, I sat down at the piano and said to God, ‘I am sick of playing these games. I am tired. I am worn out. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ After playing the piano part over and over, I started singing the words ‘Tired of playing these games, tired of living this way. Tired of playing these games, I won’t play, no way.’ After sharing this with Sarah, she wrote the words to the verses. It was at this point that the spark of inspiration for music was starting to be re-ignited for us.”
Nearly every song on No More has its own sacred narrative of restoration. Each one builds its own part of the healing path.
“‘New Eyes’ is a reflection on the silent battle I fought for years as I walked through the effects of trauma and abuse,” James shares. “It had taken such a toll on how I saw everything — myself, others, and even God. I lived behind a lens of fear, anger, and anxiety, constantly overanalyzing and expecting the worst. I reached a point where I just couldn’t live like that anymore. I was exhausted and desperate for change, so I cried out to God and asked Him to renew my eyes — to help me see life the way He sees it. In that moment, I felt God lift that lens away, and everything shifted.”
He continues, “Instead of living in the past and focusing on negativity, I became thankful for the many blessings in my own life that I had ignored, like my beautiful wife and my children. Suddenly, I began living for each day full of hope and promise. The way I saw and treated people changed. I began to feel the love and compassion that God has for everyone, and that I did indeed have a purpose for being here. God gave me New Eyes.”
No More is for any listener who needs their own new lens, to be able to reconcile their stories of grief and abuse in the gentle healing hands of grace. Already, the process of creating the songs has catalyzed healing for JSP. They’re hoping it might do the same for anyone else who needs to hear that what they’ve been through isn’t their fault — and they’re not alone.
“Our mission is to share our testimony of what we have walked through and the healing power of God that brings restoration,” James and Sarah conclude. “To share that it’s OK not to be OK, that people are not alone in their experiences and struggles. There is nothing you can do that will make you not good enough for God. Our journey is summed up in the title of our album: No More. No more will we live defined by our past. No more will we live with guilt and shame. No more will we believe the lies that we are not good enough for God. No more will we be silent.”
Australian husband and wife rock duo JSP have released “No More (feat Kevin Young),” their third single in the lead-up to their November debut album. The single is streaming everywhere now. The music video will premiere on…
