Josiah Warneking is the lead singer and piano player for the Christian pop rock band ‘Sixteen Cities’ from Portland, Oregon . His warm vocals, which blend in a soothing mix with Dustin Erhardt on lead guitar and Josh Miller on rhythm guitar, are supported by the talents of Josiah’s brother, Joel Warenking on bass guitar, and Robbie Tice on drums. The inspirational group has been around for over four years, rocking the indie scene in the northwest, and has released two independent records. Last November, they signed a record deal with Centricity Music (www.centricitymusic.com) and have recorded a new album, which will be released to stores worldwide this fall.

Raised along with younger brother Joel in Portland , Josiah looks back on his twelve years of classical piano training, “My parents forced me to take piano lessons when I was young. I hated it for years and years until I realized people actually thought it was cool to play an instrument. Soon after I began to write my own music, and get tons of positive feedback from everyone who heard my songs. It made me want to continue, ” His singing began even earlier, “I used to sing in church,” he says. “I remember trying to sing ‘Away In The Manger’ when I was five or six years old.”

“I was always the leader when I was a kid,” says Josiah, “I remember having dozens of friends running behind me as I led them to attack the girls during recess. I was extremely active too. I wasn’t one of those ‘indoor kids’. I spent hours in the woods, building forts and daydreaming about monsters and medieval conquests. I was also home schooled, which gave me a lot of time to explore the world and learn things my own way.”

He truly began to embrace his talents in junior high when he began to write his own music. In high school, he met the other members of the band saying, “We would lead worship music for students at our school every Wednesday morning before class. We all grew up in the church and were very involved, so becoming a Christian artist was natural for us. As far as being a pop rock band, I think it was a collision of each band member’s individual styles. We all love songs to have energy, purpose, and hooks. Ultimately we play what we feel is good music, and it has been labeled pop rock.”

The band, which started out performing under the name Issakar, recently changed their name to Sixteen Cities. Josiah explains, “We heard about this ancient tribe of Israel in the Bible called Issachar, who “knew and understood the times and the seasons for their generation” and we always wanted to be a band that was relevant and made music that spoke to people, so we wanted a name related to that tribe. We found a verse in the Bible that said the tribe of Issachar was composed of Sixteen Cities. So we went with it.”

“After graduating high school, our whole band decided to go into music full-time, and started playing shows and recording songs. We just figured it out at a grass roots level. We slowly became more and more professional over time.”

Since the band signed their record deal last fall, they have been preparing for their album release and tour this fall. They will be touring internationally, Denmark, during the winter.

“I would like to continue making music and reaching people with our message of hope,” Josiah says. “Our band is truly authentic and honest, and we have a relationship with Jesus Christ that is relevant and real. We truly want to humble ourselves, and use our music to help people.”

“I believe it is what I was made to do,” Josiah says, “I think being a songwriter and a recording artist is the best way for me to help people and give them a message of hope. I am inspired by the condition of the human heart, and how we deal with the hard things we face in this life. I think the lives of every day people are the most inspirational thing in existence. When I write songs, I like to think about real people, and what they go through.”

Josiah is heavily involved in the church. He says, “Not the religious kind of church most people think of, but the loving, culturally relevant, active church. Meeting Jesus Christ and making Him the center of my life has made me who I am today.”