Facing Giants

The drive behind starting Facing Giants came from a calling Jessica Banks felt in 2023 towards putting her skills and passion from the band world into a new kind of project - a Christian band. A later in life Jesus follower, she felt inspired by the nostalgia of 90s & 2000s worship music like Michael W. Smith and Casting Crowns but wanted to add a rock/pop edge and write some new music of her own. After posting to online message boards, she got plugged in at a local church in Lenexa, Kansas on the worship team. Fast forward one year later to fall 2024 and the call to put this group together remained. So she posted online again and quickly got in touch with our lead guitarist, Matthew Gruszek. After the first jam session it was clear he would be a great fit with his passion for music and heart for worship. Shortly after that, Logan Peterson, who was still praying on joining as the drummer, believed God was calling him to join and committed fully to follow His leading. As an experienced player from church, it didn’t take long to see he would be an excellent addition to the group. Responding to a post specifically looking for a female vocalist and keys player, Jennifer Hoover reached out and asked to come to a rehearsal and jam. With years of church music experience, including seminary, under her belt plus some wicked high harmonies, she was all in. Things were new and just starting to gel but Jessica was starting to see her vision realized of a killer group of Christian musicians come together to form Facing Giants at the beginning of 2025. In their short history, the group has already written a full album’s worth of music and is working on releasing their first single and EP. With a rock/pop sound that’s reminiscent of Paramore and other retro sounds of the millennium, they’ll lead you to rock out and lift your heart in worship at the same time.