Tree63’s Voyage: Ten years in the making

Press release provided by Media Just Music

Formed in Durban in 1997, Tree63 remains one of the most successful and beloved musical exports in
South African music history. Led since inception by singer-songwriter and guitarist John Ellis, the band
first reached the top of the charts with massive hits including “Treasure”, “Stumbling Stone” and “A
Million Lights”, eventually attracting the attention of US label InPop Records.

Their debut US album arrived in 2000, launching a string of number one radio hits and earning the band
a Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year. Follow-up releases including The Life and Times of Absolute
Truth and The Answer to the Question cemented the band’s international legacy, producing acclaimed
songs such as “Anxious Seat”, “No Words”, “King”, “You Only” and the Billboard #1 hit “Blessed Be Your
Name”.

After years of extensive international touring across the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New
Zealand and seven studio albums between 1997 and 2015 the band entered a hiatus following the
release of Land.

In 2025, John Ellis brought Tree63 back to the live stage with a new lineup featuring Deon Knipe (bass
and backing vocals) and Angus Warden (drums and backing vocals). After touring South Africa
performing classic Tree63 material, work began on the band’s first new album in a decade.
The first new Tree63 album in ten years, Voyage marks an important new chapter for the band. It is also
the first Tree63 album recorded on South African soil since 2002’s The Life and Times of Absolute Truth.
Produced by John Ellis and renowned South African producer-engineer Dave Langemann at Creative
Native Studios in Cape Town, the album was mastered by Tim Lengfeld at TL Mastering.
The album reflects on endurance, faith, doubt, perseverance and the emotional realities of modern life.
Written largely after Ellis relocated from Durban to Cape Town in 2022, the songs capture a season of
rediscovery, both personally and creatively.

Following a lengthy break from music after 2015’s Land, Ellis focused on family life, teaching and
academic work before eventually finding renewed inspiration in Cape Town’s music community.
Encouraged by friends and longtime fans, the idea of reforming Tree63 gradually took shape throughout
2024.

As rehearsals with a new lineup progressed, new material began pouring in, eventually resulting in more
than 30 songs written for consideration. The final ten tracks on Voyage reflect the perspective of an
artist who has travelled through victories, disappointments, uncertainty and renewal.
“These ten new songs on Voyage are notes on the journey,” says Ellis. “Responses to conversations along
the road, testaments of someone who survived the hazards of the journey and who is still walking.”

The songs on Voyage:

1. Turn For Home – Turning back to the only path worth walking after trying some detours that lead
   you far from home; a prodigal story
2. Ambush – A song of the continual surprise of how God can break into your life unexpected and
   unanticipated.
3. Voyage – Ultimately a survival song.
4. Fire Goes On – Even those who find the fire of their faith dissipated can find a flame of conviction
   still burning, a fire that can never truly die.
5. Believe Anyway – Despite all evidence to the contrary, we all have enough to believe that God is
   for us
6. How Much Longer? – Solidarity with those who wait for the world, their lives, their circumstances
   to change, for promises to finally come true: the voyage is often not easy.
7. New Jerusalem – The symbolic city of heaven, the “promised land” … we live in turbulent times,
   facing the reality that this promised place feels very far away right now, even though it is
   imminent.
8. Seeker – That which you seek is seeking you…God initiates the voyage we set out on to find
   him…this song suggests we are closer than we think.
9. Still There – The result of a conversation with old friends who have walked away from their faith,
   the story of so many, many people these days.
10. Beatitude – A benediction that sums up “Voyage” and Tree63 in 2026

Follow Tree63 here!
Facebook – Tree63ZA
Instagram – Tree_63

Media & Publicity
Warren Gibson
media@justmusic.co.za
+27 83 548 0946

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Date published: 03/06/2026
Feature image: Provided by Media Just Music

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