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Steve Reischl[edit]

Stephen James Reischl (born April 25, 1974), known professionally as Steve Reischl, is an American singer-songwriter, artist and producer. Born and raised in Dunlap, Iowa, Reischl got an early start at the age of 18 as the lead singer for the world-renowned contemporary Christian vocal group Acappella and rounded out his time on the road as a front man and guitarist for NewSong, a contemporary Christian group. As he transitioned from ten years touring to focus on writing and production work in his studio, Reischl recognizes the kind of lifestyle and opportunity life on the road gave him such as being able to tour throughout the world in countries such as Brazil, Australian, Russia, Jamaica and the Caribbean to name a few. In between tours over the past several years Reischl has written and produced on a host of records. With musical tastes tilting towards contemporary rock and edgy pop, Reischl lends a decade of road experience to the work that he now focuses on. As a musician and singer, he shared the stage with the likes of BeBe & Cece Winans, DC Talk, Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Gary Chapmen, Audio Adrenalin, Rebecca St. James, Mark Wills, Racheal Lampa, to name a few.

Early Life and Education[edit]

Stephen James Reischl was born on April 25, 1974, in Dunlap, Iowa. Reischl grew up in small town Dunlap his entire teenage life living with his father James Nicholas Reischl, an entrepreneur who owned commercial roofing companies, his mother Sandra Kay Weber, a homemaker and four other siblings Kimberly, Bradley, Julia and Angela. As a young boy, Reischl enjoyed the athletic side of life as he played several sports such as baseball, basketball, track and football throughout his years at high school. However it was a defining moment in his life when 8th grader Reischl entered a regional singing contest consisting of 6 states surrounding Iowa. To Reischl’s surprise, he took home the winning prize as he competed alongside a thousand plus contestants. Reischl recalls it as being “easy” ^[1] and that singing was “something that came easy to him”.^[2] As a freshman in high school, Reischl played the trombone and baritone, which only added to his list of musical talents amongst being able to play guitar, which he did in his personal time. It was not long till Reischl decided to try out for the ‘All State Vocal Competition’. The competition consisted of high school students from all over the nation competing for the winning title. Not only did Reischl win on his first attempt at the competition, but continued to bring home the winning title 3 years after in a row. Reischl’s musical talents gained him a music scholarship at York College in Omaha, Nebraska. He studied music as his primary major with a minor in business studies.

Career[edit]

Early work[edit]

At the age of 15, Reischl was baptized in the Church of Christ and became a Christian. The Church of Christ did not believe in the use of instruments and thereby looked towards artists that did without them. As far as music went, Acappella was the most appealing to the church as they did not make use of instruments and it was no doubt that Reischl looked up to the group and enjoyed every aspect of what their music bought to the church. At the age of 16, Reischl attended the Aca-fest in Paris, Tennesse where he met an individual by the name of Breshan Hatcher. Hatcher had been the nephew to Keith Lancaster, owner of the Acappella Company. It was clear that Hatcher would soon became very influential in Reischl’s life. Hatcher and Reischl grew close and it was not long until Hatcher branched out with the idea that Reischl should look into Acapella Vocal Band (AVB). Hatcher was aware of a spot being available as Brian Randolph had left the group. It was when 19-year-old Reischl was attending York College that he finally decided to listen to Hatcher and sent in a demo of his voice to Keith Lancaster. Lancaster instantly took a liking to his talents and sent in Reischl’s acceptance to fill up Randolph's spot as 2nd tenor in the group. The group was successful as their song “U & Me & God Make 5” followed in 1993, producing a hit on the CCM charts. However, due to the uncertainty of an unknown future for AVB, Lancaster decided upon parting ways within the group. As Lancaster had decided on this decision, the other sectors of Acappella Group seemed to have had a brighter future, one of which caught Reischl’s attention. Lancaster then facilitated Reischl into another section called Acappella where Reischl served as the lead singer for a few years. Reischl sang lead on Beyond A Doubt and Act of God. His most popular song was "If There Were No God”, which made it's way onto contemporary radio stations in Christian music.

Breakthrough[edit]

Although Reischl enjoyed all the perks of working within a team creating a stable, trusting and growing environment, he felt there was more to worship than just with the voice and pushed his decision to pursue a solo career, leaving Acappella and the Acappella Group for good. It was in his search for managers that Reischl stumbled upon Troy Vanliere. Vanliere helped facilitate concerts, tours, merchandise and meetings with record labels. However Reischl had one thing going for him; Vanliere happened to be at that time the manager of NewSong, a contemporary Christian band, and had offered him a spot to replace Russ Lee who had then just left. Even though Reischl was offered the role of lead singer, he was still hesitant to the idea of joining NewSong and intent on pursuing his solo career. Nevertheless, he needed a job and Vanliere promised he would get the chance to have both his solo career and be the lead singer to NewSong side by side. Reischl accepted the job just to be able to fill in the lead singer position until someone else came along to take over for him. It was then a few months down the line that Michael O’Brien joined the group, which would mean Reischl’s departure. However to his amazement, Reischl found that he developed an enjoyment for what the shows provided him with. Along his career with NewSong, Reischl was given the opportunity to write for the publishing company by the name of EMI, which till this day seems to be the highlight of his career. In addition to writing for EMI, Reischl was also given the opportunity of writing for Capitol Christian Music Group (CMG), which happened to be the Christian sector of EMI.

2005-present[edit]

Whilst booming in his music career, Reischl was visited with some more good news in the year 2004; his wife Annette had been expecting. It was then that he had come to the decision that he could no longer be with NewSong touring as he wanted to be there for the birth of his daughter; “I didn’t want to be on the road forever with babies, not that there is anything wrong with it, but I wanted to be able to give my children the same childhood environment as I had growing up as a child”.^[3] As it became clear that the life of a group member was no more viable, Reischl got serious about finding a stable job in order to provide for his growing family. His dad, a multimillionaire, saw this as an opportunity for Reischl to take over one of the family businesses which were two manufactured housing communities called Sycamore and Westridge Acres located not too far from his hometown in Harlan, Iowa. Reischl took over the family business but in his heart felt like God had wanted Reischl to work for him again. He recalls by saying that he “felt like there was something else in store”.^[4] Reischl felt that he needed to do more for God and so he applied for numerous jobs to several churches in the nation. It was when Harvester Christian Church expressed their interest in Reischl that it was certain that it was the place for his family and himself. Currently Reischl serves there as a Senior Worship Leader since 2011.

Personal life[edit]

In 1993, Reischl began dating Annette Heidi Zacho. Zacho who is Kenyan and Danish native, came to the United States as an international student hoping to gain an American education from Goshen College located in Goshen, Indiana. The pair had met whilst Reischl was on tour with his group Acapella, when Zacho first caught his attention. She was at the time working at the insurance company MMA conducting marketing research. Reischl and Zacho announced their engagement in November 1994, later marrying on February 4, 1995 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. On May 2, 2005, Zacho gave birth to Jade Isabella Reischl in Nashville, Tennessee. On May 18, 2009, the Reischl household welcomed yet another baby girl, Mia Jaymes Reischl. Currently Reischl, Zacho and their two children reside in Saint Louis, Missouri. Together as a family they attend Harvester Christian Church where Reischl serves as a full time Senior Worship Leader. Zacho is a full time freelance graphic designer and owner of two women’s boutiques; one in the town of Harlan, Iowa and the other in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Filmography[edit]

As a group NewSong made a cameo in the 2002 movie The Christmas Shoes featuring Rob Lowe. The book that the screenplay was based on the lyric written by Eddie Carswell for the song of the same name, which was NewSong’s #1 song. The movie had nearly 17 million viewers and was the second highest-rated TV movie of the 2002–2003 seasons.

Discography[edit]

Year	Album	Group
1993	U & Me & God Make 5	Acapella Vocal Band (AVB)
1994	Caminando En La Luz	Acapella Vocal Band (AVB)
1994	The Land of Five	Acapella Vocal Band (AVB)
1995	The Road	Acapella Vocal Band (AVB)
1995	Beyond a Doubt	Acappella
1997	Act of God	Acappella
2000	Live.. The Hits	NewSong
2000	Sheltering Tree	NewSong
2001	The Christmas Shoes	NewSong
2001	The Prayer of Jabez	Collection of Various Artists

Awards and nominations[edit]

In the year 2002, Reischl received his first coveted GMA Dove award for his involvement with Prayer of Jabez, which he recorded with EMI. Following a year later in 2003, the highlight of his career included garnering a Grammy Award nomination with group NewSong for their Christmas album. Along with the awards, NewSong enjoyed their Number 1 single on ‘Top 10 Billboard Charts’ next to Faith Hill and B.B. Mack.

References[edit]

^ Reischl, Steve (3 March, 2014). Interview. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Reischl, Steve (3 March, 2014). Interview. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Reischl, Steve (3 March, 2014). Interview. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Reischl, Steve (3 March, 2014). Interview. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)