Australian musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and record label owner and executive Peter Furler has specialized in a very '80s-sounding alternative pop and rock sound throughout his career as a star on the slightly edgier side of the Christian contemporary scene, most of it spent in the group he co-founded, Newsboys, which owned the Christian pop charts in the '90s. Furler was born in McLaren Vale, South Australia, on September 8, 1966, the son of Christian missionaries, and the faith he grew up with clearly became his thematic center and constant when he became a professional musician. Furler formed Newsboys with friends George Perdikis, Sean Taylor, and John James, and in the first incarnation of the band, he was the group’s drummer, although he wrote and produced most of the songs. He stepped out from behind the trap kit to become the lead singer when James left the group in 1997. The band was a tremendous success, sketching out a template for how a praise & worship rock act could broaden its fan base into the secular arena without sacrificing its faith-based intention, not always the easiest thing to achieve. Furler founded Inpop Records in 1999, along with fellow Australians Dale Bray and Wes Campbell, and took an active role in the label as a producer and executive. By 2009, he was scaling back his role in the Newsboys, and by 2010, he was well into a solo career. His debut album as a solo artist, On Fire, appeared from Sparrow Records in the spring of 2011. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi