After vocalist Bill Walden left 4th Watch in 1987, he had no plans to pursue any other music. (For context, the recognizable crooner had also been the early singer for Undercover.) So, when The Mirrors (formerly Malcolm & the Mirrors) came asking Bill to join them, and then asked again, he was reluctant and uninterested. However, providence prevailed and it turned out to be a great move both for the band and for Walden himself. The band was definitely on the ministry side of things. In fact, three of the band members became pastors.
The Mirrors played a sort of post-new-wave style that was at the early stages of modern rock or what was coming to be known as “alternative music.” The band toured extensively in Europe, including England and even Eastern Europe, just after the fall of the iron curtain.
This version of the band recorded only one album, 1990’s I Am Not Afraid, although a previous form of the band had also done Red Alert, as Malcolm and the Mirrors, in a distinctly more new wave style. The band ceased playing together somewhere around 1992.
“What Do You Say” reflects the band’s overall mission and emphasis on evangelism, taking the form of a conversation with someone who doesn’t share the narrator’s faith. The stanzas alternate line by line with a faith statement (“I believe there is a God in heaven”) with a plea for dialogue (“what do you say?”). The motif is a sort of a model for dialogue in a postmodern and/or post-Christian context, where faith is offered, never forced.
I wanna know
Why do you choose to believe
The things you say you believe
Think before you believe
At the same time, the song is a plea to other believers to truly examine one’s beliefs, as Socrates admonished: “Know thyself.”