KB
One of the best releases of 2014 so far is the 100 EP from KB. It’s a punchy record that recently debuted at number one on the Billboard Christian album chart (and you can read my review here). I got to sit down with KB (Kevin Burgess) to talk at length about 100 including production, recording, the theology behind it all, and what’s to come next. I was hugely encouraged by this interview and hope you will be too.
SAM: KB, congratulations on the new EP 100. It’s amazing, has it been great seeing the tweets and responses rolling in?
KB: Yeah, it’s been awesome. I’ve been encouraged by a seemingly overwhelming response. I like the quantity, that’s good, but it seems like the quality responses as well like folks are saying ‘I want to be different.’ ‘I feel different.’ ‘I’ve been impacted or shaped by this.’ It’s been good, man.
SAM: Are you a numbers guy?
KB: That’s a great question. I have to by definition – it just comes with the territory of being a professional recording artist that numbers do matter to a certain degree. They’re not the foundation of which we stand on. So if they come, we want them to. We ask the Lord to bless it that way. But if they don’t we don’t feel like something was lost if we gave everything that we have.
SAM: Well the number that’s important on this record is 100.
KB: One hundred! Yes
SAM: Obviously that number represents a lot. Could you share with me why that number is so important to you?
KB: Yeah. 100 is important to me because it’s the symbol, especially for our culture, for someone that’s leaving it all on the floor. Not trying to be measured: give a little of my life here and a little bit there.
Or in the moment it’s synonymous with beast mode and anything that implies ultimate exertion of your energy, your power, your time, your efforts. There are few other phrases that can describe the heart of the one that we follow. We follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So when I think about the song [100] - ‘All I really know is 100′ - what I’m really saying is that the only example that I have before me is the man Christ Jesus who descended to this world, wrapped himself in human flesh, lived 33 years, and got on a cross and accomplished the most powerful defeat in history. He defeated sin, Satan and death and then rose in all victory, and he says ‘Follow me, and this type of living’. So when I look at that, if I know him, then all I know is 100.
SAM: And I love that across this album you’re challenging listeners to give God their everything, but you make it clear that it’s not about our works but it’s actually responding to what God has done in Jesus.
KB: Very true. That’s what it is. There’s a lot of people out there who give their everything. People give it to drugs, they give it to basketball. The list goes on forever. You can go out and in your own strength do a whole lot. But what we’re aiming for is a reward that supersedes what we’ll be given at the end of a pay period from an employee. It supersedes what we would get from the Academy Awards or from MTV
KB'S 100 HITS WITH HIT AFTER HIT
6 TAKE OVER / MAY 2014