and the‘ Steeple’ word together, both pointing to the same place. Neon lights are meant to catch your attention, and is oftentimes pointing to something that is a poor substitute for what you are truly wanting inside. And the Steeple is pointing to something that transcends. I wanted to make the things that we currently have available to us point to something that transcends.
So I was already in that train of thought, and as I headed into the concept of American Prodigal it occurred to me that banjo is actually an African instrument. I had now been in Atlanta, Georgia for about 4 years, and I was blown away by what a global city it is. It’ s not just black and white. It’ s incredibly multi-ethnic. Atlanta has the busiest airport in the world, and there is this global influence of people coming in and out all of the time.
So when all the conversation started happening again about race in America, I thought I would take the same train of thought from Neon Steeple, and just turn the dial a little bit. I wanted the beats to be more similar to how hip-hop samples things. It would be less produced from electronic wave forms, but would be more just lifted from a rhythm that was organic and then sampled, the same way that people make urban music. The language on Neon Steeple was Southern Gospel. I’ m just riffing off of Gaither music. I felt like that was a common language.
Anyone who lives in America can relate to and appreciate Americana music. Now, on American Prodigal, it would be just a little shift of the dial. Black Gospel church language is so close to Southern Gospel language.
[ WM ] And isn’ t Martin Luther King Jr. from Atlanta?
[ DC ] Yes! And the loft apartments that we ended up living in is an old renovated cotton mill that is part of a section of the city called Cabbagetown. The cotton mill owner would go up into the Appalachian mountains and bring down these Scotch-Irish families and employ them at the mill and house them in Cabbagetown. And, of course, they brought their music with them. What we know today Country and Bluegrass music got it’ s start right there, even before it all got moved up to Nashville.
And Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King’ s church, is right there too! And I had no idea, when we were thinking of moving to Atlanta, where we were going to end up. Right in the middle of all of this cultural and ethnic and musical history. And it completely informed my record. People started telling me all the stories of the neighborhood, and all about the music.
So, back to talking about making a record. When your making music, you never know if what you’ re making will be timely or not, because you’ re making it ahead of when it will actually find it’ s legs. But who could have imagined an election cycle like we’ ve had? Who could have imagined the racial tensions that are coming up again, or the discussions about immigration? So I hope my music is subversive in a healthy way. I’ m not angry, or trying to point to anything wrong. I don’ t think you can talk someone out of their point of view by just being a great articulator of ideas. But you sure can model and show something that’ s different and compelling. And that’ s what I was trying to do with the music and the record. I didn’ t want to appear to be appropriating any particular culture. I wanted it to not be a‘ you and me,’ but to turn it into a‘ we.’ I wanted people to not know exactly what it was necessarily. My hope was that they wouldn’ t get upset that I was making beats, and that I’ m just a hillbilly talking fast in time, because KB came along and put his stamp of approval on it, and Tedashii. They’ re my friends here in Atlanta, over at Reach Records. And I let them say what is in their chest and I put it in a container to try and bring healing. It was a‘ we’ effort.
You make things with your friends, and that’ s when it’ s the best. And when I came to town, I wanted to take the whole‘ love your neighbor’ thing seriously, so I went over to Reach Records and talked with LeCrae and the guys. And they continued on 26 photo by Filip Vukina
Jan � Feb 2017 WorshipMusician. com
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