photo by Jeff Johnson made a lot of great records ) has inspired me because of his story and how he creates a lot of his stuff from the ground up with artist development and with producing the artists . He ’ s produced several of my songs , and I love him and what he does . In Nashville there ’ s a guy named Jay Joyce that ’ s incredible , really great . There ’ s Dann Huff who ’ s an incredible producer . In the Pop world there is always such incredible talent . I ’ ll have to think about it but there are some people who every time I know that they ’ ve done something I look forward to it and I ’ m intrigued to hear their take on something .
[ WM ] A truly great record producer knows no single genre of activity . They are chameleonlike in their ability to bring the best out of every project they attempt . I know that you have worked in country , Christian , Pop , Hip Hop , and other genres as well . What can you say about this dynamic ?
[ David ] What I can say is that when it all works the way it ’ s supposed to work it ’ s a blessing
( laughs ). Then there are sometimes when it can almost feel a little strange . I ’ m very fortunate that , and maybe because of my upbringing , but once I started listening to different kinds of music and getting out of my bubble of what I listened to , I was like a kid in a candy store . I couldn ’ t believe all the different styles of music . In the late 90 ’ s and early 2000 ’ s it was a really killer time in music . You had things like Nirvana but at the same time you had hip hop and Tupac and Biggie . Then at the same time you were hearing N ’ SYNC and Brittney Spears , all along with some of the alternative stuff . Even Christian and Gospel music had really incredible stuff , like with what DC Talk was doing . It was a time where you could get a lot of different types of music all at the same time . And that really influenced me a lot , because I was listening to everything . I wasn ’ t really one of those people who was one or the other , there were just things in each genre that I would fall in love with and love to figure out .
So later on in my career , it ’ s kind of strange , but I love urban music , and I love Gospel
and Christian music , and weirdly I love Rock records . There has always been stuff I ’ ve done that ’ s leaned that way . It ’ s kind of just odd , it has worked in my advantage . I ’ ll remember this record I ’ d done years ago , at the time I was thinking , “ Why am I even doing this ?” and then years later I ’ ll kind of get myself in a situation that pulls me back to that time and think , maybe this is the reason why ? I kind of know how to do this because I ’ ve done it in the past . I ’ ve been very fortunate to be able to work in so many genres . I ’ m kind of one of those guys where I don ’ t want you to know that I did it really , I kind of just want you to think that it ’ s a legit version of whatever we ’ re doing . I ’ ve always taken pride in that . And I am jealous sometimes because some guys have their thing and whatever they ’ re doing is going to sound like them . There are times that I envy that . But at the same time , it ’ s fun to be able to dance around . You do get critiqued and judged on the work you do as well . I feel complemented when someone says , “ Oh I didn ’ t know you did that , that ’ s really cool !” I kind of really enjoy that .