they can thrive and have what they need .
[ WM ] I love it . It ’ s up us to go out into the community and help . That ’ s what the Gospel is about .
[ Chandler ] That ’ s right !
[ WM ] Your EP music project , Jubilee , has recently released in February . Tell us about the project overall and the vision behind it . I head that it was inspired by spirituals , is that right ?
[ Naomi ] Yes it was . Jubilee is a compilation of songs dedicated to Negro spirituals , with were the origins and start of Gospel music . It ’ s funny that it ’ s called Jubilee , because a lot of times in the church we think of Jubilee as the time everybody went free and as this time of rejoicing , but I don ’ t think we really connected it to an actual emancipation from actual slavery , and every type of slavery that one could conceive . As Christians we call people into our Jubilee , because Christ is our freedom from all types of slavery . It was just an ode to what the Lord has done in the Gospel music community and through gospel music and setting folks free . A people that were enslaved , and a people that were oppressed and really were an afterthought . So we tried to capture that heart and really put out music to pay homage to those that came before us . I think even though we ’ re pioneering in a space we can ’ t forget that we are literally walking in the footsteps of others and those why have paved the way for us .
[ WM ] Do you know the book Slave Songs of the United States ? It was published in 1887 and it was the first book of African American music published in the U . S . A couple years after the Civil War these three abolitionists went down to South Carolina and gathered songs from the former slaves and most the songs were spiritual in content . They captured the songs phonetically and also wrote down the music . When you read the lyrics to these songs it will just rip your heart out .
[ Naomi ] Yeah I ’ ve sung a lot of songs from the Negro spirituals , and I love that it was pulled from there . I want to say this too , a lot of those spiritual songs were actually code songs that the slaves used to actually get to freedom and to encourage one another and to keep going . Some of it was just to keep going , and the slave masters would allow them to sing the songs because they were more productive when they did it . I think that has so much to do with Jubilee , I think there is so much coding in our music that helps root people .
I was speaking to someone , and I was saying that I don ’ t know if our music is super evangelistic , because a lot of times we think that were writing for the church , but what I ’ ve seen in the last year or so is the Lord uses music to touch people that are in the world , people that don ’ t go to church , people that don ’ t believe in God or believe like we believe in God . They might be Muslim or Buddhist or Hindi , and the Lord has been using the music to free people and push them out of darkness , and to me its