in the family their parts . And so they would all have music stands around and they would get together and they would play whatever song he had either composed or a Christmas song he decided we were going to play together as a family . And I ’ ve got his pump organ .
[ WM ] Whoa .
[ Crowder ] It ’ s at our storage where I keep all my stuff and I ’ ve never used it . I got it from my Aunt when we were out on the road . I call her my organ donor . ( laughing ) But I go , “ Can we get it here ?” And Ben is like , “ Oh , that ’ d be sweet .” And I go , “ I don ’ t even know if it ’ s in tune or what .” And so he ’ s back to work on something , he doesn ’ t realize I ’ m talking about getting it here now . So we ’ re up in Nashville , it ’ s down in Atlanta , so I just called my dude that ’ s my day-to-day guy , Wes Butler , who ’ s also our guitar tech and stuff . And I ’ m like , “ Hey , bro , can you get that pump organ on a box truck up here to Nashville ?” And he ’ s like , “ Yeah , man .” So that was about an hour , he confirms it ’ s on its way , and then by that evening , a box truck shows up . And Ben ’ s like , “ What ’ s this ?” I go , “ It ’ s the organ .” He ’ s like , “ Wait , you got the organ here , now ?” I go , “ Yeah , let ’ s go get it .”
So we pulled it in and it was not ... again , not in 440 . So we wound up cutting that song by recording the organ first , then pitched the organ up , that is what we did on that one . But , yeah , so my Great-uncle Elmer ’ s family organ , that they would sit and play Christmas tunes around , wound up at the end of the album , which I couldn ’ t think of a better place to put an instrument , ever . And I texted my Aunt while we were recording it , “ Uncle Elmer ’ s organ made it on our Christmas album ”.
[ WM ] That is so cool …
[ Crowder ] Yeah . So it was a pretty fun story . And we were just giggling the whole time , like , “ You ’ re crazy , bro .” This is what it was there for , man . This is what it was made for , right here .
[ WM ] Right on . Okay , last question here . So , what does Christmas really mean to you then ? You did this whole record , you ’ ve been thinking about Christmas , if you had to boil it down ?
[ Crowder ] The thing is , I haven ’ t thought about this question . Man , it means to me , it means relationship . And I think that ’ s what the whole thing is about . As I said , there ’ s a lot of sorrow around that time of year because you lack connectivity and community . And at the same time , the reason that we ’ re asked to contemplate this every year is because there was something that happened that ’ s historically significant that the Creator of all made such an effort to come among His creation in a way that ’ s just ... If there ’ s a magical story to be told , this is the most insanely magical story ever .
And unique to Christianity , compared to all other religions . There ’ s that . So to me , it ’ s relationship . A Creator trying to create a way back to him , back to communion with him . And the extraordinary measures that He went to , to