Charlie Peacock has been a friend of our magazines — first Christian Musician and now Worship Musician — for years on end . I go back even farther with Charlie , as I used to sell his records in retail back in the 80 ’ s . He has certainly left his mark in both Christian and mainstream music , leveraging several different genres . Now , armed with a new podcast , he is going to give us all a “ peek behind the curtain ” and share some of the wisdom he found along the way . We were glad to catch up with Charlie and ask him a few questions about this new venture .
[ WM ] You ’ ve been a recording artist , record producer , author , filmmaker , and artist . Now a podcaster . Are you just a chronic polymath , or do you really have an interest in podcasting ?
[ Charlie Peacock ] I really do have an interest in podcasting . Partially , because I ’ ve discovered it includes so many skills that I ’ ve developed over the years coming together in a unique way : storytelling obviously , but the mix of writing , music , communication through speech , cinema-esque soundtrack-type stuff .
It ’ s all in there and I love it . And , I should say , it ’ s a team effort between myself and the good folks at Christianity Today . The podcast is the first step in what we ’ re dreaming for us since I ’ ve come onboard as the Senior Music Editor for CT .
[ WM ] You are not one to just use the English language loosely . Tell us how you arrived at the name of your podcast “ Music & Meaning ”?
[ Charlie ] My producer Mike Cosper and I sort of whittled it down to that succinct title — that is , after I probably offered up some much wordier versions . We knew every episode would be about music in some way , but that we ’ d always be teasing out the meaning within or behind the music . And not just the songs , but the deeper meaning behind how we create , use , and enjoy music in all aspects of our lives .
[ WM ] Can you walk us through the first two or three topics you have planned for the Podcast ?
[ Charlie ] Sure , I ’ d love to . The first is the story of how I signed the rock band , Switchfoot , and the challenges I faced from Christian music gatekeepers . They wanted to know what was Christian about the band and their music . As they understood it , superficially at least , they weren ’ t sure if it was Christian or not . Our first single really confused them . It was called Chem 6A — a song about Jon Foreman of the band taking a chemistry class but wanting to do anything other than be in the class . All sorts of interesting conversations emerged and eventually I had to be like Paul was with Timothy . Hey , if you believe in me , then trust me , and believe in these guys too . Good is about to happen .
Next up , we take our first dive into the subject of AI where I share with listeners my experience of having been on the front end of computerbased music creation , MIDI , and sampling . So the question became , is AI something to be feared , or have we , in one way , actually been here before . You know , where technology completely disrupted music . Of course , AI goes ways beyond music , but the episode draws us into the conversation . I plan to do another episode on all the interesting and December 2023 Subscribe for Free ... 21