Your Music
All Shades of David Crowder
David Crowder. Musician, songwriter, author, blog-writer, pastor, actor, husband. The man wears a lot of hats. Delia and I just weren’t expecting the current one to be a baseball cap.
Entering the sanctuary where we were to meet up with him, I scanned the room for the well-known namesake of the David Crowder*Band. Being the Crowder fan that I am, well-acquainted with his music, most recent book, and even all four of his side-splitting Rockumentaries, I was surprised that it took more than a few seconds to spot him. His signature Doc Brown-esque coif was subdued by a baseball cap, but the overgrown goatee, tall, lanky stature, and thick Texan accent verified that this was indeed David Crowder. And what better venue for an interview with the man behind “Church Music” than in a sanctuary, seated in pews!
Cozying into the pews for our interview with a flannel-clad Crowder, the first question on our minds had to do with the most visually recognizable aspect of David Crowder, which was currently hidden under a baseball cap. Acknowledging that his look has become a bit of a trademark, he indicated that it has led to “a number of unusual fan experiences. Apparently, it’s fun to put on hair and a beard and appear [at DCB concerts] as myself. I have seen myself in lots of audiences all across America. I remember someone had created this life-sized cutout of me on a stick, and it kept catching my eye, because it was me! It was a festival outside, so occasionally I’d see me popping up and down in the middle of this mass of people. I’d stumble on a lyric or two just because it was so startling. Like, is that really me? I guess that’s what I’ve got going on here, huh?”
“Well,” Delia interjected, “they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
“That’s what they say! I wish it felt that way though, right?”
Moving on to meatier topics, I said, “David, many people know you are an author, many more know you are a musician, but not many may realize your serious acting chops displayed online in your Rockumentary episodes. Can you tell us a little about them?”
“We are incredible actors, aren’t we?” he humbly conceded.
“You’re a man of many talents, indeed,” I agreed.
Laughing, he leveled with me, “Oh, it’s painful to watch isn’t it? Obviously, we’re not going to be nominated for an Emmy or anything. When you’re in the recording studio, it sounds like it would be quite glamorous, nonstop excitement, but it’s quite tedious and boring for the most part. Someone’s usually working all the time, but the rest of us are just sitting around waiting to play something. The Rocumentaries were just a little outlet for us to release some of that energy that we had pent up. A friend from our church came up with a script. He’s a film student at Baylor. He’d just shove a piece of paper in front of us, and say, ‘Here, say this!’ So, we had a blast with it.”
“So, you’re not actually addicted to Twitter are you?” I clarified.
Shaking his head, he chuckled, “No, contrary to popular belief and the myth that is circulating now, I am not.”
(In case you’re curious… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZWLMdGqu8g&feature=channel)
Shifting gears to more reflective ground, I asked him how being a worship song writer/worship leader affects his experience being led in worship. Pausing in thought, then leaning back in his pew, he replied, “Your immediate experience is mostly critical. You know, because you’re paying attention to the aesthetics and sensibilities of the sounds, the organization of the song, the structure of the song, how the arrangement is playing out. It often times feels like you’re working. It’s very rare that I just have an experience where I’m not thinking in some critical way despite my best efforts. And I don’t necessarily think that that’s a bad thing. I feel like there might be a level of appreciation and understanding of what’s transpiring in a moment more so than the normal participant.”
During moments of corporate worship, many Christians have come to expect emotional as well as spiritual experiences. Crowder addressed this expectation, saying, “In my mind we’ve asked music to do a whole lot when it comes to our spirituality. We’ve put a lot in its lap that is beyond its capacity to carry. So, a lot of times those moments of corporate worship are distrustful. To me, I have a hard time trusting the experience, personally as well as a collective. I understand that there are great benefits that come out of it, but what it causes us to do is to segment our lives into particular areas. Like, here’s how I interact with God in a true, emotionally deep way is through music and singing with my peers. Well, what does that look like when I’m stuck in traffic at 5:30 in the evening? Is it possible for me to have a true, deep emotional experience that I can qualify as worship in a moment like that? So, I think that part of what’s going on too is that I’m, as a human in relationship to the divine, trying to think, ‘How can I bring people further than just this [moment of corporate worship] being the sum of their spiritual existence?’ Use the things that are beautiful about it, and be moved by the things that are beautiful about it, but not allow it to be the sum of what I feel like my interaction with the divine is. So, I feel like I kind of get out of the ‘Well, it’s so good to just be led in worship!’ I rarely have that experience, even though I want it. It’s just impossible to turn my head off.”
Crowder may encourage listeners to look beyond just music in their worship of God, but that doesn’t mean his latest CD, Church Music, isn’t brimming with Christ-adoring lyrics set to melodies that linger. One worshipful fan-favorite is “How He Loves Us.” Originally written by John Mark McMillian about the death of a close friend, I asked him what made him decide to include a cover of this song on Church Music.
Nodding, David acknowledged that, “Church Music did not lack for material. We stuck as much music as we could on this. It’s our stimulus package! I was on a flight from Dallas to Denver and I was listening to a friend of mine’s CD, and it was a great CD. And I got to this song, and was just floored. I hadn’t heard it before. Seeing as I’m around worship music quite a bit, and rarely am I affected by it in any meaningful way, it was incredibly surprising to have a song hit me the way it did. So, I’m on this plane flight in a very confined social situation, and I’m weeping like a small child. I can’t maintain any sense of composure. By the time we land, I’m determined to share this with the guys. I show them the song, and say, ‘You gotta hear this thing.’ And they listened, were similarly affected, though not weeping like small children, nonetheless, they thought it significant. The imagery would fit where we are. The language was very similar. It felt like a very brave song a lot of times, and it just felt new. So, we tried it in our church community, and sure enough there was a similar experience and we immediately thought, “We need to get this in front of more people.” Immediately upon us using the song we found out there were two little words that apparently were incredibly provocative. The original version has in the second verse the words ‘sloppy wet’ kiss, and we found that…”
Delia laughed saying, “Well, you can’t have that on an album called Church Music!”
“Ha, ha, yeah!” Crowder continued, “Well, we found that for a lot of people, the imagery was really, really powerful, but for another large number of people it was unfortunately gross or the imagery failed in a sense so thankfully John Mark was willing to reexamine the song, because he wrote it back in 2005 and didn’t intend it be in a corporate setting at all so he was kind enough to make some adjustments, and we’ve been thrilled to put it in front of more people and get it back in spaces that initially had rejected it. It had been a song that had gotten out and about and got chunked in a lot of spaces because of these two words. It was unfortunate, but luckily we were able to give it another shot.”
While on the subject of his latest studio project, Delia asked him about its title, “Church Music.”
He responded, “I love that language has power to shape expectation. It’s amazing that two little words could cause enough thought that you could expand people’s ideas about church, their preconceptions about what art in the church is and could be. I think if you’re coming from a progressive setting and you see these words attached to what we’re doing, you may be thinking, ‘Ah, I don’t know. Church music is a little stodgy, choir robes, organ.’ Good Americana church music is not what David Crowder*Band makes. Then, people from a more traditional setting would hear our music and think, ‘This is definitely not church music.’ And I think what’s beautiful is that there’s a critique for all of us in it. Often times, we think of other people being completely similar to ourselves within our faith when Christianity exists in incredibly diverse cultures. When you think of the global church, there’s this expression coming from people groups that are very, very different from us. That the Crowder Band could fall under the banner of ‘church music’ is inspiring. Cause that’s all we’re doing, we’re writing songs for the congregation.”
Wrapping up our interview, Delia posed the final question, “Are there any social justice issues that are near to your heart? As a band, are you involved with any specific organization?”
David readily offered, “There is a place called Mission Waco. Waco has a large homeless population, and they do a deal called ‘Church under the Bridge.’ Every Sunday they meet right under I-35 near Baylor University campus and do an outdoor service. They feed people and have the service. It’s incredible! They do poverty simulations where groups come in, and they put them on the streets for 3 days or so to let them experience what it’s like to be homeless. Basically they fend for themselves for three days or so. I actually live right across the street from the Mission Waco folks so immediately when we first moved in there, we had groups that would pop by the house, knowing it was my house, and they’d be like, ‘Hey, we’re doing poverty simulation!’ And we’d give them cupcakes and stuff. Well, after awhile, I started feeling like this is completely disingenuous, because they travel in groups. At some point, my wife and I were sitting around thinking, ‘Actually if a group of 15 homeless people convened on our porch and started banging on our door, looking in our windows, we’d be calling 911.’ So, here’s how our approach has been lately, ‘Hey guys! We’re really glad you’re doing poverty simulation. Just to help you understand the plight of the homeless, here’s what would happen if you traveled in a group of 15 people and started banging on my windows. I would call 911. In fact, that’s what I’m going to do right now. So, you guys do whatever you need to do to get out of this situation.’ And it has brought us much, much joy!”
We thanked David for his time, and generous and thoughtful responses, and looked forward to the concert that night.
Later that evening, David Crowder took the stage, answering the call of hundreds of excited fans. Mr. Crowder’s flannel shirt was traded up for a three-piece suit. His trademark hairdo was styling and higher than ever. And the baseball cap? Nowhere in sight. 
Band members:
David Crowder
Jack Parker
Mike Dodson
Jeremy Bush aka "B-wack"
Mike Hogan aka "Hogan"
Mark Waldrop
Steve 3P0 (drumming robot)
www.davidcrowderband.com
www.sixstepsrecords.com
Special thanks to Robin Geelhoed/Zondervan and Mike McCloskey/sixstepsrecords