Thanks to music streaming, TV sync and TV music competitions, old songs and album cuts are breathing new life more often than ever before. Most recently, the singer’s song his writer Brandon Lake’s “Gratitude” topped his four-week run. billboard‘s Hot Christian Songs chart and is in the top 10 of the Christian Airplay chart.
‘Thanks’ was an album featured on Lake’s 2020 album house of miracles, but it took a while for it to become popular. “In the last few years, more people have started to gravitate to it,” Lake says. billboardFeatured in the streaming series Christmas Special Chosen personin the meantime The Voice Contestant Bodhi performed the song on Season 22 of the Music Competition.
“Gratitude”, which he wrote with Benjamin Hastings and Dante Bowe, will be released on radio in 2022. billboardHis collaborative work as part of groups such as Atlanta-based gospel and CCM groups Maverick City Music, Elevation Worship, Essential Worship, and Bethel Music.
These collaborations put him at the forefront at a time when almost a quarter of this week’s Christian Airplay charts are collaborative works, and almost half of the current Hot Gospel Songs chart is made up of collaborative songs. . In addition to “Thanks”, Lake’s unfiltered burly vocals are featured on Christian’s three other songs on his airplay charts. ‘Fear Is Not My Future’ with Chandler Moore and Maverick City Music, ‘Son of David’ with Ryan Ellis, and ‘Greater’. Still” in Essential Worship.
A native of South Carolina, Lake’s breakthrough as an artist-writer came with his debut album, 2106, Closer, which caught the attention of fellow artist-writers in Atlanta’s music circles. In 2019, he co-wrote the latter, “This is a Move,” with Tasha Cobbs-Leonard, and won the GMA Dove Award for Best Gospel Worship Record of the Year and the 62nd Annual Best Gospel Song of the Year. It was nominated for Performance/Song. Grammy Award.he followed house of miracles, via Bethel Music. Lake also became a household name on Christian his radio when he was featured as a vocalist on Elevation His Worship’s “Graves into Gardens”, which he co-wrote. At the 2021 GMA Dove Awards, the song was named Worship Recording of the Year and Lake was named Songwriter of the Year.
Alongside gospel music icon Kirk Franklin, Maverick City Music’s prolific collaboration won four Grammy Awards earlier this month. Last year, Lake also sold out his first headlining tour, the Miracle Nights Tour. “In the best possible way, I felt like I was strapped into a rocket ship and desperately trying to save his life,” he says.
Lake has spoken billboard The nature of the collaboration, Maverick City Music’s cross-genre work, and his vision for his next project.
How did “thank you” come about?
I love writing with different people. Essentially, I love being a songwriter more than anything else. I had the opportunity to write with an Australian friend who is part of Hillsong and this particular day Benjamin Hastings in his apartment overlooking the Sydney Opera House. I was writing with How impressive anything we could offer God was to him, how humbling it was, and that’s where the lyrics began.
The craziest thing is that it wasn’t even one of my favorites when I first started recording. Production didn’t move me at first. We re-recorded it maybe four or five times and then said, “Let’s get rid of all the production.” Just put me in front of an acoustic mic and you can sing as organically as possible. The version you hear is basically one take of me singing. [production] around to support it.
You are currently a featured vocalist with several songs on the charts. Collaboration seems important to you.
I don’t mean to be overly spiritualized, but I think it’s the Kingdom of God. It’s a family and working together. Also, the collaboration has made me better in many ways. From the vocalists and songwriters I’ve spent time with, I can tell that I’ve been influenced by many different things. But collaboration also changes culture. [chart] It feels like the world is beginning to understand on a deeper level what collaboration brings. People love getting their favorite artists together to create things they couldn’t have done on their own.
You raised all the money for your first solo record. closer, released in 2016. How did your first career breakthrough happen?
I had a friend guide me through the process of financing the album and making my own record. He has 23 surnames tattooed on his leg. This is because he collected the last $10,000 needed to pay for the record. “If you give me a certain amount of money, I will tattoo your name on my leg,” he said.
You co-wrote Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s ‘This Is a Move’ and was nominated for a Grammy for the first time.
Not only did she write songs with me, she took care of me and treated me like a little brother. She is an invaluable mentor to me.
“Graves Into Gardens” was also a big hit for Elevation Worship and was previously signed to Bethel Music for several years.
One of the biggest factors in the growth of my influential platform is writing songs with Pastor Steven. [Furtick] and [Elevation Worship leader] Chris Brown. God has done a lot with the songs we have written and continue to write. Bethel had a blast. The culture they have is so beautiful.And during that season at Bethel, I came out house of miracles Connect with one of my songwriting heroes, [Hillsong’s] I started writing with Brooke Ligertwood.
The Maverick City Music Collective has announced over 10 projects since 2020 with incredible results. But more importantly, the group has bridged sectors within the creative communities of contemporary Christian and gospel music.
our founder, [Tribl Records co-founders] Tony Brown and Jonathan Jay, that’s their heartbeat.co-authored by Tony Brown [the Chris Tomlin hit] Being “Good, Good Father” and being in all these writing rooms and having enough experience to see these splits in the industry. I have always felt uncomfortable that the industry is so fragmented. He said he wrote the song for which he won Urban Gospel Song of the Year, saying, “What does that mean? I just wrote a hymn.
CCM and Gospel are essentially the same thing. It’s further categorized by looks, and sonically, there are a variety of sounds that have shaped what is called ‘Gospel’ and what is called ‘CCM’, but to limit who can earn a category based on small ways. It had to change something, depending on the song, or the expression of the voice, and the color of the skin. Our sound was a blend of what would be classified as gospel and what would be classified as CCM. . It was really about the spirit of the room and there was this undeniable family element to it.
Our heartbeat is that everyone is welcomed and seated at the table. We don’t just invite gospel writers or invite CCM writers. We literally had people from all walks of life on board.
How has working with Maverick City Music affected you?
Before this movement started changing the world, it changed me. I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where most of my friends are white. I stepped into this community as a minority. I have people who grew up struggling with racism. When I was a kid, I would hear someone say something, but I always knew it was wrong, even if it was a joke. But it started putting things in your head and it wasn’t my fault that you heard them as a kid, but they were transformed by the renewal of your mind and rewired my thoughts. It became my responsibility to
I watched this community renew my mind and it became a family and it was changing. Hope to promote it for more people, millions more I am proud to be a part of something that helps.
your 2022 album, help!also spotlights mental health issues such as anxiety.
It wasn’t my intention to put out a record that was kind of focused on mental health, but once we started touring, it was really an amazing thing that was happening in my life that made me anxious. It never occurred to me that the body could take good stress and bad stress in equal measure. Coming home from the road, there was a breaking point. I learned that if I was going to go at the pace of a race car instead of a minivan, I had to learn to change tires often. I had to learn new tools and rhythms to combat that anxiety, so I started writing songs about what I was feeling. This album started when I realized that these songs weren’t just for me.
Are you working on a new record?
Yes, I have a lot of songs and I’m thinking about which songs to put on my new album and they’re in pre-production. We also have several songs slated for Elevation Worship’s next record, so the collaboration hasn’t slowed down.
Are you considering a collaboration to include on your next album?
absolutely. Almost every song I write with people I write with, people from different movements, cities, countries. There are definitely threads of collaboration throughout the record.