Re-Launch of the Official Derek Webb Podcast & New Exclusive MP3!
Greetings- We are pleased to announced the re-launch of the Official Derek Webb Podcast on iTunes. If you are already subscribed to Derek's Podcast you will receive the new episodes automatically. If you're not subscribed, click here.
The new and improved Derek Webb Podcast will have YOU determining the content, as Derek will be answering your questions. Email questions to Podcast@derekwebb.com to get in on the discussion.
Also, the we will be featuring the complete audio from the online chat between Derek and author Donald Miller on the Official Podcast. Listen now and post your thoughts on the Podcast Discussion Board.
Lastly, we've dropped a new exclusive MP3 into the exclusives section of the site. It comes from the demo cd that Derek made for his first record 'She Must And Shall Go Free.' If you're not signed into the site, sign up NOW to get this exclusive new MP3!
An Unfiltered Webb by Andree Farias posted 01/16/06 at ChristianityToday.com
He has taught us about the church, expounded on the paradoxes of the faith life and written about freedom in Christ, all in a way that's provocative, sobering and, most of all, necessary. Now with Mockingbird (INO), Derek Webb is ready to get his hands dirty and walk the talk, to live out truth in tangible, practical ways. In this conversation with Christian Music Today, the former Caedmon's Call co-leader talks about his artistic progression, whether he considers his art to be protest music, and how moving out of the comfortable suburbs of west Nashville taught him a thing or two about faith that is real.
CT: When you first went solo in 2003, your sound had definite roots in Americana, bluegrass, and folk traditions. Your second record was a more indie, alternative-pop-oriented mindset. Mockingbird is somewhere in the middle. Why the shift?
Derek Webb: I feel the sound of Mockingbird is kind of the evolution [of my music] up to this point. During my time with Caedmon's Call, I was always pushing for a bit of an Americana/folk influence in their music. When I was able to produce my own record, She Must and Shall Go Free, and not have to contend with the opinions of six other band members—which was a great democracy for many years—it was fun do to my own thing, to get that out of my system. So we did the Americana record.
When it came to the second album, I See Things Upside Down, there were a lot of things I wanted to try. I really wanted to dismantle everyone's idea of what kind of music they could expect from me. On record No. 3, Mockingbird, I was free to do just whatever, because by this point I don't feel like I See Things Upside Down was as much as an evolutionary step as much as it was doing away with people's expectations in order to free me up to do what I wanted.
CT: There seems to be a dark, sinister, and somewhat moody ambiance to the music. Will Derek Webb ever write a happy song in the key of G ever again?
Webb: (Laughs) I hope so! Here's the best way I can say it: My years in Caedmon's, that was a certain kind of season for me. I was college-age. I was writing particular kinds of songs; I was thinking particular kinds of songs. With Caedmon's, it wasn't like we sat down and said, "We're going to start this band and we're going to make this statement." It was just friends from college making music because it was fun. We didn't feel the calling of what Caedmon's really was to us until maybe two years into it.
When I left Caedmon's to do my solo stuff, it was very much intentional. Music to me now is very serious business. That's not to say I'll never write a song that's not serious. I feel like I'm very early in my career. I've only come out with my third record. I'm in my early 30s. I feel like there's a lot of topics in the church that need attention right now, so I'm going to give my attention to those ideas. It'd be great if things in our world started to get better and areas of my concern started to get a little lighter. I welcome that day. But until then, I need to keep my attention focused on things that need to be addressed, even if they're heavy.
CT: Your first album was about the church. Your second album looked at the paradoxes of the Christian life. What are you trying to address with Mockingbird?
Webb: I see this as an ongoing conversation. I see it as an extension of those first two records. On the first one, I was expressing my own difficult times finding my place in the church, my role in the church, how my gifts work within the context of the body of the church. The second record is about being set free—about one who has shown up on the scene, kept the law on our behalf, and liberates us.
Mockingbird addresses the question of, "We are set free, but unto what?" If the thing that I've been talking about on these records, if the message is about being set free and liberated by Christ, if that's true, then the big question becomes, "How do we live in light of that freedom?" What are the fruits of that freedom? There's a point at which the rubber of our theology must hit the road of ethics. There's a point at which, if we pride ourselves in knowing about God's character, our knowledge of that character must inform the way that we love and live with people.
Matt: This has been a busy season for you with a few new releases. The live concert DVD, How To Kill & Be Killed, just came out a few weeks ago...
Derek: That's a bit weird because it seems like it came out months ago. I've been selling them on the road for months. Typically, as soon as they ship us a product, we start selling it. So we received it months and months ago and immediately started selling them. So it's a bit anti-climactic in a way. Someone came up to me and said, "Hey, the new DVD came out today." But it was no big deal because it had been out already.
Matt: Well, you also have an upcoming album, Mockingbird, due in December around Christmas. I've heard you say this is a follow-up album of sorts to your solo debut, She Must And Shall Go Free.
Well, this record covers a lot of ground on social issues and things like that -- social and political issues. But it wasn't something I planned, just like I didn't plan for my first record to be all about the church. I was just reading and studying a lot about the church and what it was, what it's role in society was, and my role in that. I just ended up writing a whole bunch of songs about it. It wasn't this grand idea that I was gonna go and do this record about the church and then do these house shows. It all just happened. It was like dominoes falling over.
Looking back, it looks like a great plan, but I did not plan any of that. I'm just as surprised as anybody as to what's going to come out next.
So this record is kind of the same way. It's just what I have been interested in and learning about and trying to find my role in. There's just a lot of things for us to think about in the climate of our world right now. The command to love our neighbors and to love our enemies is getting more and more difficult. It's getting to be a harder and harder teaching every day in the West and it's something that we have to apply to a lot of complex situations. It's like when we hear about the prisoners that are in our care or just any number of things, it becomes more and more difficult to figure out how to love our enemies. But when Jesus said this command, he said it in the context of the Good Samaritan, which basically makes our neighbors to be the same as our enemies.
So this makes things really complicated. And so I just started writing a whole bunch of songs about these issues.
Other questions answered in the full interview: How is this new direction going over?
When you left Caedmon's Call, you said that it was an amiable parting but that simply it was a difference in calling. You mentioned that you wanted to go a different direction. What was that calling in particular?
Are you doing now what you originally set out to do apart from Caedmon's Call?
So how would you describe what you're doing now? Are you a musician making good music? Is there something more behind that?
Is this the reason you speak so much about the need to engage culture with good, meaningful art?
Derek Webb - The Challies Dot Com Interview 16.11.05
[Q] You have a new album, Mockingbird, coming out soon. I noticed that there was a clear progression in theme and style from the first album to the second. What should we expect from the third?
[A] I definitely see a progression in the new record. I felt like the first record especially was a record about the church. It was a record about trying to discover: what was the church?; what is the church?; what is the church's role in culture?; and what is my role in the church? As I was sorting through all those questions, that is what brought the songs about and that is why that record ended up being what it was. The following couple of years doing the house shows, getting into a lot of really good discussions about some of those issues and sorting through some of that I think - having done that record really brought me to this record. I basically see two sides to the gospel story. There's the one side that has us claiming that there is one who has come and has made a way. There is one who has showed up on the scene and has kept the law on our behalf and proclaiming his coming is one side of that gospel coin. Then there is the side that we often neglect and that is the proclamation of his kingdom coming also.
And we are to proclaim both of those things. Those are equally important things for us to proclaim when we talk about the gospel. I think my first record focused on that first side of that coin and I think that this new record, Mockingbird, is starting to focus a bit on the other side, the coming of Jesus' kingdom, and it has direct implications on where we live and how we live and it covers a lot broader topics than maybe my first record would have. It has me trying to figure out how to use the claim of the coming of the kingdom that will have no hunger, no sickness, no poverty, no war, no disaster. The way you proclaim that kingdom is by putting your hand to the "being made right of all things." That's really what Jesus' kingdom coming means: "the being made right of all things." The way we proclaim that kingdom is by putting our hands to that. So you see someone who is hungry and you proclaim to them a kingdom where there will be no hunger by putting food in their mouth. If someone is ill or sick you proclaim to them the kingdom where there will be no sickness by caring for them or giving them lifesaving drugs. I think that is probably what St. Francis might have meant when he said to "proclaim the gospel at all times and if necessary use words." That is his famous quote. I really think that is exactly what he could have meant. We go into culture and proclaim the coming of Jesus' kingdom where all things will be made right by putting our hands to "the being made right of all things" and of course there is the literal proclamation of his showing up on the scene that we also need to tell people. And I really think that the other half of that gospel is so neglected that it was worth devoting a record to. But the thing is, it covers such broad topics that it's almost the kind of thing where I could spend the rest of the records I ever make unpacking how to apply a scriptural framework to issues like poverty or the government or sexuality or politics. I could definitely write quite a few more songs about those issues because it really starts to get into the way we live and the way we love people and how we relate to our neighbors, how we relate to our enemies. It speaks to all that. It was a lot of ground to cover. That is the kind of progression I see from the first record to this - the first being about being set free because Jesus has kept the law on our behalf, and this record being about what we are set free unto.
[Q] Who guided you in this progression? Was this simply a result of your own and reading Scripture and through meeting people while you were on the road, or are there particular books or teachers who guided you?
[A] I would say all that. I don't have any grand plans about any of this. I didn't set out to make a record about the church in the first place. That was the last record I thought I would have made. I have been repeatedly surprised by what strange turns my career has taken. This certainly is not exactly where I thought I would end up. I really thought I would be in Caedmon's for my whole career. I had never had any ambition about being a solo artist. There are a lot of things I do not enjoy about it. But I do enjoy the liberty that it gives me to say things the way I believe they need to be said. I don't have to have any reservations or fears about other reputations that I might be staking on that. It's just me at this point so it makes me a little more fearless.
But I'm sure that one of the things that might have sparked some of that for me is that my wife and I are part of a church plant of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee, which is just a little outside of the city. Christ Community planted this church in downtown Nashville, East Nashville area, right next to downtown, and we moved over here to the east side of town to be on this side of town and to be part of that. Our church plant is very focused on the needs of the city and having a hand in racial and economic reconciliation. There are a lot of big issues when you move to the city that just start to become part of your everyday life. It's not something you have to drive across town to participate in - it's something you wake up to every day. I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. For me it really was like: Okay, I've spent two years really focused on delivering the message of the gospel, so now I start to get interested in, "so what have I been set free to do? Now that I'm set free, how do I live in light of that freedom?" And I think that anybody can tell you that when you study a lot of theology and you study a lot of God's character and you study his attributes you get into a very theological type of discourse. That is a great thing to do. That is a great foundation to have. But if that theology never turns into ethics then it can become a real idol because the rubber of theology must meet the road of ethics at some point or the other or else it's not informing how we truly love the people around us. It's all very theoretical. Being very well trained in theology but having it never affect your ethics, we run the risk of being nothing more than ringing cymbals and clanging gongs.
TOUR Derek is heading out to a city near you to give you what we hope to be one of the more eclectic and interesting nights of music you could hope to find.
Derek has teamed up with Cason Cooley (The Normals) and his wife, Sandra McCracken to hit the road as "The Derek Webb Trio." This trio will, as always provide some standards from the catalogue and will introduce you to "Mockingbird," set to release December 26.
In addition to the "Trio," John Davis (Formerly of Superdrag) will be joining them as "a band unto himself." You will have to come see the show to understand.
To open this evening, Sandra McCracken will be playing a set of her own, which will include newly recorded songs from her upcoming record, "The Builder And The Architect."
Greetings! We wanted to pass on some last minute information about Derek performing in Nashville, Tn next week. It's involving the ONE campaign and a send off for the upcoming G8 Summit. Here's the info forwarded from DATA (www.data.org) and ONE (www.one.org):
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I wanted to inform you about an event happening in Nashville next week. We are having a ONE concert during the lunch hour at Centennial Park at the bandshell. This is a great opportunity for you to come out and show your support for the ONE campaign and our goals to make extreme poverty history. We are gathering to highlight the good work that is being done in Nashville to fight against AIDS and global poverty. Invite your friends, co workers, church groups and anyone you know interested in these issues.
When: Wednesday June 29th, 12:00-1:30PM
Where: Centennial Park at the bandshell
What: A concert and delegate send off. Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken and more to be confirmed will perform.
Why: Nashville will be joining Live 8 Concert performers, concert-goers, celebrities and local ONE volunteers and advocates as part of an unprecedented effort to put pressure on world leaders in advance of the upcoming G8 Africa Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland from July 6-8.
At the G8 Summit, world leaders will meet to discuss the major social, political and economic conditions that contribute to poverty. The eight presidents and prime ministers of the G8 nations will be presented with a workable plan for better international assistance, 100% debt cancellation and trade reform-an historic opportunity to end poverty and save millions of lives.
This Nashville event is an opportunity for local supporters to join their voices as ONE and better the lives of the nearly one billion people living in extreme poverty around the world. After the event, local grassroots activists will be traveling to participate in the Live 8 Concert in Philadelphia, and then on to the G8 Summit in Scotland.
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So to everyone in and around Nashville, Derek would love for you to come out and support this great and important work. He will be exclusively playing some of the new songs from his upcoming record "Mockingbird." Thanks so much for your voice and support!
