Matt and Matt talk with modern worship artist David Crowder about his new album A Collision, musical inspiration, Dr. Pepper, and a meat smoker shaped like a large pistol.

Smith and Maher: Hey, David. How's it going?
It goes well.

Maher: Great to hear. And, I must say, the "Crowder" is looking quite nice and yet surly at the same time.
Yes. You must not look directly at it though. It is wily and unpredictable, and it is best when left alone.

Smith: What were you like in high school? Are your classmates surprised to see who you have become?
Yes. To the latter, a nerd. To the former, the only thing socially appealing that I could do was run really fast for a really long time, so I was on the track/cross-country team and usually beat everyone that tried to run faster and longer than me. But mostly I was a nerd.

Smith: Your music is everything but predictable. Where do you find creative inspiration?
I think an artist's role is to simply pay attention to life, to the living of it. Art helps interpret experience. It helps us interpret what it means to be alive and human and, in our particular case, what it means to be alive and human in relationship with the divine. So I think it would be fair to say that I find more inspiring moments watching life unfold than say, watching a movie or reading or listening to music, although I love all of those things as well. I think it is less an artist's role to interpret life from another's perspective and more to participate in living and simply pay attention when no one else might be looking.

Smith: For many years, the greatest pursuit of many Christian artists was to prove to an MTV generation that they were cool too. Then out of nowhere, simple songwriters reminded Christians that music isn't just to entertain us, but has the divine ability to turn our hearts to God in prayer. Your CDs create prayer time for many people. How do you handle that huge responsibility?
Hmmm...don't think about it too much? To be somewhat redundant, I think that I simply have a particular perspective and then a gifting to articulate it. The fact that it is useful in allowing others to articulate their experience and faith through it is just that there are others living and breathing that share a similar perspective and similar experience of life with God.

Smith: When I was on "The Real World," Dr. Pepper gave us unlimited Dr. Pepper. I thought I was in heaven. I hear you are a fan of Dr. Pepper?
This is true. I live in the town of Waco, TX, birthplace of the delectable beverage. Not only that, but several years ago my wife and I purchased a house that was built by none other than the inventor of said beverage. Yes, you heard correctly. I live in the house that Pepper built. It is hard to take in really. On hot Texas afternoons, I sit on the porch drinking from the chilled maroon can while pinching myself. Ouch.

Smith: You are not Catholic, but on your Illuminate album, you sing a prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. What's your connection?
Much of the Catholic traditions and writings have been influential in my formation of faith and to be quite contradictory of what was stated earlier, I've found much inspiration there. St. Francis is a figure I'm equally attracted to and repelled by. I long for his powers of disassociation from the trappings of "stuff." I'm beset with consumption and materialism, and he is a compelling symbol of contentment. His contentment and way of suffering terrify me.

Smith: Are there pioneers in music anymore, or are we recycling old ideas? Who do you see as pushing music in a new direction?
I'm one who believes there have never been pioneers in music. I am of the belief there is nothing new under the sun, to borrow a quote from a rather lovely book. I think we have always recycled what has already existed, only one true creator and all.

Now I just heard a deaf girl sing "Silent Night." It was completely eerie and hauntingly moving. Bbeing deaf she couldn't distinguish pitch obviously, so each line or word or sometimes the middle of syllables would slip into and out of keys. A note would sound and my head would create context by the knowledge of the intended framework of accompanying harmonies but then she would destroy that context by the next note sliding away out of that key and immediately creating another one in my head as it surrounded this newly sounded note with newly accompanying harmonies. This went on and on and it was the most unnerving and beautiful version of "Silent Night" I have ever heard - mostly because my ears and head had never heard it like this before and had no idea where to put it. I think atonality is something that pop music and even more so "sacred" music has the ability to explore. I just know I've heard several instances where it has been used effectively due to it's strangeness. Our ears in western music aren't trained to hear it and so it appears new and turns over new things in my chest. It would be impossible to sing along to I think so don't expect anything from me in the near future. I'm just saying that deaf girl made me weap! Yet it was nothing new: an old song, same old frequencies, same air vibrating.

Maher: Your new album, A Collision explores "when man's depravity meets God's divinity..." That is an epic theme. It's not just another, "I met Jesus and everything's coming up roses." How would you break that open a little bit more for the average teen?
Well, on the CD cover is a picture of an atom. It shows a nucleus with some number of electrons spinning around it, but this is not how an atom truly looks or functions. Scientifically speaking this is an improper model. It is a flawed symbol yet it is somehow able to communicate meaning. It is improper, but yet you see it and think, "atom." I think corporate worship is the best depiction of this. Here we have a roomful of humans. Well, let's just say we had a roomful of me. A hundred Crowders. Now I know that every single one of those Crowders has done wrong. They have been injurious in their dealings with others. They have provoked and responded in anger. They have lied. They have cheated. They have done violence - that very day even. I'm certain that one of them kicked their dog on the way to the car or something. I'm confident there is not an innocent Crowder in the bunch, and here we are in a room together flawed, depraved individuals. And broken, flawed individuals take broken, flawed symbols - in our discussion here today, songs - obviously inadequate expressions of response, and somehow the heavenly and the earthly intermingle and our feet seem to leave the ground for a second. It is beautiful. It is grace. Ludicrous and offensive, it is the Divine's intrusion into our condition. Even in our responding there is need for intervention! This realization can be beautiful and devastating. Anytime you truly feel the necessity of grace it is an offensive experience, yet it is overwhelmingly beautiful in it's destruction.

Maher: You guys embarked on quite a journey in the recording process. You made your record in a barn, right?
Yes, the barn behind my house. The barn that Pepper built.

Maher: ...And then you invited whomever to come sing on the record. And you had a meat smoker in the shape of a large pistol.
Yes.

Maher: That much meat being consumed is a collision. Wow. Tell us about the tour you guys are on this fall.
Well, we tried to take the pistol smoker on tour with us. It is unfortunate but the owners would not part with such a local icon and risk it being pulled about the country by such hoodlums as us. This tour is the best ever! Seriously! Well, for us anyway. We're going out with some of our best friends in the whole world, Shane and Shane, and Robbie Seay. We're all texas boys and have known each other for a really long time. In fact, Robbie sang on several of our recordings even, and at one time I played guitar for him. I was in his band. And now we're just all piling in together and hitting the road, hanging out and making music occasionally.

Smith: We'll see you at the concert. Thanks for spending time with us and thank you for sharing your music with us.
You are welcome!