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November 24, 2009
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Home > Music > Interviews > 2003 |  
The Process: "Who's My Audience?"




So what's all this rambling about? Well, just to say I'm wondering why we don't "aim" wider, at more than one target. With Twilight, I've drawn the target before I've drawn my bow. I'm trying to aim with my music at a Christian college student or anyone between the ages of 18 and 25. And now the hard part begins. It's harder to aim than it is to paint the target around shots fired. Honestly, I'm not sure I know how to do it. I'm betting my label, Rocketown Records, does.

But while college-aged people are my primary focus, I understand that the Church is bigger than a singular demographic. I'm not a fan of segregation along any barriers. So while the center of my target is an Abercrombie-wearing, John Mayer-listening young(er) person, I have no intention of leaving out the Old Navy clad mother of two who cranks Point of Grace and Steven Curtis Chapman in her Land Rover. I'm simply expanding the target and putting a new face on the center.

So, the cover we've picked is not a full grin headshot with my name in bold letters across it. Instead it is a slightly distressed picture of me in a folding chair looking out a window at twilight. A little grunge and a little pretty. And the first single was sent out with several mixes for radio stations to choose from—depending on their target. The acoustic-driven adult contemporary mix fits nicely in a block of family favorites. But the album version is chocked full of that distorted caffeine-for- the-ears that makes late night studying a little easier. Yes, we are working hard with retailers like Family Christian Stores, Lemstone, Mardel, Lifeway, and Northwestern to promote Twilight thoroughly, but we're also partnering with college and 20- something favorites like grassrootsmusic.com and other online retailers. We're even checking into Apple's new iTunes Music Shop venture. Meanwhile, the marketing team, my manager, and I are working hard to find touring options that gain us exposure to large numbers of people without ostracizing college students or scaring my parents. In short, we are promoting and marketing to more than the usual Christian music targeted buyer in hopes that a few of them will buy into the music and message we offer.

Can it be done? The better question to end with is "should it be done?" Behind my "yes" is some good theology. Jesus came into the world to reveal the fullness of who God is to ALL mankind. He did this, in part, through miracles. But surely out of the thousands he fed there were some who later yelled, "Crucify him!" Surely some lame he let walk visited a prostitute, ran from the scene of a crime or away from him. We know not every leper He healed thanked him. And we are miracles as well—enemies of God brought into his family and allowed to represent him on earth even though we do a poor job of it so much of the time. What a horrible investment God has in us, right? But God's love for man was never based on what we could do for him.




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