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Meet the new and improved Chris Rice. When he got started almost ten years go, the then budding singer/songwriting was content part-timing as youth leader and up-and-coming troubadour, daydreaming about heaven and warming the hearts of Christians young and old with his perennial, love-it-or-hate-it favorite "Cartoon Song." But he's done with the narrow limitations of "Christian music," as he's chosen to part ways with the label that first gave him wings and build a new partnership for his new release, Amusing (eb&flo/INO), coming in August. Rice talked to us about this transition, his desire to sing for a different type of crowd, and the funny feeling he gets when writing about romantic love, even when he, admittedly, has never been in it.

Why did you decide to leave Rocketown, your home for nearly ten years?

Chris Rice The deal was up. I'm kind of a guy who likes to do things differently, and the last record that was part of that deal was Run the Earth, Watch the Sky, which I turned in probably around three years ago. So at that point, when I turned that in, I started thinking, "Do I want to keep doing the same thing, or do I want to make some changes?" All along, I've been convicted and convinced over time that I need to not just do what I do for people who already believe what I believe, but also make sure that I'm using my art and my craft to be salt and light in the world as well. So my mentality all along has been, "I need to find a place and I need to find people that align with really being missional about the music."

What do you mean by "missional"?

Rice What I've seen happen with Christian music, not to sound negative, but it's really been focused on ourselves, focused on believers. And there's a part of that camp that really feels like if you don't write [music] for Christians and spell out the gospel real clearly, that it's not honoring God. I disagree with that. I believe God has given us the crafts and the gifts, as in any occupation, to be light in the world and not just to ourselves. So I wanted to find a label that really could take that and carry it—and Rocketown has that, they really do—but I just felt that at this point, with that deal being up, I wanted to explore some other options.

So I ended up with a new label called eb&flo Records, which my producer Monroe Jones started. And also INO. So we kinda did a partnership with the two labels and INO has already established very deliberately that they can take Christian artists and Christian writers and really make their work available in the general market as well as the CCM market. It's going to be a fun ride. It's going to have some challenges. But I really want to make sure I'm following my heart and connecting with the broader spectrum of people of faith and non-faith.

Why wait ten years to do that?

Rice Because, honestly, I haven't had freedom to. With the new label situation, it's more, "We're with you on this and we want to do this." And I don't think my last label disagreed with that, but I don't think they were equipped to actually take music to these places. It was limited as to how it could get the music out.

Why eb&flo?

Rice I think just the mentality of eb&flo is different. Monroe Jones has already worked with Steven Delopoulos and Holly Williams, who is Hank Williams Jr.'s granddaughter. So Monroe has already established a no-boundaries kind of mentality about music. Steven expresses his faith in a lot of his songs. Holly expresses her faith in some of her songs, too. But they're not confined to Christian music or Christian radio. Monroe has already proven that through his efforts that that's really where his heart is.

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