The Wright Stuff
At age 12, Paul Wright knew he wanted to serve God with his music. In the last year, that desire has become reality, thanks to a surprising sequence of events leading to his "big break."
by Ben Forrest | posted 11/10/2003
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Paul Wright is convinced he was made to make music, and it's hard to suggest otherwise.
It's not that his debut with Gotee Records, The Paul Wright EP, or his upcoming full-length album, Fly Away, are the best things since sliced bread. It's what got him here, a series of events that seem more than merely coincidental, pointing Wright right in the direction of Nashville and a gig in Christian music.
Wright, who grew up in Eugene, Oregon, says his journey began at age 12 when he gave his life to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade.
"Immediately after coming to the Lord," he says, "I got a vision to use my gifts-specifically singing about God, sharing my heart through music."
Inspired by gospel rap, '90s alternative rock and especially the music of dc Talk, Wright began playing at youth group and his high school. Music took a back seat to basketball in college, since he was on scholarship at Northwest Christian College, but he still managed to form a band, record an EP and land a spot at the Creation West music festival.
That band eventually broke up, but Wright remained true to his calling. He spent his last college semester at the Contemporary Music Centre at Martha's Vineyard near Boston, learning how to make commercial music. Wright's professor would say, "Here's three chords; write a song to this."
"He just really challenged and stretched us," says Wright, noting that several of the songs from that Martha's Vineyard experience ended up on Fly Away, due December 2. One of them is called "Flip Flops."
Wright explains: "Our professor was like, 'Write a song you can play anywhere, that anybody can get.' I was out at the beach, thinking, What am I going to write about? And I was wearing these flip-flops that I'd bought in Hawaii and had been wearing about six months. I just wrote about all the places they'd been, and …"
He laughs and says, "It was a good experience."
The Big Break
Shortly after graduation, Wright's big break came. A friend was working with industry legend Eddie DeGarmo on writing !Hero, a rock opera telling the story of Christ through modern music. dc Talk's Michael Tait, Audio Adrenaline's Mark Stuart and Rebecca St. James would eventually join the !Hero project, but DeGarmo took a chance on Wright by handing the unsigned singer the part of the narrator, Agent Alex Hunter.
Wright went to Nashville to record some tracks for !Hero, and, after a chance meeting with Gotee founder and CEO Toby McKeehan at a local Starbucks, scored himself a record deal.
"So that was a good week for me," Wright says.
Gotee is hoping for many more good weeks for Wright. Expectations are high. McKeehan, also of dc Talk fame, has been particularly enthusiastic, calling Wright "the artist I would have been if I'd done it my way."
Wright, who calls himself a "new-generation singer-songwriter," is hard to describe stylistically, though you could start by saying it's eclectic folk-meets pop-meets-hip-hop-meets-funk-meets-Rasta. (Listen to his music; you'll understand.) But however you characterize it, Wright is thrilled with his Gotee gig.
"I really like Gotee because they facilitate the vision of my artistry and my art," he told us in a recent interview. "I recorded this CD in Oregon. I was doing it independently and Toby basically said, 'Hey, man, we want to be a part of this.'"
Wright was happy with his producer in Oregon, Chris Stevens, and didn't want to switch producers if he got signed. Gotee was apparently fine with that. Says Wright, "They were like, 'We love it. You just keep doing what you're doing.'"
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