Blessed Are the Songwriters
Shaun Groves brings his clear thinking, solid theology, and creative writing to his latest album, a down-to-earth look at Christ's words in The Beatitudes.
by Andree Farias and Russ Breimeier | posted 7/25/2005
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Online geek Shaun Groves is all over the Web-with a personal blog, his website's own message board, or his MySpace page. Unafraid of mingling with the online common folk, Groves has a reason for sauntering around the net: his new album, White Flag(Rocketown) just released, and he just wants to get the word out. Once a more "adult-friendly" artist, Groves has embraced more of a grassroots approach that works well with his passion for reaching out to college students. In this wide-ranging interview, Groves sounds off on this new passion, as well as his heart for theology, his online persona, soccer moms, critics, and what he really thinks of Christian media.
Word is the big inspiration behind your new album is your work with young adults. What brought on this newfound desire?
Shaun Groves Well, I'm not a really good singer. I'm a decent songwriter. But I do think I'm good at teaching and that's what I love to do. For me music is a tool that opens up new possibilities. It's nice to have a record that's built around one specific theology or moment in Scripture. It just makes it so much easier to talk about and apply to music.
Yet before now, you were always marketed more as a songwriter. Why the shift in approach?
Groves It's actually always been this way for me. Ever since I was twelve, it's been something I've wanted to pursue. I wanted to identify with Christ. I'd meet with this friend before school, and we would read a chapter of the Bible, talk about it, and pray for each other. Soon other friends got pulled in, and before we knew it, we had 20-25 kids meeting in the cafeteria. We couldn't all just crowd around a book, so one of us had to do the reading. I became that guy, and I became a sort of pastor to my peers. It was weird, but I've loved teaching ever since. I've always been discipling the youth.
I went into this new album, then, deciding to talk about who I really am. I'm a teacher, and people don't always get Matthew 5, The Beatitudes. Since we recently taught that to college-age kids, I thought it was as good a time as any to show who I really am.
It seems like you're no longer writing about yourself then, like your first two records, but rather focusing on Scripture and applying it to everyday life.
Groves It's because there's less struggle-less "me" language. It's not just me reciting, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," but my response to that theology, and learning what it means. There's a difference between painting the sun and painting how the sun affects a flowerpot outside on the porch. You learn a lot about the sun by seeing how its light affects objects. Likewise, you get an idea how Christ's teachings work by seeing how they affect my heart and my mind.
What's nice about White Flag is that it's not merely about the Beatitudes. You chose to apply them, and that's something altogether different.
Groves Thanks. Songwriting 101 states, "The more personal, the more universal." And so, to take some truth and say it in another impersonal kind of way, I don't really see that as valuable. It's more effective to say, "Here's my response. Here's my prayer for my enemy. Here's the world I perceive as being when peace breaks out. Here's how I feel when I'm moved to surrender to God."
That was one of the major hurdles for this record: "How do I make this work without it seeming like it's coming from a pastor or a theologian? How do you talk about surrender without actually saying 'surrender?' How do you talk about peace without referencing war?" That's the thing I love about songwriting as opposed to teaching. With teaching, you need to use ordinary language to keep everyone on the same page. With songwriting, there's an extra incentive to try and say the ordinary in a new way.
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