The Bell Tolls
Award-winning singer/songwriter Steve Bell says the modern worship trend represents "one of the low points in the history of music writing." And he's just getting started.
by Mark Moring | posted 6/06/2005
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Steve Bell has a way with words. The award-winning Canadian folk singer is known for some of the most thoughtful lyrics in Christian music, as well as for his come-on-in-and-pull-up-a-chair storytelling on stage. And in this interview, we learned that he's also got a lot to say on the topic of songwriting—specifically, what's wrong with much of today's writing, especially on the modern worship front. Bell wishes the Christian music industry "had more scruples about art," and calls the modern worship trend "one of the low points in the history of music writing." He says many of the songs are "poor work, poor theology, poor poetry, poor melody," and compares much of that music to "crap." And he's just getting started. We recently met with Bell to discuss the craft of songwriting—not just what's wrong, but how to get it right. Hint: It's very hard work.
You grew up in a musical family, right?
Steve Bell Yeah. My mom is a wonderful piano player and singer/songwriter. And my dad is a preacher. We did the typical family ministry thing. We had this family band, and I sang and played, but I didn't write much. When I did write, in high school, it was always really self-indulgent. One day I was looking at my songs and just realized that every one of them was about me. So I decided I wasn't going to write anything until I wrote something that wasn't about me. That started the longest writer's block of my history! It was about ten years before I really turned it around. I didn't really start writing till I was in my 30s.
What triggered that?
Bell I had been playing music in bars, mostly other people's stuff. Then when I quit the bar scene, I went through this really horrible year. Didn't know what to do with my life. I was 31—no money, no career, no nothing. I ended up staying home that year with my kids, and my wife Nanci went out working. It was a depressing year—but that's when I discovered the Psalms. And that's when I started writing.
That year, I think I ended up writing probably 80 percent of my first four albums in a period of six months. Almost every time I opened up the Scriptures, especially Psalms or Isaiah, I would hear melodies as I was reading. I've got a couple of songs that literally got written as fast as I could read. I've never had a time like that since. I've had to work a lot harder for it.
So, good songwriting is hard work?
Bell Yes. It's a labor. You're wrestling with words and melodies to try to create a place where meaning can reside, and half the time it's meaning that you don't even know you want to express. It's a discovery process. I don't discover what's important and then write a song. I write a song and then discover what's important. It's like the songs teach me; I don't teach them. It's very much of a spiritual wrestling and journey. I find it really, really hard work.
What does that hard work look like?
Bell It comes in different ways. Reading is really important. Every one of my songs is a synthesis of about 30 books. I have to read to write. I get a lot of my lyrical components from Scriptures and ancient poetry and other writings. I often will start a song with something I've read, maybe a sentence that was so perfect. And then I kind of get lost in thought. Two or three hours later, I come out of this fog where I've been pondering that thought. And usually then I know a song is somewhere around the corner.
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