After releasing his much-buzzed about debut Simply Nothing in 2004, Shawn McDonald took a darker, more introspective turn with his 2006 follow-up, Ripen. Now on his third studio album, McDonald splits the difference artistically on Roots, offering some of his most accessible material to date. What inspired the changes in writing style? Simply put, life.

What were you hoping to achieve with Roots? It feels like your most radio-friendly album to date.

Shawn McDonald: To go all the way back to Simply Nothing, I was already an indie artist for six years. I'd played all those songs live forever and had figured out what songs worked best. So I had all those songs and threw them into one basket to make Simply Nothing. It was the best of what I had from those six years.

Then when it came time to do my second album Ripen, there had been all this pressure to write hits. Yet the more I searched my heart, it wasn't what I was after. I didn't want to write songs for the wrong reasons and with the wrong motivations. So I chose to write a record that was very introspective—something that went against the mold. It was more about the heart. I knew it wasn't going to be as radio-friendly, but what I really was hoping is that it would be more of a ministering record to help people through stuff.

Now with the new record, it was just a natural progression artistically speaking. Because I felt like I was on the path I needed to go all along, the new record just came out naturally. There was no forcing it. I didn't try to write it any particular way. The songs were just in me, and they happened to be a little more radio-friendly.

It was probably easier to write that way with the pressure off.

McDonald: For sure. With the first record, I was just playing coffeehouses back then, so I didn't try to write radio-friendly songs. For whatever reason, some happened to go that way with this album.

And with Roots, you did something you've never done before. You teamed up with other songwriters.

McDonald: Yes. As I'm growing as an artist and songwriter, I really tried to up my game this time around. I wanted to stretch myself, and I came into it with a different attitude. I had a lot of pride on prior projects by not having any other writers for the sake of my name being on everything. I wanted to be that "legitimate" artist that writes all his own stuff. But I recently came to a place where I'm like, "That is so dumb." I don't know why I wanted that. So this time, I came in asking for help. I was like, "Hey, can you connect me with writers that can come and help me grow as an artist?" So we approached the album in that way.

How was the collaboration process for someone who has never really done that before?

McDonald: It's different. And I can't even say it totally worked on all of it. I wrote with several people, including Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Marc Byrd (The Choir), and Ben Glover. Ben and I are buddies, so we just wrote as a couple of friends hanging out. The process was interesting because I'd never sat down in a room before to write [so intentionally]. To me, music is so personal. When I'm writing, I'm normally in a room with the door shut, crying out what's going on inside of me. It's really emotional and hard for me to do.

Some of the songwriting sessions went really well, but some of it didn't. I found that it was an incredible learning experience, though. The Bible teaches us that "iron sharpens iron," and I gained so much valuable insight from songwriting in this particular way. There would be times when I'd be working on something, and they'd be like "I like what you're doing, but let's try this instead. Let's just work on it a little bit." It was good that they'd take something I'd written and say, "Maybe it could be better." It was great to be challenged.

What themes came through in your songwriting?

McDonald: With Roots, I think I was more in a rejoicing state of mind. I was speaking a lot about love and trying to strip it down back to the simple themes of faith. I went to Africa, and that influenced many of the songs. I even wrote some of the songs while I was there. We got to go to Zimbabwe and went into the heart of the bush, living out there for a couple of weeks. We got to visit some African schools and clinics and saw so many ways of life. It's hard to say that it was awesome because it was also so bittersweet and eye-opening at times.

It's crazy over there. You hear the stories of course, but until you really experience it and smell the air, it's nothing you can understand. They have so much joy, considering all they've been through. That was the thing that probably captured me the most. They had so little, yet they were so happy. We would go to gatherings where they were worshipping, and they'd be doing their harmonies and clapping, and it was really moving. The whole experience was.

Sonically, what were you thinking this time?

McDonald: From a personal standpoint, I just love music. I'm always up on what's going on now and am bouncing from MySpace page to MySpace page, one iTunes playlist after the other, trying to find new art that I haven't heard of that moves me. I really believe in incorporating all sorts of musical influences to create music. I feel like that's the only way to be unique. If there's just one artist you love, and you try to sound like that, you become a knock-off.

So I tried really hard to bring in stuff from all over the spectrum. I've always really been into blues and jazz, but I incorporated a lot more of it into Roots. I still love orchestra stuff and singer/songwriters. I really like clever, beautiful writing, and just wanted to make a well-written record this time that really reflected all the different artists I enjoy.

Life has obviously taken a different turn with you recently becoming a dad. How has your son influenced your songwriting? Obviously, there weren't any lullabies on Roots.

McDonald: (laughs) I wrote the majority of Roots before my son Cohen was born, so other than "Hush" from my live album Shattered Pieces, I haven't really delved into writing about life as a father. But I think the stuff I'm writing lately is definitely influenced by having him around.

I recently took almost nine months off and had more of a normal life of being a father. It was awesome, to say the least. There's something brilliant about watching a little human being learn about life. It's helped me to rediscover life and remind me of the joys that I had as a child where the simple things of life count. He gets so excited about the smallest things. He'll go find something and it'll excite him and he'll turn to you and want you to know that you're excited with him. It's weird because he's not even one year old, and there's something clicking already. So it's been fun to watch that and see him walk and play peek-a-boo.

If he wanted to pursue music later in life, what would you say?

McDonald: I think my goal as a parent is to ignite his heart, to help him to be a solid person no matter what he does. I hope he's a great person, and I guess that's what I hope to be as a parent—someone who cultivates my child as a person. I don't think it matters what you do as long as you love life. But I don't know—I'm just learning as I go.

For more about Shawn McDonald, please visit our site's artist page, where you'll also find our review of his latest project Roots. Listen to song clips and buy McDonald's music at Christianbook.com.

© Christa Banister, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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