Perhaps you’ve heard of Shaun Groves [Twitter|Blog]. Shaun is a musician and songwriter. He has written numerous songs, released some albums, and toured with other artists whose names you may also recognize.
But Shaun’s primary purpose isn’t necessarily to be a Christian musician. After a trip to El Salvador with Compassion international, his purpose and life was more fully defined. He still writes music, sings, and leads worship at his church, but does it to be able to spread the word about the amazing work of Compassion International and to help people live with purpose so others can simply live.
Shaun is getting ready to release his fifth album on August 30. It’s called Third World Symphony and seeks to capture the heart, reality, and impact of what God is doing in a part of the world many of us aren’t that familiar with.
I recently had the opportunity to ask Shaun three questions. We interacted about the creative inspiration for this album and how he fuels creativity.
Journey of Worship: What was the creative inspiration for the songs and focus of this album?
Shaun Groves:For the last few years I’ve been taking North American bloggers overseas to see the ministry of Compassion International, write about it and see thousands of children released from poverty in Jesus’ name. For even longer I’ve been singing and speaking on Compassion’s behalf at churches, colleges, festivals and other events. Along the way the “third world” stopped being a descriptor that conjures up images of bloated bellies and vultures overhead and instead became synonymous with hope, joy, gratitude, wisdom, beauty. The third world has been a gift to my faith – to my understanding of my purpose, of my God, the church – in countless ways. I wanted to share that gift with others in the first world, and do it in a way that did not preach but inspired – to connect the first world to the third world for the benefit of both.
JoW: What do you do to fuel your creativity?
SG: I don’t think I’m that creative really. But thankfully God’s multiplied what little I’ve got – made something so much better than I deserve or prepared for. I come at music making and lyric writing more cerebrally than my writer friends I think. I studied music composition in college and so I write like a student of writing. So what you think is something creative, for instance, may just be me intentionally making a choice that I know isn’t the usual choice. I may realize, for example, that I’ve gone and used a very common chord progression and so I sit down and try out numerous alternate choices until I find one that is different – what someone might call “creative” – but not so different that it’s jarring…unless jarring is what’s called for.
I guess I “fuel” that kind of creativity by analyzing other people’s music. What the majority is doing constitutes “normal” and I have to swim in that so that I can spot it in my own writing and force myself to make different choices. This is hardest to do when writing music for the church to sing to God, or what you might call “worship music.” Worship music is purposefully unimaginative for the most part, especially harmonically. But even lyrically it’s downright boring. But then there are guys like John Mark McMillan who make effective use of metaphor and guys like Gungor who push the envelop harmonically, or Crowder who plays with rhythm and melody in such imaginative ways. So it’s happening but these songs are still harder to sing for the congregation than the songs we’re singing instead. So I struggle with these kinds of songs to be creative and still inclusive, still serving the needs of the local church. There are higher goals than creativity. I know this but it’s still a struggle for me.
JoW: What’s a secret skill that no one knows you have?
SG: No one? Well, very few people outside of Tyler, Texas know I play the sax. I started out as a sax player in the sixth grade. Loved jazz. And I was OK at it I guess because they let me keep playing it in college. So I’m ready if the sound of Men At Work ever comes back. Let’s see Jeremy Camp compete with me then ; )
Thanks, Shaun, for answering these questions.
If you’d like to listen to the album for free, you can do so through an online album player.
If you would like to pre-order your own copy, you can do so here. (http://shaungroves.com/store/third-world-symphony/)
Shaun also will come and play for churches and groups for free, in exchange for being able to talk about Compassion International. If that’s something you’re interested in, check out his booking page.
