Winter Jam 2017: Crowder confesses he ‘cranks Drake’, was influenced by Kanye West, talks Prodigal Son
Winter Jam just wrapped another amazing weekend on the biggest Christian music tour in the country. Headlined by Crowder, the big names of Britt Nicole, Tenth Avenue North, Colton Dixon, Andy Mineo and Newsong join together to create a night of Christian praise and worship unlike anything else in the industry.
David Crowder finishes the night with a powerful set and ending with hymns “I Saw the Light” and “I’ll Fly Away.” That said, the new interview reveals all sorts of music are influencing the creative mind of this artist.
“I do tend to crank Drake on occasion,” Crowder said in a new interview post by Lancaster Online. “My mom is not happy with it, but at the same time, it to me is the new rock and roll. It’s subversive, and it has been for a while.”
Crowder openly talks about being inspired by hip-hop artists while making his latest album, “American Prodigal.” Notably is the beat on Crowder’s “Prove It,” for instance, bears a striking resemblance to Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead.”
David Crowder at Winter Jam 2017 Tampa Florida photo/ Brandon Jones
“To write that tune, I just lifted his beat, straight up, and that’s what we wrote the riff to. … Of course, I didn’t want to pay all the money it would cost to lift the beat, so I figured, hey, if we nod that way people will get it and understand what we are saying and where we are coming from,” Crowder says.
It’s not the first time Crowder has shown his appreciation for West’s music. He posted a video of himself online playing West’s “Stronger” in 2009 and sampled “Jesus Walks” during a live performance in 2015
Crowder, 45, started in Christian rock at Baylor College in Waco, Texas, with the David Crowder Band, recording eight studio albums with the Dove Award-winning group before it disbanded in 2012.
He released the EDM-influenced “Neon Steeple” in 2014, and “American Prodigal” in 2016.
The Prodigal Son parable from the Bible relates the story of a father with two sons and the younger son asks to receive his inheritance early and spends it frivolously. When the money runs out and the son returns home, his father welcomes him back with open arms.
Two years ago, Crowder began to reconsider that story after his pastor preached about it during a church service, drawing attention to its use of the words “lavished upon.”
“It was like a light switch went off, and the whole of the story took on a different tone,” Crowder says. “It turned from one of rebellion to one of inheritance.”
Crowder was inspired. “A lot of the content from the record is coming from that story, and how that story has shaped me, and how I can identify with a lot of different portions of that story,” Crowder says.
“American Prodigal” was released six weeks before the presidential election.
“If we could see our similarities, they are much more powerful than our differences, I think,” Crowder says. “It would change the tone of our conversation, for sure.”
This weekend there are two Winter Jam shows in Iowa and two in Missouri, details below.
Winter Jam 2017 includes Crowder, Britt Nicole, Thousand Foot Krutch, Tenth Avenue North, Colton Dixon, Newsong and Sadie Robertson with Andy Mineo, OBB, Sarah Reeves and Steven Malcolm.
Get tickets or more show information on the Jam Tour website HERE
Check out the Dispatch’s EXCLUSIVE interview with Tenth Avenue North’s Mike Donehy HERE
David Crowder Winter Jam 2017 Tampa Florida photo/Brandon Jones
