During a week when tensions were high and the world seemed to be falling apart, Christian artist Brandon Lake welcomed a group of songwriters into his Charleston, South Carolina home to write some songs.
“I found myself singing about heaven,” Lake, 33, quietly tells PEOPLE. “The emotions just kept piling up and piling up, and then we wrote this song about our final destination, which is heaven.”
It was a song that the five-time Grammy winner says freed his soul a little while the violence abroad continued thousands of miles away.
“I’m not someone who ever watches the news, but the last few days, I’ve probably had the TV on or my phone on non-stop,” he reflects. “Writing a song about heaven and how God is still holy and sovereign was just the medicine my heart needed.”
This type of medicine was also the medicine that coursed through Lake’s veins as the Texas artist created his third solo studio album Coat in many colors.
“When you’ve spent months and months on a record, it’s hard to go back and listen to your own songs,” Lake — who has worked with Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music for years — admits with a laugh. “I’m kind of waiting to see how what God gave me a few months ago now ends up being timely for what the world is facing right now.”
Brandon Lake.
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But as much as he created this new album for others, he also created it for himself.
“I’m closing the record with a song called ‘Country Psalm,'” says Lake, referring to the powerful song he co-wrote with Emily Weisband, Micah Nichols and Tom Douglas. “I wanted to write a contemporary psalm that says, ‘Praise the Lord, I have so much to be thankful for, but in the context of what I’m going through.’ I feel like too many people make records full of singles trying to get on the radio. And when your goal is mass consumption, you lose sight of ‘The One’.”
But make no mistake – just seeing his name on any album is enough to make even the staunchest of believers nervous.
“Really, this is my solo record, but it is fulfilled with collaboration,” says Lake, who is currently out on his own title Coat in many colors tour. “I wrote many of these songs with my friends, with my community and with people around the world. I don’t need to partner with a major ministry to be successful. God wants to do something unique through my life, and I’m trying to learn to believe that. I’m stepping out with faith to believe that the music that Brandon Lake produces can have just as much impact as a ministry that has a church name behind it or a collective of 12, 15 or 20 artists.”
Fueled by the huge success of the album’s first single, “Praise You Anywhere,” says Lake Coat in many colors it also gave him the freedom to explore a wide range of genres, hinting that there was more to come from.
“You’re going to hear R&B on this record, you’re going to hear country on this record, you’re going to hear rock and roll on this record, you’re going to hear pop on this record,” he says. “You’ll hear beautiful notes, and then you’ll hear me screaming my head off.” He laughs. “I think some people are called to one sound, and I just haven’t found that to be my story.”
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Lake’s story currently includes some other very important characters such as his wife Brittany, their three children, their three dogs, “a few cats” and a squirrel.
“We have rehabilitated this squirrel and are preparing to release it back into the wild,” explains Lake. “But yeah, there’s literally a squirrel running around, dogs chasing it, kids running wild. Here there is chaos at every moment, but it is the most beautiful chaos. Chaos to me just screams that we are alive.”
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Source: HIS Education