James Tealy

Meet James Tealy, one of our new Artists-in-Residence here at Soul-Audio. The singer/songwriter has experienced his fair share of ups and downs, highs and lows. It’s the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the excitement of a record contract. And it’s the artistry born out of both.

It’s not only his music that makes him one of our favorites, but also his heart and honest answers. Andrew Greenhalgh recently traded questions with Tealy about his music, his mission and what moves him as an artist.

SA: Let’s begin a little bit by letting you introduce yourself to our readers. What’s your background? How’d you get into music?

James: I was born into a crazy musical family. I remember as a kid going on trips singing songs that my dad would write. He wrote little songs about state we visited on trips, for birthdays. He still remembers every song. As a family we would sing prayer songs he had written. Always big harmonies; my brothers, sister and mom fighting for a place in the sonic blend. We had a piano in the house and guitars always lying around. I tried piano lessons three different times as a child but was never disciplined enough to stick with it. I would show up to a lesson and the teacher would put a piece of music in front of me to show them what I had worked on. Instead of playing the piece I would play them the little song I had written that week. Somehow they were never impressed.

In high school I went to the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts as a theater major. By my senior year I was spending all of my time in the computer music lab hanging out with Jazz Studies students instead of hanging with the theater crowd. Bunch of weirdos. Music has always been that way for me - a sideline passion, never the main thing but always there, always a part of the way I experienced the world. I got a Music Business degree in college and worked in radio for a while. Always writing songs and playing in bands on the side.

SA: So how’d this new stage of your life begin? How’d you make the jump from radio to big time recording artist?

James: In 2003, I was working for a church in New Orleans, LA and a friend in Nashville, TN took one of my songs to a Christian music publisher. That started several years of back and forth trips between New Orleans and Nashville for co-writing trips. In 2004 I signed a staff songwriter deal with Universal Music Publishing in Nashville. I was flying to Nashville about 1 week per month to write, record, and pitch songs to artists and producers. It was a strange transition from writing songs for me to learning how to throw songs at the commercial strike zone, learning to write songs that could be recorded by mainstream Christian, country and Southern Gospel artists. I’m not really proud of most of those songs! But commercial songwriting has helped me more clearly define what a “James Tealy song” sounds like, feels like.

Universal recorded a CD for me in 2005 but nobody wanted it. Nobody except my mom. It’s still on her top 20 list. So Katrina hit that same year and my wife and I were forced to relocate and we landed in Nashville. I started just pounding out the miles traveling to churches and camps and clubs and coffee shops. Wait, I’m still doing that.

SA: What were some of those songs that you wrote? Anything we’d know? And so what is that clearly defined “James Tealy sound?”

James: I can almost guarantee you wouldn’t know the songs. “Be The Miracle” by Mark Lowry. Three songs on the last Michael Olson (Rocketown) record. “Arms Around the World” on the last Imperials CD. A few choral print things. A bunch of indie things. I’m telling you, that early stuff was so far from who I am as an artist. As a staff writer I’ve had a quota of around 40 songs a year I’ve had to turn in. If I get to the end of a song and can say “I know for certain no one in Christian music will record it and no Christian radio station will play it” then it might be a James Tealy song. Just kidding.

In songs that are for me, I can say what I believe or feel with no worry about anyone editing those thoughts for “safe for the whole family” content. Stylistically I’m finding a place of comfort behind the piano and with my voice that I just didn’t have four years ago when I was starting down this road.

SA: Was that freedom, that ability to exist outside of the censored world of CCM, what led to the relationship with Universal as opposed to an explicitly Christian label? And in those days, did you see that sort of censorship?

James: I still see that kind of censorship. It seems that a very narrow brand of Christian music has emerged over the last few years. It all sounds like Radio Disney to me. There are all these bands with a hard edge but High School Musical lyrics. “Radio that’s safe for the whole family” has come to mean that unless it makes sense to a 9 year old we won’t play it or put it on our record. Unfortunately that’s just not my world. Where’s the music for adults! Progressive. Indie. Where’s the music that exists to speak to Christ-followers like me who grew up listening to Dave Matthews, Ben Folds, REM, Coldplay. Yeah, 14 year olds definitely still buy my records and most of my shows are promoted to college groups and youth groups. But I’m an adult trying to write intelligent lyrics that speak to the remarkable depth of my experience, trying to follow Jesus through difficult days. There are other artists and writers that I greatly respect that have been able to write songs that matter from within the Christian music machine but I’ve never found a seat on that couch.

Working for Universal has been remarkably rewarding and frustrating too. My connection with Universal has been entirely about people. I didn’t sign a deal with a corporation. I signed with a publisher, a dude, Michael Puryear, whose wisdom I have genuinely cherished. My publisher says to me, “Don’t worry whether a song is going to be recorded. Just focus on writing great songs and let me deal with the rest of it.” That’s remarkably freeing. The frustration has been that because Universal Music Publishing wasn’t an established player in the Christian music world, it has been a bit of an uphill climb. The pressure to conform to the machine has never come from my publisher but I feel the pressure nonetheless. I know that if I can’t land songs on someone’s record then the Christian music division at Universal won’t last.

SA: So, and this might come off as somewhat obvious, but what’s your take on the CCM market? What do you perceive as its high points? It’s low points? And do you desire to be pushed toward that market share or would you rather try your hand at the mainstream?

James: What I love most about making music in 2008 is that market/mainstream questions don’t seem to matter much anymore. I used to think that connection to a label would legitimize me as an artist. Or a connection to a Christian company would legitimize me in the mainstream music world. I just don’t think the people that buy my records are asking those questions anymore. I get to make music that moves me and means something, write songs that matter, tell the stories of people I meet on the road and then work my tail off to put the music in the hands of as many people as possible. I’ve sung about Jesus at The Living Room in Manhattan and I’ve sung about the African AIDS crisis in rural Southern Baptist churches. I get the impression from the places I go that people just want songs that matter. They just want something real.

SA: So what are the things that matter to you then? Obviously, your last effort was heavily colored by your experience of Hurricane Katrina…

James: This fall I served a judge for a songwriting contest at a Christian songwriting conference called “Write About Jesus.” I was lamenting to one of the other judges that it seemed like all of the songs people were turning in were a simple reshaping of the same few clichés. His response was, “I suppose to write deeply about life you have to think deeply about life.” I realized that most of us are so trapped in the race from one event to the next, from one “must read book” to the next, one conversation to the next that we don’t take much time to allow the deep truths of God and what really means to follow Jesus marinate in our soul.

I asked a wise older Christ-follower a few months ago what he was reading lately that I should check out. “Nothing” he said. “Maybe you shouldn’t read any more books for a while.” I wasn’t taking the time to allow the things I was already reading to really change me, affect me. I was chasing after more information instead of more transformation. The great joy of my life at the moment is that it is set up to purposefully allow me to have time for transformation. I’m able to stay on the road and show up for writing appointments and still have time for real rest, prayer, meditation, quiet. I get to meet with a few groups of guys every week to pray and hear each other’s stories.

I suppose that’s what matters to me these days. That’s the real wellspring I want to create from: story. I want to really HEAR people when they tell me their stories. I want to spend enough time processing my own narrative that I begin to see how my plot-line is tangled up in the grand epic of God’s good story. Of course, let’s be real again - I’m still writing 3-minute pop songs here and not some 22 chapter philosophical treatise. The difference for me these days is that I am allowing my writing to come from a deeper place then I used to. It’s a worshipful place and a place where I can be brave with my questions.

SA: That is such a difficult thing to do in our society, to slow down, to stop. Do you ever struggle with that dichotomy that’s taking place, that you are writing the “3 minute pop song” while espousing something somewhat different? Or do you think you’ve found a bridge for the two? Or, perhaps, maybe it’s just one of those unique paradoxes that exist? Also, as far as being brave with your questions, what questions are vexing you now?

James: It seems to me that songs can accomplish something in 3 minutes that a 3 minute speech or paragraph of text can not. There is something transcendent about that intersection of our story, eternal truth, and the right melody. Something bigger than the moment happens. I can listen to an old Paul Simon song and in those three minutes be taken to another place, a deep place of meaning and substance. Songs have changed me, motivated me, broken me. It’s why I continue to write, the realization from my own life that there can untold power wrapped up in that 3 minutes. It’s what pushes me to reach when I write. It’s what keeps me from settling for a line or a word or a melody line that’s just “good enough.”

I’m at a place in my followship of Jesus that I am more full of questions than ever. Questions about everything. Most of my questions aren’t doubting questions these days. I’ve become so keenly aware of the deep mysteries that exist in the story of God that it seems every time I open the Bible I am struck with wonder, “Can that really be true?” “If it is true, how should I live in response to that truth?” I keep finding stuff in scripture that I have either ignored for my whole life or I simply never let it transform me.

These days I keep asking God whether radical forgiveness is really possible. Can I really choose to completely forgive without holding on to even a hint of the past? I’m not sure. I believe that God has offered me, offered us, radical, total forgiveness. Doesn’t that mean I should be able to offer that level of release to the people in my story? Forgiveness is a great mystery to me these days.

SA: So how do those questions apply to Redeeming the Days? And by asking them, was there a freedom in that recording?

James: Redeeming the Days is definitely built around our experience during Katrina. The questions that shaped those songs centered around God’s sovereignty and the pressure to “make sense” out of the challenges we face. Those questions show up in different ways in each of the songs. I really did have more recording those songs than I ever expected. I walked into that recording process with some of the most talented people I had ever worked with.

At the same time, I decided to treat that recording process as though no one but me would ever hear the songs - no record label, no radio station. I just wanted to make brave decisions and take risks without worrying about what anyone would think. I’m sure that didn’t translate into the songs as much as I dream it did but it made the recording process fun.

For example, when we were recording “Foreign is Familiar,” we decided to build a drum track from some of the crazy percussion instruments that Ken Lewis (who played drums on most of the record) had brought with him. While we were working on that, Mark Hill who was playing bass pulled out a crossbow he had in the car. He was standing in the door of the studio shooting this professional hunting crossbow at a target 20 yards away. The distance he was from the target meant the sounds were right in time with the song. We couldn’t resist and wasted an hour setting up mics outside the studio to record the sound of the crossbow for the percussion loop.

Here we are recording a weird song about all of my random mission trips and we’re aiming a crossbow at a $2000 microphone. Wait, we didn’t ever tell the studio owner about that. So what I mean is … we were pretending to shoot the crossbow in the general direction of, but nowhere near, the least expensive microphone we could find in the cabinet.

SA: Nice. Good times I bet! So did the process of recording, of pouring these songs out of yourself with a fair bit of abandon, including crossbow, help provide a good release? Did you find any answers in the process of creating the art?

James: It was a great release. As I perform these songs every week I get to re-experience that discovery. At every show, God shows something new to me about himself. Finding the ways these songs intersect with people’s lives teaches me too. Last night in Deer Park Texas a student came up to me after a show to talk about her life, her world. The song “Fourteen” had connected with her story and she came up to talk after the show about the way God was revealing Himself to her through this stormy place in her life. The intersection of her story and that song taught us both something about God.

SA: So in addition to crafting new songs and new art, what other ways are you putting these answers and questions to work? Am I right in thinking that you started a mission of sorts?

James: Yeah, it’s called the StageOne Initiative. This last year I was on the road with a friend and we were dreaming about what it would take to get this generation to take responsibility for making sure the whole earth has a chance to hear about Jesus. You know, more than half of the population of the world is still unreached. That’s not okay with me. It was almost 2000 years ago that Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of ALL nations” and we’re still pretty focused on ourselves.

Out of our discussions came the realization that if we were going to carry the hope of Jesus to all nations we were going to have to begin to care for lost people in the same way God does. We basically just started asking friends to commit to one year of consistent prayer for an unreached people group somewhere in the world. That’s the StageOne initiative: one person praying for one unreached people group for one year. If the “GO” in Jesus’ words is going to happen (stage two) then surely it must start with praying, surely it starts by asking God to let the things that break His heart, break mine. Surely it starts by tasting the tears of God for those who are lost.

I’ve been invited to visit a bunch of beautiful places around the world and I’m just convinced that following Jesus was never meant to become the distinctly American thing that we have made it.

SA: So is the focus primarily on evangelism or are you also going to help with the “felt needs” in those areas as well, kind of like Jars of Clay’s bloodwatermission?

James: Neither really. Our goal is much more basic than that. On this spring tour we have partnered with some other great organizations like Hands-On Africa and the New Orleans Crossroads Project. The StageOne Initiative is merely an invitation to prayer. Specific, focused prayer. For me for example, I’ve adopted the Saharawi people in West Africa. My participation in the StageOne Initiative means I set aside time every day to pray that God would provide for the spiritual and felt needs of the Saharawi.

I pray that God would provide resources, someone to translate the Bible into their language, protection for my friends who are working in that part of the world. I know it seems like something “less” than doing something – raising money, building a well, sending a missionary, taking a volunteer team. What I’m finding is that praying does not move God to act. My focused praying moves me to act. It changes me and the way I perceive the world.

There are so many great organizations like blood:water and OneVerse that are taking extremely creative approaches to the work of evangelism and social justice. I see the call to prayer of StageOne as a partner-effort with those organizations. I think every follower of Jesus has a responsibility to give, to go, AND to pray in our missions’ efforts. For the StageOne Initiative, we have partnered with some other organizations that are accomplishing the giving and going parts extremely well. For whatever short time StageOne exists we’re hoping to keep the focus entirely on targeted prayer. There’s more info at www.joinstageone.com.

SA: To close up, let me just ask you a couple of fun questions. Earlier, you mentioned the power of a song, that it could “change one’s life” so to speak. What are three songs that have had that effect on you? Also, who are some artists that you’re into right now, that possess that vibe of truth and artistry that you’ve spoke of?

James: I am constantly confronted, challenged, changed by songs I hear. “Lift High” on the new Steve Fee record has been a challenge to me lately. I treat Christ sometimes like my buddy instead of the exalted King of Heaven. It’s a powerful lyric that has helped elevate my view of Jesus. “Casimir Pulaski Day” of the last Sufjan Stevens record had a profound effect on me. “I Shall See God” by Roby Duke was a song that affected me deeply as a college student. Roby passed away recently and I was reminded about this song. I think I’ve listened to it 20 times in the last few weeks. Simple and powerful.

In Christian music these days I have great respect for the writing of artists like Jon Foreman, Phil Wickham, Leeland Mooring, Chris Rice, Robbie Seay, Sara Groves, Tim Hughes. Other artists that keep showing up on my iPod screen these days are Over the Rhine, The Bravery, Marc Cohn, Radiohead, The Weepies.

• http://www.jamestealy.com/
• http://www.myspace.com/jamestealy

↓ 2 comments

#1 JamesTealy.com » Blog Archive on April 16th, 2008 at 6:28 pm

[...] INTERVIEW just posted on a sweet new website called Soul-Audio. Here’s their tagline: “If the [...]

#2 Maranda Baker on April 17th, 2008 at 12:43 am

I had the priveledge to meet Brother James in a youth conference in Sevierville,TN and i will never be able to tell him just how much i enjoyed his music and what he had to say not only in the music but when he spoke to us about how the Lord sent him the songs. Brother James keep up the good work for the Lord, he is really using u and ur ministry not only to speak to the youth of America but to the adults as well, I am living proof. Thank u so much.

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