Robbie Seay

Robbie Seay’s journey included hope, coffee and melody on his recent tours, but the beauty of RSB’s music also includes social justice and vulnerable lyrics. Their last go-round, Give Yourself Away, was chock full of epic songs telling a journey of love for God and others and their latest seems to be more of the same, as Robbie recently sat down with us to talk about the new album and his dreams for the next step.

Soul-Audio: So you recently finished the Hope, Coffee, Melody Tour and I wondered what that was like. How was it being out with your brother, Chris?

Robbie Seay: Well, brothers love and hate each other, which is part of the beauty. [Laughs] We loved each other and we fought and we had a blast. Chris is my oldest brother, so for ten years now we’ve been working together with this church that we started together. We’ve been ministering with each other for that time and we’ve planned all those gatherings together so it was an extension of that. It felt pretty natural.

Obviously being here in Houston, folks are used to us being together. But he goes to speak on the road in a lot of places and I go play in a lot of places but we don’t always get to do that in the same place. So that was really meaningful to have that together and actually plan a night out that’s more than just a concert or music. It was really cool and good. I’m hoping to talk him into doing it again sometime. We’ll see.

SA: So can you talk about the format of the night?

Robbie: Yeah for that tour and the upcoming one, we try to play a great concert with new and old music. We try to worship together and have a good time together. A big part of what we do, though, is to call ourselves and anyone who will listen out of a comfortable faith and into one that is challenging and missional. What I mean by missional is one that is giving and serving. For us, that’s the consistent thing that we need in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I live comfortably, I have what I need, and I need a daily reminder that it’s not about that. Life isn’t about comfort or what I think that I need. It really is about the gospel going to folks in the form of health care and education and food and clean water and AIDS medicine… sometimes that’s the gospel.

So we would collaborate on that idea. Chris would come up and share some stories and offer a challenge. A big thing was partnering with Compassion International. A lot of folks know what they do, but it’s basically connecting folks like you and I and kids who are in desperate need – whether that’s physical or emotional needs and there’s a big spiritual gap as well and Compassion is a beautiful way to connect. So at the end of the night, we would say, ‘Hey this is one of a thousand ways to get in on this. This is something we’ve seen and been a part of and would you consider joining us.’ We also leave tonight for another 10 shows and that is still a big part of what we do. Hopefully, it always will be. God has called us to something bigger just as he’s called you to something greater than just writing or just your own work. We’re all called to something greater than just what’s in front of us.

SA: The next tour is the Sarah Reeves portion?

Robbie: Yeah, Sarah is great. I don’t know if you’ve heard that record, but she’s fantastic. She’s a label mate of ours and we’re very excited to have her out.

SA: So what does the summer look like for you guys? It’s been a while since the last record came out.

Robbie: Yeah, it has been a while. But our new record comes out in the fall. So right now, we’re in the middle of that album. This summer is a time where we will wrap up the record, we’ll play some festivals and some events, but mostly we will stay close to home. Then when August hits, we’re hopeful the CD comes out then at the end of August or middle of September and then things get crazy from there. So we’re just trying to get this record finished. That’s the big priority.

SA: Themes of social justice and also of life as a journey have been important components on your work. Is that the case on this next one?

Robbie: Yeah, I think they are. Hopefully our music has evolved over the last many years, but those themes are the core of who we are as musicians and as people. That’s not to say that we’ve arrived on those. That’s part of what you’ll hear on this record – some wrestling with ‘Okay, God, I believe in you. I love you. I want to respond to you, but quite honestly I feel selfish and incompetent to meet the needs in the world.’ We talk about this at a lot of our shows as well. You read the news or listen to it and it’s depressing. You feel overwhelmed wondering, ‘Where do I even start?’ [Laughs] So it’s about wrestling with where we start. It’s gotta be with our neighbors. It’s gotta be with our cities. We have to have a keen awareness of what exactly you’re calling and mobilizing believers to do.

So I think that holds true and it’s worked its way into the songs. I think there’s also a sense of hope and redemption on this record that’s not only for us personally but as a church. So you’ll find that on the record. We’re just really excited about these new songs. I may be speaking a bit too soon, but it seemed the first song will be called “Miracle.” It’s been a while since we’ve had new music, so I’m ready to get this thing wrapped up and get out there to start playing it.

SA: Do you have a title for the album?

Robbie: Not yet.

SA: Choosing between things?

Robbie: Yeah, this “Miracle” song has been pushed to the front of the line. I don’t know if I will call it that or another lyric from that song that will work its way in. Normally by this time I have a title, but now there are a lot of fragments laying on the ground as far as the songs go. I’m likin’ everything, but I’m not exactly sure how it will all wrap up. There’s a little bit of anxiety or excitement over that.

SA: Musically where are you going?

Robbie: Well, on this record, I’ve obviously written with my band. But I’ve also written with some other folks that I haven’t in the past, some great songwriters who I respect greatly and have always wanted to write with. There’s a friend of mine named Jason Ingram and he has some songs that should make the record. Matt Bronleewe is a fantastic producer who did the Leeland stuff and he co-wrote a song that might make the record.

I’ve tried to expand that a bit so that we have a sound that we’re coming into our own and yet some songs that maybe stretch us a bit. I also have a great friend singing on the record who is a great new artist and someone who I’m producing whose name is Breann Durend. She’s singing with me on a couple songs and she’s adding an element to the record that I think we haven’t had in the past. Again, it’s all laying out in front of me. I’m thinking it should be a nice little project. I hope, at least. I just need to wrap it up.

SA: So many of the songs are made up of that emotional rock swells and builds and I’m wondering if that’s still present.

Robbie: I would say there are a few more corporate songs on this record. We lead our church worship and we’ve done that for ten years. The bulk of who we are and what we do is that. So that’s coming into play on this record. There’s a song we play called “The Echo Song,” for lack of a better term, but the working title is “Let Our Faith Be Not Alone.” It’s a hymn of sorts that we wrote that’s this call and response. It builds and builds into this great tension and celebration and that’s one I’m really excited about.

There’s another one called “Kingdom and King” which I think will be great. We played it on Easter at our church and have been messing with it over the last several weeks. That’s a song I’ve very excited to share with the church. That’s one that just proclaims that no matter what’s going on in our government or societies or where you land on all this political stuff or Democrat or Republican or whatever, we serve a bigger kingdom and a greater king than any earthly power. That’s one I’m thrilled about as well and those are new elements that I hope people can connect with.

SA: How do you know what to do with expectations or hopes?

Robbie: Well, we’ve done this a while. We had a lot of independent records and have been leading worship for a long time. It’s funny because in my house, if my wife is happy with the music, that’s a good thing. She has good taste. Normally if I bounce something off of her and she likes it or loves it, I’m feeling fine about it no matter how things go from there. That’s proved to be a good litmus test for me. Radio is great and there are so many great, great stations and I couldn’t be more grateful that they played our songs as much as they did. I think there are some songs they can grab onto if they’re willing to play them.

But you can’t predict that and you can’t depend on that. Sometimes you never really know and you just pray, ‘God if this is something you can use, that’s great.’ I’ve been able to put that aside to some extent. I’d love to have our music played and have it heard, but there are no promises there. We did have some songs on the last record used in TV and film and the American Idol thing was amazing. So some of those are huge, but you never know when that will happen or not.

So I just want to set those things aside. I want to make sure that we’re very excited about and that we believe in. I never wanted to be a part of music that didn’t sound passionate. I’ll never be the guy selling a million records. So I want to be the guy that sounds like he believes the music that he’s singing. That’s the ultimate compliment to say that there’s passion in your music – that there’s a stirring and passion that you can’t describe. If I am not doing that, then it’s time to pack it in and move on to something else. With the subjects we sing about, that’s pretty essential.

SA: So did Give Yourself Away have the legs you hoped it would?

Robbie: It really did. From the business side of things, we sold maybe double what we did on the first record. Again the radio, we were super surprised by a lot of that. The TV stuff was such a blessing. So from that standpoint, it really did. Then from interacting with people and what the music meant to them, that was far greater than what I thought. Some people would say this music initiated conversations in their church or community to think outside of the box about our faith and what we’re called to do. That’s great for us to hear.

Especially for this next record, we’re focused on faith. It’s a gigantic mystery. Some of it we will understand and some of it will never be figured out. God will never be pegged. He’s definitely not going to be pegged in a three-and-a-half minute song. So what I’ve tried to do is approach some of these issues that are more pressing to us as a church and as people and say, ‘Let’s dive into this. We won’t solve this, but we can explore this together.’ As we do so, we pray God reveals himself to us.

• www.robbieseayband.com
• www.myspace.com/robbieseayband

Does it Resonate with you?

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

URL