Derek Webb

While it’s always seemed to surround him, particularly since he’s ventured somewhat away from his early days with Caedmon’s Call into the fray of being a solo performer, singer-songwriter Derek Webb doesn’t consider himself a controversial person. Over the course of his past few albums, he’s referred to the Church as a “whore,” decried the Church’s politics, and takes them to task once again on multiple issues with his latest opus, Stockholm Syndrome. Webb may not intend controversy but it certainly seems to find him.

And that’s what we talked about with the enigmatic artist in Part One of this interview, about the controversy surrounding this latest release and his thoughts on the basis for it.

Soul-Audio: There’s never been this amount of sheer buzz and chatter and controversy around a project of yours, so I’m wondering if this in any way affects the person behind it all?

Derek Webb: Man, I’m doing pretty well to tell you the truth. Part of my job, if I’m doing it well, is seeing this thing through all the way to the end. If I’m doing my job well, I’m going to want to get it into as many hands as possible. That’s not my primary job, but it’s certainly something over the years that I feel I have some sort of instincts for. I guess more than anything, I’m continually surprised by all of it. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t consider it any of my primary goals to be controversial or do things that are controversial or say things that are controversial. What people have to realize and what you’ll detect after a certain amount of time if you follow me for very long is that it’s just how I’m wired. I have a particular kind of personality and so when I do the job that is mine to do as an artist – which is to look at the world and tell you what I see – it’s a pretty simple task that’s actually a hard thing to do, honestly.

So when I tend to do that, I tend to focus on things that, for some people and for pop music, it’s a little more untouchable or things that don’t sell records, let’s say. They’re things that people tend to shy away from. So if that makes me controversial, then I guess it does. I’d like to think I’m not controversial so much as it’s just uncommon. I’m not trying to do any of that. You and I have probably discussed this before, but I do have a rebellious spirit about me – even as a little kid. I always had problems with authority and in the second half of my life, on the whole, I’ve been trying to figure out what are the right things to rebel against and use my powers for good, to speak. So I think there are right things to rebel against, so that will form the way I make art. That will inform the way I do my job as an artist and what I see. I will talk about rebelling against those things that I think are good for us to be rebelling against.

But it’s not because I have some sort of a plan or agenda or message or that I’m trying to be some kind of a leader. This is just who I am, not just some character I play or some story I’m trying to create. If I was doing anything else in my life, I would still be interested in all the same things and my friends and I would still be having all of the same conversations. People just happen to become brought into it because I make art and that’s a more explicit vocation. I think some people think I do it just for the sake of doing it, in terms of being controversial, which I most certainly don’t.

So that’s what I was trying to say before in that I’m just surprised this keeps happening. I don’t plan it this way, so I’m as surprised as anybody when the records come out and they end up being what they do. [Laughs] I never plan a record ahead of time. I never know what’s coming next. If everybody else is tired of the same old line that Derek Webb is trying to be controversial, then imagine me. [Laughs]

SA: So it really is that surprising to you?

Derek: Yeah, because some things aren’t even on my radar in terms of what’s going to be controversial. I mean, some things are not at all controversial in the world I live in – either my internal or geographical neighborhood or the friends I hang out with. Some of these things aren’t a big deal to me at all, so stuff comes out and then I get a gauge. So I’m surprised that these things continue to happen.

SA: Let me play devil’s advocate for a second.

Derek: Sure.

SA: If you were completely new to all these circles, then I would completely buy everything you said just said. But surely coming from Caedmon’s and your background overall, there has some level of cognizance that when you release a collection of songs with this specific lyrical content, there’s going to be some fires that flare up.

Derek: Well, what I said was my intention was controversy. I don’t intend for it. I don’t go after it. I’m not constantly looking for how to do it.

SA: Never?

Derek: No, man. Truly, I mean that. It’s just part of who I am. It’s just my personality. It’s just how I’m made, so while I don’t intend on it, it just keeps happening. But maybe that’s the personality I have. Maybe I’m naturally wired to look for blind spots and anytime you talk about blind spots, it’s uncommon. When something is uncommon, it draws attention to it. So that’s the cycle that keeps going on. But I’m certainly aware of the controversial nature of the some of the work that’s done. But, it’s like everybody else, it’s not until I get to sit back and listen to it as a piece of art and then kind of think, ‘Oh, shit.’ Then the whole thing is done and then I have to figure out what I’m going to do.

But the fun is that I made it, I did it and that’s the part I want to guard. It’s a process that I’m trying to guard. And it’s a real testament to INO Records that I even felt in a headspace that they helped to create around me – this artistic environment that I was even at liberty to make this record. Let me tell you this, when I was back in the Caedmon’s Call days and there was a little bit more of the commercial machine and a little bit of pressure to sell, there’s no way it would have gotten as far as it did. I mean, I got to actually record these songs. I mean, I actually allowed myself to write some of them and then we actually recorded them believing they would let me say this and do this.

You have to remember that, yes, I’m aware of my category, I’m aware of my distribution, I’m aware of my system and all of those things. But then again, look at what I’ve gotten through in the past. My first record off the bat, I had a song with the word ‘whore’ in the chorus. That was a little uncommon back then. Then just a few years later, I went out and inadvertently went after the church’s politics back then. I can guarantee you the majority of the books on the top ten lists of any of the bookstores that album was carried within, if they were about politics, they were opposed to what I was saying. I know the opinions of the church on these things and it keeps happening, but I’ve never had any push back ever until now.

Think of the things I’ve been able to say. Think about the things that I’ve been able to get through. These are all personal little victories for me because I feel the whole system is so filtered. It’s being controlled by so few people in terms of the content that gets through that winds up getting God’s stamp of approval and in terms of being right and safe and true for people to consume. You walk into the Christian bookstore and you turn all of your powers of discernment off because you think, ‘Well, all of this has been approved by somebody.’ I know it’s not true. It’s a marketing category – the word ‘Christian’ – and that doesn’t really mean any of it is right or good or true or beautiful.

So I love that I’ve been able to sneak some of my records into a place so heavily guarded and it’s actually right through the front door. It’s with INO Records and they distribute a lot of other really big Christian bands. So it does seem naive to walk into INO and expect them to put this record out, but it’s only naive if I hadn’t had four records prior to prove to me that they’re willing to stand by me and push stuff through. I don’t know how they do it. My deal with INO has always been to turn records in that are finished. They don’t get any say on mixing or sequencing or anything. And then they just put them out. I don’t know what they go through. I can’t imagine what they must go through. The same people selling the new Phillips, Craig and Dean record are selling my new record, so I don’t know what those people do to manage that. But they always do, which is my point, so maybe they created some sort of fictitious place for me that I’ve been living the last few years. [Laughs]

But between the fact that they continue to sell well and I’ve been able to get all of this other much more controversial content through prior to this record and that I personally don’t live in a world with these kind of categories… like I said, my friends and I get bent out of shape by a lot of different things than apparently whatever the systems of distribution for Christian art get bent out of shape about, so all those things considered, I don’t think it was naive. I really believed I was going to be able to pull it off. It wasn’t until I got the call from Jeff Mosely about the one song and we had to go in and I had this environment that exploded before my eyes of the kind of artist I could be and what I could or could not say that I heard of any of this. Did it seem crazy? Yes. Naive? No. It’s insane I could put this out, but no more so than Mockingbird.

SA: So there’s still some surprise at this entire process?

Derek: I don’t know how any of this works. I don’t understand how I’ve been allowed on a Christian label for this many years. I don’t feel very comfortable there and I’m sure they’re not super-comfortable with me. But we all respect each other and somehow it works. Somehow they’re willing to put money into promoting my music and I’ve got a place to put it out. It’s a magic situation that I take very seriously. I try to take full advantage of the liberties they allow me there. So as I said, the fact that I allowed myself to write it and recorded it really believing it would go straight through is even another testament as to how supportive they’ve been.

A ton of artists have these same thoughts and want to address these topics and want to stand up for their friends in the face of a judgmental and hating community, but they don’t have the same permission. A lot of artists just don’t feel at liberty and they feel a slave to the commerce of it. But I’ve never felt that, so this is me trying to take my position very seriously on behalf of those artists that I know can’t do it.

• www.derekwebb.com
• www.myspace.com/derekwebb

↓ 2 comments

#1 John Wofford on September 30th, 2009 at 1:09 am

God, I love Derek. Nice guy. Brilliant musical mind.

#2 Soul-Audio » Features » Derek Webb on October 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am

[...] Derek Webb – Monday Sep 28th, 2009 [...]

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