We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brad Irons. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brad below.
Brad, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
There have been so many different songs and projects that have meant a lot to me. But two of the most meaningful musically and lyrically are on my current project, “Testify!”
I wrote a song called “Color Blind.” Although I am actually color blind, or better said, color deficient, that’s not what inspired the song. I play an acoustic pop, country-flavored style, so I often find myself in venues that aren’t commonplace for African American performers. Inevitably, some well-meaning person walks up and says, “I just want you to know, I don’t even see color.” I used to just smile at them. But nowadays, I occasionally respond, “Wow! You can’t see color? That must make it difficult to drive. How do you handle stoplights?” Hopefully, they understand that they just walked past all the non-black people in the room to tell me that they didn’t see my color… which means they saw my color. I don’t get offended because I know what they’re trying to say. But I do find it amusing.
I created “Color Blind” to say, “It’s ok to see color and recognize differences.” We don’t have to celebrate sameness. I think beauty is also found in our differences. I do see your color and it doesn’t stop me from loving you. I see you just as you are and refuse to pretend otherwise. Musically, “Color Blind” was a fun challenge. Rick Beato talks about how bland music is today: only using three or four chords. “Color Blind” jumps keys, has a saxophone solo, and uses a very Billy Joel-inspired piano. I just love the whole idea and composition of the song.
“I Sing About My Scars” was inspired by the scars I bear from battles I’ve fought in life. There’s a Bible passage where the disciple Thomas doubts that Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus appears to him later and says that He wants Thomas to believe. But He doesn’t show Thomas a golden crown or tell him what Heaven’s like. Jesus showed Thomas His scars. I think Christianity spends too much time trying to put forth an “everything-is-alright,” “goody-two-shoes” type of image. When was the last time we showed people our scars? Jesus did. Shouldn’t we?
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think it’s funny that I’m called a singer/songwriter because I was an awful singer as a kid. My family has some of the most incredible vocalists you’ll ever hear. My nephew is Grammy-nominated gospel artist Jonathan Traylor. Music is in our blood. But I remember being told not to sing because I wasn’t any good. I still have old cassettes of me singing when I was younger. It’s so bad! So, I had no real hopes of pursuing music.
However, in my junior year of high school, I accidentally enrolled in a Music Theory class and discovered the science of music. I became fascinated with musical structures. I would spend hours writing out the “Circle of Fifths” for the fun of it. But we were a large, poor family, so music lessons were out of the question. Counting kids from previous marriages and two other children who were raised as our siblings, there were seven boys and seven girls. So, I taught myself how to play. My mom had a habit of going to garage sales, buying musical instruments, and leaving them around the house. I think she just knew that one of us would eventually gravitate to them.
One day, while rummaging through a closet, a “Roy Clark Big Note Guitar Book” tumbled off the top shelf and hit me in the head. While flipping through the pages, I remembered that Mom had left an old electric guitar next to the piano. It only had five strings and no amp so I tuned it the best I could and strummed really hard, pretending that I had a sixth string. I started making home demos and experimenting with different recording styles. In the process, I picked up the bass, piano, drums, saxophone, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, and other instruments to varying proficiency. As I got better, I started performing in public. My acoustic groove style mixed with my tendency toward humor and created a program that people found moving and entertaining.
What makes my music and performances different? Well… I am thinking about writing a book called, “I Was Raised in Church, But I Still Believe.” We were a five-day-a-week church-going family. I had many questions about faith and religion, but my doubts were typically met with anger, frustration, or indifference by people around me. This was before Google, so it wasn’t easy to access information outside of your circle. I grew up discouraged by the Jim and Tammy Baker PTL scandal, Jimmy Swaggart, and the missteps of the Moral Majority.
Somewhere between high school and college, I became the prodigal son and embraced agnosticism and later, atheism, for a short time. However, through personal connections and a deep desire to research and understand truth, I found myself back in the faith, albeit a bit more skeptical. I was heavily influenced by “Mere Christianity” (C. S. Lewis) and “The Jesus I Never Knew” (Philip Yancey). I laugh because I now have a Doctorate in Theology, a Master of Divinity, a Master’s in Pastoral Counseling, and a Bachelor’s in English with a specialization in Drama.
Still, my understanding of religion goes beyond my degrees. I try to live my life by the Great Commandments. Love God and love people even as you love yourself. I hope that message flows through my music. Also, I have seen and experienced the damage that can be done when the Bible is misused, and church leaders are unchallenged. Blind faith leads to blind people following blind guides into big ditches. It’s Jonestown and the Inquisition. If Christianity isn’t big enough to handle the questions, then maybe we’ve got the wrong answers.
My musical influences range from country and black gospel to pop and rock. I cut my acoustic guitar teeth on songs from Steven Curtis Chapman and the country band Restless Heart. Kenny Loggins and Lionel Richie influenced my vocal style. And I picked up my piano riffs from Keith Green, Billy Joel, and old black and southern gospel. I am a mess of eclecticity. I don’t even know if that’s a word. I think it’s eclecticism. But it all comes out as this strange musical mixture that I feel has yet to be completely captured on a recording. Several of the songs I recorded at Daywind Studios in Nashville come close, like “Some Things Can’t Be Undone,” “Prayers of a Prodigal,” and “I Sing About My Scars.” Someday I hope I can afford to spend more than a few days in the studio so that I can try to express my sound to its fullest.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When I first started recording, I wrote and played everything on the album. If I didn’t know how to do it, I would learn. If I wanted a certain sound, I searched until I found it. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being the artist, producer, writer, etc. if you have the skills to do so. But I couldn’t get the quality I was looking for. So, I kept my vision small and local.
My friend Harry Olsen, one of the most incredible musicians I’ve ever met, was listening to one of my home demos and said, “Why are you doing all of this on your own?”
I told him that I couldn’t afford to go to a professional studio. “Besides,” I asked, “Shouldn’t an artist know how to do everything?”
He shook his head. “Do you go to the bank and learn how to do the bank president’s job? Or the teller’s job…? No, you trust them to do what you cannot do. Your music is good. But your recording quality isn’t good enough. You need to get your songs to the level that a radio station would play them.” He added, “If you really think you have a message that people need to hear, then you need to be willing to spend the money to make it ‘hearable.’ Get with people who know what they’re doing. Spend your time perfecting your musical craft. That’s your strength. Invest in your dream by hiring out your weaknesses.” I took his words to heart. So, I started bringing in friends who were much better players than I was, and the results have far exceeded anything I could have done on my own.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think that, before there were people making music, there was music. Many religious people believe the Divine existed before the Dirt. For them, there is a deep understanding that the universe sang as creation was spun into existence. Music is primeval and primordial. There was light. There was sound. There was music. Did rhythm keep time before time began? Seconds, minutes, hours, all ticking to a universal tempo before the first clock ticked off its first moment. The beat, the pulse, and the rhythm of life simply reflect our universal connection to the flow and fluidity moving through everything that was and was yet to be.
Maybe that’s why music connects with so many people in so many ways. Its letters, symbols, and numbers are just representations of a universal song. Stevie Wonder wrote, “Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand…. You can feel it all over.” Ray Charles once said, “I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me – like food or water.” I get that.
I spent a lot of my life doing different odd jobs like catering and construction. However, those were things that I did. I am a musician, a creative. It is intertwined with who I am. Many of the things I have done in life have been to support this drive, this habit, … this call. It’s what spurs the starving artist who barely scrapes out a living. It’s why wealthy creatives who have amassed great fortunes still sit in front of blank pages and canvases waiting to connect with their muse again. As singer/songwriter Bob Bennett wrote, “I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you just how much this means to me. And how I can’t uncross the line between this thing I do and the man I’m supposed to be. Sometimes when stand up to play, I am a lonely and desperate man. These songs are the only prayers I can pray, so I sing them just as hard as I can. I am singing for my life.”
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.bradirons.com
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- Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/brad-irons/324968353