| The Second Tuesday We Talk About Music |
This one seems like another easy one. Gary's written and recorded so much music that surely he must have some deep insight into the significance of song.
MS: How is music best used in your life?
GC: Music does indeed soothe the savage beast within me. I listen to a lot of classical music, and instrumental scores of movies that I love. Even movies that I hate. I find many times, after two hours of convincing myself that the popcorn was worth the ticket price, I will in passing pick up a soundtrack and realize that there was something good there all along. I was just so overwhelmed with the horrific script that I didn't see it.
MS: Any specific movie jump out?
GC: The one's I've been listening to recently, I actually really loved the movies. "The Mission" [has an] unbelievable score. Oh...the soundtrack to "Nell." Oh wow, it is so good. Another one that is particularly moving and sentimental to me is the soundtrack to the movie "Country."
MS: I remember having that as an LP. It was a favorite of mine too!
Let's get back to something deep...
MS: Anything else you'd like to say about the use of music?
GC: I can honestly be spiritually moved by an outwardly unspiritual song. Back when I was married there was nothing that made me want to go home and love my wife more than a horrible, sad cheating song. It just kind of makes you want to go, "OK, I don't want to be there." It truly is in the ear of the beholder. There's great insight in places you wouldn't expect it at all.
MS: Doesn't it seem like country music does that more than any Christian music?
GC: No question about it.
MS: That ticks me off.
GC: Yeah, it should. Country music, because it is historically driven by the lyric, many times by a great story, intrigues me more than any modern music that I'm aware of. Christian music gets that way occasionally. But it can get a little formulaic. Is that a word?
MS: Oh yeah. I think you tend to bridge the gap a bit with your music, because the songs tend to have a story-base, with a depth to them that is spiritual and God-based.
GC: Thank you. That was the hope.
  Gary Chapman Outside Reunion Records $14.98  |
