‘Adventure of faith’ continues for TobyMac

TobyMac says one thought he had in mind as he made his new album, “This Is Not a Test,” was to create “soul” music.

That doesn’t mean the popular Christian artist was going to step aside from his familiar hip-hop and pop sound and go Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett on his fans.

Instead, TobyMac had a more multifaceted meaning for soul music in mind.

“It might have something to do with music. It might have something to do with the lyric,” TobyMac explained in a recent phone interview. “But there’s a mentality behind it that was sort of like ‘Let’s make soul music,’ which to me calls for depth in the lyric and in the music. And also, I think I touched on some things. I wanted everything to be a little deeper and be a little richer.

“I think that I love conversational songs that are just everyday (things). There are a few of those on there (the “This Is Not a Test” album), but most of the record is a little deeper.”

One such song that’s deeper lyrically is “Love Broke Through.”

“You know, ‘Love Broke Through’ is the first time I have ever written a song about my personal first encounter with God, my initial step into faith,” he said. “I don’t know why I had never really written that song much (before). … It’s sort of where this adventure of faith all began with me, my faith in God.”

Another song that found TobyMac (or Toby McKeehan as he is known on official documents) exploring a richer level of emotion is “Love Feels Like,” which features guest vocals by Michael Tait and Kevin Max, his former musical partners in the ground-breaking Christian hip-hop group DC Talk.

“It’s a very personal song to me. The song is about really a deeper sort of love that, a new depth of love that I had never gone to, and that’s really serving with your hands or feet and caring for someone that can’t care for themselves,” TobyMac said.

“My dad passed away about eight months ago, and the last few years of his life, my family ended up caring for him because he couldn’t care for himself. I think it’s interesting how much it really wears you out, but at the same time, you’re filled. The song says ‘empty has never felt so full.’ It wears you out. You pour it out. But somehow or another you’re able to give and it’s fulfilling.”

One of his four sons has muscular dystrophy.

“To me, there’s a depth of love and caring for him that it’s my honor to do,” he said.

Doing a song that held such profound personal meaning with Tait and Max was special, TobyMac said, although he noted it was actually the music for the song that made him think of the collaboration.

The subject of a CD Talk full-on reunion tour – possibly an album – has been floated since the trio went their separate ways in 2000, and the three band members have remained close friends all along.

TobyMac (as well as Tait) even speculated in 2014 that the group might reunite in 2015 because it was the anniversary of their blockbuster album “Jesus Freak.” Obviously, the reunion didn’t happen, but TobyMac is not ruling out the possibility that DC Talk will be back at some point.

“I’ve never closed the door in my mind to it,” he said. “I think scheduling is the biggest situation, rather than the heart and the mind. Our hearts are wide open. Our minds are wide open. But I think scheduling would be the problem. When you release a record, you want to go tour it. You want to go support it and you want to share that music with the people live. So to just stop my whole world to do that would be difficult. But I’ve never closed my mind to it. As a matter of fact, I think it would be a great time.”

TobyMac said he remains proud of what DC Talk accomplished, which in a nutshell was to become, as the “Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music” put it, the most popular overtly Christian act of all time. The group broke through commercially with its third album, 1992’s “Free At Last,” and followed that with the double platinum “Jesus Freak” and another hit album, “Supernatural,” in 1998 before going on a hiatus in 2000.

The three former band members have each enjoyed success in their post-DC Talk years.

Tait released a pair of albums with his band, Tait, before replacing Peter Furler as lead singer in the popular Christian group the Newsboys.

Max has released seven solo albums and did a two-year stint as lead singer in Audio Adrenaline before leaving that group and resuming his solo career in 2014.

TobyMac, though, has been the group member who has enjoyed the most success as a solo artist. His first four solo albums produced hit singles on the Christian charts – including a pair of chart toppers (“Get Back Up” and “City On Our Knees”) from 2010’s “Tonight.”

He then reached a new high point with his 2012 album, “Eye On It.” It became only the third album by a Christian music act to top the all-genre Billboard Magazine Top 200 album chart when it debuted at number one in June of that year. It featured the number one Christian hit, “Me Without You.”

The chart-topping debut caught TobyMac by surprise.

“It wasn’t something I thought of as a goal, probably because I thought it was maybe loftier than I would be able to achieve,” he said. “But yeah, it was one of those things where it was an amazing moment when they told me that, mostly because it sort of is a shot-heard-around-the-world moment, like when you win a Grammy, the whole world sort of recognizes it. … It’s one of those things that, it’s a lifetime accomplishment.”

In making “This Is Not a Test,” TobyMac said he tried to follow his edict of having no rules as far as the styles of songs he created. The result is a musically varied album that sounds tailor-made for top-40 radio. It ranges from the glossy dance pop of “Like a Match” to the tuneful hip-hop of “Backseat Driver” to the EDM-infused “Til the Day I Die” and the soul-flavored “Feel It.”

The synthetic sounds that are woven together with actual instruments have prompted TobyMac to put together a live presentation that mixes organic and digital sounds.

“We have a DJ in the band, so some of it (the sounds) are reproduced there. If it’s a real obvious thing you could never do live, we do it electronically,” he said. “But we definitely have evolved a little. We have two different players on stage with drum pads, reproducing samples and playing them live. But I also have a horn section now, a really solid horn section.

“I love it. It’s a richer, deeper sound live,” TobyMac said. “There’s more depth to what we’re doing musically now, more dimension to the live elements, more dimension to the live performance.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 8:26 PM with the headline "‘Adventure of faith’ continues for TobyMac."