“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17

We can play Minecraft in the name of Jesus. As an adult I definitely would not lean toward bothering God with “ninternet” problems, however evidently a child would not hesitate. Why is that? I can’t help but wonder how God so often remains confined to the “spiritual and heavenly matters” corner of my brain. These two cannot mix; as if, the day I gave my life to Him, I subconsciously sighed in relief and thought “Well, that’s that taken care of; let’s cross ‘Decide our Eternal Path’ off the list and on to the next problem”. Perhaps because I grew up in the Church I cannot remember life being any different, but I often catch myself in a state of double-mindedness. Then I remember:

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” -James 1:8

There are lots of nuances to the definition of double-mindedness, but my favorite is “vacillating between allegiances”. My Christian self goes to church on Sunday, and lives at home. My human self goes to work and to the grocery store. In such a divided state, is it any wonder I struggle with identity, purpose and, wait for it… stability? I would wager this is a fairly common experience, too.

When Jesus redeemed us, He took in the entire lot of our being; heart, soul, mind and strength. Reconciling the part of us that is “spiritual” to the rest of our existence is the work set before us for many years, but the understanding that everything can be done unto God helps me. I go to church and pray at home in the name of Jesus, but I also can navigate society in the name of Jesus. I can write music in the name of Jesus; whether it is worship or a musical journal of my day. I may still struggle at times but today, I can devote myself to love my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

-Laurie

Psalm 23- John Wichterman

and hard was the ground

as I waited for death to perform

its soliloquy upon the Earth

Even then, there was beauty

As I waded through

my darkened thoughts

Even as I became one with the cold

Death was exiting the stage

and creation began to dance

I now see there’s always life

under the cold hard ground

I hope that one day

I’ll see the same for me

Many years of my life have flown by, and recently by taking count of them there were few things I remembered about them. Here I find myself a decade older, my children are older, and I struggle to recall who I was before it all. There were things I loved to do and places I dreamed of going, but it seems so far from my mind, buried deep in the crevasses of a consciousness I’ll never find again. While I wouldn’t trade a single minute of those years for what I am accomplishing in raising children, I find myself wanting to express creativity but not knowing how; wanting to join a dance I don’t know the steps to.

This poem of sorts is a little call to anyone who feels like-minded and needs reminding that their voice is worth being heard. There is life to be found in embracing the dance, and isolation isn’t a road worth going down. Start with a few small steps and see where they lead you.

Ciao,

Laurie

Subscribe now

Your musical guide for the poem ahead

Here’s to the spectator

The forever tenant of the front row seat

To the clapper whose hands are blistered

With admiration you’ll never receive

To the one who’s never shone

Whose eyes are used to the darkness of the audience

Whose head never felt the warmth of a spotlight

Whose knees shake in rhythm but whose voice stays buried

There’s a place up on stage just for you

There’s a silence meant for you to fill

There are words only you can think up

You’ll find more in yourself as you speak

So come on while the sun shines

It isn’t too late, you aren’t too tired

Step on up and leave the front row seat

To the next heart to be inspired.

To check out the full CASA catalog click here

I sat at the gazebo

Where I used to ponder and cry

I stared at the pond

and wanted to die

But the longer I stayed

The colder it got

And I longed for the warmth

I must have forgot

The warmth that I knew

just buried below

With the people that left

that I no longer know

The longer I stayed

the more I could see

The ripples in waves

and the sway of the trees

I said to the sky

“If you’re listening I promise

I’ll hold on, I’ll work harder

I’ll just try to be

a dutiful daughter”

But the trees said “just breathe”

And the pond said “just stay”

You can’t save the world

in a second or day

So I sat at the gazebo

to ponder and cry

One day I’ll be back

and I’ll understand why.

Subscribe now

When I went to University, there was a gazebo that I would frequently visit. I’d grab a cinnamon roll latte, find my little bench hidden behind a bush and just stare at the pond & the gazebo on the other side. I came to the spot a lot when the pressures of school & life were weighing me down. I sat here when I experienced heartbreak and grief. I remember when my father passed away during my 4th year at college and I wanted to drop out so badly but I also knew I worked so hard and my pride wouldn’t let myself get so far to not complete it. So I sat at the pond and I cried and drank my coffee and made a promise to myself that I would keep pressing on and I hoped deep down in a few years it would all make sense on the other side.

Fast forward to 6 years later, I revisited that same bench at the gazebo and I just took in that familiar view. The bench felt like a time travel machine into my past and I sat there just remembering why this place left such a mark on me. 6 years ago I told myself to just hang in there, to press on because one day you’ll look back on this and it will all make sense. “One day” has arrived and I didn’t even realize it until I sat there.

All this to say…if you’re sitting at your own version of the gazebo in the thick of your grief and pain, please, keep holding on. Be kind to yourself and give it time. Perspective is the antidote that requires time.

I went back to the bench and it gave me a gift, a poem to give to the next one who sits.

With love,

V

If you want to listen to more CASA Music click here!

When creating a cover, it’s best to try and reinterpret the song through a new lens and evoke a different emotion from the original. For this song, I went with a more serious and impassioned take. One soul pleading with another to give him a chance. But when I looked at the lyrics, they almost felt like a conversation and I thought, “why not make it a duet?” So I brought in two of the most talented singers I know who *bonus* are also married. Aaron and Vanessa Johnson from Devoted Things really brought the song to life.

We had a ton of fun with the video. Ol’ Nate can’t stay serious for long and a fully serious version of Never Gonna Give You Up just didn’t feel right. We tried to channel the energy of the original while also showing it in a new light. Also, my beautiful wife had the misfortune of showing up at the studio while we were filming and so now she features in the video.

Though unintentional, this video seems to encapsulate the sanctity, seriousness, goofiness and whimsy of marital life and maybe life generally. It never seems to be, nor should it be, one or the other. Serious conversations are often woven through with laughter. Jokes sometimes get too real. The idea of two people with serious flaws, jammed together in a small space to figure out how to co-exist is inherently hilarious. I mean what are we doing down here; life insurance? Getting our bathroom remodeled? “Don’t take life too seriously” but also, “This is the only one you’ve got so use it well”. Two phrases that both seem true but also seem to be in conflict. Maybe life is really one big Rick Roll perpetrated by God…Not sure what I’m saying at this point. I know life is hard as well. Just enjoy!

To check out the full CASA catalog click here

Who’s this Culture? They sound hot!

Slow down there…From what I can gather, the culture is like an ecosystem, made up of our collective imaginations. It’s where we work out what reality is and what to do about it. It is the interplay between the immaterial and material; the spirit that unites the two worlds. We all have inner lives; thoughts and feelings that float around in our heart and head (the immaterial world). At some point these feelings or ideas might manifest themselves in the material world through you. These manifested ideas get thrown around and collide with other ideas. Some grow and develop, others die out. They aren’t usually presented as formal ideas initially, but are more often like wisps of wind that shift the fragrance of the air. An idea might begin as feelings that eventually manifest in songs or poetry. Others might pick up on that idea, consciously or unconsciously, and develop it further through a movie or book. Those ideas might infuse the consciousness of the next generation and evolve into a philosophy or ideology that later manifests itself in law, politics, or morality. These steps aren’t set in stone, however. Sometimes changes in politics affect the arts. Sometimes ideas are sparked by religious revelation. For instance, the Bible says Man was “created in the image of God.” This was a revolutionary idea in a time where human sacrifice was en vogue. But you can see that idea worked out in the Bible with Jesus eventually saying to “love your enemies.” Later we have a government established on the idea that “all men are created equal.” As I’ve alluded to already, the culture isn’t just a group of botox-infused, upper class socialites opining on the meaning of a few indiscriminate blotches of paint. The culture encompasses our customs, beliefs, language, philosophy, law, and morality among other things. It’s like the air our imaginations breathe. It greatly influences how we think and act, often without us even noticing; and it can’t be changed or revived overnight. Bear with me here …Again let’s think of an ecosystem.

A healthy ecosystem is made up of millions of different contributions that all work together. Some are big, like rivers and lakes and the forests they water. Some are small, like an apple that falls from a tree, or a fly that eats the apple or a frog that eats the fly. No single drop of water, tree, apple, or frog are essential. But if over time the river starts drying up or the trees start dying faster than new ones can grow, you have a problem. An environment thrives or dies by degrees. It’s the same with the culture.

If you’ve made it this far, call someone and let them know you’re OK! And maybe…

Subscribe now

Alright be sure to hydrate and let’s get back to it.

How does one “culture”?

To affect the culture you have to think in small degrees over the long term. You might start with yourself. Are you banging on all cylinders? You are the part of the culture that you have the most control over. You don’t need to be perfect, but be cultivated enough so that new life springs from the soil around you. First of all pray. Get to know the One from whom all life and creativity flows. It probably can’t hurt. Second, read the great books, including but not limited to the Bible. That interesting and brilliant thought you had last week was already thought about and perfectly articulated by a guy in powdered wig three hundred years ago; and he read about it from someone in a toga seventeen hundred years before that, and so on. You don’t need a doctorate in Greek philosophy, but these are some of the easiest ways to expand your mind. Next, we need to be engaged in our own culture. That can be a scary notion for a christian. “What if the demons that live inside that song jump out and eat me??” It’s true that we’re not supposed to be of this world, but we do need to be in it. Put on a hazmat suit and see what the people are saying. It’s not all toxic waste. Trying to affect a culture that you yourself don’t engage with is like trying to be a part of an inside joke with a friend group you’ve never talked to. Expect nothing but blank stares.

“Alright Nate, I’m a spirit-filled Rhodes scholar who’s fluent in Greek and Taylor Swift. Now what?”

Remember, you are part of an ecosystem of ideas. Bring what you have to the people around you; your family, friends, and community. It might be a “no phones at the table” policy. It might be a monthly book club or bible study you host with your friends. It might be a new recipe that brings people to your table or a cause that you fight for. All of these things shift the culture by small degrees. If you’re an artist like me, it looks like making great art.

The culture is a lot more than the arts, but the arts are often the genesis of new ideas. As Percy Bysshe Shelley famously said, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Ideas that get worked out through the arts are subtle and burrow deep into the soul of a person. C.S. Lewis said of stories, that they have a way of “stealing past those watchful dragons.” In other words, the arts can sneak different ideas past someone’s initial inhibitions and present them in a way that a sermon or lecture cannot. Think of the prophet Nathan telling David the story of the rich man stealing the lamb of the poor man (2 Samuel 12). David immediately understands that the rich man was wrong, though he does not realize that the rich man is himself. When it’s revealed, the whole truth hits him like a cart full of Jebusites.

Soooooo what should I make?

St. Augustine said, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” To adapt the quote for this purpose I’ll say, “Love God and create whatever you please.”

Don’t worry about what you think others will like or find acceptable. Using your own taste as a guide is trusting that God made you the way He wanted you to be. This doesn’t mean you have great taste right from the start, which is why you must cultivate yourself and dive into the great art of the past. But following your own taste is how new and interesting expressions and methods get discovered. This is why I think the artistic output of the church is often so flat and uninspired. It’s trying to please everyone. The doctrinaire, the fundamentalist, the lukewarm, the baby christian, your grandma, my nephew, and any possible future tither must not be offended in any way. The only thing the church doesn’t seem to mind offending is good taste.

What do we do with our art when we’ve created it? Well, we put it into the world. Notice I said THE WORLD. We, in the church, have largely sequestered ourselves in a walled garden. We write songs for ourselves, have our own radio stations and record labels. We have our own tours and award shows. A christian artist can go a whole career without interacting in mainstream culture at all, leaving mainstream culture open for the world to influence.

Create amazing art and put it out into the world. As an artist, this is your primary means of affecting the culture. Your work might just be a small fly that feeds a frog or might be a small trickle that eventually becomes a river. You can’t know. Just keep creating.

We need new methods of getting our art into the culture so that it can have an effect. I don’t have all the answers for how to do that, but I do know that the first step is making something that’s actually good. That’s what we are doing here at The CASA Sound. We are a small seedling, hoping to grow into a fruitful tree. With your help, we might do it.

Thank you for your patronage. It is most appreciated, and not without its benefits! Here’s where you get exclusive access to all CASA music. Notice I said exclusive. Your friend, roommate, sister….all excluded! Unless they also subscribe of course.

If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, why so glum? Nothing brightens the countenance like a great song! Subscribe now and change your life perhaps?

Subscribe now

Read more

January 1st, 2025 would have been our baby’s 1st birthday. My husband and I experienced a miscarriage and someone close to us told me that we would never feel joy again. It was just a few weeks since it all happened, everything was still really fresh in our minds and we were stuck in that polarizing shift between picking out potential baby names to picking ourselves off of the floor. In the midst of processing the loss, I was now grappling with the words this person said to us. How could they possibly know we wouldn’t feel joy again? Why would anyone say something like that? Why do I even care? I know that can’t be true. Was that true for them? And, why do I have a fire in my heart to prove them wrong? I’ve been through worse and I’ve still experienced joy - are they mistaking happiness for joy? Is there a difference?

I frequently revisited that script for months to come, taking internal “status” reports for my joy levels like it was something to be monitored or a formula that could be tested. It’s not. I began to question for myself the difference between happiness and joy.

The definition of joy that I found says the following:

“Joy is a deep, enduring state of well-being and contentment that comes from within, often tied to a sense of purpose, gratitude, and spiritual connection. It is distinct from happiness, which is often temporary and dependent on external circumstances. Joy is a lasting attitude that can coexist with other emotions like sorrow and can be found even amid hardship, unlike happiness, which cannot.”

There it was, clear as day… joy coexisting with sorrow, joy being enduring and lasting while happiness is temporary or fleeting.

I couldn’t be more pleased to see that definition staring back at me. I narrowed my focus on the three “pillars” stabilizing joy - purpose, gratitude & spiritual connection.

Reflecting on each point helped me see the bigger picture.

Pillar One- A story about Gratitude:

I remember during my junior year of high school I lived with my dad for just that year. He wasn’t in a healthy place and certainly in no condition to be taking care of 16 year old me, but nevertheless for that year he was my primary guardian. Oftentimes we went without necessities like toilet paper.

(Disclaimer, during my early years as a child my dad was able to provide in these ways and I will forever hold respect for him and his sacrifices he made for me).

I worked at a pizza shop at the time, I remember I used to leave my crossbody purse in the back restroom where the toilet paper was stored and I used to tuck a roll in my bag with me before leaving my shift for the night. I felt so guilty and embarrassed at my circumstances, my co-workers at the pizza shop treated me like family. I know they wouldn’t have been mad at me for taking toilet paper - honestly they would probably have been more mad for not telling them about the trouble I was in. All this to say, for that year I snuck toilet paper, I was a toilet paper bandit, a Charmin thief and that feeling stayed with me. The interesting thing is, as I got older, the shame and guilt I felt for the lack I was experiencing in life slowly morphed into gratitude when I went off to college and restocked my first apartment with toilet paper rolls.

To this day, the amount of joy a pack of toilet paper from Costco gives me is indescribable. Maybe it’s a bit of a silly story but it’s just one of those things that reminds me of where I’ve been, where I’m not anymore and the work I want to put in so that other “toilet paper bandits” like younger me have resources at their disposal.

Which leads me to the next point.

Pillar Two - A Sense of Purpose:

The timing of all of this was kind of crazy. When we experienced the pregnancy loss we were also in the process of renovating our recording studio in hopes of opening it up for business. We spent a total of 2 years renovating the space, Aaron poured his energy into doing a lot of the renovations himself and managing the different contractors to complete the work. It was a great outlet for him, I feel like his grief combined with action is what transformed the physical studio and the joy we feel on the other side of it now wouldn’t be as rich had we not had some tears mixed with the sweat.

We opened ELEV8 SOUND STUDIOS on October 25th, 2024. Our biggest goal with opening the studios was to create a safe space for creatives to get their projects done. We envisioned encouraging other artists to believe that their unique abilities and perspectives were worth capturing and bringing to life. For me, it was really important to have a clean recording studio where women felt comfortable and capable - a lot of us ladies have seen some sketchy studios in our time and I was so looking forward to having ours feel like a retreat space.

Our collective goal was to gather a community, to make beautiful music and to finish our own projects as well. We met so many amazing artists, entrepreneurs and creatives throughout this process and we continued to pray that we would build a collaborative community. We met Nate (our friend & producer) and his wife Laurie and now we are artists within CASA, (why & how you’re reading this now through The CASA Sound Substack page).

Subscribe now

I think if we hadn’t experienced the loss, this one year anniversary since opening our studios wouldn’t mean as much and our appreciation for the people that have come alongside us is also deeper. Is this what makes joy enduring? Do we have a deeper sense of gratitude for reaching the year milestone in our business since we couldn’t celebrate the 1 year of our child?

On the “quest” for discovering the difference between happiness and joy, I realized I felt secure in my experience and capacity of gratitude, my sense of purpose was developing, so now what about a spiritual connection?

Pillar Three: Spiritual Connection

I love this painting so much. I remember the first time I saw it, I stopped in my tracks, stared at it for a long time, took a picture of it on my phone, made it my screensaver and then printed it and framed it.

This painting is called “The Melody of Rain” by Michael Cheval. When I look at this, I feel seen. To me, this painting depicts a ballerina who is entranced by the melancholic melodies depicted by the black umbrellas escaping the record player - it feels like when she hears music that is sad it awakens something in her, causing the foot closest to the record player to raise while the other foot nearest the group of ballerinas is flat while they dance on the waves of the ocean. I love how the water runs out of the record player as if it had been lost in the depths at sea, which symbolizes our buried emotions. She’s finally taking time to listen to a sad song and it’s bringing her back to her passion. The dancers in the background in a set of three while her tea cup and tea pot in front of her lay empty, another set of three - alluding to the 1-2-3, 1-2-3 steps she no longer dances to because there wasn’t enough caffeine to keep from the burnout of the old routine. Perhaps I see in this what I want to see and that’s the beauty in art. This painting reminds me of how I feel about my relationship with God.

Since I was a little girl I feel like I was given the gift to sing and write songs and this gift has gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life. It’s how I process, grieve and express myself. Now the thing that is most difficult for me is sharing that art. I’ve gotten comfortable sitting by the record player in my melancholy but I know in this new season of life that God is leading me to stand up again, he’s illustrating what life could look like once the ballerina in the painting stands up again. That’s been the hardest thing for me, to believe in myself again, to trust that my musical gifts aren’t just for getting myself through my own grief or trauma but now I’m supposed to do something with these songs, I’m supposed to share them with other people.

To experience joy I need God. The final “pillar” in my processing brought me here.

“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy” Psalm 126:5

This past year Aaron and I have been working on our music, working to complete our individual projects and have been fortunate enough to meet Nate who is producing the projects and bringing them to life in a way we never could have imagined. The best part of all of it is that between the four of us (Nate, Laurie, Aaron & myself) we want to do this on a consistent basis. We want to continue to put out music, heal, relate and encourage other artists to finish their work.

We did a few fun covers together as our first time recording before diving into our own songs and one of the first ones we did was You Make My Dreams Come True by Daryl Hall and John Oats. As someone who usually gravitates to singing sad songs, this was a new thing for me and I really enjoyed the process. We thought this would be a great one to share in honor of our 1 year since launching the studios. It feels like a giant thank you to everyone who has trusted us to help them in their creative pursuits this past year. We made a compilation video of some highlights and memories. I couldn’t help but realize, watching it back, that each session was restoring our joy bit by bit. What a beautiful thing to look back on, we can’t wait to continue on this road, to share our personal projects and to document this journey.

My take aways from processing about Joy this past year:

1. Give it time.

2. Tears are never in vain.

3. You have more agency than you realize, stop rehearsing the negative script.

4. The right people will come and they will care.

5. Gratitude can get you through almost anything.

6. Say less. Write more.

7. God wants you to experience joy, lean on him & trust even when it’s scary.

8. Don’t take yourself too seriously, not everything is precious.

9. Complain less, it feels great to just do the work.

10. When you’re feeling down, go look at a roll of toilet paper 😂

With love,

V

You Make My Dream Come True (Cover)- Daryl Hall and John Oats

audio only version

If you want to listen to more CASA Music click here!

You like ‘Yo Mama’ jokes?

The chasm between how much money an artist needs to make music and how much they’ll make off their music is so wide…

HOW WIDE IS IT??

It’s so wide, the tip yo mama leaves at the local coffee shop for the struggling artist behind the counter does more to financially support them than the last 3 songs they released.

(Don’t worry, I would never insult your mom).

I feel like a con man

I love working with great artists and I care deeply about making their music the best it can be. But in order to feed my family, I’m forced to charge prices to these artists that they are almost certain to never recoup. Spotify pays out around $0.003 per stream. Streaming is, of course, the main way we consume music today. I have a client who’s amassed over a million streams on Spotify over the last 3 years or so. This is hard to do. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and consistency; not only in writing, producing and releasing the music, but in marketing and networking - not to mention whatever regular job he works to pay for all of this. What kind of returns does he see for all his hard work? Somewhere between $3k-$4k. Seeing as he probably spent around $20k to achieve these results, this would not be considered a good return on investment, at least not monetarily. So why does he do it? Because it’s what he feels called to do. It’s what he loves to do. Artists have this driving need to convey their inner lives to the outside world. With some God-given talent and a lot of hard work they can learn to convey these things in a way that other people actually enjoy. We all love this, not just because it’s enjoyable and gets our feet a-tappin’, but because it helps us make sense of our own thoughts and feelings. But what do they get in return? What do we give them for all their labor? That song that helped you through that break-up or loss of a loved one? The song that played during your first dance at your wedding?

“Thanks so much Miss Artist Person for all your hard work. Here’s $0.003.”

It’s crazy! Music used to cost about a dollar per song and we were happy to pay that. In order for an artist to make $1, they need someone to stream one song over 300 times. With all the new music that comes out every day, no one is listening to one song 300 times within any reasonable time period. My most listened to song last year was called City On A Hill by Mon Rovia. I felt like I listened to that song a ton, but when my Spotify wrapped came around, I only listened to it about 40 times. He was paid about 12 cents…

I don’t mean to sound accusatory. None of this is your fault. This is just the world we live in. Often, what makes someone a great artist, also makes them a terrible business person. So slimy business people find it pretty easy to take advantage of artists. I’m not trying to form a posse to run down these crooks and I’m not here to diagnose where things went wrong. I’m just trying to open eyes to things that are wrong.

When I’m talking to an artist about starting a new project, I feel like I’m selling a false dream; preying on their need to express themselves. I feel like a con man.

“Conveying your deepest thoughts and feelings through music is what you were created to do; you can’t put a price tag on destiny. That’ll be $1200.”

I hate this feeling.

Sure, I could just charge less. But then I wouldn’t be able to put the kind of time and energy into each project that it deserves. I would have to become an assembly line of derivative, formulaic productions, just to keep the lights on and kids fed.

What can one do?

CASA is an effort to find a new way forward so we can all grow and thrive together, and make something new and beautiful.

“Alright, so you and a bunch of other dirty hippies want to go out to the woods and make music. How, pray tell, will you pay for that?”

Glad you asked!

There are multiple avenues that I’m exploring. The sync licensing world, for instance, is one of the best ways independent artists can make some money. If you’re not familiar with sync, it’s anytime a piece of music is used in synchronization with visual media, such as films, TV shows, or advertisements. Relatively big money can be paid to an independent artist whose song gets on a tv show, commercial or movie. I’m working on building relationships with music supervisors and sync houses to get these kinds of opportunities for the music we make.

Some other ways to rake in the pennies will be putting on different events; songwriting camps, where CASA artists can help up and coming songwriters learn the craft; live shows and even small tours around the region; custom jingles where we write and produce songs for local business or anniversary presents etc; and of course, merch. We’ll partner with designers to create a merch line for each artist that will give them some passive income.

The primary way, however, is this Substack. Beyond being a soap box from which I can launch my latest diatribe, I want this to be an interactive art gallery where CASA artists display their work. If we can bring in enough paid subscribers, we’ll offset the cost of production and I won’t have to experience that nasty con man feeling. If we can really grow this thing, then I could start paying money back out to the artists. Artists making money from their art? I know it sounds far-fetched, but I believe it’s possible. By becoming a paid subscriber, you’ll get unfettered access to everything we make. You’ll get early access and a download link to every song we produce. But more than just songs, I want to create full experiences; behind-the-scenes content, articles, visual art, short stories, all working together as a vibrant eco system of artistic expression.

We are building a new Christian music scene. It’s going to be honest, beautiful, imperfect, dangerous, God is going to like it and you will too. Join us and help us make better Christian art.

I am driven by the desire to create something beautiful and new.

But I feel artistically orphaned; creatively homeless.

I am an artist. I am a Christian.

Sometimes it feels like there’s little room for Christians in the arts and little room for artists in the Church.

I want to make art that means something. I don’t want to chase hits or follow trends. I don’t want to sing about the club or about a girl who doesn’t exist. I don’t want to wallow in self pity or descend into nihilism. I want my art to flow from a deep place and to connect with others. I want to be honest.

At the same time, I want to feel free to dazzle people, to entertain people, to delight people with my art. In the same way the Heavens declare the glory of God without saying a single word, I want my art to point people heavenward without them even noticing. Yet I don’t feel like I have to cater to people’s preferences. I don’t feel the need to fit in some box. I don’t want to dumb anything down in order to be relatable. I don’t want to sermonize. I don’t want to pretend, in order to be a “good witness”. I want to be free to make mistakes. I want to be honest.

And I want to find people that feel the same way.

If I don’t have an artistic family then maybe I should make one. If I can’t find a creative home, then maybe I need to build one.

Charmed I’m Sure…

My name is Nate Yake. I am a husband, father, artist, and music producer from Detroit, Michigan. I’ve been producing artists full time for about 8 years. I love taking songs from the voice memo stage to a fully produced work of art. But instead of spending time trying to validate myself in Word, here’s some of my work. I’ll let the music speak for itself.

Walk On Ahead by Ol’ Nate (my artist project)

More than money and hopefully more than my own ego, I care about making the music I work on, the best it can possibly be. I’m always trying to do something new. I’m always pushing my artists out of their comfort zone and I’m good at getting the best out of them.

When looking for artists to work with, I primarily look for Christians who have something to say and are willing to try new things. I’m usually pretty thrilled with the results! But when I think of where they could go next with their music, I’m at a loss. Like I said in the beginning of this article, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room for real artists in the church. And in consequence, there is not a lot of good art.

What’s the Problem?

Firstly, I’ll say that I do see value in some of the music that comes out of the Christian mainstream. Every now and then, there’s a song that satisfies the narrow criteria for Christian radio airplay while also shining as an authentic work of art. Corporate worship music also has its own distinct purpose, and though I have issues in that realm as well, that’s not what I’m talking about today.

It seems to me however, that mainstream Christian music does not explore, in any great detail, the vast panoply of human emotions and experiences. Instead, it offers vague niceties, warm thoughts, and uplifting exhortations that lightly blanket over any and all possible experiences that a human being might have. To me, these songs are bland and uninteresting. Some people might find them catchy or helpful on an especially hard day, but they are generally only good for creating a calming atmosphere of amiable tones to mask the screams of your 3 kids in the back seat of your mini van.

There is, however, plenty of good art being made in the Christian world. Some of it sneaks into the mainstream, but most of it stays on the fringes. I hope I can count myself among them. But we are poor, lonely, and afraid.

What is Good Art?

Art is any form of human expression that involves creating, manipulating, or presenting visual, auditory, or performative elements to convey ideas, emotions, or experiences.

(Yes I used AI to get this definition, don’t hate me. It was the best one).

So what is “good art”?

Let’s hear what some of the humans have to say.

“Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.”

-Leo Tolstoy

Put more simply, good art conveys honest emotion in a way other people can resonate with. So good art, above all, must be honest. Anything else is propaganda.

“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Good art must be beautiful. That doesn’t mean it can’t be dark, scary, disturbing, or even upsetting at times. But ultimately it should elevate and please you.

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.”

and also,

“From the heart—may it go to the heart.”

-Ludwig van Beethoven

So good art can allow us to transcend the mundane and access a higher spiritual reality. In other words, it connects us to each other and to God.

But is it Biblical??

From Scripture it is clear that God values honest human expression in the form of art. We have the songs of Miriam and Moses, the great love Song of Solomon, the songs of David and those of the various musicians in his orbit, the book of Job, and several hymns in the New Testament. These works express all sorts of feelings and experiences; love and praise for God, romantic love, fear, betrayal, despair, hatred and violence toward enemies, and even anger and frustration toward God. Even Jesus primarily conveyed his message through works of fiction (parables). Moreover, the Bible itself is a work of art.

“The Bible is a sacred book, but it is also a book of stories, songs, and visions that rival the greatest works of human literature. Its style is not merely a vehicle for truth but a thing of beauty in itself.”

-C.S. Lewis

“The Bible is not only a book of religion but the most influential work of literature in Western culture. Its myths, symbols, and archetypes have shaped the imagination of artists for centuries.”

-Northrop Frye

“The Bible, as the inspired Word of God, is a masterpiece of divine and human artistry, where the beauty of its words and images points to the beauty of God Himself.”

-Pope John Paul II

So I think it’s safe to say the pursuit of creating art is God-approved, since it’s one of the primary ways he’s chosen to communicate with his people.

Alright, enough of these old dead guys. In conclusion, good art is honest, beautiful, connecting and worth pursuing. It’s probably a bunch of other things as well. Many a book has been written on the subject, but this will do for the time being.

The Dream That is CASA

CASA is an effort by a group of God-fearing miscreants to create honest and beautiful art that connects us to each other and God, primarily in the form of music. I want to do this in the context of a local community.

My hope is that it would grow into a new music scene. What is a music scene? It’s a local community of artists and musicians that develops its own sound and ethos through collaboration and mutual growth. Think Motown or the Seattle Grunge Scene. But the “music scene” goes back further than that. The First Viennese School (as it’s called by people who drink excessive amounts of tea) was basically a local music scene in Vienna, Austria from the 1770s to the 1820s. It was home to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven among others. There are numerous other examples but suffice it to say, music scenes have a rich history of creating amazing new sounds and musical movements. That’s what I ultimately want to do with CASA. I want to use the skills I have to facilitate a new Christian musical expression. And I want to find others with the same desire. This Substack will document the journey and act as a sort of art Gallery, displaying the work we create.

In subsequent articles, I’ll dive deeper into details of what this will look like. If you’re interested in following this journey, please subscribe! We’d love to have you along. In the meantime please take a moment to listen to some of our work.

Walk On Ahead

by Ol’ Nate ()

Wake up one morning
Shake your head
You are older now
Than when you laid down for bed
Your family still sleeps
As the coffee maker weeps
And you sit and begin to think

About playtime in the summer sun
When you could be anyone
But those days are gone
Those days are gone
Your father and your mother son
And no one else to anyone
Reality’s come
Reality’s come so you’ll

Walk on ahead
See your dreams pass you by
Pave the way for others while
The child and you dies
Walk on ahead

Come home one evening
A hard days work
You’re glad that it’s over though
Tomorrow still lurks
While the kids run and scream
You fall into a daydream
Where tomorrow’s not to dread
Where weeks made of daily grinds
Are too few and far to find,
But these days are long
And you must soldier on
Where tomorrow is not a thing to dread
Like a guillotine to take my head
Your heart is so numb
But the bills will still come so you’ll

Walk on ahead
See your dreams pass you by
Pave the way for others and
Live on through their lives
Let go of all that haunts you
See yourself through their eyes
There’s beauty just before you
More than you realize
Walk on ahead