Maverick City Music
Before their show in San Antonio, TX, we caught up with Naomi Raine, Brandon Lake and Lizzie Morgan all about working with legend Kirk Franklin, the palpable energy of this tour, and how the way Kingdom Book One was captured carries so much meaning.
“I think this album is for every fan that loves music, and our hope is that these songs and the stories behind them will serve as a way to raise awareness to the challenges that people face everyday—many of which are forgotten about,” Maverick City Music’s Jonathan Jay explains. “For me, the most impactful part of this experience was the prisoners’ reaction to simply being remembered as humans. It was an overwhelming sense of gratitude and excitement that carried through every day we spent with these men. It was unbelievable, and I think if more people would just become aware of these feelings, they would want to help find a solution for the issues that come with incarceration.”
Tell us how the KINGDOM Tour has been so far! Any favorite moments?
Brandon Lake: The phrase that comes to mind is: joy bomb. It is an absolute joy bomb getting to lead with Kirk (Franklin), and just everything that he brings. I mean, he's just a ball of energy and it's been so much fun.
It's also been really beautiful to see real joy actually released – it's not this fake joy, this false joy.
(Right at this moment, a group of Maverick City members are laughing and cheering out in the hallway.)
You can tell!
Brandon Lake: A lot of our worship can be about those soaking and heavy ministry moments, so it's been beautiful to not only have that on this tour, but to have high praise and just all out fun and dancing, and to actually have so many different expressions happen within two hours, you know?
There's so many different words for worship, so to be able to hit all of those in one moment: shouting, screaming, and dancing, AND singing, soaking and reflecting — all of it — has been really fun and feels like family.
[Kirk’s] become like a big brother or father figure in a way. Every tour is another opportunity for us to get to know each other and get closer, and I feel like we really have on this tour.
Naomi Raine: Yes, I “ditto” all of that, and I would even add – I am loving the Mav family right now even more.
Last tour was super beautiful, but this time I’m really starting to see the growth and blossoming of each person.
I think that we have operated so much more like a team, because we're not a group, we're a collective, right? We’re a collective of individual artists, but we are a team. And I feel like I've seen us become more of a team, and really submit and yield to one another. It’s been beautiful to watch these moments unfold: to watch Lizzie (Morgan) step forward and blossom and people get to see…they haven't even seen all that's in her!
And then when we have the pop-ins from Ryan (Ofei), Aaron (Moses) and Dante (Bowe), and just to see them for who they are has been really wonderful. Our times behind stage where we get to hang out with the crew… this whole thing has just been family and seeing us all grow. When we get off the stage, we're not all just going back to our individual dressing rooms like, “Okay, goodbye.” We literally hang with each other until it's time to get on the bus.
I just think it's so cool that we've grown as family, and that's a highlight for me as well.
Lizzie Morgan:
I was going to say: “Oh, it's a dream come true” but I don't really think I could have dreamt any of this up.
I think that the coolest part for me is getting to sing with Kirk Franklin every night – I grew up listening to his music. So it's just really, really surreal to be up there with him every night, and I think what this tour represents is two totally different worlds coming together.
The fact that we get to be a part of a collaboration like this… I think it’s something I haven't seen done in this genre of music, and so it's a huge honor that we get to be a part of something that's so different and something that represents diversity so well.
The crowds every night are the most cultured crowds I've ever seen.
I lead in California. I lead in Nashville. I’ve led in a lot of different rooms and I've never seen so many different cultures represented – not just black and white, but Indian representation and Hispanic representation. So I think that that has just been really, really cool to worship with so many different types of people too.
Well, we know this album is particularly meaningful. You all recorded a significant portion of the album on the grounds of a Florida prison and captured the voices of 1,300+ inmates. What was it like to see these men rejoice and praise in a place that feels like the antithesis of those feelings?
Brandon Lake: It made me wonder how they could be so filled with freedom and hope and it was something that we didn't have to lead them into – they had it. They released it.
And yet I'm at my church with people who are physically free and can do whatever they want. They’re not confined, and yet I'm trying my hardest to coach them and teach them what freedom looks like and to step into it for themselves.
So, for me I was really blown away – not by what we brought and what we created together, but by what we encountered when we got there and what they released: their level of hunger and expectation was some of the most inspiring levels of expectation I've ever seen in my life. I didn't expect that.
It’s a really interesting thing to have people inside of a prison teach the world about what freedom looks like.
Lizzie Morgan: It makes me emotional thinking about it. I just remember, before we started the recording process, I tried to prep a lot because I thought I was going be drained emotionally and spiritually.
I was thinking we were going to pour into them and give them everything that we can, and every day I left so filled up – more filled up than I had been in years of being in church and in worship services. Those men impacted my life in a way that I don't think I’ll ever really have words for.
A lot of them are going to be in there for life. When you start singing about freedom, for them, that most likely means freedom in heaven, so it's just a different kind of sound and you really can't explain it unless you're in the room. I just feel like they left me so filled up and just truly changed forever.
And I learned a lesson. I think I said in one of the Q+A’s we’ve had that I've put a lot of limitations on who I allow to speak into my life and who can change my life.
I think I learned a major lesson being there that you have to really be open to anyone speaking into your life because they really did change my life.
Naomi Raine: Yes, like if God is using it, let Him use whatever tool He's using. I think about that too.
I also think there's something so beautiful about men's voices being lifted to God. What's funny, I'm thinking about what y'all said, and we don't hear it a lot in church. The only time you really hear men's voices super loud in church is if it's the pastor or the worship leader.
I remember when we stood in a circle to sing on the first day we were there, and these men were singing: “Oh, there's nothing better than You.” We had in-ears in and they were screaming – just singing so loud that my ears were hurting.
Brandon Lake: There was a video that captured this moment: you see me just look around at everybody as soon as they started singing like I couldn't believe it (laughs).
Naomi Raine: It's insane how loud they were, how in it they were. And I don't think we've really heard men raise their voices, like, I understand how the walls of Jericho could come down at the shout of people, but I didn't know that before I stood in that room.
I remember when I left, I just kept saying this phrase over & over in my head: “I know why the caged bird sings. I know why the caged bird sings. I know why the caged bird sings.” I get it.
Brandon Lake: We need to write that…
Naomi Raine: Don't you write it without me! (laughs)
I think there's something to recognizing that we all have cages, you know? Whether they're physical, or mental (I think now is the time we are paying attention to more of our mental cages), but I think that when you are faced with your cage and you allow the Lord to process you, there's a song that comes out of that. There's a song of freedom that comes out of that.
When Paul and Silas worshipped in that prison, those chains broke. I think that when you sing and release that song of who God is in the midst of your confinement, there's freedom there. There is freedom there.
I also wanted to mention, some of the project was recorded at Mother Emanuel (Church in Charleston, SC) as well. So I think there's a real beauty in that, because I think many times we want to pick and choose who of the least of these that we minister to.
I think we have to minister to those that are imprisoned and visit them, but also to the widows and the orphans and those that have lost people, you know?
I think some of them are spiritually sick because their people have just been killed. I think there's a ministry to the persecuted, which is what we see in the Epistles: the Apostles and those men of God that walked with Jesus ministering to the churches and going: “hold on, don't worry,” and that is Mother Emanuel, that is Charleston right now after such a crazy tragedy, that is life rights. That's all of it, you know? I feel like we just have to spread it out, because I don't think that we’re always ministering to the prisoners, those that are victims of hate crimes, the persecuted church, etc. you know?
Absolutely.
You all touched on this a bit at the beginning, but tell us more about working with Kirk (Franklin) and the wisdom he’s bestowed on you all during this time of working together. I know it’s a full circle moment for a lot of you guys who grew up listening to his music.
Naomi Raine: He really is just the best. He's seasoned. He's been doing this forever.
I think because he's so different — generally we're more spontaneous, some of us are methodical — but he's very methodical. With his craft and skill, and with his rehearsing, he's a methodical person. You can really see his process and there's a certain way he views performance. And I don't mean “performance” in the sense that takes away from the ministry side of it, but he understands it and he shows up in a space.
He knows how to get people engaged in what he's delivering and so it's kind of like, that's the anointing on his life, and then he's also just a man of character. When you speak to him, he's humble.
If I come offstage and I'm sweating, he's already got a rag for me. He's handing everyone water – not just the singers but the crew members that are thirsty on the side.
lf he's not doing anything, he's finding a way to serve all the time. He's not perfect – he's not a perfect person – but what he's modeled for us is this humble, servant leader person who's also hilarious and amazing at what he does.
Brandon Lake: Something I've seen modeled from him is, you're right, he's not perfect, but he's present. Every time you get Kirk, he's looking you in the eye and making you feel seen and valued and loved. And he does that not just with our team, but with every single person he encounters. He's the last one to leave the Q+A’s, because he's always grabbing at least two or three people to hug them. You know, he's kissing babies (laughs).
He decided at a young age that he was always gonna be that way and make people feel loved and he does such a good job at it. And he's just an open book – any conversation that has come up and we're talking about something that has been really tough, he’s always sharing what he did in that situation and what he learned. And depending on the circumstance, he’s either proud of you for doing it differently or he’s sharing something he’s learned that he’s started to do, because he doesn't want to see us make the same mistakes that he did.
Him being an open book isn’t something he had to do, but he's just been so willing to help and to shepherd us.
He continues to light the fire in us. He's just the most encouraging person ever too — not just backstage, but in front of everyone, like almost embarrassingly too much, you know? (laughs) like it almost starts to sound fake? But it's actually just so genuine. He just loves us so much.
Lizzie Morgan: He's the real deal. What I imagined he would be like growing up: that is who he is.
I think he even puts himself in situations that maybe other people wouldn't put themselves in, like, I remember during tour rehearsals, I had this one song that I sing and he pulled me aside and asked: “Are you shy in real life? Because if you're shy in real life it's okay to be that, but if you're not, you should own this moment and that's gonna be what creates more moments.”
I could have totally been offended by that, but he took the risk because he saw something in me and I’m so grateful now for that moment now. He's a pusher of people and such an encourager.
One of the other things he said to us before we started this whole thing was: “I don't want it to be Kirk and y’all. I want it to be us,” and I think that he has really put forth the effort to make that happen. He wants to be with us and hang out with us and that means a lot to me.
Brandon Lake: He was willing to really have the hard conversations and talk about the elephant in the room early on with how we were collaborating this set, and I didn't even realize how different our sounds were until we tried it. It was like, oh gosh, this isn't as easy I thought it was gonna be! There's just a lot of feelings, a lot of emotions, a lot of thoughts, and a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and so for him to not only wait for the conversation to come up, but say Hey, let's go. Let's talk about this now – what do y'all think about this? What if we did this? – he just really has worked so hard to make this work and make us feel comfortable.
He could do so much more on these nights and he has actually sacrificed a lot to make sure that it's… I don't wanna say 50/50, because it's 100% of a different pie.
It's not just Mav, it's not just Kirk. It's like this…
Naomi Raine: Maverick… Franklin… City Pie… (laughs)
Catch Maverick City Music + Kirk Franklin in your city this Summer. Tour dates here.
Maverick City Music | Kingdom Book One
Lead Kingdom Book One with your congregation. Resources available at MultiTracks.com.