Logo

 

Banner Image:   Baptist-Times-banner-2000x370-
Template Mode:   Baptist Times
Icon
    Post     Tweet

'It feels as though it has come full circle'


Michael and Lisa Gungor, curators of the musical collective simply known as Gungor, are returning to making music that connects people, and themselves to God. Just don't label them 'Christian musicians', they tell Alex Baker at Greenbelt  


Gungor1
 

How does Greenbelt compare to other Christian festivals and why do you like it?

We really like European festivals in general, but especially Greenbelt: it’s the people. We don’t have to explain or scurry around the issues. Some festivals, especially in America, have now become so rigid that they ask you to sign belief statements before you play…so we just don’t play them anymore.

Greenbelt is open and welcoming – it’s thinking about justice, it’s thinking about spiritual things.


Your latest album, One Wild Life – it’s ambitious: three albums in one year. How do you maintain quality?

Maybe we haven’t, we’ll see! [Laughter] We have stopped travelling so much and have stayed at home more. We have always loved travelling, but at a certain point you just start to feel really tired… then we had the idea: what if we stayed at home more, made more music? For some reason you just get caught in the system and feel like you can’t – you have to keep travelling with your band, you have to keep playing.

And so with the birth of our youngest daughter, it kind of made us stay home a little bit more and we found that we really loved it. We were writing a ton of music as a result of life situations that were happening, and the songs just kept coming and coming - we had an abundance of songs, so really it was just finding the time to do it. It’s been a lot of work. Working into the nights, sometimes all hours.

But it’s been really good being able to create so much, which again, even though we love doing live shows, there’s something about getting music out faster so that people can listen to it, rather than saying, “In two years we’ll release another album”. It’s been really fun - a lot of work, but really fun.

Gungor Lisa


It must be fun now to be able to take that out after working on it for the year…

Yeah. Some of the songs we don’t know how we are going to play live!


How would you describe the change in the music, and perhaps its themes, from when you started doing this to where you are now?

In some weird way, especially really recently, it feels as though it has come full circle…we started by trying to make music that connected people and ourselves to God, and then we got a little bit more subtle about our ideas of art: it doesn’t have to be in this ‘worship box’. We tried to explore musically where that could go and the deconstruction of our faith.

Then we really didn’t want to be associated with Christian music for a while, really adamantly, and now we are kind of coming back to the idea that it’s nice to have music that connects you to God! [Laughter] Just recently, on this trip, we’ve felt we kind of want to make a worship album. There is something about where we’ve come from that moves in our hearts – it just feels nice, your heart is opening.

The evolution has been wrestling, but that’s what it’s always been for all of our music – wrestling with reality, with: What does it mean to be a human? Is there a God? Does God love us? What is all of this? Wrestling with that and asking the questions, finding moments of ‘Oh, I feel like I see reality right now’ and moments of ‘I don’t see any anything right now, I need you, please’ - writing about all of that.

So, musically we have evolved as our static sensibilities have redressed differently than they did 10 years ago, when we made different musical styling choices than we do now, and I think it is tied to beliefs somehow. But now I am starting to see change and, more and more, a trajectory through all of it.

Gungor Michael

How do you feel about the label of ‘Christian musician’?

We don’t feel like it’s a fair label for anybody, it shouldn’t really exist - unless it is for people who are creating music purely to fit within that label. There is a lot of judgement and scrutiny to see how many times, for example, you’re going to say ‘Jesus’ in order to be judged a Christian band. We wish the label would go away for most artists.

We feel like God is spoken about through all of our music and it’s sad if someone can’t see that and creates these lines between what is sacred and spiritual. I have some genuine philosophical issues with Christian music and I have had, historically, ego issues with it too – I try to keep those separate, but it’s a little challenging because I know I don’t want to be associated with something I think is silly and I don’t want to be judged by people that I respect for being a part of the ‘Christian music scene’ and that hurts my ego and my pride and my sense of importance as a musician.

Recently, I’ve cared much less about that, and it’s kind of almost become humorous…so maybe because we drive a Jeep, we’re ‘Jeep musicians’: it’s an equally odd label or box to put us in. Instead, we see it as our tradition, where we come from, that inspires us to write about these things.

But ego aside, I still have philosophical issues with the label as I believe it can reduce both art and faith into something less than what it could be. 



Michael and Lisa Gungor are curators of the Grammy-nominated musical collective simply known as Gungor. They recently completed their most ambitious endeavour to date called One Wild Life, which is comprised of three full-length albums - Soul, Spirit and Body. The interview took place at Greenbelt 2016
 

More Greenbelt interviews:


Alex Baker (right) is the former sub-editor and movie reviewer of The Baptist Times who now works as a photographer www.alexbakerphotography.com


Gungor Alex
 
Baptist Times, 26/06/2017
    Post     Tweet
Helping Baptist churches embrace the nations 
2:19 is a charity that helps churches use English conversation classes and cafe initiatives to reach, welcome and share the gospel with speakers of other languages. CEO David Baldwin highlights three Baptist churches it has worked with
'Seeing the Easter story brought to life is a dramatic and moving experience for everyone' 
Have you ever experienced the Easter story through live theatre? This article by the Passion Trust highlights the power of a Passion Play - and several are taking place around the UK this Easter
Golden tears and beauty for ashes for survivors of sexual violence
Hannah Rose Thomas led trauma-healing art workshops around the world, before being invited to paint stunning portraits of the women she encountered. Her new book and exhibition - launching on International Women’s Day - help to tell their stories
Reaching people who are offline
New analysis indicates that almost half of over 65s are either unable to use the internet safely and successfully, or are not online at all. This has important implications for churches, writes Alex Drew - and here are some ideas to consider
‘Our aim is to help participants learn peace-making skills’ 
Baptist minister and mediation trainer Joanna Williams introduces a five-session course she is hosting for anyone interested in transforming conflicts in a church setting – and beyond
What might a Kingdom business look like?
The final part of the series offers two ways to reflect on Lydia, Nehemiah, Solomon and David as exemplars in business
     The Baptist Times 
    Posted: 05/02/2024
    Posted: 16/12/2023
    Posted: 15/12/2023
    Posted: 06/12/2023
    Posted: 27/11/2023
    Posted: 12/09/2023
    Posted: 31/08/2023
    Posted: 13/06/2023
    Posted: 01/05/2023