Hillary Scott Welcomes Maverick City Music’s Chandler Moore On Country Faith Radio
Maverick City Music’s Chandler Moore joins Country Faith Radio with Hillary Scott. Fresh off his Grammy win and performance, Moore recounts his upbringing as a pastor’s son and how the heartbreak of losing his possessions in a house fire became the catalyst for creative and spiritual revelations. Hillary also shares a mini-playlist of some of her favorite Christian songs perfect for Easter. Tune in and listen to the episode in-full this Sunday (April 17) at 8am PT / 10am CT / 11am ET or anytime on-demand at apple.co/_CountryFaith.
Chandler Moore on Music Finding Its Way to Him
I think music found its way to me and [I] really couldn’t escape it. I mean I played basketball. I thought I was going to go to college and play basketball and do all that stuff. I didn’t really start chasing music till end of middle school, eighth, ninth grade. It was all about sports before that. I would play in church, sing, but I wasn’t really passionate about it. And ninth grade hit and I would spend hours in my garage that I made like a janky studio, home studio, writing songs, producing tracks, bringing some of my friends over to sing songs, I could barely sing at the time. [It’s] been a really cool journey and something that I ran into but the Lord has obviously ordained and planned for.
Chandler Moore on Writing Authentic Songs at Maverick City Music Writing Camps
At the end of the day, a lot of times we get together and write and we end up just talking for an hour and a half and there’s no songs that come out of it. But for us, that is more beautiful than trying to conjure up a song. But a lot of the songs come out of pure relationships. Come out of sitting at a table, eating together, learning about each other, learning about our backgrounds, learning about families and environments and cultures that we come from. And I feel like that’s why the songs that people love feel so authentic, because we’re not just writing with people for business sake, or for career moves, or just to put money in our pockets. These are songs that come out of real relationship and places of real conversation and questions to each other.
Chandler Moore on Losing Everything in an Apartment Fire 4 Days Before Recording “Jireh”
Four days before I recorded “Jireh,” my apartment caught on fire. I lost everything. It was the hand of God, because I was supposed to be in my apartment. But me and my wife, we decided to leave a day early to try to catch a church service in Dallas, Texas, where I live now, and I was living in Georgia at the time. And four days before we recorded “Jireh,” before we recorded “Shall Not Want,” “Wait On You,” all those songs that are talking about not wanting for anything and the Lord being enough and waiting on the Lord to come through and be waiting for His perfect timing… I lost everything. I mean, I showed up to Elevation to record “Jireh” with no clothing, the suitcase that I had, and no identification. Everything. It was crazy. So “Firm Foundation” is a real life, “Jireh” is a real life, testimony. “Wait On You,” “Shall Not Want,” all those songs that we do are just, it’s just real life testimonies out here in these streets.