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| Thursday, December 14, 2006
Music > Interview with Eric Lee Writer : Dawn Fung Following the review of Unconditional, Eric Lee offers CreateLeVoyage.com readers insights about supporting local bands, the theme of his album and songwriting. Dawn : I see a revival in the number of locally written gospel songs by bands like Walking On Water but I wonder if you feel the same way as well about the scene since you started. Eric : It's always an uphill battle for local musicians. Many people will not hesitate to spend $20 on a Don Moen or a Hillsongs CD but would balk at local efforts, so we have to be two notches higher in order to get the attention of people. It's great that local acts are coming up but the issue that weighs heavily in my mind is always of sustainability. It's exciting to start something, but is there sustainability? For every album that I have completed, I wonder whether there is strength and resources to do another! So at the end of the day, it boils down to God's agenda, not ours. What does God say about this? What does He want to do with our hands and gifts? How will He want to do it? We have to constantly seek this, if not, we miss the forest for the trees. The genesis and history of the first album Here I Am can be found on my website. I explained how God has placed in my path, John Kuek, my executive producer and a very good friend of mine, who co-visioned with me on this whole ministry. I strongly believe in God's divine appointments of people that he placed in our lives, we have to look for the signs, be sensitive to others and not just be locked up in our own worlds. Dawn : I read your website and I know you've written a bit about Unconditional, including this lucid line "I stand absolutely humbled whenever I think of this great and unconditional Love. I pray that this album will stir us and remind us of this deep and loving truth." Could you give me some insight behind other factors that brought about the concept of Unconditional. Eric : There was a period when my pastor's messages focused a lot on God's redemptive purposes for our lives through the cross. The messages reminded me that our God is the God of the 'how much more'. God's love for us is a lavish one, an extravagant one, an unconditional one. The theme 'unconditional' then, sits at the very heart of what we believe in. To reinforce what this means is crucial because the salvation of man is an unconditional gift of God through Jesus Christ. The album cover is intentionally designed with reminders of Jesus' sacrifice. You will see that the letter 't' is red in colour, and a shadow of a cross in the background. If you take a closer look at the other albums, you find one red lettering in each of the titles of the albums.The whole redemption purpose and initiation is 100% God. Period. Our anchor should therefore rest on this. Dawn : I enjoyed listening to Unconditional more than once. It has blessed me tremendously, in the way that we are asked to 'sing a new song unto the Lord'. How has your songwriting - technique and understanding has changed or been influenced till this point? Eric : On a technical level, it's easier trying to come up with the 'standard' stuff but I deliberately and intentionally avoid that as much as possible. If you listen to some of the praise music albums selling in the stores, especially those directed at youths, the lyrical content lacks depth. It tends not to go beyond the 'I love you God', 'You are wonderful', cliches. While they are very easy to sing, I think there can be more to express our relationship with God. I want to go beyond the 'praise God' and the 'hallelujah' phrases. For example, in the track 'Our God', I paint the imagery of God slaking our thirst as we draw nearer and nearer to Him. The balm of Gilead metaphor in 'Heart of Devotion' deserves further study. 'The River' is a great metaphor of God's unconditional reservoir of grace and mercy. If you look at my first album Here I Am the picture of weeding in the garden is apparent. One of my favourites is 'Strength Of Your Grace' from the second album Lead Us On. There you will find two languages being sung in the same song, adding a refreshing perspective to how we as Asians might worship God. While there may be a lot of Chinese worship CDs in the stores, these are often monolingual rather than bilingual. As Chinese Singaporeans, we are able to express ourselves in English or in Mandarin when the occasion calls for it. A bilingual expression of our faith, that is, the same song being sung in both English and Mandarin in the same album is something different altogether. At the end of the day, after all is said and done, God looks at our hearts. I thank God that He looks at Jesus first who now lives in us and washes us clean with his blood. Without Christ my heart stands in judgement. Because of Christ, God passes over me. In response, I want to encourage everyone that we can run this race without ever giving up, no matter how difficult the journey is (see Isaiah 43:1-3). I pray that the songs in the albums will go a small way in encouraging us in our race of faith.
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