More Than Just Music
by Kimmy Wix
Cash Box Magazine February 10, 1990
HIS NAME ALONE HAS BECOME A LIGHT within the Christian industry —not to mention his illuminating talent for music. Reunion recording
artist Rich Mullins seems to stand in the center ofthe world, holding a torch. The torch he holds is not to make him self shine any brighter, but it does, however, represent a form of light we all should seek and, incidentally, places him in an entirely separate as sembly from today’s Christian music ministry.
So what causes this musical poet to be so mysteriously, yet intriguingly unique? He possesses many of the same qualities and accomplishments as other leading Christian artists, including a strong religious upbringing, commanding album performances, sold-out concerts, chart-peaking singles and numerous award nominations. Even with a vast list of musical achievements behind him, he continues to cast a sense of desolation when it comes to his musical career. Perhaps Mullins focuses primarily on the world’s piteous misleadings, and its means ofdealing with them, instead of focusing solely on his music. This assumption is evidently portrayed in his fourth and currently released album, Never Picture Perfect.
“I think a lot of what Never Picture Perfect is all about is...well, it’s kinda funny because sometimes you never know what something is all about until it’s all over,” explains Mullins. “A lot of it is about the tension of being in the world, but not of the world. It’s about the tension ofhow we want to put faith in our political leaders, yet no one who’s lived in the 20th Century has a single brain cell left that has reason to think we can put any kind of faith in any political leader. We wantto be able to believe in some kind of ideology, yet every ideology that we’ve ever tried out has broken down at some point. We
want to believe in all of those things that are real tangible and none of them work.
“The only thing that works is some thing that we can’t see, something beyond us and something that we can’t —and that really is God,” Mullins says. “God is the only hope. Some times I think it’s not really that black and white. Then I go back and read the scriptures and find out that it really is.
So Never Picture Perfect is really about being in the world, but not of it. We all have a good bit ofthe world inside us, but we can’t give up on ourselves be
cause of that. We should just put our faith in Christ and he will bring to completion that work that he began.”
Mullins received his first spark of recognition in 1980. He began working with Zion Ministries, performing with their band at retreats and churches
around the country. When the band recorded an album composed of songs that he had written, one of the tunes fell into the hands of Mike Blanton,
who was looking for a final cut for Amy Grant’s Age to Age project. Mullins’ “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” met the demand. After Grant recorded the
song, Blanton/Harrell signed him as an exclusive writer.
Since then, Mullins has penned other tunes for Grant, such as “Love of Another Kind,” and also “O Come All Ye Faithful,” recorded by Debby Boone. As a solo artist, he has recorded four albums, including his self-titled debut release, Pictures in the Sky,
Winds of Heaven...Stuff of Earth and his current Never Picture Perfect, which was produced by Reed Arvin. This project kicked off with three simutaneous
releases: “My One Thing,” “Bound to Come Some Trouble” and “To Rock Higher Education (sic).”
Whether it’s his sculptured from the-heart, to-the-heart lyrics or his vulnerable vocal presentation, Mullins’ music seems to capture listeners almost instantly. However, he will be the first one to admit that he doesn’t really like his voice at all.
“I just have a rotten voice,” he laughs. “I hate my voice and I think it’s very embarrassing to have to hear it. Sometimes I think I sound like two tin
cans being beaten together. Evidently, other people don’t mind it too much,” he says, laughing again. “I don’t make albums for me to buy, though. The
reason that I sing is because I trust my own interpretation of my songs better than I trust other people's. My songs tend to be real emotional and the songs
that I enjoy the most are the ones that hit me on a real gut kinda level. That’s why I like being a writer and a performer. I like putting together the whole package, because I think I can make it all work. There are some things that I think I’m good at and then there are some things I don’t think I’m
good at. So I know how to compensate those things.”
Although his voice does seem to flow with an emotionally gutsy approach (which is obviously a turn-on to his massive number offans), Mullins feels that his writing is certainly the most important.
“To me writing is not a whole lot different than building or plumbing,” he ponders. “When you build, you work with wood and you take it, shape it, hit
it, saw it, sand it and you do all those things and end up with a chairor table. With music, you just take sounds, you bend them, twist them and pound them. You do all those things and end up with a song. So I think there are some basic forms that a person needs to understand. Then once you get those basic forms down, then you can link them all and even have fun with it.”
While Mullins continues to receive excellent response from his current album, he also devotes much of his time to school, which he just recently began. He hopes this extention of education will benefit future mission work as well as his unique, yet fascinating individuality.
“For me, it’s real important that I keep in touch with people,” Mullins insists. “I find a great amount of inspiration in that. I’m just a believer in doing
more than just music, ya know?”
