Anointed Interview (2005) - Articles

Anointed

After an intermission of a few years, Anointed is back, and on a new record label. The album is Now Is The Time. GOSPELflava.com spoke with Steve Crawford and Da'dra Crawford Greathouse about the new set, about working with Andrae Crouch, and about production, including working with Roger Ryan and Warryn Campbell. We also discuss Anointed's tremendous testimony.

GOSPELflava.com: Anointed, the group, and also as individuals, have gone through some trials in the past few years. Da'dra was diagnosed with a tumor (and has now been given a clean bill of health), and the group was without a label home for a couple of years. How has all that you have gone through helped in your walk with Jesus Christ, and with your writing for this album?

Steve Crawford: It caused us to do a lot of praying. We had to really seek God and really ask Him for direction. Not only direction, but also how do He want us to continue. When you are in a desperate situation or in a place where you don’t have answers, that will move you to God. It will really cause you to focus better. It’s not like we didn’t have a relationship up until that point, but you really don’t want to be outside of His will. You don’t want to move if you are not supposed to.

When it comes to the music ministry, we just sought the will of God for our lives. He spoke to us and let us know that it wasn’t over for us, and that there was more ahead. We just trusted in Him. We believed in Him. We had people who had spoken into our lives to confirm that which God had already shared with us. It just seemed as if doors were just opening. The door to even record with Columbia opened. It was an amazing thing. People didn’t know that it was after two years of nothing happening. We had to trust God in what I considered the down time. In the midst of that down time, God provided for us. It also caused us to have our faith strengthened. That season was for our faith to be stronger in Him.

All of that affected our writing, since we write from our experiences. We write from our revelation.

GOSPELflava.com: Steve, you are now a father. What has that reality done for your ministry?

Steve Crawford: Being a father is probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’ve always ministered to people in traveling and singing. The only way that you know if they had an impact on your life is if they call or send a letter or email us on our website. Raising a family is a direct indication of how good or how bad you are doing. When you look at your children and you see how they are being raised, they will tell you exactly how they feel. If you are really being a great parent, they will say things like, 'I love you Dad. I want to be like you when I grow up.' There are

Now Is The Time

Helping things is Warryn Campbell (of Mary Mary fame) on "Gotta Move", which is one nice urban groove. Campbell knows how to add his signature funk without taking away from Anointed's style. Throw in a nice rhythm guitar and it will give you the urge do just what the title insists... Full Review

certain things that they say. There is no greater joy than the to have the people that you live with (including our spouses) to be able to say 'Not only are you a talented person, and not only does God use you in ministry, but you are also a good father and a husband.' I think that’s the total sum of success for me: to be able to raise a family and for them to look at me, and say that I am legit in every area. Not just the music part and not just the ministry part and then when I go home they can’t stand me. That’s not success. Success is for God to be glorified in every area.

GOSPELflava.com: This album has Anointed delivering more of a Gospel-oriented sound than on prior outings? Why was that important?

Steve Crawford: This time around, we are signed with Sony Urban, and we are on the Columbia imprint, which is just timely for us. The original vision for Anointed is that we would do contemporary/urban music. Our first record, Spiritual Love Affair, was very urban, and some said that it was ahead of its time. We loved that record, but no one bought it. Some people did like it though, such as Rodney Jerkins and Warryn Campbell.

I couldn’t believe it when Warryn said that he had the Spiritual Love Affair album, and that it influenced him to become a producer. I was like 'Wow! That’s amazing.'

Anointed

We have been sensing that God was going to take us in a new direction —new to everyone else perhaps, but familiar to us. Really, it’s closer to the original vision of what we wanted to accomplish musically. When God opened the door for us to record on Columbia, it was simple. There was no fight. They said for us to go ahead. So we got the green light and we just went for it.

GOSPELflava.com: How was it to be the main producers on this project?

Steve Crawford: It was really by default. We wanted to bring someone in that we knew was going to get us what we needed. I felt like if Mr A, B or C can do it, go ahead and get them. We were trying to contact some people, but other producers' schedules were not working out. Some were working on other projects and we couldn’t get in touch with others.

We were faced with a deadline, so our A&R director (Joseph Burney) was like, 'You wrote most of the songs on this project. Why don’t you go on and produce?' We were like, 'Joseph, this is such and important project.' But he said, 'Come on ya’ll.' After co-producing “Gonna Lift Your Name on High” with Roger, we were like, “This is exactly its vision.” Roger said, “Ya’ll need to go ahead and finish this song.” So we just looked at ourselves and said, 'Why not?'

We just got our musicians in there. We got some horns in there. We sang every part that we could think of. God just gave us the strength to produce that song, and “You Are”. Those were the last two songs that we produced.

Now is the time. Now is the time to do what you know you can do. People told us, 'You can do it. It’s in you.' We are so used to the comfort zones. On this project it was like, 'Now is the time Da'dra and Steve, write. Now is the time Da'dra and Steve, produce. Now is the time to do what God has placed inside of you.' That’s what we did.

GOSPELflava.com: What it like working with producers Roger Ryan and Warryn Campbell?

Anointed

Da'dra Crawford Greathouse: Roger was our musical director for years. We called Roger and asked him if he would like to co-produce a couple of songs ["Gonna Lift Your Name" and "Eternal Life"]. He’s just a brilliant musician. It was fun working with him on that level because we worked together on the road, but it’s different when you get in the studio together. We just had a blast, and he’s incredibly gifted.

Working with Warryn was a lot of fun. I think we laughed more than we worked, but I will say that he is a musical genius. He plays just about every instrument you can imagine. It is so incredible to see him work. He is literally a one-man band. We had a wonderful time working with him. It was a dream come true.

GOSPELflava.com: "Eternal Life" is a wonderfully moving ballad. What was the inspiration behind that song?

Steve Crawford: For a while, I really had a great desire to write a song about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A lot of songs that we say are Gospel songs target the effects of the Gospel, but I really wanted to write a song about the Gospel of Jesus. I just happened to be in the gym working out and the Lord gave me this melody. I ran and put it on a little digital recorder. I came home and the Lord reminded me about writing the Gospel. I thought about it and I thought about this melody and this music and I thought, 'What a wonderful combination.' We just wrote the song and had some incredible singers. My sister tore up on it. "Eternal Life" was one of the last songs that we wrote on the project. I was all “songwrited- out". If I wrote another song, it wass going to have to come from another source. That’s when "Eternal Life" came.

GOSPELflava.com: Why did you choose "Now Is The Time" as the title track?

Steve Crawford: I think that it was the message of the song and the title itself. If there is ever going to be a time to believe, it would be now. If there is ever going to be a time to be all that God wants us to be, it’s now. We felt like this place in our career, our ministry and our lives, was where we are really able to walk in the purpose that God has called us to. We believe that now is the time. Now is the time to get rid of excuses that we’ve had in the past. Now is the time to get rid of the fears that we’ve had in our lives. Now is the time to really grab a hold of what God has for us.

GOSPELflava.com: Da'dra, you have a tremendous testimony of being healed from a tumor. What has that done to your faith?

Da'dra Crawford Greathouse: It has strengthened my faith beyond where it has ever been. I don’t have any doubts that God is able to do what He says. The other thing that it has taught me to do is to learn how to confess and speak the Word over my life every day. When I was going through those testing times, I had those thoughts that would make me doubt and make me feel afraid. I had to learn how to caste those negative thoughts down. I had to learn how to speak my healing into existence. I had to learn how to be consistent in that. Now it has blessed me to where I have been able to take those same principles and apply them to every area of life. I apply them not only to my physical well-being, but to my ministry, to my marriage, my family, my children and my business.

GOSPELflava.com: You re-do an old school Andrae Crouch song, "Jesus Is Lord", and you even feature Andrae on that one. Why did you want to do that?

Anointed

Da'dra Crawford Greathouse: We always say that the first people that we ever heard was our parents —and Andrae Crouch! He was such an influence on us as children, musically speaking, because he was out of the box. He was doing things that other artists were not doing at the time. Our father loved Andrae, and we did as well. Flash forward to meeting him last year, we never in our wildest dreams imagined that we would be able to ask him if he would be involved in one of our records.

I don’t know if "Jesus if Lord" was ever a single, but it jammed back in the day. We called and asked if he would be on the record, and he was really excited to do it. It was a blessing and a privilege to have legend like him on our record. Then on top of that, Steve and I produced that song. So we played it in the studios with no lead vocals, and he was loving the background vocals. We told him that it was Steve and I. He loved it, and that was a great compliment.

So, Anointed is not only back, but back with a greater vision, production credits under their belt and a powerhouse label to back them up. With all that, it is clear why the album is titled Now Is The Time.

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— interview by Dwayne Lacy —