1999 © Launch
Toby McKeehan has an earnest way of speaking; a slight Southern drawl that occasionally trips itself up in an effort to spill all his thoughts out rapidly. It's very easy to feel instantly comfortable talking to him--not so much because he is especially friendly (he is, incidentally), but more because he's stark. It would be difficult to believe that anything he said wasn't a completely truthful reflection of his opinion or experience.
This may not come as too much of a surprise, given that McKeehan is the primary songwriter for top Christian pop music act DC Talk, and a great deal of his work involves communicating his beliefs in a straightforward manner. Along with bandmates Michael Tait and Kevin Max--all three met as college buddies in the mid-'80s--the trio has released five albums (two of which went platinum) since 1989, won three Grammys and numerous Dove Awards, made two gold-certified longform videos, and is currently enjoying the success of its latest record, Supernatural. It does come as a bit of a surprise, however, that McKeehan is so down-to-earth. For McKeehan, it's all about the message delivered.
"It's so weird to see all the different articles [about DC Talk], because it's always 'light and dark! Satan and God!'" intones McKeehan, half-jokingly. "We're constantly barraged with those things. But that's cool with us, because we're definitely a spiritual band and our faith is definitely in God. We'd love for people to listen with an open mind and open ear, and not say, 'Well, if those guys believe that way, then their music isn't for me.' Because that might not necessarily be true--they might enjoy what we're saying, and it might cause them to think about some things."
McKeehan, for the most part, enjoys his musical mission as a Christian evangelist and claims it's not a tiresome task--for the most part, at least. "It's part of my job, I've grown comfortable with it," he says matter-of-factly. "When something good happens to you--when you experience something really nice and life-changing--you want to share it with people. I don't want to cram it down their throats, but I definitely have a desire to tell people about my faith."
He adds an analogy as explanation: "It's like somebody asking you about something else in life--if I go eat at a great restaurant and someone asks me, 'What do you know about that place?' I can't wait to go, 'Man, that place is great!'" He laughs. "Crappy comparison. But if something good happened to me, something life-changing, if you're going to ask me about it, I definitely want to tell you about it."
However, like many other Christian artists, McKeehan sometimes finds the strength of his faith somewhat overshadowing his other great love: his music. "We rarely get to talk about music, because people find it so interesting that we're Christian and we're in rock 'n' roll. I think it's hard for them to get over that fact--they just want to talk about the Christian part or the spiritual part. And that's cool--It's a huge part of my life, the centerpiece of my life, so if that's what we need to talk about, it's cool."
McKeehan sees no conflict in the rock vs. spiritual worlds, anyway. "Being a Christian, I think I could have gotten into anything, whether it's professional athletics, or being a lawyer, or whatever. Do I think rock 'n' roll and Christianity are conflicting? No, I don't. It's creative, and God is all about being creative."
When asked to pick a favorite song off Supernatural, McKeehan demurs. "That's a hard one. They're all so personal...it's just a hard question. Different songs for different moods." However, "I do know Kevin's favorite song is 'Fearless,' and Michael's is probably 'Supernatural.'"
One song on the record, a slightly bitter-sounding ode to a lost friend called "My Friend (So Long)" is, in fact, a figment of the band's imagination. "A lot of people perceive it as being written about someone else, but really we were dealing with this ourselves," McKeehan explains. "It came from conversations we were kicking around, like how would we feel if I went solo, or if Michael decided to do this or that, and there was no more DC Talk, and the guy who took off became this big famous guy who kinda forgot where he came from. What would we feel like? We'd be upset but happy for him in a way; we'd be proud but jealous. So we made up a fictional fourth member and kind of played the story out--there's a guy in our group who becomes a major rock 'n' roll star and forgets his past and we built the story around that. The fantasy fourth DC Talk member."
Regardless, for right now, it doesn't appear that anyone in the band is going anywhere--although McKeehan, who recently had a baby son with wife Amanda, admits he wishes the timing of his upcoming tour schedule was just a bit different. "It'll be tough," he states in typical truthful fashion. "But I've always been touring. I was touring when I got married. There's a mentality that you get used to. I think Amanda and my son, Truett, will try to come on the road as much as possible."
One question remains, what with all the talk of famous rock 'n' roll stars and juggling family/ work schedules: Does McKeehan ever believe that contemporary Christian music is destined to be the "next big thing" in pop culture? McKeehan pauses in thought, then laughs low in his throat. "That'd be funny," he mutters, almost to himself.
Supernatural is actually a good example of DC Talk's creativity as a whole, since it is the first album on which McKeehan loosened his songwriting reins and collaborated with Tait and Max. "It was a little scary," he admits, referring to the fact that hitherto this record, all songwriting control was in his hands. "But it was a great process for us. I think we all earned a little more respect for each other, and we worked well together. I mean, there were some days where we fought and argued and people left, but then when they came back we were jumping up and down over a lyric. So I just thought it was a great process for the band."