Andraé Crouch: The Digital Gospel
For Andraé Crouch, there’s more to gospel music than just, well, the gospel. “I want everything I make to be hot,” he says. “I want to make good music, music that everybody can enjoy and relate to. It’s only gospel music because it carries the message of the gospel, not because it sounds strictly like gospel music.”
Crouch’s music is hot, by anybody’s standards. He’s worked with Michael Jackson as a producer and arranger. He’s infused Madonna’s epic hit “Like a Prayer” with its signature choral exuberance. His producing resume includes names like Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Elton John and Rick Astley. And he’s won seven Grammy Awards. “I try to duplicate what I feel in my heart,” he says. “That’s what making music is about for me.”
In the beginning, Crouch unleashed that musical passion with a soulful voice and some skillful piano playing. Today he uses Logic Pro, which has become one of his main creative tools. He’s written hundreds of songs with the application, splicing his signature vocals and live instrumentation with software instruments and samples. “I started using Logic about two years ago and it was just so easy,” he says. “Now I don’t have to wait all night to get one of my ideas out. With Logic, I can make music right away. And the sounds are more applicable to what I want to do.”
He also uses Logic Pro to teach others about making music. As head of the Christ Memorial Church in Los Angeles, Crouch decided to convert part of the space into a digital music classroom, where he and a few sound engineers can teach young artists how to jam with Logic. “We have so much talent here and we want to make sure they have the skills they need to make it,” says Crouch. “If they know how to write music and use Logic, they’ll have a better chance of working in the industry.”
It Is Written
Crouch has penned soulful ballads and swinging hits for more than 40 years, jotting them down with pen and paper and coding them into various digital applications. Today he uses Logic. And to squeeze the most out of the application, Crouch turned to Swiss singer/songwriter Saschka Wittau, who saw Crouch on tour and asked to be part of his show. Crouch heard her powerful voice, saw her superior Logic skills and invited her to become a member of his musical congregation. She traveled to Los Angeles to help the preacher write tunes.
Because inspiration never sleeps for Crouch, it’s been a feverish collaboration. “In the month and a half that she’s been here I’ve written 80 songs, at least,” says Crouch. “I’ll listen to the loops and sounds in Logic and it’ll throw me into another mood and I’ll make a song that I haven’t even been thinking about. The program opens up doors for me, allows me to really get into it.”
Andraé Crouch addresses his choir during a rehearsal.
And if Crouch has a song in his head when he hits the studio, chances are Wittau can find the appropriate loop in a Jam Pack. “I’ve been to 72 countries and I’ve heard a lot of music,” says Crouch. “If I have any of those rhythms on my mind she can scan through the samples in Logic and find something like it. Then we’re off and running.”
Digital Doctrine
Crouch has a full recording studio with room for live musicians and, of course, a choir. His studio is an amalgam of live instruments, outboard gear and Macs running Logic Pro. The singer creates songs using them all, but lately he’s been relying on Logic Pro software instruments. “The ESX and ES1 are gorgeous,” he says. “The clavinet, the VOD, everything’s inside and it sounds wonderful. The Logic instruments have a warmer, broader feeling. They don’t sound compressed. I want my music to sound just like it was played live, or even better. Logic can do that for me.”
