It’s been 35 years since Steven Curtis Chapman released his debut album, First Hand, but he still has plenty he wants to say. The five-time Grammy Awards winner just released his new album, Still, a 12-track record that became a labor of love for Chapman.
“I had to wrestle with a lot of doubts and a lot of insecurities about, do people really care or really want to hear new music from Steven Curtis Chapman?” the singer concedes to Everything Nash. “There are amazing new artists that have come along in the last 35 years, not to mention in the last five years that people are very excited about and have things to say. And if they want to hear Steven Curtis Chapman, I hear a lot of people say, ‘Man, I just want to hear ‘Great Adventure.’ I want to hear ‘IWill Be Here.’ I wanna hear ‘Cinderella.'”
The person Chapman had to convince the most to release new music was himself. Fortunately, Chapman ultimately came to the conclusion that there was still more he wanted to share, even after all these years.
“I had to wrestle and push back a lot of those voices,” Chapman shares. “Because under all of that, I kept saying to myself, and I kept feeling very compelled that I have a perspective now of life, having walked through the devastating, tragic loss of our youngest daughter, having celebrated so much, with so many families through the miracle of adoption and the stories, the beautiful stories, the hard stories. All of that.”
Now, the 59-year-old is eager and ready to share his next set of tunes, especially as a full, complete record.
“I am so excited to have new music to share with people,” Chapman boasts. “I really am. I’ve released a few songs here and there over the last few years, like one song, to now this streaming world, and the new world order and how music gets consumed. The good news is I can go record a song and share it with people the same day if I want to put it up on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. But the downside of that is I’m from a world of wanting to make a statement that isn’t just one song. I think of it in terms of a book. I love reading the whole book. I can’t just take chapter 14 and go, ‘That’s a great chapter, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.'”
It’s Chapman’s longevity in Christian music that in many ways released him to still create more, and be innovative in his own career.
“I finally gave myself permission to say, ‘Don’t question if this is elevant or where it’s gonna fit or will it work in the current landscape of Christian music,'” Chapman says in a press release about Still. “I had to silence the voices, sit down with my guitar, and write whatever was stirring in me, let it come out however it came out.”
Find Still and all of Chapman’s music by visiting his website.