This is part two of an interview I had with with the
frontman of The TechnoFunkBoy recently about tDriver’s Seat. Part 1 can be read here. In this part, we will discuss track 2 of the
album, “Almighty.”heir debut release,
The whole album can be downloaded for free here or streamed online here. Please do take a listen. Kaenor and the band were very careful to not
only make the music good, but that the lyrics and music would glorify God.
***
Me: Let’s talk
about “Almighty.”
Kae: Yeah.
Me: The chorus
comes from my very favorite hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Kae: That’s your
favorite? It’s such a great hymn. I wasn’t planning to do that at first, but
when I was writing the melody to the chorus, I realized it had the same structure
as the hymn, just different melody. I
started to sing the hymn to the song, really just to put words to the melody to
hear it out loud, and fell in love with how it played in there. The verses are explaining doctrine, but the
chorus works as a doxology, drawing us into worship because of the truths of
the doctrine.
Me: Before we go
into the lyrics too much more, there’s something about TFB that people are
going to notice right away, and that is that you are not at all afraid of
instrumental segments to songs.
Kae: No, not at all.
Me: That’s a little
different for hip hop. I don’t actually
recall hearing many, if any at all, hip hop songs with an instrumental
introduction that lasts more than a minute.
Someone is sure to correct me on this and point out a couple, but it is
not common at very least.
Kae: Yeah, but
remember where we started out. We were
doing MIDI stuff for years before we were even able to add vocals to
music. Instrumental music is where we
come from – back then, all game music was purely instrumental. Yeah, I would read lyrics to the music, but
they would be in text boxes, not audible.
So as we began to incorporate vocals, and guitars, and such, it was very
natural for us to keep that instrumental core to the music and add the vocals simply
as a new element of the song, not the main part of the song. That’s why we’re doing instrumental preludes
and postludes and solos and long intros.
I’m much more comfortable doing that than rapping or singing.
Me: Do you get
nervous about your raps?
Kae: Oh, yeah,
definitely. Vocals are the newest aspect
of TFB, so it’s not something we’re terribly used to yet. Especially since they are the last thing we
put into the recording. I feel like I’m
hearing the full song for the first time as I’m adding vocals into it. And sometimes I feel like I’m adding the
weakest part of the song. It’s an
important element, a critical element, but I like the other stuff more.
Me: In listening to
this song, you wouldn’t know it, but we actually pushed back verse one twice to
make the intro longer.
Kae: Well, I really
like the intro, so I really wanted it to have some room. Originally, we started the rap immediately
once the whole band came in. But that
didn’t let the music breath at all. You
really wouldn’t be able to just listen to that riff at all in the song if we
did that. Since this is really the first
song people are going to hear of the band as a whole – the Prelude has only
MIDI, so Anla wasn’t playing on it at all – I wanted it to sing a bit more.
Me: So what’s it
about?
Kae: Having a proper
understanding of God and His role in His own creation.
Me: Which also
means tearing down some of the myths we say about God sometimes.
Kae: Right. I hear people talking about how God needs our
cooperation to make His will done.
That’s utter hogwash. Or these
people who go around “binding” demons.
When Michael contended with Satan, he did not say, “I bind you in the
name of Jesus.” No, he said, “The Lord
rebuke you!” Michael had an
understanding of his place and God’s glory.
He knew that God was the deciding factor in all doings. We would do well to understand that better so
that we don’t start overstepping our bounds as creatures by thinking we have
the level or control or power that really belongs only to Creator.
Me: Yeah, but
you’re a computer program on a Nintendo cartridge. Can you really apply that sort of talk to
humans?
Kae: Yes. The analogy isn’t a bad one at all. If your readers haven’t seen it, they should
watch the movie Tron. This is a really
wonderful parallel in that film. It
follows a bunch of programs, tied to the purpose that their creators gave
them. But they are in a fix, and the
only way out is when one of the creators comes to them, as one of them. That’s a good description of the Incarnation. God had a purpose and plan in his creation,
and we are part of that purpose and plan.
We’re not the ones who are the primary movers in this grand plot, He is. When we watch Tron, we see that these
programs are doing their thing, they are working toward goals, interacting, and
all thing, but it is the programmer that is guiding them.
Me: So are you
against prayer?
Kae: Not at
all. God is sovereign, but He uses means
to accomplish His will, including the prayers of the saints. We get into that a bit in “Robot.” It’s a mystery that we will not fully
understand, but it’s true. Prayers
matter. Our actions matter. Our witnessing, our confession, our love, it
all matters. But at the same time, God
brought that about.
Me: Okay, we’re
going to get into that more, but let’s take the opportunity in this song to
talk about the only unbeliever in the group – D.R.U.M.
Kae: That’s kinda
like saying your toaster is an unbeliever.
It’s not like he’s in rebellion against God. He’s just a robot.
Me: He’s basically
a drum machine, only a little better, right?
Kae: Yeah, with a
normal drum machine, you program in everything. It’s not that way with D.R.U.M. I give him a basic rhythm, and his
programming allows him a lot of freedom in that rhythm to add elements and make
it more natural. That, and he can walk
around and talk, and he actually makes very good coffee.
Me: He was created
evil.
Kae: Again, he’s a
robot, so not sure we can even use those terms.
His programming original was for an evil purpose, but he just wasn’t
very good at it, so he got kicked out by his creator, Dr. Wiley. By the time I found him, he was washing
dishes, but even then doing it in a very rhythmic and cool way. So I bought him to play drums for us.
Me: And he sings.
Kae: (laughing) Well, yeah, I guess. You can hear him on “Robot.”
Me: And he randomly
says stuff in the middle of that song.
Kae: Yeah, that’s .
. . I don’t know what to do with that.
We’ve worked really hard to get his programming right, but sometimes he
will say stuff from his old life at a certain point in a certain song, and you
can’t get him to stop. You can reprogram
the entire song, but he’ll keep doing it.
So we ultimately just leave it in there.
Everything he says in that song is intentional except that one line, but
there’s nothing we can do about it.
Me: So God was in
control of all of that too, huh?
Kae: Yes, God ordains
all things to come to pass.
Me: Even the worst
of sins?
Kae: Oh, yes. In fact, the Bible addresses that very
thing. What is the worst sin that has
ever been?
Me: The
Holocaust? Something like that?
Kae: No, the worst
sin in all of history was the murder of Jesus.
God Himself came to earth to save His people, and men killed Him for
it. The only truly innocent man, sinless
and righteous, and we killed Him. But
what does the Bible say about this event?
“This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men.” This very event was part of the
plan of God.
Me: So God is not
trying His best, but needs our help to bring about His will? Isn’t His hands tied until we give Him our
faith or prayers or something?
Kae: What kind of
god is that? It’s not the God of the
Bible, the one who can turn the hearts of rulers like a stream of water, as
stated in Proverbs 21; who uses even pagan armies to do His will, as in Habakkuk
1; who can stay the hand of even Satan, as described in Job; and who works all
things for the good of His people.
Me: I reviewed
Frank Peretti’s book This Present
Darkness on this blog, and while I like the book, there’s a part where an
angel cries out to God, asking God to tell the saints about a certain battle so
that their prayers can give him strength.
Kae: I read that review. That’s really a terrible understanding of
God, but it’s the natural conclusion of a lot of this theology that states that
God needs us for some reason. He
doesn’t. He is utterly sufficient and
utterly sovereign. He chooses to work
through means. He chooses to work
through prayer, and the actions of men, but let’s not mistake that to mean that
we’re somehow in control of this whole story.
Me: Well, and
that’s the real point to this theology, isn’t it? That there is a good God steering the ship.
Kae: Yes. If your god does not control all things, then
the evil that happens is meaningless. It
has not purpose, it’s just evil. And
what’s sad about Christians who deny that God is sovereign is this – they still
believe that God created, knowing that the evil would happen. But He did it anyway, and there’s no purpose
to it. It’s just wickedness without
meaning. Thankfully, that’s not God. But the God of the Bible is working something
extraordinary through that evil. Through
the greatest evil of history came the redemption of a vast people. We are saved because of what happened in that
evil day.
Me: Is God to blame
for evil, then?
Kae: No. We’ll look at that a little bit in “Robot,”
but no. He uses means, He uses sin, but
He is innocent of sin. Ordaining sin and
committing sin is not the same thing.
***
We will continue this interview next week with a discussion of "Cross." Until then, please consider downloading this album or listening to it online.
