ADRIAN MA, HOST:
Here's a profound question for you. What does God sound like? Well, the musician Isaia Huron has given this a lot of thought.
ISAIA HURON: He sounds like all things that make you perk up, all the things that feels good, that makes you want to tap, that makes you want to dance and stuff. And anything that can make you cry and you don't really know why.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I THINK SO?)
HURON: (Singing) Oh, I, woo, yeah, think I'm in love, think I'm in love with you. I...
MA: Isaia Huron has released his debut album, called "Concubania." His R&B music draws on biblical scripture and his experiences growing up in the church.
HURON: A lot of people take the time to try to look at God as a person, and it's kind of almost a little arrogant to think about it like that. You kind of owe it to yourself to recognize it as a spirit, because you can recognize God in pretty much all things that are just and all things that are orderly and all things that align. And so music has definitely been a very good gateway for me to be able to recognize that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I THINK SO?")
HURON: (Singing) Just got to say it to you, baby. I know the n****s going to call me crazy, yeah. Oh, yeah.
The way I discovered music was definitely through the church. My dad was a pastor. My mom was a choir director, and so there was always music just around. And my family - you know, musically, they can all sing. They can all play. And I remember organists doing things musically that would surround the hymns. They were so acrobatic in what they did - almost like, you know, putting a lot of sugar on some fruit or something like that. I spent a lot of my life just soaking all that in in order to arrive where I'm at right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOML")
HURON: (Singing) I fear that you're leaving for real this time. I admit, it brings tears down my cheeks when I ponder and reminisce.
I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. That place is a part of the Bible Belt. You know, it's a very conservative place, right? And then also growing up as a pastor's child, it was kind of expected of me to be a gospel artist. But I'm also an Aquarius as well, so I'm, like, naturally rebellious. And I like to find truths in things, and universal truths, and even truths that make people uncomfortable. And the truth is, in my opinion, people that turn away from Christianity usually don't turn away from it because of the actual essence of Christianity, but they turn away from it because of the people that are inside of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOML")
HURON: (Singing) Ooh, yeah.
What I've tried to stand in is the person who can be a duality between somebody who believes in God super, super hard, but also is superhuman at the same time. It led me to be so confident in how I approach R&B now, whether it's heartbreak or whether it's wanting to gain vengeance. You still have those emotions, and how you go about it is completely up to you, but I would rather go about it in a godly way. But we always don't do that. And it's - the part that we always don't do that is the part that I stand in and I live my life in, because it just brings more relevance to somebody being able to have God's hand on their life and still be a human being. You know, like, this album, "Concubania" - you can kind of look at it as a story to David, in a sense. He had a concubine, did things with men's wives and all these things, and he was still favored by God. It just shows that you can live in that duality because that's what it means to be human.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOML")
HURON: (Singing) 'Cause your kisses felt like heaven on, heaven on, heaven on, heaven on, heaven on, heaven on my lips.
MA: That's musician Isaia Huron talking about his new album, "Concubania."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I CHOSE YOU")
HURON: (Singing) I'm feeling things out of my control, familiar feelings I ain't felt in so long. What's this thing I can't describe? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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