Shaun Groves
Outside the darkness is slowly easing away as morning makes its mark on the night sky. Light filters across the horizon, and the dawning day washes over everything in its path, gradually dissolving the blackness in its wake.
It is twilight. No longer night, but not yet morning.
“The sun and moon together in the gray”… a strong metaphor for the abundant themes that make themselves known on six-time Dove Award nominee Shaun Groves’ sophomore effort, Twilight.
“In Romans 7 Paul says that there’s a civil war happening in his soul,” says Groves. “That what he wants to do and what he does are not the same thing. He’s torn. That’s an idea we can all relate to. The person I was before I met Christ is night and day different from the person I will be when I see God face to face in heaven.
“In this time in between, I’m torn between God’s way and my way. I am between the midnight and dawn of my soul. I’m in twilight. The darkness is not completely covering my heart, but the sun hasn’t come up yet. Hope comes from knowing that the God who began this good work is going to complete it. Over time the sun is coming up.”
It’s not a shallow topic, and this 29-year-old Texas native is not a shallow artist. In fact, the depth of Twilight is only fitting for an artist and writer of Shaun Groves’ caliber. After the 2001 release of his debut album, Invitation to Eavesdrop, Groves nominated for six Dove Awards, including New Artist, Song (“Welcome Home”) and Songwriter of the Year. Groves was also the only new artist with a No. 1 AC radio hit in 2001 or 2002 (“Welcome Home”). But Invitation to Eavesdrop delivered more than hit radio songs and peer awards—critics everywhere lauded the album with words like “inventive,” “unique,” “irresistible” and “insightful.” Tours with Bebo Norman, Jars of Clay, Jennifer Knapp and Avalon cemented this artist’s favor with Christian music fans across the country, and a summer 2003 international tour with Michael W. Smith introduced Groves to thousands in Europe.
With so much success, it’d be easy to succumb to the dreaded sophomore slump. Instead, Groves rose to the challenge, delivering 10 songs of stunning honesty and ebullient adoration. From the rockin’ opening strains of guitar-driven first single “See You” to the gently-picked closing notes of “God of Us,” Twilight depicts an author living out the theme of being caught between two worlds, two ways of life.
Groves says, “That theme of choosing midnight or dawn runs throughout this record. I do have a choice which desire I will feed–the desire to please me or the desire to please God. For instance, ‘I Love You’ is a song about choosing to love and continue to befriend someone close to me who has made a mistake. Another song, ‘Jesus,’ talks about how when we love the least–those difficult for us to love–we love Jesus. It’s easy to choose to love a wife or a child or even a difficult co-worker, but it’s hard to love a prostitute or a foreign soldier. Our desire to love those people is not as great as our desire to stay comfortable and clean.”
One track that’s appealed to fans since Groves first wrote it in the summer of 2001, “Without You,” depicts Shaun’s commitment to his wife Becky and their two small children, Gabriella and Gresham. “It’s about being torn between home and the road. There’s a constant balance of working to keep in touch with my callings as a husband and father as well as a traveling musician.”
Musically, Twilight doesn’t stray far from its lyrical theme. Heavy guitar tracks are balanced by an equal number of piano-driven ballads, all revealing the dichotomy that is Shaun Groves: a performer who loves to rock out and have fun as much as he enjoys playing simple, contemplative melodies that haunt the memory as they prick the soul.
“This record is more basic in some ways than Invitation to Eavesdrop,” says Groves. “It’s free of vocal tuning, it’s free of computers. There are no drum loops or anything synthetic. It’s me at an upright piano or on an acoustic guitar with other guys in a circle in one big room with the tape rolling making music. This is what I sound like with a band.”
From performing nearly 200 concerts since his debut released, Shaun has certainly gotten comfortable on stage. But he’ll be the first to say that as much as he loves playing for an audience, he feels most equipped to teach, to hide truth in the midst of pop songs.
“I started out as a teacher,” says Groves. “I like the dialogue that happens when I sit in a circle with a small group of students and we discuss scripture. I like creating a safe place where we can all bring our questions, share our answers, admit our defeats, celebrate our successes and be a family.”
Groves’ quick wit and dry sarcasm have endeared him to his Bible study members and college students everywhere while his thought-provoking attitude towards worship music has inspired many to extend their praise beyond singing in their church pews. In fact, the first pressing of the Twilight CD will include an exclusive live recording of four worship songs Groves has written, including new track “Here I Am.” His own thoughts on the subject of worship were borne out of intense study in original biblical languages.
“The words in both Greek and Hebrew that are translated into the English word ‘worship’ most often in our Bible are words that mean most literally ‘work’ and ‘service.’ Worship is my response with all that I am to all that God is. I know now that if I raise my voice and my hands in praise—but I don’t use my voice and stretch my hands out to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and fight for the poor and oppressed—then I have only worshiped a singer or a song, not God. God deserves all. I think, based especially on the writing of the Old Testament prophets, that God would rather have service without singing than singing without service.”
And Groves’ desire for his own music is to inspire Christians to serve by reminding them that God is at work in every moment of their livesn
“After hearing Twilight, I want people to walk away with the comfort that I found in reading Romans 7. The process of refinement is continuing. I hope this thought can inspire us to look at each moment in our lives as an opportunity, an opportunity to love and to learn. Every longing, every loneliness and heartache we have, every need that is not fulfilled is a possibility to be more dependent on God. Every relationship we have is an opportunity to choose that person over the things of this world. I hope Twilight can encourage each person who hears it to look at every facet of their life and choose sunlight over darkness, choose to follow Christ’s way of thinking and not their own.” |
