Sharing thoughts with Nicole C Mullen
04-05-2007
by Brenten Gilbert

Whether it's been through songs like "Redeemer," "On My Knees" or even the original theme song for Larry Boy, Nicole C Mullen has become a rather well-known figure in Christian music. Her latest album is called Sharecropper Seeds and proves to be the most intimate recording of her career thus far.

CMCentral's brenten gilbert caught up with Nicole on the phone a week before the album's release date and, besides messing up the album title, talked about the songs and the importance of nurturing the seeds we've been given in life. The conversation unfolds below.

So are you all psyched up for the new album coming out?

Yeah, it actually comes out next Tuesday and I'm excited about it.

It's crazy that April is next week.

Yeah.

So the new album is called Sharecropper Songs. . .

Sharecropper Seeds, dude

(laughs)

Aw, Sharecropper Seeds! I've got it right in front of me, too!

(laughs)

It's all good. Songs, seeds. . .

Songs about seeds. . .

Same difference...

(laughs)

Alright, well, I know that the title track is about your grandfather. . .

Yes. My mom's dad. For a while, she grew up in Georgia and then they migrated to Cincinnati after that, but her dad was a sharecropper for a while. If you are not sure what sharecroppers are, they are pretty much farmers. They till the land and grow the harvest and really their pay is a part of the harvest. They don't necessarily get paid in cash and the harvest doesn't completely belong to them - 9 times out of 10 it goes to pay off what they had to eat the year before. So, it's kind of like one of those cycles of standing debt for a long time, because you need supplies to live on, kids need shoes, you need flour from the general store. Then, the crop that comes in and you hope that you have enough to pay off that debt and maybe a little bit to get ahead. But again, 9 times out of 10, whenever the crop will come in, somehow or other, it would never suffice to pay off the debt or if so, it only gave you a couple of dollars extra. Then you had to go back into the hole again for the next year or so.

I think the greater thing to learn from it is not just the livelihood of farming - the industry that pretty much built our country, all the way from New York to California - but really it's the power of a seed. The seed is very small and it can either be taken for granted and discarded or it can be handled with care. If you nurture the seed correctly - and that is not just a physical seed, but also people [in a metaphorical sense], too - then that seed can give you great yield. But if you abuse, damage or destroy that seed, then you have nothing to process in the future. It's pretty much that paradigm of encouraging people to take care of the seeds that are around now - whether they are little children, the gifts that they've been given or dreams that they've been entrusted with - to handle those with care, to present them to the Lord of the harvest and to ask Him to multiply them because He's still in the business of taking small things and making them great.

Right. Yeah, and when you think about it, we are all sharecropper, spiritually, in the sense that we are living with a constant debt because of our sins. . .

Very true. And you know, I'm thinking too, even now. . . Even though we might not wear overalls, we are still a lot of times working for somebody else's gain, also. It's not necessarily in our employment, whether you wear a suit to work and you are working to build somebody else's business or if you own your own business, you are still working to build the economy. Everything we do really is attached to someone else, so it's not necessarily the job or the position that we hold, but it's a matter of, "What are you doing with what is in your hand?" Because that in itself can produce an even greater crop outside of just making money for your company or making money for yourself. It could actually build dreams for the future and inspire someone else to do the same.

Cool. Now, it seems like this album might have been a little more personal than some of your previous releases.

Definitely.

How was it different working on this album with that in mind?

Well, I'm always writing songs because I'm very opinionated.

(laughs)

So I wrote the songs, but this time we did them all in New York. Normally, my husband has produced on all of them, but this time a friend ours, Tony McAnany, produced them and, like I said, we didn't record it here in Nashville, we recorded it in New York. But at the same time, it was one of those introspective things. A lot of the albums that I have written have had a hint of autobiography in them - I talk about myself or growing up or something like that - but I think this one is even more sensitive for me. It's more vulnerable. It taps into, not just stories, but also emotions that I feel.

For example, one of the songs, called Fall, says:

"I give up / I surrender/ I throw in the towel
exposing my weakness to infinite power
with all of my weight, I lean heavy on you
with bags on my back and in both of my hands too
I fall, I fall on you.

You have those times in life where [you say], "I give up." And then those moments when you fall down. . . We as believers in Christ have an opportunity to fall on Him and He's promised to catch us. So it's that upside down kingdom again. You know, if you humble yourself, He can exalt you. But if you choose to exalt yourself, He has no choice but to humble you. I chose to fall, so He doesn't have to knock me down, instead.

Yeah and He can sure knock you down. . .

(laughs)

One of the clear themes that you alrady touched on a little bit is the importance of bestowing a blessing on your children. . .

Yes, I can't say that enough. When I was 11 or 12 years-old, we were at a New Years Eve service - I was always at church like 9 or 10 days a week, for real (laughs). But anyway, this particular night we were there - me and my two sisters, my mom and dad - and my dad walked around the three of us and he blessed us. He put his hands on our heads and he prayed over us that God would increase us in different aspects of our lives. When he got to me, he prayed that God would bless me in music, that He would bless my songwriting, that He would take me all over the world to sing about Him, that He would open up doors for me and things of that nature. My sisters, to this day, still say that the only reason I'm doing what I'm doing is because Daddy gave me that blessing - had he given it to them, it would not be Nicole C. Mullen at all, it'd be my other two sisters. But in the midst of their joking - and they are my biggest cheerleaders, so there is no rivalry there - it's still the truth, because if you speak good things and you bless others, you can encourage a harvest of life in people - in our children and other people's children and people we come in contact with. But if you speak death, you can also do the antithesis. You can destroy with your mouth. The Bible says life and death is in the power of the tongue. So what we say does have great ramifications, whether you chose to use it for good or for bad. I'm here, I'm a product of somebody blessing me, I'm a product of my granddad. . . My granddads, actually, both sides of the family - my mom and dad and my grandmothers, as well. The people that have come before me have blessed me in their hard work and in their words and so it's my aim to pass it on to my seed and to others with whom I come in contact.

Yeah, I did an interview with someone else not too long ago and he kind of had to overcome the opposite. He'd kind of a "curse" of depression that had been passed onto him from his parents. Kind of the whole sins of the father carries on.

Yeah. It's great. And unfortunately, it's so countercultural right now with everybody always looking for a short term gain. . . like Who cares about what is coming? I just want mine now.

Exactly. It really is and that is what we are fighting, too. That's why even in songs. . . We all know that you can say the same words without music and people might listen, but we know that music does have the power to sway opinions, to sway politics, to change the mind, to change the heart for good or bad. So with the amount of influence, small or great, that God has given me, I want to be faithful with it. I want to sway people's opinions toward good and sometimes I like songs that paint pictures, not necessarily of how things are, but how things should be and how we should try to obtain [that ideal]. So those are things I want to entice people to go after. Chase after hope. Chase after what is good. Chase after what will last and what is eternal. Those are things that, hopefully, the songs that I write, the songs that I sing, will encourage people to want to do.

We certainly need more of that. So what would you say is your favorite song on the album, if you had to pick one?

I can't ever do that. That's always hard because that is like picking your favorite child and I have 4 kids. That can get you in trouble, these days.

Okay, which is your favorite child?

(laughs)

Let me tell you some of my favorites. Some of my favorites are "Sharecropper's Seed," obviously. "One Touch" is definitely one of my favorites. I wrote that one upstairs on my balcony reminiscing and remembering a story I had read in the Bible about this women who had been beaten down and broken because her body was just falling apart. And she was desperate and she was afraid to approach Jesus head on, so she decided if she could just come up behind him and just touch the bottom of his garment, she could be made whole. I love that.

"Convinced" is another one of my favorites. It's one of my statements of, regardless of what goes on in life, we all will have ups and downs, it will rain on all of us. That's part of life. The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust, but the difference is that those who believe in Christ get a chance to have the umbrella. We get a chance to hide under His shelter. So in the midst of it all, we can still be convinced that there is nothing that can happen in life that will separate us from His love. He will always love us regardless of what we do, regardless of what we go through, regardless of whether we fail or succeed. He will always love us. So that is one of my favorites.

"Baby Love." That is one of the songs that I put Josiah to sleep with almost every night. Now Josiah, he's my 4-year-old, shares a room with my other two 9-year-old boys now - even though he has his own room, he decided to share. But anyway, that is probably the most requested song in our house. He doesn't request "Redeemer." He doesn't request "Larry Boy," even though he loves the song, but every single day, most of the time twice a day because he takes naps still, he requests "Baby Love." So I have to sing that.

One of my favorites is "When I Grow Up." It's kind of my ode to dad and my husband, just to encourage them to be a great dad and a great father, because our children are looking up to them and saying, "You know what? I want to be like you." I asked Josiah probably 2 weeks ago what he wants to be when he grows up and it's always different - he's 4. And he said, "When I grow up, I want to be Dad." He didn't say he wanted to be like Dad, he said "I want to be Dad." And so me and Jasmine said, "You want to be like Dad?" "No. I want to be Dad." So I said, "Are you saying that because of the song?" And he said, "No, because I want to be." And we said okay and then he said something else afterwards like Superman or whatever he wants to be. But it was just that thing of how they really do. . . If you have a good role model in front of you as a male, then that is who they want to assimilate. I'm so glad he didn't say he wanted to be Mom, of course. . .

(laughs)

But it was so encouraging to me. So at the same time, it says to me and my husband that we have to watch our walk, because there are others who are coming behind us. They are trying to walk in our footsteps. It says it to me, I have a 13-year-old daughter, watch your walk Nicole cause somebody is following your steps.

So pretty much all of the songs are your favorites.

(laughs)

I told you, they are all my babies.

That's good though. . .

Have you had a chance to hear it yet?

Yes, I have.

What is your pick?

Well, I have two boys myself, so obviously "When I Grow Up" resonated with me a bit.

How old are your boys?

2 ½ and 4 ½

So you know what I'm talking about. Yep.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. I actually took my older son out for breakfast last week. . .

Aw, see you are a great dad, dude! Yeah. . .

Actually, in the conversation with him, I asked him what he wanted to be when he got bigger, and he said "Daddy." So. . .

That's really cool that they would say that, that you all have kept the image of a dad great for them. Other boys that I know of that don't have a positive father figure and that's the last thing that they'd say. They are going to say Michael Jordan or they are going to say Kobe or they are going to say whoever the greatest football player is today. That is what they are going to say - or they are going to say a gangster or a rapper. But to be able to say they want the position that you hold is a great, great compliment. Good job dude, good job.

It's good to hear, that's for sure.

Yep, so it's cool. And you know, for me, this is real life. It's living life everyday, the ups and downs. You know, the "you forgot to make it to the bathroom again." You are 4-years-old. It's just part of my life. Having the friends over, doing carpool, doing homework. I home school my 13-year-old. My mom and dad live here. This is where songs are birthed for me. For me, life doesn't begin on stage. Life begins before I get to the stage. Life is me working with girls once a week. Loving on them and letting them love on me and seeing God heal my past wounds as a child, as a not-so-cute teenager or young girl, through these young girls I'm able to help. This is real life for me. Again, life is not just something we put on stage, but life is something that we bring to the stage, in my opinion. So these are the things I write about.

And your organization is called Baby Girls Club Can you tell us a bit about that?

We do it once a week. We have girls between the ages of 6 to 17-years-old and we get together. We sew clothes, we make things, we dance, we sing, we do homework, we laugh, we talk. Sometimes as necessary, we take the girls shopping for necessities of life, for clothing or school supplies. We just hang out, you know? It's me and some other women who are mentors. My mom. . . Since she's moved here, we have a Gram's Corner once a week, too. She has a chair that she sits in and the girls will come if they need prayer for something, things like that. A lot of these girls are unchurched, some of them go to church, some are from the suburbs, but most of them are from the hood. But they come and if they have something they want to celebrate, or they have a need they want to pray about, they go to Gram's Corner. My mother sits there and she prays with them and talks to them and cries over them and blesses them and just things of that nature. It's a great time. We are seeing these girls grab a hold of hope, for real. We are seeing a lot of them who were flunking out of school make changes in their lives, in their attitude and in their grades, too. It's been something that probably blessed me more than it's even blessed the girls. I find that really, when we begin to, like I said earlier, heal the hurts in someone else, God has a way of reaching back and healing the hurts in us. I love it.

It's good stuff.

There are plenty of opportunities to spread seed.

There really are. Everybody can do something. Everybody can't do everything, but everybody can do something. Sometimes you may be called to go, sometimes you may be called to send a couple of dollars to go with somebody else, but I think everybody can do something. Sometimes if you don't have either [time or money] you can pray. You can get the word out for these other causes, so other people can get involved. When it is all said and done, I want God to say "well done" and I know He's not going to say "well done" because of my works, but hopefully it's because of the heart that He has given me. And because He has given me much, I want to love much. Because He has given me much, I want to be responsible with the much He has given me, like He's required. Ultimately, the reward I want to have, the accolade I really want to hear is Christ saying "well done good and faithful servant." So I want to live my life in such a way that if today is my last day, that is what I know I can be sure to hear Him say.

Yeah. That's good. And now we're going to change gears a bit. I have a couple of fun questions hopefully just to round things out.

Alright

Now, you seem to keep in pretty good shape. My wife and her sister had seen you on a magazine cover a while back and they were like, "Wow! She's got some big biceps."

(laughs)

So if it's not too forward, how much do you bench?

(laughs) I can't even bench 40 lbs, dude. I'm not kidding you. Don't be deceived. I have heavy kids. Well, I can lift my children, that's probably why I have [biceps]. But it's really kind of one of those strange phenomenons. I mean, I dance. Don't get me wrong. Occasionally I do work out, but I'm not as regimented as I should be. And really when it comes to bench pressing. . . No lie, I promise you, I can barely lift the bar without any weights on the side.

Okay.

I kid you not. And I've gone to the gym with my friends and they just crack up, because people are expecting me to bring it. They're like "Oooh, she's going to bring it." And I'm like, "No, I'm not even built for this." So it's one of God's jokes, I think.

I had to ask, though.

You had to ask

(laughs)

It's all good.

Now, you did mention the Larry Boy theme song. . . I was pretty upset that that didn't remain the Larry Boy theme song. . .

Me too (laughs) Keep going. . .

I think it's the best one that they've had. I don't know why they changed it. . .

I agree

(laughs)

But with that background. What is your favorite VeggieTale video?

That one - The Fib from Outer Space, of course. David and the Giant Pickle and The Rumor Weed.

Oldies, but goodies.

(laughs) Oldies but goodies. I like them.

Alright, is there anything else about the album? It's called Sharecropper Seed Volume 1, so there is more to come?

Yes. Another one will probably be following. It might not be called Sharecropper Seed, but there will be a Volume 2. The style of music will most likely be a little different, but it will continue the thought process.

Alright, so anything else that I might have missed?

Nope. April 3rd you got that right? You can go to my MySpace if you're interested in that. We have a few videos up on YouTube. We have upcoming videos, which are promos for the album - little vignettes of me in the studio or me talking about the album, stuff like that. Oh, and elevators and all kinds of crazy stuff like that. Check that out at YouTube or MySpace.

It's a fullon multimedia blitz. . .

Yeah.

Well thanks for taking some time out to chat with me a bit

My pleasure. Have fun with your boys before they are bigger than you.

Oh I will. You have a great day

You have a pleasant day

Find out more about Nicole C Mullen and Sharecroppers Seed Vol. 1 at NicoleCMullen.com, MySpace.com/TheRealNicoleCMullen or YouTube.com/NicoleCMullenMusic