GospelFlava.com - Articles - Interview - Daniel Weatherspoon of Spoonfed Productions

Interview with Daniel Weatherspoon
Spoonfeeding

Who likes to be spoonfed? Many in the Gospel industry, that’s who. But what kind of question is that?

It’s all about Daniel Weatherspoon. Here’s a rising industry maestro who, under the banner of his own Spoonfed Productions, has produced, written, and provided musical direction for such names as Darwin Hobbs, Donald Lawrence, Karen Clark Sheard

(remember the keyboard solo on “Jesus is a Love Song”), Bridgette Campbell, Lonnie Hunter, Shekinah Glory Ministry, Ricky Dilliard as well as for mainstream artists such as Chantay Savage and Carl Thomas.

These days Weatherspoon is the musical director for Fred Hammond while still finding time for Spoonfed Productions.

Gospelflava.com took some time to talk to the man behind the spoon.

Gospelflava.com: What is the distinguishing factor in being the Musical director for Fred Hammond?

Daniel Weatherspoon: It’s the atmosphere and the people. The Face to Face people are genuine and heartfelt. Musically, everyone (from Donald Lawrence to Carl Thomas) has always allowed me to stretch out, do my thing and not put me in a box and limit me from being creative. With Face to Face, I went to another phase and another level musically because Fred is one of the premier vocalist in the game right now. It’s exposing me to different things right now. He’s given me opportunities to write. We did a couple of co-writes on Joann Rosario’s new record and we’re going to be writing on his new record. So it’s real cool.

Gospelflava.com: Has it helped you spiritually?

Daniel Weatherspoon: One thing that I caught on to with Fred is that his songs are very heartfelt. Anyone, be it be myself or the general public, can relate to his ballads. That allows you to grab onto his stuff real fast, and respect his lyrics and his lifestyle. I get a chance to hang with him on a daily basis at Face to Face and on the road.

Then you see that he is really experiencing what he’s writing about. His songs and his pieces really hit home with me. It’s not just Fred and it’s no dis to anyone else. It’s just about me being in a new house right now. It’s just a fresh experience.

Gospelflava.com: You occasionally do some work with secular artists. How do you “keep it real” with doing both types of music?

Daniel Weatherspoon: There are a lot of Christian musicians that flip and work in both markets. For me, the biggest thing is that I know that it’s [just] work. I know

Fred Hammond DVD

The Fred Hammond Live in Chicago DVD includes a team of new band members, including Chicago veterans Daniel Weatherspoon (keyboards, musical director) and Richard Gibbs (organ).

With new players on board, Hammond brings the pain as only he can. See full DVD review.

I’m paying bills and getting exposed to other avenues. The second thing is you have to know how NOT to get too comfortable when you’re in a place that is not a Christian-based organization.

So if I’m out with Carl or hanging with that whole crew, or other crews (I was with Chantay Savage for a minute), you do the shows, do the dates and then you go to your room. You can easily get in trouble out there.

A lot of the artists out there (believe it or not) are actually believers, but for some it’s a money thing or they feel like their career would move faster [if they do the mainstream thing]. There is always prayer before every show, then we go on stage and do our thing.

For me, there’s a limit. I grew up with Carl. The songs that he sings about are not offensive to me. If I was doing a Snoop Dogg thing or some way out thing then that would be too deep for me. Ya’ll on some stuff that I can’t even deal with. Ya’ll habits are too deep for me to where I don’t even want to be affiliated with it. There are certain people in the R&B game where their stuff is not so way out that it would bother me. It’s work for me.

Gospelflava.com: Tell us about the chemistry between you and your brother Michael.

Daniel Weatherspoon: Well, it’s a lot of things that Mike is doing around here. The biggest load of the company is on my shoulders, but Mike is hands on. He engineers, he does tech, he programs, he’s running vocal sessions, he’s writing, and off course he does all the drum stuff.

We’ve grown together. Over the years, we’ve learned how to teach and learn from each other. I’m into the keyboard, and he’s into the drums. I do the vocal sessions and he runs the board and he mixes. I think that people are more familiar with me because I’m more visual than he is. People can see me more. People probably hear my name a little more than his. I probably get to do more stuff than he does.

But Mike was in the game before I started. Mike started off playing with Ben Tankard. He was with Yolanda. He was with Jessy Dixon. He was almost running Chicago when it came to drums in his younger days. Mike is extremely book smart. He went to college and got his degree and now he has his own office at DePaul University. When he leaves his day job, he comes to the studio and put all of his time in his drums and programming. It’s real cool.

Gospelflava.com: What distinguishes the Spoonfed Productions sound?

Daniel Weatherspoon: We don’t play by the rules. Whatever we hear in our head, we print it. Not only that, but we listen to a lot of folks. My favorite all-time musician is this guy named Russell Ferrante, the keyboard player for this jazz group

Click For Reviews

called The Yellowjackets. I try to incorporate a lot of his style and the way he thinks into the way I play.

We hear the music and we don’t play by the rules. Sometimes we let the bassline sing the music. Sometimes we let the keyboard sing the part. Sometimes we let the guitar sing the part. Sometimes we make the drums heavy. We try not to be regular.

Another reason why a lot of people try to holler at us about doing records is because we try to make it our business not to make two records sound alike. We can work with ten choirs across the board.

Right now, we’re doing Lamar Campbell’s record. We just dropped Lonnie Hunter’s record and I’ve done Donald Lawrence and a ton of records. We try not to make each record sound like us. I think that’s a mistake that a lot of producers in the R&B and the Gospel game do. You never distinct the artist from the producer anymore. Nowadays, it sounds like the artist is singing on the producer’s record or vice versa. That’s a turn off for me. The people that are getting the most work are the ones who everyone is trying to sound like the producer versus the producer genuinely making the artist sound like themselves.

We try to distinguish between every artist and bring a new color and a freshness to every record. We don’t want to sound old. You know I’m young, I just made 30 and my brother is 31. He’s married and I’m close to it. We're still young and we're still early in this game.

Right now, we’re right in the middle of the folks that set the game up for us. People like Percy Bady, Jeral Gray and Percy Gray. They have some years on us. Then, there’re some younger cats coming up. So we are right in the middle of both colors.

We got the smartness of what we learned of how to make songs that people could sing and feel. Then we got the youngness of keeping the beats and the creativity going. I think we are in a good place right now.

Gospelflava.com: How do you switch from the hot tracks to the foot stomping church numbers?

Daniel Weatherspoon: I got a lot of music in me man. Me and Mike were born in church, we’re still there. We were literally playing in church for ten to twelve years before we did a record. We were seven or eight years old running around playing for the “Jesus Little Friends” choir or being in somebody’s musical. We did that forever so all of that is still in us.

Over the years, we just kind of gotten into our thing. Once you’ve been in something for so long, those things will stick with you. So when we are coming with the funk, we are coming with the beats and all of this stuff. If somebody wants to flip it and take it to church then we know how to flip it. It’s in our nature. We don’t have to think about it.

Unfortunately these days, we don’t get a chance to flip back into that. 90% of the stuff we are doing now is that newer sound or more worship and pop pieces. We really don’t get a chance to get into the straight church stuff

I want to put a plug in. We just signed a group called Joey Woolfolk and the Woolfolk Singers. They are a quartet group from Chicago. We’re doing a record in July 2003 and that’s going to be straight ‘all the way back’ quartet.

Gospelflava.com: What artists should we be on the lookout for?

Daniel Weatherspoon: One girl is Bridgette Campbell. She has the total package of artistry and ministry. There’s another group from Chicago called Nuwave. Then there’s a group called Travis Edwards and Products of Praise. They did background for me on a song called “We Worship You Today” on Darwin Hobbs' new record.

Outside of Chicago, there’s a group called The Murrills that are under Donald Lawrence’s wings that are going to be sweet when they finally drop. I heard that Warryn and Teddy Campbell are coming out with a quartet over on the West Coast. In another few years, I got a feeling that Kierra Sheard is going to drop a record. If she does, it’s going to be off the chain.

I’ve been waiting for J. Moss to drop a record for years. I love his creativity. I also love Warryn Campbell’s production. There are about five producers whose stuff I absolutely love: Warryn Campbell, Teddy Riley, David Foster, Mervin Warryn and Sanchez Harley. Sanchez is so technical. It’s a lot cats that I respect.

Gospelflava.com: What future activities do you have lined up?

Daniel Weatherspoon: We just got off the Fred tour and there’s a few artists that we [Spoonfed Productions] have. I would love to have my own imprint. There are people that are curious to hear us. We got a vision of some things that we want to make happen. and we just want the opportunity for someone to allow us to put our artists. We’re going try to bring a new spice to the game. We’re just waiting for someone to see it the way we see.

In the future, me and my brother are going to put out an instrumental Gospel record. Keep your ears open because we are going to try to make it happen.

— interview by Dwayne Lacy —