In Tune With Deon Kipping

Deon Kipping is enjoying the success of the release of his new EP, A Place Called Victory.  GOSPELflava caught Deon in a moment of downtime and here’s what he had to say:

GOSPELflava: Deon, While we haven’t had a solo project from you in quite a while, you’ve been keeping busy.  Tell us what’s been occupying your time.

Deon Kipping: I’ve been busy writing for others artists, I’ve written music for James Fortune, Jessica Reedy and most recently Tasha Cobbs. I’ve been building up my catalog as well as preparing for the EP and new CD.  You will hear some good music on the EP and on the album, songs that I like and also feel are relevant to the world’s situations and what’s going on in the world today.

GOSPELflava: Tell us about your writing style

Deon Kipping:  I really just want to write universally, music that reaches everybody, that my cousins will enjoy as well as grandmother.  I think that the song is the star. I believe that really good music is destined to be here years after the writer passes away. As for me, I look at what’s happening in the world and in our culture and gather inspiration from that. I can be sitting in the car and can get a thought that I sing into my phone and finish when I get to the studio, or be at home watching tv and something on tv sparks my interest.

For A Place Called Victory, I had a conversation with Joe Burney and he was basically saying that I’ve written a lot of easy grasp church songs for JJ Hairston, but I’ve never written anything like that for my self, I have a lot of lyrics in my records, so he was saying write something that would be easy for the church to grab a hold to, so I took some time and thought about where I was and how far I’ve come and A Place Called Victory was the first thing that came to mind.

By Myself is the second single. I was riding to the airport one day and I had this melody in my head that I kept singing over and over again and when I got to the gas station, the words By Myself just came.  I was talking to my MD who was in the car with me and I know that he was tired of me singing the same part over and over again (laughs), I had to tell him this is a big record, this is a big song, and we have to do it when I get back home.

I wanted to maintain working along the lines of keeping it simple and having something that the church can grab a hold to.  The song was personal, it was my cry to God, if you left with nothing else, I  really wanted people to understand there is no way that I can do all that I do without him.

We went to rehearsal next week and I taught it in rehearsal and the impact that it had on the singers and the band was nothing short of a move of God, you know musicians are not usually emotional in church , but the song affected everybody, people were crying and lifting their hands, we knew that we had something.

GOSPELflava: Lastly, when Deon Kipping is not singing and writing and on the road, what is he doing?

Deon Kipping:  Regular Deon takes his grandmother out to a nice restaurant, is spending time and playing with my son, enjoying family,  having meditational moments while walking by the water, enjoying life and its simple pleasures, and you know you would probably still see me somewhere listening to music.