The Choir Room Podcast
This podcast exists to promote and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling…The Choir and Corporate Singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing, and all things choir related.
A weekly podcast featuring discussion and interviews with choir directors, choir members, and other guests representing church choirs, college and university choirs, community choirs, show and theatre choirs, composer of choir music, and other.
Segments include tips and instruction from skilled and professional disciplines within the choir community covering topics such as choir culture and community, choir directing, vocal training, ear training, sight reading, and more. A monthly virtual live audience episode allows the listener to engage with hosts and guests during instructional and Q&A segments via the live recording, chat, email, on various social media platforms.
A production of Metromusic & Arts, Inc.
- www.metromusic-arts.com
- thechoirroom@metromusic-arts.com
- mail@mmertomusic-arts.cm
The Choir Room Podcast
Singing Through Life's Challenges PART 2: The Spiritual Essence of The Hymn, Disney's - "Encanto's" Adassa on Balancing Career and Family in Music With Christ at the Helm.
Choir is a fusion of singing, faith, community, and tradition that resonates with many of us. In this episode we've orchestrated a vibrant discussion around reviving choir traditions, the undervalued power of corporate singing, and the intricate challenges choir directors confront in today's ever-evolving world, particularly in the wake of a pandemic that left many choir rooms silent. We enrich the conversation with hymn highlights and thought-provoking queries that peel back the layers of this communal art form's impact on the fabric of society,
Joined again by Disney's "Encanto" multi-talented artist Adassa, we step into hers and husband Gabriel's personal lives where music isn't just a passion—it's the foundation of family. With Gabriel, not just her partner in life but also a driving force in the music industry, we peel back the curtain to reveal what it's like orchestrating the symphony of two music careers. They share tales from the heart about their serendipitous meeting, their journey to become a creative powerhouse, and the profound moments that remind them of why unity, trust, and Christ are at the core of both family and professional pursuits.
As the final notes of our discussion fade, we express our deepest gratitude to Adasa and Gabriel for their inspiring stories and the wisdom they've shared about intertwining scripture with art. It's a tapestry woven with the threads of personal values, the resonance of choir music, and the spiritual sustenance it provides. The music backdrop is from their latest release "In Jesus We Are One" featuring Adassa on vocals, and each song carrying a message of divine hope and unity, available for your listening pleasure across all music platforms. So, take a moment to relish in the sounds that bind us and the profound narratives hidden within their songs and story.
http://adassa-official.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHMxhvHLK9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6biETgTBo
https://music.apple.com/us/album/in-jesus-we-are-one/1700334364
https://music.apple.com/us/album/carol-of-the-christ-single/1712949639
Perpetuating and Promoting the Christian and Positive Idea Through the Medium of Music and Other Arts.
Welcome to the choir room. This is episode 36 of the Choir Room Podcast. I'm Greg Thomas, your host. Welcome to the choir room, joined by my co-host, dorian Johnson. Hello, and me at Estanso Farrar. Hello. Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 1:And today we continue with part two, with our guest contributor, adasa, and our live audience. This podcast exists to promote and encourage to longtime traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling away, and that is choir and corporate singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing and all things choir. This podcast is also a production of Metro Music and Arts, whose purpose is to perpetuate and promote the Christian and positive idea through the medium of music and other arts. We've got a live audience here in the choir room today and they're going to help welcome our guest contributor. She's a wife, a mother, an actress, a singer, a songwriter and a voiceover artist and so much more, known for her role as Dolores in the hit Disney film Encanto. Adasa is with us, so stay tuned as we hear from this incredible artist and we hear from our own Dorian with the hymn of the week and Mieta with the CRQ.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 3:Thanks, greg. His first John 419, tells us we love because he first loved us. And in addition to loving Christ, another facet of our appropriate response to all that Christ has done for us is trust, trusting in Him. Psalm 9, verse 10, says and those who know your name put their trust in you. For you, o Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. And as he spoke to the apostles in the upper room, jesus said to them in John 14, one let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. Some translations render it trust in God, trust also in me.
Speaker 3:This week's hymn of the week is Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus. This hymn by Luisa Stead was published in 1882. And while the exact details regarding the occasion for writing the hymn are not known, it is known that her husband drowned in 1880. So one can imagine that if the loss of her husband was the occasion for writing this hymn, the words of this hymn reflected the trust and a desire for more trust that would enable one to persevere through trials and difficult circumstances. Verse one says Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus and to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise and to know, thus say, of the Lord. This first verse declares a confidence in God's word and reminds us that, as II Corinthians 120 tells us, all the promises of God are yea in a man, in Christ. Verse two says how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust his cleansing blood and in simple faith, to plunge me beneath the healing, cleansing flood. Once again we are pointed to Christ's work on the cross, his shedding of his blood to pay the penalty for our sin. Hebrews 10, verses 12 to 14, says but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet, for by a single offering he is perfected for all time. Those who are being sanctified. Verse three yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus just from sin and self, to cease just from Jesus, simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.
Speaker 3:Galatians 220 says I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, in the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, turning from our sin, turning from self and seeking contentment, seeking life and rest and joy and peace in Christ. Then, in verse four, we would sing I'm so glad I've learned to trust thee, precious Jesus, save your friend, and I know that thou art with me, wilt be with me to the end.
Speaker 3:It speaks to us of the perseverance of the Christian and the confidence that we have that God has promised and will complete the work that he began in us, as Philippians 1.6 tells us, and the refrain that is sung after each of these verses, quite familiar to many, I'm sure. Jesus, jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him, or and or. Jesus, jesus, precious Jesus, o for grace to trust him more. May we be reminded of all of the times that we have proven our Lord and Savior, that we have seen his faithfulness, that we've experienced his keeping power, and O as we go through our current circumstances that may seem so much more difficult than those that we remember, may we ask him for the grace to trust him all the more. Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 1:Miya has our CRQ of the week.
Speaker 2:Thank you, greg. So tonight's CRQ is and I most preface this question by saying that I have been late as of late talking to choir directors regarding their church choirs. In particular, I haven't really spoken to anyone or choir director outside of the church choir so when they've been struggling a lot with kind of pulling the choir back into place, back into the choir stand, if you will. So the question tonight is I am a choir director and I'm finding it hard to gather the choir back together, especially after COVID. I'm a choir director finding it extremely hard to gather the choir back together, especially after COVID. So yeah, I think that's probably it's a pretty universal situation.
Speaker 1:It's 2024. We're still blaming COVID for this situation.
Speaker 2:I don't think that we'd like to blame COVID for a lot of things. In my opinion. I don't believe COVID is the sole issue for the choir, the church choir, not being in its place. I think those struggles were happening far above COVID, far before COVID was going on or COVID had come into play. I think that was a struggle for many churches in particular I don't know about and I've said this, I've said this about choirs A lot of people. They always talk about bringing the choir back, bringing the choir back, bringing the choir back.
Speaker 2:The choir in terms of a community effort, those choirs and I've said this before those choirs are thriving In the community. You can find a community choir in every corner, just about every state, every city are trying to put together. There's one being put together right now, as we speak, a specific purpose right now, and they're telling me, from what I'm hearing. They're telling me that the rehearsals are good, so the community efforts are doing well. It's the church choir that's struggling and I feel bad about that because that's what I grew up singing. Long before there was a community choir, there was my church choir. That's all I had, and so we sang there. We did everything right there at the church but since COVID in particular, the choir directors are really finding it difficult to bring these choirs back into play.
Speaker 2:I was at a convention back in August and in one of the workshops and they discussed. They had that discussion in one of the workshops and there were so many ideas. I had never seen this. I didn't know that you have recruiting for the church choir. They have. I mean, I'm learning, I was learning some things. They were putting out cookies and juice, you know, trying to get people to come back, whatever whatever Coffee and bagels, coffee and bagels.
Speaker 1:Doing everything short of opening a Starbucks in the house, Right exactly.
Speaker 2:They were doing everything that they could to try to get this choir back together, bring it back into the churches, because they believe that the pastors are ready for that. The pastors of these churches want that, but these directors are finding it hard. So, gentlemen, what say you?
Speaker 3:Well, first, I would just say you got to pray. Yeah, you have to pray, right, because, as you were saying that COVID is not the sole S-O-L-E reason, there's something else going on spiritually with folks, and there's just there's some soul S-O-U-L things going on with folks where there isn't a desire to connect with people on a human level. We think that we can walk this Christian walk, that we can be the church and be at home. Wow, yeah, that we can somehow be the church and be separated from people. And I think that, seeing that dynamic play out in many churches, still there's no way that you're going to have even a smaller aggregation of people to come together to say so. It's if these pastors are ready for choirs to come back together. They need to be praying for the spiritual revival and renewal of the folks that are in the churches, because that's where it starts. That's where it starts Well, greg.
Speaker 1:Well, I agree with Dorian, we have two soul issues that we're concerned with. But this CRQ prompts another question. Well, I'll tell you why. Because he said oh, she said that they are having a hard time pulling the choir back together, especially after COVID, which tells me that there were some difficulties bringing the choir together prior to COVID. Now, difficulties meaning that maybe you didn't have the number that you thought you should have or wanted to have. And I think we need to be asking ourselves and what are we trying to bring the choir back to? Because if it's an old situation, I think that's telling. I think COVID was both and I've heard this said many times COVID was both revealing and exposing. What are we trying to bring the people from the choir back to? Is it the same old thing they've always done? Were they already getting tired of what they were doing? Was it already boring? Did COVID become their excuse now to not show up? I mean, there's a lot of questions to be asked here and again, I'm not making light of that. I mean, the whole premise for this podcast is to reassemble choir corporate singing. But we have to ask ourselves some hard questions.
Speaker 1:What was happening in 2019? I think we're dealing with two or three kinds of people with choir during that year. Some who desired to be there and couldn't because of all of the restrictions. Others who desired to be there but were grateful that they didn't have to be there. They don't have that long-term commitment anymore. And then you've got the third group who were just looking for an opportunity to stay home. They were tired, and I mentioned this already. Maybe they were tired, maybe it was boring, or maybe they just served so many years that they were looking to do something else. And COVID was an opportunity for a lot of people to decide. You know what? I'm going to take my Sundays back and I think that's what we're dealing with. People have to now love again sing it in choir. They have to love again being amongst other people. They have to love again.
Speaker 1:God corporately.
Speaker 2:I have a question now Do you think that the love, the love is no longer there like it once was when I was growing up in the choir? I love to do it. That I love to do it Not just because I had the ability to do it, but I also understood how important it was for us to be able to get the message out in song and how relevant it was to the believer or unbeliever, nonbeliever, when they came into the sanctuary. How important it was for us to get that message across to them that their lives could somehow be changed or they don't necessarily have to leave that place the same way they came in.
Speaker 2:It was an uplifting. There was some revelation in all of that that those people would get through our music and we just love to do that. I don't know if that's the same thing now. That's going on like it did then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm certainly not the one to question the motivation of choir members. First of all, I don't know the choir or the person who sent them, the CRQ, and I don't want to be questioning anybody's motivation, but I do know this much that, prior to 2020, choirs and churches across the board were seeing a decline, and not all of them, but a large number of them were seeing a decline. The ones that were maintaining and growing were the ones who were reinventing themselves, and they were for lack of a better term staying modern. They were keeping up with the latest music. They were doing things in terms of arrangements slightly different. They maintained a consistent group of musicians who were always growing, and some of them on the cutting edge of today's music.
Speaker 1:And so the choir and we've talked about this before the choir still has to be attractive. It still has to minister. Well, the leadership still has to do what it has to do in terms of pouring into the choir, making sure that there's community, making sure that people want to be there and that, when they do leave after rehearsal or after a service that they're leaving saying it was good to have been there, it was good to be with this group of people. So the leadership then has a responsibility to make sure that the choir is attractive, that they're on the cutting edge, that they are growing not just numerically but they're growing spiritually, they're growing musically, so that in the absence of your normal people, your regular crowd, you're still attracting new people.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope that the choir directors who may be listening understand what's being said tonight, and it is certainly thought provoking. I pray that these directors are listening to this tonight, and that's good stuff.
Speaker 1:I pray. So Good stuff. Adasa is waiting. So let's get to part two of our conversation with Adasa. Welcome to the choir. So let's talk about the family dynamic. You and your husband, gabriel have how many children?
Speaker 5:We have seven kids.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to ask you to say it again, because either our audience didn't hear what you said or they misunderstood what you said. I can tell by their eyes.
Speaker 5:We have seven children. Seven, yes, that is awesome. We have five babies at home, too, that already flew the nest. My husband and I. We have six together that I gave birth to and I'm the mother of well, he calls me this Latin mama, you know his first born kid, but yeah, in total we have seven, and it's such a beautiful experience to share this with them, and they're your biggest critics and they bring you down at Earth like Brutally honest.
Speaker 1:Round you Quick. Let's get your husband in here, Gabriel.
Speaker 5:He's amazing. Okay, I got to talk him up, okay.
Speaker 1:So now I get to talk to you.
Speaker 5:So Gabriel Candiani is an incredible producer. He is has worked with so many amazing artists in Pique Iglesias, pitbull, sierra. He has over 6,000 placements in film and TV. He owns a record label for film and television music, as well as works with multiple labels doing music for television and film. He's also my manager and he's the most incredible husband ever. And, yeah, he could change a diaper with his eyes closed. Oh yeah, less than 60 seconds. Nothing on the hands either.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's a honey, mr Gabriel.
Speaker 5:Come on come on, come on, you take that, hi everybody.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome Mr Gabriel Candiani.
Speaker 6:Hello, good to have you. I love that sound. It sounds good For us in anything. I would like to say that sometimes when people hear my what I've done, I will say that she's always been a part of it. When, when it has to do with my career, she takes care of, actually, my contracts. She takes care of all the logistics.
Speaker 6:That's a very intelligent one, and when it's her career as an artist, then I do so. We just cannot switch. When it's her career, then I take care of the production and take care of the contracts. I take care of her assistant. I do her here if I have, and when it's my, when it's me the one who's producing a movie or whatever I'm producing, it is her that takes care of the logistics, makes sure that I'm in the plane on time and all that kind of stuff is. I feel like I would say in Spanish, un manco y un cojo. If there's any anybody speak Spanish, they would understand.
Speaker 1:Oh, there were a few here with us tonight.
Speaker 6:Somebody with an arm and a cojo, with somebody with a leg. Gotcha, that makes it. It makes sense, yeah, so together we make a whole Gotcha.
Speaker 1:All right, you got to tell the audience how you met.
Speaker 6:Well, I used to produce albums for Sony and my one of my best friends told me he wanted to put together a group. And then I was oh that's great, it's going to be four girls. And he says and you should listen to my sister? And I said absolutely not. No, whatever we do, we're not going to take your sister.
Speaker 3:No family, why Because?
Speaker 6:it's your sister. If anything goes wrong or whatever, you know you're going to be very upset. No, so we keep looking and looking for people and we already have three people that we have selected. And he was you really need to listen to my sister. And I said I already told you we're not going to do this. I wasn't charged for the project. And I said we are not, let's find somebody else.
Speaker 6:So one day he showed up with a cassette and play me a cassette. I just wanted to hear this once. No, all right, fine. And then I played it and I go, wow, that is a really great texture. But she looked like I'm showing a picture, okay, or something. Yeah, honestly, he's not that cute. So I didn't expect that. And I go, oh well, you know, actually sounds good. So you like her and the band and the group and I say, yeah, what is my sister? And I go, okay. So we may have been working on that record for a while and at one point we just couldn't live without each other. And for bad we were, just we were together.
Speaker 2:It's all good it's all good.
Speaker 6:We really haven't always gotten along just perfectly. A lot of us are amazing in this position. She is just a wonderful, truly wonderful person and it's always really being very wise beyond her ears.
Speaker 5:I would have to say it's both because I know he is 100% committed to his family and I am 100% committed and because of that, regardless, if today he was to tell me we need to go to Wyoming, I'm like I'll get the kids in the car. I would not ask why, because his first and foremost thought every day is how can my family be better, how can I protect them, what can I do to serve them deeper and better? So because I know that's always on his mind as the number one catalyst, then I can trust him 150,000%. And so he shows it to me every single day. And just the little things. And that's what makes them.
Speaker 6:I think what we follow what the Lord has told us, which is be one. Why don't you become one that we can go forever together? Because it's just, you don't feel complete without the other person.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 6:I'm sounding so corny, but yeah, that's right, she completely.
Speaker 1:Listen, that's not corny at all. Yeah, I agree. This audience understands that. They understand the concept of one Now speaking of one, the fact that you two are one and you work so closely together. Adasah, you made mention of the fact that when you were going through that difficult season, you couldn't hug your children. That was a very hard part. You couldn't hug them, you couldn't kiss them and you felt helpless. But yet out of that experience came a bunch of songs and thus the project. In Jesus we are one. Can we talk about that a minute?
Speaker 6:I do wanna talk a little bit about that. Oh yeah, basically we were in hip hop, all right. So for all of you who've been in hip hop, you know what's up. So we did a lot of touring and a lot of we were in that world and, honestly, we were in the world. Now we always tried to play the gray you know that idea yeah. The idea of you know, it's just like there is a line and I'm close to it you know that kind of idea.
Speaker 6:We were those people you know, just kind of trying to be good and all the stuff and at the same time not quite being what we should be, when that experience happened, it was a huge surprise. We have already had COVID and we thought we were past it. And Adasah told me I'm feeling really dizzy, I'm feeling really weird, but maybe we're pregnant.
Speaker 6:I don't know that kind of thing. I'm like no baby, no great. But I thought, okay, just go get a test. And she went to the hospital to get a test and I stayed feeding the kids and taking the school. But when I came back, adasah called me and she was like like that and if you heard Adasah talking, she has no problems talking. So I was like what's going on? She was like blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub and she had completely lost her ability to put her thoughts together and whatever. It was extremely scary. The doctors literally told us that she was gonna die and they gave her the choice to die at home or die in the hospital. Wow, and Adasah chose to die at home. We went to the house and that's what happened, with the whole thing on the top, and she was completely paralyzed and it was just a horrendous, horrendous moment. And then the insurance call and say, well, if you don't bring it back to the hospital, it's basically we're gonna like if I was keeping her there because I wanted the money or something.
Speaker 6:It became even worse problem so I had to take it back to a different hospital. We went to a different hospital. They couldn't figure out what it was and after 17 hours of trying to figure out the total, we can't do nothing about you. Basically she's gonna die. And I took her home with a friend in a truck because I couldn't I was crying so much I couldn't drive and then we got home, put it in the bed and basically just put her life on the hands of God. And bottom line is it's kind of like I said when it says that he took the bead and some words are not in English, okay, but the bead and then he chopped it to the bottom and then so it could grow from scratch. It was like that it was at that moment of death was so horrendous that it was like being chopped from the core and then any expectations or desires of doing whatever wearing out that window. And then we noticed that we needed to say thank you to God for the integral miracle.
Speaker 6:But it was because now many families didn't have this miracle and we were very conscientious that, yeah, we were full of joy that she was getting better, but many didn't. So I started, honestly, we started paying more attention to what's going on in the world and as we were doing and figuring out what we were going to do, I noticed an incredible division that we're living on these moments, and it's a division where, instead of focusing on everything that we have in common, we are focusing more on what we have not in common, and it is just like a big. It's just a big point of the finger and who's got the right and who doesn't have the right? And in this fight, we have a situation where, I believe, us as Christians are a little bit divided. There is a group of Christianity who believes in certain things and is like no, you're not, yes, you are. And it is a little bit conflicted. And there is a saying divide and conquer.
Speaker 6:So Adas and me were saying what can we come together? Where are all Ralees? Where is our for Jesus Ralee? But where are those things? Where are we coming together and being one? Why can we just say we all believe in the Ten Commandments, we believe in Jesus Christ and also Savior and the Lord and Holy Spirit. What can we take everything that we believe together and be one in Jesus? That's kind of like what our conversation was before we started working on that album and I thought I had a friend, he had a friend he's my good friend.
Speaker 6:And he, he's a national. We live in Nashville. And he has this show that they take everywhere, out to the jails, to everywhere you know. He's like a bunch of artists who go and sing about God and about Jesus Christ and and jails and stuff like that.
Speaker 6:And I told him dude, I would like you to invite me. Let me tell you, I put the Luskius record and he told me no. And I go, dude, you know me, I'm a good person, you know I believe in God. Allow me to go and express my love for God too. And he said I mean, I can't let you because you belong to a different religion, you know a different church. And I say, well, what can we focus on? I tell what? Look at my lyrics. Tell me there's anything that you disagree on? What everybody? If we don't disagree, allow me to also participate. He told me I don't know, I just, you know every religion has that. And I go wow, you know that needs to be, that needs to change. You know we need to have love for each other and love each other with. You know differences, even if we have a little bit different opinion. So then the idea of in Jesus we are one became strong.
Speaker 5:And that's when we started thinking about the lyrics, and for that particular song was one of the first ones, I think, that we wrote it says my sins might not look like yours. Still I seek redemption in His grace. We both sing hallelujah, we both say amen, long to see His face again. All love for the Lord is our common bond. You're not eating strength. That's where we belong. And, baby, there's no evil we can overcome In Jesus.
Speaker 6:We are one, and then, and then. And then, and then that is basically the message of the album and then I told her that we need to have a choir Now by this time for all of us. We don't know. We are in a class. I teach a master class about production and I don't know if he'll need no teaching he's so good, but anyway, I knew that he did choir.
Speaker 6:I knew he did choir, but I was after he prayed to get a hold of him and I couldn't. And so I thought, well, okay, let me just call to Africa. I have some friends in Africa who lose music from all over the world. And then I called to Nigeria and I called my friend over there who does the choir in Nigeria and I told him I want you to find one person from a different religion Every single one has to be from a different religion Because I made it my purpose to show that we can be one, that we need to leave that situation on the side and form a choir over there to do in Jesus. We are one. When I call you to do, I'm sure we're gonna talk about how we're going to try. Oh yeah, carol.
Speaker 6:Actually what we did is we took all the choir from Africa, from all these different religions, and then we took another choir from Arizona and we were trying to figure out what to do and that's when you and me were having the discussion you playing, what do you think about this? And I heard like wow what is that. And it was the choir that you directed in the arrangement perspective.
Speaker 5:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 6:I just absolutely loved it, loved it. So I ask you, would you allow us to collaborate in the song and you were gracious enough to allow to put my own spin, because my idea is, I wanted the drummer to be from England, I wanted the guitar player to be from Australia. I truly had this in Jesus' Rear and One Concept it had to be like that, like for reals. So you were playing the organ and the keys and all.
Speaker 5:Oh, this is still good, Y'all.
Speaker 6:If y'all have not heard it, go and it was an amazing arrangement, that your vocal arrangement was spectacular.
Speaker 5:Oh, thank you, and yes, he sent over the sheet music. Yeah and me, yeah, all the choir people was like there's the sheet music, y'all do it.
Speaker 6:I don't read either. I don't read either. So what he told me?
Speaker 1:might as well be in Chinese. I had to send some.
Speaker 6:But everybody did read it, so I sent it all. Right, I'm going to send it to them and everybody understood it.
Speaker 1:It turned out great. It was so much fun working with you guys and thanks for asking, but I got to tell you that the original soloist for Carole of the Christ is in the choir room today.
Speaker 5:Oh wow, Amazing vocals.
Speaker 1:Carla meet Adasa, adasa meet Carla.
Speaker 6:Oh, you're chicken oh.
Speaker 5:Oh, you're chicken. You know I'm dating. You're absolutely cute.
Speaker 6:Actually, when we got it.
Speaker 1:I was like OK.
Speaker 6:I was like OK, adasa you going to have to say this and I girl can say Put the bar.
Speaker 5:Put the bar back.
Speaker 1:You guys can mix it up in your native tongue. Show our audience some of our diversity here.
Speaker 5:Bejísimo, de verdad, carla, era Carla Lindy.
Speaker 4:Sí, muchísimas gracias. Hola, que señor los bendica muchísimo. Hermoso testimonio, hermoso. Yo estaba tan emocionada de estar en esta llamada porque Greg y yo habíamos estado hablando y él me enseñó la versión de Carole of the Christ Y fue tan original, tan fantástica que, o sea, no, tú no ves a dónde puede llevar el señor un mismo tipo, una misma canción le puede poner un sonido tan lindo y algo tan original que simplemente es algo que impacta diferente. Entonces, bueno, me encantó, felicidad Es hacer una canción tan linda y muy contenta de saber que las dificultades que han pasado los ha llevado a una vida, a un testimonio, a una profundidad tan hermosa con Cristo. Así que estoy súper, súper emocionada y, bueno, súper lindo conocerlos en esta noche.
Speaker 6:Nosotros estamos completamente enfocados a hacer eso. Yo le dije, I said I'm going to speak.
Speaker 4:English too.
Speaker 6:We talk to him and whenever you guys give, like, some event or whatever and you want to ask out there, you know, just call us. You know, and we would like to collaborate because you know what?
Speaker 4:It's kind of love too.
Speaker 6:Talk, talk and then no action. It's not good, you know, yeah. So the idea is not not leaving, at the worst.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we would love to do something with your choir Greg. You know that I've been, we've been hunting you down.
Speaker 3:And we go?
Speaker 5:yeah, because we love to like physically, like us, fly to New York, take a basic set up for filming and just do something in a church where we're just like everybody just walking out and just just just blowing it.
Speaker 6:Because you know what we, we really need to all of us cool. Ok, so the force of the secret of a choir is individual spiritual power, each one of us members. The reason why it's so powerful is because, even though you think it sounds like one, it really sounds like a multitude. You know and you feel the multitude of the, the chills going through the body of everybody who's singing one. They're doing it from their, from their soul. It just gets into your bones and, like every single song in this album, has a choir.
Speaker 5:Every single one.
Speaker 6:It was like something that we demanded. It has to have a choir, you know, and it has to sound big, because we wanted to sound like a hoist.
Speaker 5:Yeah, hoist, a hoist, like a heavenly hoist.
Speaker 6:Heavenly hoist, that's right. So just to tell you guys, all of you who have, if you have some big band or something, that you would like a lot of stuff to be there, you're to sing for you a song or this song or something else, and your church, we will try to move. You know, earth and whatever we have to move to try to show off for you, because we want to be unified and instead of be trying to focus in and so forth. What church are you From? Whatever, what we want to do is do you believe in Christ? Yes, yes. Then you can start testimony.
Speaker 5:I did too.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 6:I like on a mission, you play a little bit of an animation.
Speaker 1:Now, in Jesus we are one is the title track for this project, but you can find all seven tracks in Jesus we are one. Almighty God, better Than I Am, which is my favorite. The Great I Am on a mission one more day, and then there's a seventh one in Spanish. I can't remember the title of that one because my Spanish is so great, but you can find all seven tracks anywhere that you buy your music today. Now I want to get to some of the questions from our audience before we run out of time. Now this is to you both Was there a particular scripture that spoke to you during that trying time that prompted these songs In the hidden?
Speaker 5:scripture. We have hidden scriptures, all through the pictures, all through our artwork. Yeah, when you see the artwork.
Speaker 6:If you really look at it, the scripture for every song is somehow hidden in it.
Speaker 5:It could be in a grill or a car, so like if you say the cover.
Speaker 6:It's from Philippines On the cover. Philippines, yeah, philippines. Ok, if you find the cover, yes, like if you see the church in the picture and you're going to see the scriptures written in the top of the church.
Speaker 1:So it's in the artwork design yes. It's a little hidden, but it's in the cover art. Most people don't even look at artwork today.
Speaker 6:Yes, Well, in Jesus we have one, as it's from John. You know, In John, when Jesus Christ says to be one in me, like I am in the Father and the Father John 17.
Speaker 6:That area of John I always thought was amazing that we should all be one with Him. Right, If you think about it. It doesn't mean that we are Jesus, obviously, but we can be one with Him. There you go, so we can all be one, even though we are all different. We are all different people, we are different things, but we can all be one in Him and that's what the scripture that inspired, that particular Absolutely.
Speaker 5:And there's different scriptures, like Psalms 91. I love this one. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadows of the Almighty, I will say of the Lord. He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. That's one, because sometimes we can have our doubts as to why something is happening to us.
Speaker 5:But if we trust that all things will give us experience and be for our good, then we shouldn't doubt that we're already on the right path. As long as we are not breaking any commandments or we haven't deviated from the road leading back to Him, then everything we're going to go through that road is going to be for our own benefit. It's going to be for our own growth. But you don't expect to go into a gym and never lift away, then where's the growth going from? Resistance is part of that growth and if you have no resistance in your life, you're not growing. So during these experiences and every obstacle that came along or everything we were facing, we knew this is the resistance that we're going to grow from.
Speaker 5:And we didn't know where our path was leading and the hardest thing was To know that you don't know what's coming. But the excitement of it doesn't matter, because the one who's leading is the one Almighty God. And so Almighty God was another song that was just just being thankful, a grateful song, just thankful for his patience, for everything he's made from the birds and trees, testifies of him. And so every single song in here, gabriel and I did Every, every song with all heart and just. We're so grateful for desert book supporting and shadow.
Speaker 6:Everybody participated, from the singers, musicians everything came from a terribly different backgrounds and probably different points of view, in terribly different things. Because I wanted to make that point that we need to get stop being children and get us, you know this, cultural differences and stuff like that, and just All these sons and daughters of God, and that's it. That's the only Thing that should define so, and that is really what it's all about now. Alasa is not a Christian artist. She's an artist who is a Christian.
Speaker 1:So that's an important distinction for a lot of people, so thanks for sharing that?
Speaker 6:yes, because right now they're working on another album and we are working on another album and it's not going to be like to Jesus, but it always mentions God.
Speaker 5:It's always mentioning my faith. It always mentions family. It keeps it grounded on who I am, so I'm grateful to be able to share it and for people asking about where the song. You can get a month's potify Apple music.
Speaker 6:Yeah, just yeah all right.
Speaker 1:So the next question here and you probably see these in the chat Can you share more about the timeline of your healing to Production and in Kanto and how soon before the production did your voice return and did you have any, or did you have an understudy? So that's three questions in one. No under.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I'll start with the last one. There is. There was no understudy or backup. That was it. Once you get cast, it is you. The first thing that I did do was speak to the casting director when she called us and because the the day that I auditioned with the producers and with With all of them, I did so, so, so, so this is what it feels like to match with someone at your level with the hell Is the cat?
Speaker 5:just the feeling of freedom, of seeing the light, has been fricking with a keen and kind. You see it right, you know a little.
Speaker 5:Alexander Hamilton which turned. I didn't know at the time, you know what liminal had in mind, but then I noticed, oh, he wanted to know my speed, because then the good 11 favorite, bruno Stuttering, is jumbling. You know, is him sort of mattering in mumbling? I also see me with the sound of. So it's a very intimate, very low rap. When I got sick and we we call them, I literally had three no.
Speaker 5:I didn't know it was gonna be, but I didn't really have, but he wrote it. You tell me if it's not a marriage.
Speaker 6:Come on, she used to have all this range and got to Everything. Well, whomever it was, or whatever, for whatever reason that she was, with three notes and left with what she needed.
Speaker 5:Happens just happens.
Speaker 6:Those were the three. No, that she's supposed to sing wow. And if you pay attention to the Lord, and she's very Diminished, you know, because she can barely speak. And that's what I had. Now, when you listen, how great it, how whisper it is, people don't know. I'll tell you a secret. So I was engineer that and what we will do is she had an iPad and they were talking to her and I was engineering, I was controlling the iPad, the fee, the whole thing that. So I had signed that she'll do to me when she thought she was gonna faint, wow. So what I will do is I'll be like doing like that, and when she looked at me like I'm going to faint, then I will plug the the and I go down for just a second.
Speaker 6:I will. I took off the and that's what we just bringing yourself to pieces. That's a place and when she's tell me I'm ready, then, boom, I'll bring it back on and she will go like Like everything was awesome, but in reality, when she finished recording the high the part that she has to, actually At one point they came back and she had to do the high part.
Speaker 5:Of my dreams would be just Troll to another, which is like I hear him now. It's like I can hear him now, I can hear him now, now, normally that would be nothing but that day.
Speaker 6:Was way, way more than she's supposed to be able to do. So actually she finished it and, man, her eyes were like I can see the pressure. Yeah, I literally popped veins in my eyes and sometimes the Lord shows us a way to show you who is really giving you that mark. It's not because you, because you're so talented that you saw some years, or whatever. No, he shows to give it to you and sometimes he makes a point clear.
Speaker 5:So your banner is don't go all the way out there, you know sure and in honest, when they told us that we got the part and um, and he spoke to james pair roberts, we only had three weeks. So as opposed to how much time, I only had three weeks to prepare and it was like preparing in rocky but in slow motion. Everything was slow motion, just me getting to the kitchen and walking from the kitchen to the bedroom. There's just like. I'm going and I'm gonna talk while I'm moving.
Speaker 6:She broke a lot of blades. She will not sit down.
Speaker 5:She had to go on question issues and I like maybe you couldn't just go to my coordination was off, I could barely like move my hand, so sometimes I'd be washing in my hands and just go, and then I just dropped dishes and they're break all.
Speaker 1:Hmm, so you recorded all of your parts in your home studio. You didn't go there.
Speaker 5:No, no, we recorded it in our our studio another great blessing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6:When she got the cold, she really was in my legs like this, and I was just crossing her hair and then the phone ring and I picked it up and it was jayme and jayme goes Congratulations, you got the movie. I'm like, uh, she couldn't speak, so so, so she's in my leg like that ago.
Speaker 2:I'm really like, well, that's, you got the movie and then and.
Speaker 6:I thought we're not gonna take it. Baby, I'm sorry you cannot do it. I want you to get hurt. You know how you're gonna fly to Los Angeles. You can't even walk to the kitchen. You know this is. This is not all right.
Speaker 5:I was trying to convince it and as I go, you call them if I'm dead.
Speaker 6:That is the exact word. That is the exact word you call if I'm dead and I go. Well, you better prepare a few words. You're gonna have to say I'll negotiate the contrast and you breathe. So I, I'm muted and I negotiated the whole competition.
Speaker 5:Just bring yourself together, bring yourself together and then she, a one moment we done negotiating and she goes all right, let's talk to alaza.
Speaker 6:And then she goes can I talk to alaza? And I'm thinking, yeah, that's the question, okay.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much. When do I start?
Speaker 6:That's what she had and then give it to me.
Speaker 5:I literally almost passed out, like literally almost at the floor, just by saying that.
Speaker 6:We came very good friends with time again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so. So when your kids see the film, or first saw the film, what was their response?
Speaker 6:Alisa, one of her kids, is in the movie.
Speaker 5:Yeah, alyssa, who's now? She's 11 years old, but that time she got cast was eight years old. She's one of the town kids. She's like yeah, she's about to tell us about the awesome gift, so she even got captain. You know, we made a day out of it. Like the kids do not want to preview it, until we all sat down and they gave us a special link and they were like let's watch it, but I want. We want to watch it as a family and we did like the whole popcorn thing and they all cried. I cried, I couldn't believe it. I still listen to the movie, still. Like people ask me are you sick of sitting we don't talk about? When I was like never.
Speaker 1:I think you can see the next question from one of our audience participants.
Speaker 5:Oh, oh as artists who are christians, do you have rules about what type of projects you will or won't do? Okay, even more, ah, all right. So immediately after we got this film, the offer started flooding it, oh yeah. And for a lot of men we're talking seven figure offers and and Gabriel and I were looking through the scripts and they were just coming from HBO. Yo, it was like a no, no, no, no who said yes, and then we were like we can't take it we can't take it because in this one I would have to be like the narcotraficante girlfriend.
Speaker 5:They're always into having sex with a guy, and this one I'm gonna have to take my top off and this one I'm gonna have to, you know, not dress modestly. So, yes, there were a lot of things and roles and opportunities in which I was like I'm sorry, I cannot move forward with this opportunity. So it is true, when you know who you are and you know whose gift you have, I don't waste it and I don't. I no longer go, oh man, I should have if I could have. I don't do that. My husband and I know where our principles lie and it's it was. At first it was a little difficult, because you work your whole life, to be in that point where you're receiving all these offers, but then if the offer is not a good one, then what's the question?
Speaker 6:about. Sometimes people ask us is that a temptation? And I go if I serve a big plate of poop, is that a temptation to eat it?
Speaker 1:No, okay, well, there you go, you know, because the bottom line is you only tempted if you want, if you want it, you know.
Speaker 6:You're not, you don't want it, yeah, yeah, there's a whole lot of places of both came away and and we just have to say no, and it was just sad to see the difference between how much of this side was against the other. And then it goes further than that. We prioritize our family over absolutely everything money, everything which means that when she tours, she just tours two weekends out of the month. Rarely she has a third, and just usually only when, when, these nas.
Speaker 6:When these nas, we go that do the other one, but otherwise we just take two, which, honestly, we have a great life. We don't need any more life than this, because joy is nothing to do with your belongings. Two times out of the week we want to put our shoes together as a family. So we don't only have to say no, honestly, we don't only have to say no to projects that are not Clean. Basically, we also have to say no to even clean projects because they're taking over our life, and that is a lot, but that also does that just like Greg was saying, it takes.
Speaker 6:But we still got everything we need and we don't need more. We are perfectly fine.
Speaker 5:At one point, like like Greg says, it does take courage to understand where do our priorities lie? Because there's no such thing as you doing everything at all times, at all moments. So we make a priority and our family is first our marriage, like it's our marriage, and it's our kids, and then it's our, our families and extended family friends. You know all of that. We need to make sure that that stays intact because, at the end of the day, what is success if it's alone? If everything that you had that was at the core of what made you happy and gave you joy Is what you have to relinquish to have money trust me, money doesn't hug you back.
Speaker 5:Money doesn't sit with you and remember the good times and and reminisce with you.
Speaker 6:Let me put it to you in this way If breathing is necessary for you to live and somebody tells you I can give you a million dollars for you not to breathe for 10 minutes, yeah, whatever, keep your 10 million dollars. God be dead by the time that happens. So because my priority is breathing, your 10 million means nothing to me, see. So when you have your priorities straight, you don't feel tempted to it.
Speaker 6:You have to think about, for example, the temptations with Jesus when he goes to the mountain and Satan is trying to tempt him. You know and think about how and in what order he tempted.
Speaker 5:First it was the bread. Y'all remember the scripture he's done turned these around, basically hunger, and let me tell you all of us musicians, we will get that temptation first.
Speaker 6:Basically, it is you're starving and one day somebody tells you there's two, some buses stop and you're gonna be just fine, I'm gonna turn this stone into bread. You'll see, come on, let's go. Let's go Do the evil thing you know you shouldn't do. It doesn't matter, because you're gonna get that bread. If you resist that one, what is the second one?
Speaker 5:Come on, guys. Do you know the scripture? What is the second temptation? Y'all remember the second temptation.
Speaker 6:What is the second temptation?
Speaker 4:There it is, look at that, what is it?
Speaker 5:Just throw yourself, throw yourself.
Speaker 6:Okay, so let me explain that one. That one is the second temptation that all musicians get. It is get close to the edge. Nothing's gonna happen to you, it's okay. Go to the party. No, you shouldn't go, it doesn't matter, nothing's gonna happen, because you got the power of the Lord with you. You're gonna be there, nothing's gonna happen. And then you feel that you can live in that age and you're not gonna fall. And the angels are gonna catch you and you fall, it's gonna happen and you're going to be fine and whatever.
Speaker 6:And let me tell you, you go there, you end up falling, you're not gonna catch you, you slam and the floor will sink at plenty of times.
Speaker 6:And you know, what happens if you resist that temptation, what is the third temptation that comes? You guys remember the third one. What is it? It finally says okay, fine, I'll give you the world. I'll give you the world. Okay, let's stop the games here. I can see you're not gonna fall for easy stuff. I'll give you the world, richness, fame, power, whatever. Trust me, that is the next one that comes in. So in our case, because we always known that's the order of the temptations- we are really at the point of that you understand, oh here it is the world.
Speaker 6:All the money you ever won, all the things you ever won, whatever do you take it. So that's the thing I love the fact that I have enough. There's a script that says I can never have enough. So sad for those ones, because guess what? Having enough, feeling satisfied, it's where it's happening, it's this so if you're satisfied with what the Lord has given you and you are in joy and grateful what the Lord has given you, then you don't need more, so the other stuff don't even matter, don't even tempt you.
Speaker 1:That's good stuff. We've got room for one or two more questions. There's one here that says Adasa, I heard you mentioned that you homeschool your children. I do too. How do you juggle that along with your music responsibilities and do you homeschool all of your children?
Speaker 5:Yes, all five of them. Five of them. I do homeschool them. So, like I said, I do make my priority list of the day, so like today that we were gonna have this with Greg.
Speaker 6:We'll describe a normal day.
Speaker 5:I'll show you a normal day today, so I got up Five Five o'clock in the morning again.
Speaker 6:Like I said, I get up I pray and we do our scripture study. I said, like one of the kids, I take it to seminary and she starts her day.
Speaker 5:And then we'll get into the kitchen. So if I have left dishes in the sink, I wash my dishes first, then I start cooking. I cook breakfast. I go like up the kiddos they get ready to clean their rooms, come down and have breakfast and then I give them about an hour for them to have breakfast, because I do have a four year old and a seven year old with a three year old.
Speaker 6:No, I'm not putting it in the breakfast, I'm sorry, it's just putting it on. So we started five in the morning and then I take off and I leave one of the babies.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, when she goes to seminary, when he takes the kids to seminary, he has to vocalize.
Speaker 6:She goes to the gym downstairs.
Speaker 5:That's what.
Speaker 3:I do. By the way, somebody asked me a question.
Speaker 6:I thought I think you should explain how you do it. So she puts the walker. And she vocalizes and they tread me. That's the thing. Trust me, all of you guys out there, just do that. You won't believe it. Just doing that when you go up on stage and you're racing, your voice shakes and stuff like that, because your heart rate is up and all that stuff. So you get used to doing it. You're always, even if you're scared, whatever, your voice comes out just smooth.
Speaker 5:So yeah, when he takes our kids to seminary, I'm doing that. So that's usually about between 5.30 AM and 6.30 that I do that.
Speaker 5:So yeah, we have to wake up about 4.30 to5 in the morning to be able to do our personal time, our personal scripture study, him taking our kids to seminary. Then I do that For the studio Then. So then after that I fix breakfast, do that, and then after they finish eating breakfast, I usually leave the dishes or get the dishes. I go. Then we go to school time. That's when we dedicate.
Speaker 6:It's about 10 in the morning.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so about 10 in the morning. We do that for about three hours. I do homeschool with them and then I do different activities and each one of the kids has to have their chart, what are the goals for the day, and then I check over, making sure that they do all of their basics. Right now our 14 year old. Her goal is to graduate by 16 because she wants to go to college early, so then she can serve a mission at 20.
Speaker 6:The ASA is like the goal. All of them know they have to pass the.
Speaker 5:ASA, asa, teeth or ATT's I'm like.
Speaker 6:So they are already starting for them, since they're like in fourth grade, because now it's the easiest way.
Speaker 5:So I'm telling you. They learned a lot of information, but it all comes down to three tests. If you have an umbrella school, we go through home life academy. Then they'll be able to get their certificate at 16.
Speaker 6:If you go through the GED route, and I have children, so I'll be right back. So that is gotta be Get in the door.
Speaker 5:So if you want them to do their GED, start with the GED book. Now it's the easiest way to go is just start with the GED book, because that's what they're gonna get tested on. I mean, it has all of the basics. So what I do is I make sure they have their reading writing up into the level that they can start that GED book. So, even with the little ones, I'm starting with words that I know are gonna be in the GED or in the SAT or the ACT and I just put it into her syllabus and then that's one of the words she knows, and so we start making sure that they're prepped for SATs, acts. That is the biggest thing for them, because they do. I want them to go out of the house. My goal is for them to go. I love you, mom, but I gotta play and remember to go. Go, brady.
Speaker 1:Dorian just did a holy wave right there We've launched three of them.
Speaker 3:Three of them.
Speaker 1:We've got time for one more question, I believe.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, I see one here. Do your children sing or we do family choir? Actually, we were invited to sing this Christmas together as a family. We had not done that before, weirdly enough, and we did and I thought the baby wouldn't do it she's poor. And then she was like I love this baby too, and she actually came up there and she sang too with us. So that was really fun. We don't push music on our kids, but they're extremely musical on their own. So my 14 year old she's picking up the guitar, she's playing it, she's enjoying it, she's got a beautiful voice and she loves to do her own little choreographies. Alyssa, she actually has like a voiceover career.
Speaker 6:She makes money, though.
Speaker 5:Yeah, she makes money doing that and I don't push it on her either.
Speaker 1:Great, great. Well, here's the last question, because I know you need to get back to your kiddos. We can do a quick fire round, all right, did you maintain your full vocal range after your health setback?
Speaker 5:You're again your full vocal range. Yes, but it's different. My voice is a lot deeper now and so it's a lot more raspiest. I can't really control it as much, which does for some really fun Disney collaborations, because I would have to take a hollow of hole and do Disney songs and that was pretty cool. Okay, thank you. Anything else? Any last?
Speaker 1:That looks like the last one.
Speaker 5:Okay, I think that was the last one. I think I got it right.
Speaker 1:We got it. Thanks, Adossa. Thanks Gabriel for joining us.
Speaker 5:Thank you all so much, thank you.
Speaker 1:Everybody has immensely enjoyed hearing your story and hearing the motivation behind your music. Now let me remind our listeners that you can find all seven tracks on iTunes, Spotify and anywhere else that you get music. In Jesus, we are one. Thanks again, and remember, if ever we put the messenger before the message, we have failed to present an unblemished gospel. Join us again next week, right here in the choir room. Music.
