What happens when a young 22 year old African American church musician from Louisiana graduates college and immediately moves to Central Europe for a worship leading internship at an international church in Stuttgart, DE? What happens when he meets a Korean teen in Singapore who sings like Norah Jones? What happens when his Gospel influenced ears learn hymns from the Middle East and Greek Orthodox context at a mission training school called All Nations Christian College in the UK? Check out this podcast as I share with you how my first album unexpectedly came into existence.
In this episode we chat with Allan Barbazza. He hails from Brazil and is currently serving in ministry as Worship Leader and pastor
at Kings Cross Baptist Church in downtown London. Allan sings on the third verse of the song "He Cares" from my new album "Divine Immigrant."
You can find him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/allanbarbazza/ (https://www.instagram.com/allanbarbazza/). Join us for a friendly conversation.
19 Feb 2022
He Cares with "The one who surprises people" aka Daniel Ng Yi-Ming
Daniel is one of the featured vocalist on He Cares. He is a dynamic songwriter
with Awaken Generation, a worship training school in Singapore. In this episode
Daniel shares with us how he's reconnecting with his eastern spirituality
through new songs that are being written in Mandarin. Here is a little bit of the story connected to
one of the songs he shared with me.
Үзэсгэлэнтэй (Beautiful)
by Бадамцэцэг (Badama Tsetseg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BSHOx32TY
She became a Christian around 11-12 years old through a Korean & English language school started by a missionary, where she heard the gospel and grew even though it wasn't a formal church per se.
At the age of 16, she was suicidal because of the horrible situation at home with her parents addicted to alcohol. They had a tough life trying to earn a living in the market as labourers. She was so distressed and heartbroken one day when she came back but as she cried out this was downloaded in her spirit and she wrote the song!
Now it's sung all over Mongolia! She's 20 now. She also leads a monthly youth worship gathering in Ulaanbataar called David Worship Team to raise up a worship movement in Mongolia!
Here are some of Daniel's other songs with Awaken Generation.
"Seasons"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe_siZnM6GU
"Throne Room"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE5JocekygE
Follow me: @divineimmigrant or on Facebook at Christopher Mazen.
He Cares(Preorder)
https://music.apple.com/sg/album/he-cares-feat-emily-gunawan-daniel-ng-allan-barbazza/1607769532?i=1607769535
Lord, I Want To Be A Christian(Preorder)
https://music.apple.com/sg/album/lord-i-want-to-be-a-christian-feat-dr-hattie-l/1606626401?i=1606626404
10 Feb 2022
Preview He Cares with Emily Gunawan and Princetta Barfield
After having my first listening part with the Inverse Podcast(come check us out), it became quite obvious that
I needed to release one of the songs sooner than I had intended. Emily and Princetta
are two of four featured vocalists on He Cares. They share about how we met, their musical approach and
the spiritual context that shaped them. We also discuss intercultural worship realities and
how Gospel music and code language are connected through the concept of the vamp.
Check out these links:
"Somlandela"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eMhYyU8zzQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eMhYyU8zzQ)
"It Wasn't The Nails"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cOJqkNkXaA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cOJqkNkXaA)
"Have Your Heard About Jesus"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ5fJfJwd3U (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ5fJfJwd3U)
1 Feb 2022
The Album is Finished
Hey everybody this is Mazen here. And I am glad to announce that I have finished my first album entitled Divine Immigrant. I will be releasing it as singles over the course of the next few months so that you can enjoy the rich life changing stories of these immigrants. This was a global effort from Singapore to Cuba and everywhere in between. It is a musical memoir of the past 8 years of my life living and traveling outside the US. This album celebrates what creatively happens when every day regular people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds find themselves in each others lives.
My heart language, dare I say my first language is Gospel Music, the question this album ponders is can the spirit of Gospel music, the black church, along with her diaspora, dialogue and genuinely connect to the Spanish speaking Cuba Latin context, the Greek speaking Mediterranean context, the Swahili speaking Kenyan context and yes even the English speaking White American, contemporary christian music context…and still be Gospel? And still have that presence and energy that I grew up with as a kid in Galilee Missionary Baptist Church down in Louisiana?
We all do the same thing, we just do them differently. And this album had no other choice but to celebrate that distinctively similar spirit amongst us. I hope through listening to the stories of these singers and musicians who helped me bring these songs to life, I hope you..I hope we learn how to further connect, more deeply respect, and by all means protect each other, and what we value.
Welcome to the Journey of Divine Immigrant
You can follow me @divineimmigrant on Instagram
And Christopher Mazen on Facebook.
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