In this episode of TGC’s Behind the Song, Brett McCracken interviews Phoenix-based singer/songwriter LOVKN about his story, his songwriting process, and his desire for a renaissance of artistically beautiful Christ-centered music.
Raised in a creative home, Steven Lufkin was immersed in music and began attending a performing arts school in the sixth grade. From that point on, creativity and excellence were vital in his music—and he sadly found much Christian music uninspiring and inauthentic. Much of his writing explores unexpected musical approaches to devotional worship. He now leads a growing worldwide community of artists (One Big Family), fostering creative collaboration among indie Christian artists.
Transcript
Brett McCracken
You can satisfy succeeded in my life lessons, learn and relearn and learn again while you waited by my sign seasons pay. I used to remain staring into my vices for advice, I got no change and was kidney ball just
One of the stereotypes of contemporary Christian music, aka CCM is that it all sounds the same. You turn on Christian pop radio and the formula is pretty much ubiquitous. With the lyrics first approach to music making. Mainstream CCM tends to avoid taking musical risks. The most important thing is to get the message across in the lyrics right? So I spent too much time experimenting with the music. Because of this dynamic. It’s sadly rare to hear a Christian artist who sound is genuinely fresh, new and unpredictable. But that’s exactly how I describe the music of Phoenix based singer songwriter Lufkin.
Lufkin spelled LOVKN is the moniker of Steven Lufkin spelled LUFKIN. He’s a 28 year old Christian artists whose energetic joy filled acoustic music has been a staple of my Spotify diet in recent years, at times, evoking Jack Johnson, Josh garrels or Bahamas. Luvkin’s music is rootsy, bluesy folk, commonly up tempo and gleefully percussive and short it’s fun. Here’s a snippet from Lumpkins 2018 single “Darkness into light”.
Steven is a talented musician who cut his musical teeth on blues and classic rock. I spoke with him recently about his songwriting process, which he says usually starts with a musical idea rather than a lyric,
Steven Lufkin
There’s something about melody and creating melody over chords and stuff that I love. And so for me, it’ll start off with just playing some weather on the piano and guitar. Just playing around with a chord sequence that feels inspiring and, and, and kind of just seeing jibberish over it to be honest and just kind of just to get the melody out. So I find myself just singing random words and it’s a lot of it I feel is really heart LED. And sometimes in the midst of that as I’m seeing that gibberish
I really start to feel like a vision for like, Oh, what am I trying to say here? What is this song? What is this melody? Maybe inspiring with the words and and how does that like? How is that coming out of maybe what I’m going through right now in life or a past season?
A lot of times too. I love writing and I’m inspired to write like about other people’s stories that I hear about, you know, which is like one of my songs Endless Summer, which was just inspired by, you know, somebody else’s story and in a sense, trying to and helping the people who were a part of that person’s story and sort of grieving the circumstance that they were in by giving them hope through the song.
And so I do feel calling as a songwriter to really like, inevitably let my songs be something that inspire hope, and that inspire like, not neglecting the, the reality of the hardship or the circumstance that we’re walking through. But in the midst of that, trying to point back to the hope of Jesus without, but the reality is some songs do they, they, they work best sort of without that resolve. I also don’t feel like I have to have a resolve in all of my music, which is something that I think as Christians and as writers feels uncomfortable at times, you know, like existing without the resolve, even though, like the higher reality is that yes, God is victorious. And, you know, we have Christ and you know, we’re going to get through this but also being okay with there not being resolved sometimes escape.
Brett McCracken
Unresolved tension is a fundamental part of art. Without it, drama and beauty loses its impact. We don’t like music that is entirely major chords for the same reason we’re bored by movies with no villains or conflict. Art is about capturing tension, the friction of highs and lows, light and dark. Too often Christian art misses this. It jumps to Sunday without first going through the pain of Friday and the tension of Saturday. This is not to say Christian music should be joyless. Luvkin’s music is deeply joyful. But it’s also honest about the journeys, ups and downs.
The seeds of Steven Luvkin’s career in music were sown at a young age. He grew up in a creative family in Phoenix and attended a performing arts school from the sixth grade on I started doing music in junior high my junior high years. So it was really in sixth grade.
Steven Lufkin
When my folks put me and my sister, I have a twin sister. So they put her and I into this performing arts school. And so basically half the day was learning music. And half the day it was academics. And you know, at the time, I’m, you know, still pretty young. I’m like 11 years old. And, you know, I’ve no idea what I’m doing with my life as an 11 year old doesn’t have no idea, you know, and so I was kind of like, just thrown into this sea of music and being taught by some amazing teachers, you know, who are very educated. And that’s when that musical journey started. For me.
Brett McCracken
Music was Steven’s life growing up, and he figured it would be his future as well. But he didn’t anticipate ever becoming a full time indie Christian musician. At the end of high school, he got accepted to the prestigious Berkeley College of Music in Boston. But it was too expensive to attend. He found himself in something of a crisis of vocation and faith.
Steven Lufkin
Here, I am supposed to be looking at the rest of my life now and trying to figure out what am I doing, and really feeling lost and feeling like there’s something there was always something that was kind of uncomfortable for me the idea of like, self promotion, or like doing something just for my own glory or my own sake. And so when I graduated, and I had been going to this church that my parents were bringing me to just kind of more so out of routine and not real personal relationship. They had said like worship team auditions, you know, are open and we need some people and, and I had nothing really going on and I just graduated high school and so I was like, Okay, well, I’ll just I play guitar. I’ll just go and serve you know, and why not? And I didn’t think much of it. I literally didn’t know any Christian music. I didn’t know any worship music. I didn’t even know what it meant to worship God with music, you know, at all. And that put me into this season of essentially, God like taking my burned out self, you know, and breathing new purpose into my music and my creativity. You know, because it’d became this thing where it’s like, oh, suddenly I realized that I can use my music to actually glorify the Lord, which for me was like that purpose that was missing. You know, it was that drive that now I could create. And it could be something that actually brings life and has meaning and purpose and is a tool to you know, bring others into a place of seeing Jesus. And so that’s really how my faith began to grow on a personal level was in that season when music became something as I began to worship and learn how to worship God through my music and read the Bible more and and just take it pick it up on my own.
Brett McCracken
One of the reasons Steven’s sound is so fresh and different from typical Christian music is that he didn’t grew up listening to CCM, he listened to The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and the police. With the exception of a few Christian artists like Young Ocean’s and Josh garrels. Steven didn’t find Christian music very interesting, artistically. When he became a church worship leader and had to learn the top 20 worship songs at the time, he found it mostly uninspiring. Here’s what Steven said, when I asked him what he found lacking in the CCM genre.
Steven Lufkin
I would say, just authenticity. And I think to like the embracing of your testimony, in a real direct way. I feel like as a songwriter, one of the greatest things that I have to offer you offer is just being real, even in my language and my lyrics about my story and realizing that you know, that authenticity is so important. I feel like so many people in today’s world are so quick to be able to discern when something is real, and something’s not when something has heart. And then when it doesn’t, and I think that like you can tell when an artist is writing music, and there’s honesty in it, you know, and whether that’s whether they want to genre wise, be playing pop music, or they want to be playing singer, songwriter, you know, or folk or rock or whatever, like, I don’t think that matters as much as just like, not being cliche, in the ways that we talk about our God who is so vast and complex and challenging and beautiful. And as writers being able to dive into that.
Brett McCracken
Steven is passionate about seeing a renaissance of artistically beautiful, Christ centered music. That’s one reason why he helps lead a ministry called one big family, which connects independent Christian artists across the world and organizes collaborative projects and tours.
Steven Lufkin
I want to make sure that I’m creating a space to sew into other artists and so with one big family, we plan different tours and events and artists retreats and stuff for a bunch of indie Christian artists, who are popping up all over the world and, and just getting in relationship with those people and connecting people with each other and just cultivating a community of artists in the church who get to come together and be like, yeah, we’re going to support and celebrate everybody’s unique sound, and, and make a place where you know, we’re not doing unhealthy competition, and we’re not doing comparison, but we’re we’re working together and supporting each other and posting about each other’s stuff.
Brett McCracken
The artists who make up the one big family community, like Antoine Bradford, Yaz Williams and Montel fish represent a diverse spectrum of sound and culture. This is not music that fits into any CCM formula, but it’s music that celebrates the unique way God works and lives and creativity across the world and in different contexts. If it were a genre, I’d call it singer songwriter, devotional worship. It’s personal music that is also deeply worshipful. Here’s Luvkin’s song, “Ain’t it something” as one example.
Steven Lufkin
That song, many songs on the album but that song in particular. It’s just, it’s just, it feels like worship to me. But it’s also like what I love about it, it’s also a song I feel like I can play on the street or in a bar or something and like, the message is, is real and conscious saying like, ain’t it’s something to walk through and experience in life and it’s something to like to not know what’s ahead. And to, to, you know, which is a place that we all exist in.
Brett McCracken
Though much of Luvkins brand of indie devotional worship, plays better in coffee shops and clubs than it would in Sunday morning worship services. His 2021 new release EP of hymns is a beautiful celebration of traditional congregational singing, titled hymns one, the EP contains a covers of familiar hymns from How Great Thou Art to come Thou Fount.
Steven Lufkin
Here, I had a hymn book that my, my grandma gave me a few years back. And it’s funny because she, she’s a sweetest lady. She’s 90, just give me like 91 or 92 this year. And she gave me this hymnbook. And she was like, she actually highlighted like four hymns in the beginning that she’s like, I want you to play these hymns at my funeral, you know, and she’s so secure, you know, and she’s just like, Here you go. Grandson. And I had that. And I had always loved hymns. But last year, I found myself picking up that book and sitting at the piano, and really, like, I feel like using hymns how they were always meant to be used, which is an interesting thing. I think it’s like, sitting down at the piano and and using like a ham as part of my devotional time, you know, which is a cool place to think about hymns existing is like, they’re timeless, right? But they’re kind of like lyrically, they’re so focused and centered on on Christ and they’re there. They’ve stood the test of time. And they’re songs that like so many have been singing for so long to find comfort missing. Oh, my
Brett McCracken
Steven recorded and released hymns one in the early months of 2021. With plans to release a Hymns Volume Two sometime down the road. There are a surprising number of artists who have released albums of hymns in the last year. From mainstream country artists Carrie Underwood to secular indie artist David Ramirez and many others. It seems the pandemic has led many artists to find timely inspiration in the songbook of faith, there’s an art to a good hymn cover. It’s all about striking the balance between fidelity to the original lyrics and melodies, while also breathing new stylistic life into something old. I think love can does it about as good as anyway, here’s his cover of Stuart Townend modern classic, “How deep the father’s love for us” featuring professional violinist Isaac Akari.
One of my favorite tracks on the hymns EP is Luvkin’s take on “I surrender all” a song that for me will always bring to mind memories of emotional altar calls at the Baptist churches of my childhood. I’ve never heard a danceable up tempo version of a song however, until now.
Steven Lufkin
I mostly hear sort of like, slow, more drawn out versions of that, that song and so I thought, you know, why don’t we, what if we totally remixed out and made it something where a beat and you know, got that little beat go into it and, and I wanted to include some electric guitar and you know, I wanted to, I wanted to include a bit of, you know, I think in what you hear in some of these tracks is you know, a little bit of like more bluesy roots and stuff and more rootsy kind of like, you know, vibes to some of the songs.
Brett McCracken
If it’s possible for him to be both musically pious and playful, traditional and avant garde, Lufkin manages it with these songs. He’s paying homage to Christian heritage while introducing it to the next generation in fun energetic ways and at the center of it all is Christ our solid rock.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the TGC podcast to watch a new live performance of solid rock by LOVKN featuring Jason Owen Davis on trumpet, head to The Gospel Coalition’s YouTube page or clicking the link in this episode show notes. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please go check out love kins music on the streaming side of your choice. This episode of the TGC podcast is written and hosted by me Brett McCracken. It’s produced by Heather Ferrell and Josh Diaz, edited by Robbie Herrera artwork by Gabriel Reyes. The TGC podcast is part of the Gospel Coalition’s Podcast Network. Its executive producer is Steven Morales. Our editor in chief is Colin Hansen like to give a special thanks to Steven Lufkin and to Andrew Laparra for production assistance in this episode.
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Steven Lufkin is a singer-songwriter who releases music under the name LOVKN. His first full-length album will release in 2022. Learn more and discover his music at lovknmusic.com.
Brett McCracken is a senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World, Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community, Gray Matters: Navigating the Space Between Legalism and Liberty, and Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide. Brett and his wife, Kira, live in Santa Ana, California, with their three children. They belong to Southlands Church, and Brett serves as an elder. You can follow him on Twitter.