Faith First, Gigs Second: How Nisan Stewart Mastered the Double Life

Pastor. Drummer. Producer. Nisan Stewart has worked with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, and Jamie Foxx, toured the world, and still shows up every Sunday to pastor Greater Emmanuel Temple in LA. In this episode, he breaks down how he learned to put the church first without losing his career, why he almost said no to pastoring, and what happened 40 days after his father installed him as pastor. 

We also get practical for creatives and musicians. Nisan breaks down capacity, timing, burnout, writer’s block, and the slow grind of finishing big ideas. He explains why gratitude protects the gift, why professionalism keeps you booked, and why musicians can’t afford to wait around for “top artist” calls anymore. Plus, we dig into The Soul Seekers origin story and why he’s bringing back Praise Connection Underground as a monthly space for musicians, singers, and creatives to network and get covered in prayer.

If you care about gospel music, church musicianship, creative leadership, and navigating faith in the entertainment industry, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a creative who needs it, and leave a review telling us what part hit home most.

Transcript

Welcome To GET Church

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are gathered here today with a pastor. He is a husband, he is a father, he is a producer, he is, if not the greatest drummer in all of the world. He is a singer, a composer, he is a friend, he's a comedian, he is my family. Y'all make some noise for the Nissan Stewart.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Thank you for having me on the PK Pod.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Finally. Finally. Finally. Yeah. You are here.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Glad to be here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And I could not have you on the pod without being in your literal church. Yeah. Because Greater Emmanuel Temple is literally legendary in all of LA.

unknown 1:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

From my grandmother's home going was here. Yeah, yeah. To every Jumpy Key concert happens here.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Like this is This is his stage. This is his stage.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

He knows we built this stage for him. He said, that's my stage.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Like this is the venue that you come to when you come to LA. Like everybody knows about G E T. And so I'm just honored to be here with you today.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Well, thank you for having me. I'm glad you're here. It's family. We're home. So let's talk like we're at home.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

With a reunion.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

We gotta take the people back.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Because before you were pastoring Sunday after Sunday, you know, exegeting the text. You were touring, you were program directing for some very big names.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

I mean, you've been doing this thing for a while. Um, you've worked with, I mean, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Coco Jones. I mean, you have so many names, it's gonna take my whole episode. I don't have the capacity. And while doing it for TV shows, like Dancing with the Stars, like I'm just trying to figure out first question out, just off the cuff.

Choosing Ministry Over The Industry

SPEAKER_02 2:24

How do you balance both worlds?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Well, that's such a powerful question. The answer is lengthy. I'll try to uh explain it the best way I can. For me now in this stage. First of all, I've been pastoring now. It's been 14 years.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

14.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

It's been 14 years. It doesn't seem like it until I get in the mirror. I start looking at these grades. But uh for me, the primary uh job of my uh life, my existence is pastoring people. That was a hard transition. It was a difficult transition to a degree, but the way I balance it is uh I take care of the church. I made a promise to God when I accepted ministry in 2004. And it was on a plane ride. I share this all the time. It was on a plane ride from Miami from working on an album with Missy Elliott to come back here when my mother was sick. Um, and I accepted the call to the ministry and I said, Well, Lord, you take care of my work and my opportunities. I promise you I'll take care of church and serving your people, whatever that looks like, not knowing that it was gonna be a pastor. So I lead with that. So I'm here Sundays. It's funny when I became a pastor uh sometime, maybe a few months or or so afterwards, uh, is when I got the call for dancing with the stars. I was like, what's the work days? At that time, it was like uh Fridays and Mondays. I was like, count me in. I'll get that check. Right, right. No, it's good. So it it uh for me, uh, I take care of the church first. I love the people here. We you know, it's a lot a lot of people everywhere that are great, but serving here at Grady Emanuel is just uh it's such an honor. So it's it comes first. Everything else has to come second.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

But did you see this in your bingo cards as a PK? So growing up as a child under the Bishop Stewart, legendary bishop, right? Yeah, like did you know as a child, like I am going to be the successor? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

The answer was no. The answer was no. I wasn't gonna do it. We used to play in children's church. I don't know what y'all did, the gospel of Christ. I'm sure y'all had children's church with the bishop cliff to that was senior. But we, you know, I no, I've you know, I looked at church as a community. I I recognized the opportunity to serve the people. I recognized the introducing individuals to salvation and relationships with Christ. But I didn't want no parts of it from a pastoral position because I saw what my father and other leaders went through in terms of just the sacrifice of time and family. Like when I was young, you know, my daddy, he didn't even allow me to play football till my senior year in high school. Only because we moved from Inglewood to Downy, and I was so pissed off about that. Like you taking me out of my school with my folks, and now I gotta go to the other side of town with some other types of folks. And so, you know, he allowed me to play. So, and he never, it was different. So for me, when I was young, I didn't I didn't want that. I said, if I have children, I want to be able to support them in the in the way that they need to chase their dreams. And I'm not saying it to be any slight to my parents. It is what it is, and it all worked out very well. But um, yeah, no, I didn't want it. I didn't want it. And I told my father, I remember I was uh, you know, around 2009, 2010. I'm just serving with them and then going out on tour. And then back then we had only Skype. So I would sit in meetings and listen to meetings on the my computer. Uh, you know, me and Rapture, we in Ireland or Dublin or something like that. Uh, you know, somewhere you're in Europe, and I'm listening to certain meetings. Uh, and I'm my dad is like, yeah, well, you're gonna be the one. I'm like, nah, whoever you say is gonna be the one. Let it be whoever God says, because I don't believe in nepotism when it comes to ministry. I do not. We've seen many times where a pastor uh, you know, uh caused their son or daughter to assume the responsibility and it just went south. Because it's not a they've treated it like a family business. And that's not the way it should be. Ministry should not be that. So I was totally against it. But I did say, well, if you you go see who the Lord said, you go pray about it. You you go ahead and pray. I'ma just be a server, whoever you put in, I'm gonna serve with them. Because see, at time at that time, you know, I had traveled the world, been on a lot of records, sold millions of records. Um, I was preparing to be uh a record executive. I wanted to go into the executive side of things, you know. Um and then my father hit me one day after time. He said, Lord says it's you, so get ready.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

I'm like, God didn't tell me that.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

He didn't tell me that. And then the crazy part is, as most people know, my father then unexpectedly passed 40 days after he installed me as the pastor. And so I'm like, dang, I don't even have no help, I don't even have no crutch. So it was one of them things, and it was, you know, it was uh challenging. But needless to say, I I know that it was a God thing, and I just accepted it. And I said, Lord, you're gonna have to help your boy out with this. And and we've been good, and I I enjoy, I enjoy uh just serving God's people in that leadership position.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

That's incredible. Like, it's incredible one that God told your father, right? You didn't fight him to the point of where you were like, absolutely not, you know, like you said, okay, I believe that God talks to you and I'm going to submit to this, even though I may not agree to it. Because I think a lot of us PKs would be like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, sorry, try again, right? Because to your point about we make it a family business versus realizing like this is literally God's bride, like this is the church. It doesn't necessarily have to be tied to the last name that started it, right? Correct, absolutely. Um, what are you telling your kids like as it pertains to legacy of this ministry?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

I just tell them, you know, always love and serve your church and love the people. Because uh, of course, they they here at Great and Manu, they love our kids. And it's so great. And I don't want to ever want to force anything on them. But what's funny is Charlie, our baby girl, she would come up here and be like, I'm gonna preach. I'm gonna preach. I don't think she's on that now. As she'll be 13 in a in a in a few days, but you know, um, but we just want to teach them the word and let the Lord, you know, just organically, whatever their journey is in life. I just want them to love God and, you know, understand what it is to not only serve God's people, but what it means to have a relationship with God. And then whatever happens is gonna happen. Now I'm not gonna steer them in whatever they want to do. My son wants to be a basketball player, he says he's going to the NBA. We're gonna help you do that. Yeah. Charlie is now on a, she's she's playing golf. We want to help you do that. Because I love that. And Jay, she's just getting ready to go to college. Like just a bright young lady uh wants to be in business and finance. I'm like, yeah, whatever you want to do,

Strict PK Life And First Gigs

SPEAKER_01 9:56

let's help them. And so we help them uh do that. So it's cool.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

So you're not telling Jay she needs to go study accounting so that she can count the offering like my dad told me. No, I'm not telling you. Let me tell you about your boy.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Uh the bishop, you believe my friend.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Bishop said, I need somebody to handle the books the right way. So, Jazz, I need you to study accounting. I lasted maybe a semester. See, and I was like, I'm so sorry, Dad. But but they're hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I don't think that's it. But like like your dad, who I give a lot of credit to, you know, Bishop Clifton Edwards Jr., I give I give credit to him. They love ministry. They love working in and the family aspect, not necessarily just by blood, but by the people who grow up or or are groomed in terms of they just grow in the in ministry. I don't want to use that term groom, but they just learn and develop rather in in ministry. You know, you want the people around you to learn it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

That's why you was like, so sorry, Doc. Can't help you with that. Right, right. Let me get a different skill. Yeah, yeah. That could be beneficial for you.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

So you said that when you were growing up, your father didn't let you play football until you were a senior. So was it a strict upbringing of like you gotta be at church for everything?

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Listen.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Monday through Friday.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Listen, let me explain to you. Sunday through Friday, rather. Then it was Emmanuel Temple Church. Let me tell you about a week. Sunday morning, Sunday school, morning worship, sometimes afternoon service with an evening service. Come Monday night for young people. Tuesday night was missionary, Wednesday night was Bible study, and Thursday night was choir rehearsal. And every occasionally, occasional Friday, there was a Saints meeting, which was nothing but a Bible study. I'm like, why we gotta have two of these? And then that's Saturday and do it all over again. Now, I that's what it was. I ain't mad at it. I ain't mad at it. That's what they knew. My friend, let me tell you something. I have the same friends that I grew up with for the most part. All of us around this church, we learn, we tow up stuff around here. This was our first job cleaning up things of that nature. And we have a handful of musicians that ended up going professional from here, whether it was Eric Seats or Jazz Nixon, and then rapture and myself and you know, others doing great things. So we this was our hub. So all week it was here, and yeah, my dad was strict. We wasn't going to no parties, we wasn't going to prom. It was just that. Now I made up for it later in life. Of course you did. Speaking of which, my daughter's gonna go to prom tomorrow. You let me, you know, beautiful things. But yeah, that it was very strict, um, especially as we started getting into the music. And I like I share with you before we got here, and I hope I'm not going ahead of myself. No, go ahead. But you know, at the Gospel of Christ, your grandfather's church, that was the very first time my father let me and Rapture go somewhere to play music as young teenagers uh that was outside of a great uh an

Egos, Gratitude, And Staying Grounded

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Emmanuel Temple experience. And that was because my father met Auntie Sandra and Uncle Warren Campbell and then Souls of Zion and Warren was like, hey man, come over. Uh we're gonna do this gig at Gospel of Christ Sunday afternoon. And we like, Dad, we going. He's like, nah, yeah. He was so protective. And then I was like, Yeah, but we going to Gospel of Christ. Like, Bishop Elbert, and you going with Sister Sandra? Oh, Brother Warren? Oh, yeah, okay, y'all can do it. And then that was the beat, that was the spark. Wow. That took us to wow, they really work it. Like, you know, it was good.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

So when did you know, like, okay, I want to actually play and pursue music? Like, was it in church that you felt that or was it at a different time?

SPEAKER_01 13:51

No, it wasn't in church. It was just fun playing music in church. Um, just as gospel of Christ. We we had a great choir. You know, we had uh great musicians and uh like Larry Dennis, brother-in-law Philip, guys playing. We were young watching them. We weren't thinking about a career. Then when we started traveling or did a couple gigs with Souls of Zion, um, that was a thing. And then we would go to our conventions and then we would see like musicians. Like when we were young, uh, we know him now as B Slade, but Anthony, before he was even Tonate, we saw him like this guy, he's a he's doing record. And I found his first cassette tape, and I texted him a picture of it from when we was young. But like we see guys doing things, but I'm not thinking of it as a career. I'm thinking, okay, I'm a big dude. I want to, I want to play football. But I started late. And then we got a call one time. Me, Warren, and our buddy Isaac Hernandez would go play on this show on TBN uh called the Leon Patillo show. And it was like, where I was my first experience, it was like a tonight show thing, but it was very churchy, very small. And after that, Warren called me one day and was like, hey man, you want to go to Nashville? I'm working with this artist. Her name was Puff Johnson. She was signed to MCA. We went and then Warren wrote me check. I remember it was a check for $1,800. And when you 18, 19 in the, you know, in the in the 90s, I'm like, You said sign me up. Hmm. Yeah, I think let me go practice a little more. Get this together. But I was all, we were, but see, the thing about it is we have been learning everything in church. The great records, your, your, you know, your dad's records, your your uncle's records, the uh listening to the commission and the whinings and starting to understand what producing is and then rapture, you know, my brother, he he gets into producing with Eric Seats, and I'm like, these guys are good. They can, you know, it's very interesting. So then it's then it started changing. It started changing. Okay, maybe we could take this seriously. But can we as church kids, can we get out there? Hey, we're seeing all these professionals. Is there room for us in there to be professional? Is it safe or is it like everybody says it's just you can get out there, it's just gonna be all spooky, and all demons gonna come and get everybody, and uh, everybody's gonna lose their faith and all this and that. And they you scared, you like, and then that's another story.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Yeah, it's spooky out there. But would you say though, like there are a lot of similarities with being in the entertainment industry and the church?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Absolutely. Right? Absolutely. When it comes to the music part, the creative part, uh, yes, you know, we would come to choir rehearsal and they're trying to get everything right for the notes, trying to get the music right. And then the same thing, you know, when you get out to uh in the secular world and and you're working on an artist and you're trying to develop a sound and develop the segues, the dynamics, the interluse, all of those various things, it's it's very similar. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Would you say that the egos are the same? Like you're gonna deal with it just like you deal with it in church, right? Like you're gonna deal with the people in the church.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Very interesting question. I I you you find out a lot that there are egos in church. Number one, that shouldn't be there.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Um and they're just as wild as some of the egos outside of the church. Yeah. That's been my experience. And so I just handle it all with a grain of salt. Just try to get whatever we're doing, let's just get to the finish line. So move on to the next thing, help them get there. But yeah, the egos are there, and that's that's the thing that's dangerous. Uh you know, not to turn the tone of the conversation, but individuals get out there and they they have these egos, they develop these egos. All of it, at the end of the day, anything can happen and our gifts can become mute. And I think that we have to respect it, be grateful for it, honor it, uh, nurture the gift. Um, you know, there are people who once had a voice, do not have voices anymore. There are people that had the activities of their limbs to play and do various things, and then something happens and they can't. So I think, you know, the best thing to do is just be grateful. I I was doing something yesterday, I'm not gonna say what it was. I was on set working yesterday all day. Well, actually all the time. I said, I'm like, God, thank you for the opportunity to just be able to do this work and share my gift. It doesn't happen again, I'm grateful. Wow. That's me.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

So there's so many people that don't do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

And it's just like just being cognizant of like, okay, literally, you gifted me in this capacity. At least I can do is just thank you in a moment.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Be thankful for the gift. It's uh, you know, it's a to be creative in this space is uh, you know, you're a creative, I'm a creative for the all creatives out there. It's just such a a blessing to to even be able to do anything creative. I mean, it doesn't have to be in music either. Um, but just when you do it and you create a good product, you're like, man, wow, I did that. So I I approach it with with with grace because it could change. And then every there's a lot of people that's doing it that are they're far more talented than me, but they don't get the opportunity. You know, I can't speak to that. I'll just take mine. I'll be grateful and I'll pray for you on yours. And if I could help, I can. But you know, I think how you approach it and just daily is it should be a spirit of thanksgiving for your gift.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

And I think that's why doors keep opening for you, right? You have to have the right posture. Yeah. And I think people who don't understand that with the gift, right? Like you have to remain in a in a um a posture of gratitude.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Because if not, like like you said, anything can happen where that gift can be gone tomorrow, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

You gotta just be good people too. When when people will call you, I have a friend that asks me why you keep getting called. I'm like, I just go, I try to deliver a good product. I know how to stand up and I know how to be in the way when I need to be, I know how to get out of the way. I I know how not to be an opportunity. Opportunist, excuse me, while I'm trying to gain an opportunity. I'm just trying to figure it out, and it's all balanced. And um, yeah, we ride the waves. My my analogy is just ride these waves while when it's here. You ride it till it's done, and then you get back out there and wait for the next one.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

That's a surf, it's a surfing thing. Yeah, even though I don't surf.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

In California and do not surf.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. No, not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Who is your favorite artist that you worked with?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Oh man. It's it's to I I like to say number one is is is Aaliyah. We when we worked with Aaliyah, of course, you know, Rapture and Eric produced that whole last red album with the exception of maybe like two or three songs. Working with her the time we worked with, it was it was so cool. Very cool. So it would be I'm gonna put her at number one because of when you it's about how they are when you're in the working environment and when you're not in the working environment. So I loved working with her. Missy is just a genius, a genius creative who who loves God. I mean, her and her mother, Miss Pat, is just like that experience, me and Craig Brockman doing a lot of stuff with Missy over the years was was great. And then I gotta throw Fox in there because Jamie is like another genius. He's a genius who's hilarious. Um, and I just I I you know, I love watching the gift. So it it always depends, you know, in terms of the experiences, but I have great experiences with all of them, all the people that I've worked with. But again, I'm n I've never tried to look for them to be my friend. I was there to work. Yeah. And whatever the relationship became, it it became that. And they know, they know what I do.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

You know, uh, so uh they know, they know me now as a pastor, and we friends, and we talk uh, you know, occasionally and um but it's so many good people out there that individuals they paint these pictures. People in the church paint these pictures sometimes of people that are uh outside of the four walls. That is so inaccurate. They may, you know, maybe they may not do the music that you think they should do or whatever, and some of the content could be whatever. But you know, you find uh so many good people that just have these gifts and they're doing their thing. And so, you know, I I challenge uh individuals and pastors especially that make it hard for musicians to understand their work. I have dudes that I talk to all the time. I I like to uh somebody told me the other week that you're really a pastor to musicians. Yeah. So they come to you and they ask these questions. And I try to talk to them, especially as of recently had a pastor say that you know, God told him that they can't be used playing secular and doing gigs, trying to help the secular individual private. I you know, I would really love to have a conversation with that uh that that pastor, I'm sure he meant well, but you know, I understand it's way different than anybody else. Um and I could talk about it and speak about it. God didn't tell me that.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Yeah. Hello.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

But and and I'm your past and I listen and I pray and I yeah. So and you know, I'm being a little funny, but I I I love to have those conversations with uh individuals so that they can kind of learn a little bit and we can hear from each other and and then also talk to scriptures and see how Jesus actually worked in these streets.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Because he did.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

He did the

The Soul Seekers Origin Story

SPEAKER_02 24:11

book.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Okay, so how do we get to the Soul Seekers? Like whose bright idea was it for you all to come together and give us this great quartet music.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

The Soul Seekers was my idea.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Of course it was.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

It was my idea. All the guys that say the same thing. It was my idea. We again we were just having concerts back in the day here, and I said, let's do this concert, and I'm gonna call it Take Me Back. And I said, let's just have a concert, and what we'll do is we'll have some people do the wine and the commission and have some people do Hezekiah, Milton Brunson, and Thomas Whitfield. And they were like, What about quartet? I was like, Well, I'll see who I can find. But I wasn't on the quartet scene like that, like Warren and some of the other guys was. I said, Well, let's just do how about let's do something different, let's get all the musicians and we sang. Wow. And June of two, in June in 2000, the year 2000, that's what happened right here. We sang right here on the stage. I had long cornrows, we had long jerseys, long suits. And so, yeah, that's that's how that happened.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

So freaking genius. Yeah. Because so many people don't realize like musicians have so many different talents and gifts. So to see all of y'all like literally like going forth in a different capacity as artists, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mind blowing. It was literally like just incredible. And then the type of songs that was written, yeah, and all the things. I mean, quartet is one of those categories where it's like we see so many older people in that genre. So to see young people understand it and give it language and to put a spin on it was just like mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, we didn't even, we didn't even know, we didn't have intentions of doing an album. It wasn't even none of that.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

It was about just getting together and having fun and singing uh a genre of music that we love, and it just turned into a thing. And now we are getting ready to release our third album here later this year.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Third album.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

That's good. It's a long time. That's because you got five guys in the group that are pastors now, and everybody here, some artists here there. One of the guys on the roll right now, one of the biggest tours happening in the world. So it's a lot of things going on, but that's the that's the nature and makeup of the soul seekers. When we do it, when we got a window, let's do something. So we we did the first part coming together in here in Los Angeles and in Atlanta at uh House of Hope, uh, Dr. E. Dewey Smith's church. We recorded there.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Please tell me you have him on a song.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

We do.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Okay, great. I gotta hear that because I know he destroyed it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Listen, him, him and and Pastor John Terrace Tate together.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Okay. And there will be a video with this so people will get get a chance to see it. But yeah, that that should be happening this year.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

That's amazing. Congratulations on that. Thank you. Thank you. Like another

Creative Rhythm, Capacity, And Burnout

SPEAKER_02 27:16

thing.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Another thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

So tell tell us this, because what I think we're learning here in this episode is that you have perfected the art of the pivot. Like you know when to pivot into a lane without being overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

I think a lot of creatives, we get overwhelmed easily because we don't know how to master timing. So we have all these ideas, we want to just try to go after them all at one time, and then we get burnt out, and then we just do nothing. Right. So, what advice would you give to creatives with that are multi-talented, that don't necessarily know what to do and when and how? Um, because clearly you have mastered it enough to where you've been doing well at a great pace.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Well, that I well, thank you for saying that. But if I could be honest, I haven't mastered it. Okay. Because I deal with it as well. Um, I think you have to just have what old school would call you gotta have that stick to it-ness. Stick to it-ness or whatever. But you when you when you come up with something, you have to stay with it. You have to continue to see the vision, you have to continue to see what you saw when you came up with the concept and go after it. I have a project now that I've been working on for over a year, and have me and one of my business partners, it will be the largest thing that I've ever done. Um, and I'm hitting that wall. Like you get there and you hit a wall. You have to just keep going. You have to uh like like water will always find its way. Yeah. Water will always it'll keep moving until it finds a uh a way. And so I think number one, we have to have that diligence. That's the current term. We have the diligence to continue. Um, but you have to know your capacity too. That's the thing. A lot of people don't know their capacity. Uh and they'll try to do a bunch of things. I I know my capacity, and it's not average. And I say that humbly. Um, however, um, you know, while you're going after these things, you gotta find time for yourself, you gotta find, you gotta be able to take breaks, you gotta do all those things. And I think it can't, that rotation or that rhythm came in my life when I was doing the touring and the music product production. We go on, we go into a studio and be there for two, three months working on some records, and then I get to leave that and then go on tour. Uh did I say that right? We in a studio three months, then we go on tour for three months, and then, you know, and now one is a break from the other. And so that was the best thing. And the good thing I was able to get paid doing both.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

But, you know, finding time to do things to a certain level, like I'm working on a book, I'll do this much of it, then I'll stop, I'll put it down, I'll go to something else. But it's on my to-do list. But I have to go with my capacity and not feel rushed, like I gotta do this. If I don't do this, because anxiety comes over us creatives, and then that stunts our creative uh genius, and it's it's tough. And you get, you know, in the in the songwriting uh game, we call it the writer's block and all that. But you have to just know what you're doing, you have to be okay. Um, it's kind of like when we would watch our parents or grandparents cook and they taking their time and they throwing things in there, and we like what they're doing. We just want to get to the finished product. Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Like, why are you you've been in there six hours? What's what's up?

SPEAKER_01 30:45

And they get it together, they have it, and then when we sit down and enjoy it, it's like wow. So that's the way I look at what we do.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

That's good. That's great advice. You are now bringing life back into the LA gospel scene, I will

Bringing Back Praise Connection

SPEAKER_02 31:05

say. You have recently launched Praise Connection right here. And Lamar was telling me, like, oh yeah, that used to be a thing back in the day. And I'm like, I was I've never attended one, but I know it was a thing. What made you want to literally bring this back for people to be able to be a part of?

SPEAKER_01 31:26

So a couple things. The first thing is let me let me take you back to that time in the 90s. Okay. Uh Andrew Goucher. OG, my big brother, an amazing bass player who has played with everybody in gospel and the secular field. But he was a church guy. And he came up with Praise Connection to LA. What would happen when we were in our late teens, early 20s, and we're looking for something to do, we would go there and all of the musicians would be there. Musicians would come in town and they would want to go there. He would do it every Sunday night. And he he was, you know, it was a passion, passionate thing for him. He was carrying the gear, it was all his gear, setting it up for guys to come play. And we would go there and meet, we would network, we would meet other individuals. That's where uh, you know, I met like the Ethan Farmers. Ethan is one of the greatest bass players that plays with Lionel Richie. Uh uh, we we were there and famous people would come there. And uh that's where uh you know Teddy Campbell came to town, and Teddy was playing there, and I would see every, we would see everybody. So it was a community thing, and it was a good, it was, it was a safe thing. And so um I called Gooch about a couple years ago and I said, Hey, I want to do it, bring it back. Would you give me your blessing? And he did. But I thought about here in Los Angeles, we had Praise Connection in New York. Ron Grant, rest in peace, had the underground. So when we go to New York, that's true, we do that. So I call it Praise Connection Underground. It just happened to be underground here in the basement.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

And so we're developing that community where individuals will come and people will have a good time and young people will network, and you never know what could happen from it. They may, uh somebody from a church may need a musician, or somebody in the secular world may need a musician because they came to the church. Yeah, you know, to get it. And so we did the first one last month. We got one coming up here soon, and we got a special guest that's gonna be here coming from the Ohio area. I'm not gonna say their name because I don't know when it's gonna air, but uh yeah, we're gonna have that once once a month every first Sunday night, right downstairs. We get a cracking, you know.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

I absolutely love this for you because we all needed to just like have this moment of like something to do in LA. Yeah. Because it's like Sunday night service isn't a thing anymore.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Like we afternoon services, ain't nobody really going to that no more. I am so excited about Praise Connection underground. Yep, yep, yep. Um, if you are in LA, hello, you have to get here.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Every first Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Every first Sunday, that's right, right here at GET. Yeah. Um, and I like that it's an opportunity for musicians to fellowship.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah, musicians, singers, the whole creative community. Yeah. Um, you know, we're in a unique space with that as individuals are trying to figure out their life and if that's something that they want to do. And what I want to do is just come together um in a gospel setting. And then at the end, just pray for the creatives as they go out to their week and do their thing. So that, you know, they gain wisdom, they, you know, they work their relationship that they have with God. Um, but they'll have a a covering for what they what they're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Okay, so I like to play a game with all of my guests before I let them leave. Yes. I had to

This Or That Music Game

SPEAKER_02 35:00

really think about this game with you because you've been in so many different areas of influence.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

But I figured I can't go wrong with talking about musicians.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

So this is this or that. And I'm gonna ask you, and then you gotta pick between the two. I'm sorry in advance. Okay. I'm just gonna say I'm sorry in advance because I know you're gonna be like, uh, I'm gonna actually come in hot.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

With Quest Love or Aaron Spears.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

For me, I'm gonna say Quest Love.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Quest love. Okay, good answer.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

I can't even explain them to you.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

You can explain. You can explain.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Two different styles.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Aaron, my brother, rest in peace. The assassin, the ninja on the drums. Um, but I'm more into a quest block feel. So that's for me.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

The pocket.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

Okay. Speaking of the pocket, I'm gonna go female drummers because there are female drummers.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

Yes, there are. Kill amazing ones.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Okay. So Sheila E, obviously. But I didn't know pause. I didn't know that Carlos Santana's wife, Cindy Blackmail was a drummer.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

I just learned that.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yeah, Cindy's dope too. But I got to go with Sheila.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

You gotta go with Sheila.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Sheila's my girl. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Okay. Um, the pocket queen. Or Brittany Brooks. And I know that's tough.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Yeah, that's tough. Oh, because Brittany is a good one. But again, I'm gonna go with the pocket queen.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Because she stays in a pocket.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

I like that.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

I could dance to the pocket. The other stuff I can't. I'm gonna get lost. I get my my shop groove, gonna get off.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

But Sunday school or Sunday night service?

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Sunday night service all day. With testimony service. Praise the Lord everybody.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

I said, praise the Lord everybody, giving honor to the do you still do testimony service here?

SPEAKER_01 37:13

No.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Does anybody do testimony service?

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Well, I tell you what we do do. We we we changed it during the pandemic. Well, first of all, we stopped before that. We stopped night service. I stopped night service when my father was alive. And this funny story, he's like, You gotta have night service. The people didn't get out and find things to do. I said, No, dad, you gotta get people off. Sometimes everybody works hard. Yeah. And the very first time we didn't do night service, he was so excited afterwards. He was like, it's kind of cool to be at home. Yeah. So night service, testimony service. What we do is we do a thing here at Grady Manu Temple called God Did It, where we'll sit down. Somebody has a something going on in their life and it's a testimony. We sit down and we interview and talk to them about it and show it to the people. We have we've had some great ones and we're getting ready to start back this summer. Where so it's not a get up and you don't know what they're about to say. Right. And no, we know something happened. Okay, you know, because some people stand up and testify to just vent. They can't talk to the whoever they got at home or nobody, or they don't know nobody else. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Then we got to be on the mic control.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Like and that's when the bet whoever's up leading testimonies, all right now, amen, amen. Give God Yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I want to bring back testimony service for the entertainment alone.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

If we had cameras during testimony service, if we were online, some of the craziest the world would think we was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Yeah, a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

They would think, oh, yes, there's nothing. But but then there's some good ones, though. There are some good ones.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

There are some good ones, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Okay. Um a church live recording or a secular live recording. What do you prefer?

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Oh, a church live recording.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Church live recording.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Some great secular live recordings. You know, you think about it, but like if you look at what Beyoncé did with Coachella at Coachella, which was great, all of our friends that worked on that. You but I was recently, last year, I was at the full gospels recording. Bishop Morton's. Ain't nothing like when you in the church and it's the right situation, the right musicians, the right producer. Shout out to all the guys that did that record. I don't want to name them all so many, but it was a thing. Like, mm-hmm, and Bishop Morton. Oh, the GOAT.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Can't nobody outdo nothing that he's doing.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

You passed. You did that. I passed the test. Thank you, Jeff. Passed the test with Mike Koilers. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Before we leave, can you encourage musicians

Encouragement For Church Musicians

SPEAKER_02 39:57

specifically? Because I feel like our church musicians are discouraged. Um, they're losing sight of being in the church and are more concerned with the pay. Yeah. Which I understand is a job. But I think there's more to it that you can get out of it besides just looking at it as just this is an employer. Um, and I feel like some people just don't have a desire to even play in church anymore. Like they just would rather do their own thing. And we need good quality church musicians. So what advice would you give?

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Well, a few things. I want to say, like, I I grew up in an era where we wasn't getting paid. It wasn't that we love the music, we love the opportunity. And we start looking, you know, at the secular gigs, and then we've made the church it's more gig related than it is ministry, and I think that's a disservice to the musician. Um I feel that we've made this something that is not and it's tough. Like some churches can take care of musicians.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Some can't.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Some do well, some don't do so well. My thing is as a pastor, I'm looking, okay, what percentage do we we pay musicians? And then, okay, how does that match to the percentage that we not just not the giving per se, but what are we giving to the community?

SPEAKER_02 41:33

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

Okay, if there's food with full recovery that's needed and things of that nature. And so I would say to the musicians, and I think we have to it, I really somebody said this to me just yesterday on set for that show that I did, that I should probably sit down and have a like a like a just a I don't know, I don't want to call it a seminar because it sounds like conclave. Yeah. Just get the guys together, girls together, and talk about it. Because I think we've lost sight of what this is because of the many mistakes that leadership has made in handling musicians. Yeah. And I feel that this is not the place you're going to have a career in the church. But it should not be the place that I'm just going to get that little quick this and then I'm out. And we've turned it into that. And I'm I don't think that God will be pleased with us handling kingdom business that way. We don't handle the, we definitely don't handle the secular realm that way. Yeah. And so I think we first, if you are a believer, make sure your relationship with God is intact. And then as you read the word and begin to understand, you'll understand servitude, which is not just limited to what we do here, the musicians. We'll get a spirit of serving, and then make sure you sit with a leader that understands that and that doesn't abuse the, you know, the musicians. Because you have, you see a lot of that.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Talk to them crazy, do things crazy. I'm not here to name no names, but there's some that do that.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

I would say stay encouraged. If you want to be a professional musician, come holler at your boy. Because me and a few friends, we've done it and we still do it. It's almost like I can't retire. I still get calls. And I think that the way you position yourself, if somebody, if you have a relationship with God, the way you position yourself with not only with Him, but how you prepare for the things outside of the church, it will, it all it's all gonna matter. It's all gonna matter. But let's be careful. We're in a weird place, and I'm trying to come up with answers for it, but don't give up. If you want to be a professional, the Good thing is, you don't have to wait to go on tour to get a call to go on tour with somebody. Hello. What you can do is if you really have the gift and you've nurtured your gift, you can create your own music and go play for yourself. Our friends are doing it now. We know uh our our brother Corey Henry, who was just one, I don't know how many Grammys now doing his thing, and it's amazing. I look at Jubu, who's traveling, doing his thing. He was in Mays with Frankie Beverly for years and worked with so many of us together. Now he's doing his own thing. You can create your own music the way you hear it, the way you feel it, uh, and you can work for yourself. You can put your records out now. You don't need a record label like like we used to need back in the day. So there's really no excuse. But if you're waiting to play with all the top 10 artists, there's only 10 of them.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

And there's about 10 million drummers. So you gotta look at it different. It's business, it's all that, you know. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. That I'll I'll say say that and leave it right there.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

That was that was excellent. Okay. And I'm gonna hold him to doing this conclave because it's so needed. Yeah, and I think it'll be impactful for so many musicians, like really and truly. So we'll also have to find time in your schedule for that. Yay!

SPEAKER_01 45:17

We'll make it and you you have to be the producer of the whole thing. I will produce the show.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Yay, Nissan. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Thank you, sis. I love you. I love your family. I just love you so much. I'm I'm just honored to see and privileged to see you doing this. And this show is about to be off the chain, so you can talk to us other, uh, all the other crazy PKs that we are. We crazy sometimes. It's okay. Listen, God got gracious. That's why we love each other. That's right. That's right. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Y'all

Where To Follow And Subscribe

SPEAKER_02 45:46

follow him. Tell the people where they can follow you.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

Follow me at Nissan Stewart. Nissan is with one S. Y'all keep spelling my name with two S's. Y'all gonna have to say that. Not the car, okay? Not the car. It is the month. Hello. On the Jewish calendar. That's Nissan. That's what it is. So Nissan Stewart, follow me there. Or uh you can follow our church at G E T FamilyNow.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

Amazing. Y'all make sure to like, share, and subscribe. Until next time. Be sure to subscribe right now. Click that button and stay connected so you can be the first to know when our new episodes are dropping. I'll see you there.