Artist sings about faith, life
For Brianna Gaither, 10-10-10 has a certain ring to it.
The Oklahoma City recording artist spent 10 months working with 10 producers to create the 10 songs on her new album “Vanity.”
No one can ever accuse Gaither of being afraid to try something different.
“It’s based on risk and kind of based on the idea that I’m going to do something new,” she said of her latest project.
Gaither will host a preview gathering for the new album at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Venue OKC, 1757 NW 16 in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District. She said the event also will feature a screening of the trailer for “Resonate: The Documentary,” a film named for her Resonate Campaign.
Gaither, 27, brought “Vanity,” her sophomore compilation, to life after a hiatus of six years. It’s been that long since her debut album, 2011’s “Love is Patient.”
Gaither described her music as “innately indie pop.” Many times, but not always, it reflects her Christian faith.
“My faith is the DNA of my life, and so it’s the DNA of my music,” she said.
She invites people, regardless of where they are on the faith spectrum, to “derive what’s meaningful to them out the songs.”
Then, with music playing such an integral role in her life, Gaither was forced to take a physical break from making it when she developed repetitive strain injury resulting from how she placed her wrists on her keyboard.
She started working for alocal tech start up, but still shared her love of music as a church praise and worship leader.
Eventually, her wrists healed, and this set her on the path toward her new album.
“In that time of isolation, I started to dream again. I wanted to do something for the city, to kind of peel back the curtain of what God is doing in the city,” she said.
Toward that end, Gaither said she worked with 10 producers because there are so many talented professional producers in Oklahoma, and she couldn’t pick just one or two. Consequently, each producer helped her create a different song, wholly unique from the other tracks.
They include: David Wellman, Phil Rice, Stephen Collins, Jaron Nix, Raul Alfonso, Dustin Ragland, Matt Stansberry, Nathan Holliday, Zach Winters and Adam Chamberlain.
“There’s more diversity to the project,” Gaither said.
“It was like creating 10 singles, and I worked in several different studios in Norman, Oklahoma City, Bethany, Marlow and Edmond — which required more leadership from me as the only person who knew what was on it (album).”
She gave herself a deadline of 10 months to complete the project, and the 10-10-10 aspect of the new album was born.
Of the specific songs in the compilation, Gaither said they are an eclectic mix and several, true to form, feature themes of spirituality and faith. These include “Psalm 57;” “I Won’t Rest Until,” based on a verse in Ecclesiastes; and “I Can’t Make It Grow,” based on John 15:5.
Aside from “Vanity,” the project also resulted in something else: Gaither’s marriage to one of the producers, Chamberlain, whom she met while working on the album.
‘Resonate: The Documentary’
Individuals who gathering for Saturday’s album preview will be treated to a glimpse of a documentary named for the Resonate Campaign, which is a project Gaither started to empower recording artists through working together and their shared common Christian beliefs.
“I want to invest in my city, and I want to bring people together, and that’s where Resonate formed,” she said.
“Resonate is a community that supports and encourages artist of faith. If you are of the Christian faith, then you believe in a creative God, and the art that you create is the result of that theology of creativity and builds on that belief and faith.”