Christian artist Gawvi hopes to ruffle some religious feathers with new album 'Heathen'
Award-winning artist Gawvi announced the release of his upcoming album,Heathen, last week and said he’s hoping to shake things up for people who don't know the meaning of the word.
Heathen will be released on April 10 and precedes the EDM artist’s debut album, We Belong, and sophomore project Panorama. Once again, Gawvi is aiming to push against the Christian music norm and pave a way for himself while sharing the message of Christ through his art.
“Heathen is the album I feel most confident and true to myself, especially with all the confusion going on in the world,” the Reach Records producer and singer said in a statement shared with The Christian Post.
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“With this record, I wanted to say ‘hey world, I’ve been labeled as a heathen, not because I am a sinner or a bad person, but because I went against the Christian culture mold,''' he added.
Gawvi said he wants to take back the word heathen by exposing its true meaning. The Florida native said the word ethnos, which means heathen in the Greek language, stands for “ethnicity” which describes the word “gentiles.”
“When it's used in the Bible, it's described as a person who was not Jewish or someone with a different cultural background. So it got me thinking, how did this word get lost in translation? And I realized, this is what happens to us as humans,” he said.
“At the beginning, God designed us to be who we are meant to be, yet we let labels influence us and shape our identity. So I want to embrace the word ‘heathen,' and do something different with the Christian culture, and let people know that it's OK to live outside of the norm. When someone says to me ‘what you're doing is not normal,’ my response is ‘thank you,’” he maintained.
Heathen features 17 songs and was inspired by the Apostle Paul’s letters in the Bible. The new music aspires to encourage Christians not to buy into standards of acceptability that Gawvi says limits people from receiving “God’s grace.” The album highlights the artist’s personal growth and his transparency is relatable.
Produced by Gawvi himself, Heathen features collaborations with Israel Houghton, his labelmate Trip Lee, as well as Aklesso, Wordsplayed, Daramola, Wxlf, Parris Chariz and Tommy Royale.
Gawvi is known for his music production on most of Reach Records’ top hits including RIAA Certified Gold “You Can’t Stop Me” by Andy Mineo.
