CCM PREMIERE: Bryan A. Wilson – ‘This Time’

click to buy.

Click play to watch the video for ‘This Time’ on this page.  

Bryan Andrew Wilson is writing a new career chapter with an urban music-inspired EP, This Time (Bryan’s Songs/The Orchard), which releases August 3rd. For this four-track set, the spiritual soul singer is putting aside the traditional gospel that defined his teenage recordings for Malaco Records and also the plaintive ballads that returned him to the Billboard charts as an adult in 2014.

“I was literally fed up,” Wilson says of his new musical direction for the title cut. “I’m so tired of seeing the legalism and hypocrisy of the church push people – especially millennials – away from finding their spiritual center or getting to know God. One day I woke up and declared my own state of independence from being judge, jury and executioner. This song isn’t a gospel song. It’s a proclamation of freedom to live and enjoy life while also acknowledging God.”

The bass-heavy, rocker comes at a time when spiritual messages are creeping into Pop songs such as Drake’s “God’s Plan,” Sam Smith’s “Pray,” Macklemore’s “Glorious” and Kesha’s “Pray.”The theme carries over into a Wilson’s new music video that was produced and directed by Isaac “Chill Yowman (Beyoncé, Trey Songz, Chris Brown). It was shot on a soundstage at Ricky Rich & Morgan “Bless” Riley’s Studio 713 where DJ Snake and Justin Beiber cut, “Let Me Love You,” a platinum hit. “I hope a little of that platinum magic drops on this video,”Wilson jokes who bankrolls his music through his own company, Bryan’s Songs. “I invested a lot of money in it so that people can finally see me not as the kid who sang `His Eye is on the Sparrow’ but twenty years later, finally see me as a grown man with real issues and some things to say.

”The EP features the Pop track “In Spite of Me,” the ballad “Love Always” and an alternate mix of “This Time” that was produced by GMJR (Musiq Soulchild). The EP was mastered by Randy Merrill (Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Adele, Sam Smith) at Sterling Sound in New York City.

Wilson kicked off his career at the age of 10 with Malaco Records where he was produced by heavyweights such as Kirk Franklin, John P. Kee, Walter Hawkins and Fredrick Knight who produced the 1979 disco classic “Ring My Bell.” His first recording, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” with the Mississippi Children’s Choir is a gospel classic with millions of streams andYouTube views. Over the last four years, Wilson has a half dozen Billboard chart hits such as “Overflow,”“Whoa,”“I Put You First” and the haunting John Legend-styled ballad, “Turning Away.”