‘Jesus Freak’ At 20, Part Two

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In Part Two of CCM’s “Jesus Freak At 20,” we continue our conversation with Kevin Max, and additionally with former Gotee Records co-founder and Jesus Freak co-producer, Todd Collins, and gather more insight into the making of this legendary recording, as well as track-by-track recollections from both Max and Collins.

Initially, Collins admits that he doesn’t really remember how the album began to take form. “At the beginning, everything just kind of flew—like we were putting a puzzle together, but already knowing where every piece was going to go.

“I think Toby [McKeehan], being the super-loyal kind of man he is, and as captain of the ship, wanted to shift things a little bit toward Michael [Tait] and Kevin, because he wanted them more involved. He would sacrifice a little bit of his ‘rap stuff’ so they could be a little more musical and ‘poppy,’” shared Collins.

He did confirm that from the onset, the style of Jesus Freak was intended to be more radio-friendly. Alternative rock and grunge was at its pinnacle, and McKeehan, especially, wanted to capitalize on that sound. Once Collins and co-producer Mark Heimermann began manning the dials for this project, they just sort-of, “went for it,” as Collins conveyed. Striving for perfection, Collins expressed that the sessions for Jesus Freak were “tedious,” but the end result was more than worth it.

“It was a time capsule of a record that took every bit of eighteen months to complete. It wasn’t until around the six-month mark, that we began to realize just how special this was going to be.”

CLICK “2” TO ADVANCE (Song-by-song conversations begins Page 5)