Due to recent political events, we cannot stop asking ourselves these questions these days: What kind of country do we want to live in, work in? What kind of America do we believe in? There are many social justice issues in the country, but social-justice singer-songwriter Crys Matthews feels like all of these issues are human issues. Even with all that happened in the country, she is hopeful for this country, which is why she made ‘Changemakers’ which is her latest, hope-fueled, love-filled, social justice album. "Call Them In" the second single off of the album and a very powerful song, is meant to honor John Lewis. Crys Matthews reminds us America is going to get a chance to be America again no matter what happened in the past and she makes us believe in a brighter future. We talked to Crys Matthews about her music, politics, and personal life. Check our exclusive interview with Crys Matthews to learn more about her.

Where are you based?
Washington, DC

Jejune is obsessed with your music and that you are a social-justice singer-songwriter.Tell us a bit about your music. How did you first get started, and how have you developed your style?
I started out writing songs when I was in college at Appalachian State University. A friend of mine needed a fill-in keyboard player one night for a gig and asked if I could fill in since, as a music education major, my skills on the keys were good enough to get them through the night. I agreed and had the time of my life! I went home, started writing songs on my keyboard, entered the first song I ever wrote into the campus talent show and won first place, and the rest is history! I eventually realized how much easier it is to travel with guitar than keys, so guitar has been my primary instrument for most of my career. Growing up in the South, country music, gospel music, and soul music are what I primarily heard all around me. Add to that the fact that I started writing music in bluegrass country, it's no wonder I have such a hard time sticking to one particular genre, but I don't mind it and my fans don't seem to either. I just get to write the songs the way they feel to me — the message is what always matters most. Now that I'm pretty comfortably planted in the social-justice arena, I find 'the message' to be the only that matters any way. It's just icing on the cake that the music happens to make people want to dance a little too.

Why is being socially aware so important to you?
I check a lot of boxes — Black (check), woman (check), lesbian (check) — and so any time I walk into a room there is something about me just existing that is a problem for somebody. I know what it is to be marginalized and to be told that you shouldn't have a voice or that your voice doesn't matter, so the urgency of giving voice to the voiceless is a responsibility I don't take lightly. I didn't start out as a social justice songwriter but, after Trayvon Martin was killed, I wrote a song called Don't Forget My Name. Because I'm 100% independet, there was no label or manager somewhere telling me 'don't rock the boat' or any other metaphorical version of 'shut up and dribble' so I sang it and kept singing it and realized how important it was to use the platform that I have to try to create some change in this world in general, but especially in this country I love so dearly.

You are a “butch-identified, black, lesbian, woman who also happens to be a preacher's kid”. First, happy pride month! How did your family respond to you coming out? Are they supportive of your music?
Happy Pride! My coming out was quite turmultuous. Just before I turned 18, I was unceremoniously outed by the mother of the girl I was secretly seeing. I came home from school one day and my mom was waiting to talk to me. I was terrified, and she was heartbroken, scared, and probably a little angry. She didn't kick me out, but I pretty much spent the entirety of my senior year of high school living at someone else's house. But the relationship that my mom (who I lovingly refer to as 'The Rev.' ) and I have now is absolutely incredible. She, my dad, and my whole family are all just so supportive and proud of me.

It's just like Maya Angelou said, “I wouldn't take nothin' for my journey.” The arc of our relationship, the full scope of it from the hard years to now, have all informed the fierce love and respect we both have for each other. I never shy away from talking about it because I know how important it is for kids to know that 'it gets better' is a real thing. I'm living, breathing, thriving proof. And that's an important truth for parents in the Christian community too. So much of the shame placed upon LGBTQ kids who grew up the same way I did has more to do with the way those parents are treated (and imagine they'll be treated) by their peers than it has with the way they actually feel about their children.

How does this influence your music?
If you have spent any part of your life being made to feel ashamed of who you are, you have absolutely no interest in spending another single moment of your life being ashamed of who you are to anybody for any reason. So I am unapologetically me on and off stage. I sing about the things that matter to me because I know that they matter to so many other people, not all of whom have to ability to lift their voice the way that I do.

You recently released your new album, Changemakers, which feels very relevant. Can you talk about this album?
Changemakers is my new, hope-fueled, love-filled social justice album. It was released in March, but one single was too important to wait to release, so How Many More (which was produced by Heather Mae and recorded in our home in DC during the thick of the pandemic) came out October 2020. We opened up the album with a song called “Exactly Where You Are,” which so gently invites the listener in with a simple notion that has felt so last as of late. We meet people where they are. We don't know what baggage, what damage, what triggers they are coming into any given situation with, and we don't know where they are in their proverbial journey. But we are all humans who are, for the most part, doing the best we can. Because this album is so deeply rooted in social justice, it was important to me to begin with that song. I'm singing about everything from The #MeToo Movement, to Black Lives Matter, to gun safety and reform, to the opioid crisis, to immigration. These are social justice issues, but they are all human issues. I kept joking with Mark that I wanted this song to feel like an "all aboard" call for the hope train.

We immediately go right into the title track. I wrote that song sitting in a hotel room at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance. I was watching the news, which is all I seemed to do in 2017 and 2018, and was just floored by how much heartache I was watching unfold. As the song says, "mass shootings, deportations, wildfires." I just started writing. I wanted to write a love letter to Dreamers so that they knew that there are people in this country who actually care about the outward facing ideals that actually make us great. Emma Lazarus's The New Colossus was just ringing in my head over and over. Those words matter. That ideal matters. I called this album Changemakers because that song so perfectly summed up so much of what is at the heart of the album. That is also why we intentionally used such an array of instruments in the bridge — of all of the songs, we wanted this one to "feel" like America. There are zills, a guiro, etc. to symbolize the diverse immigrant community that makes this country so incredible. I have lived in the northern Virginia/DC area for over a decade and, after the former administration attempted its so-called Muslim ban, I went down to Dulles airport to raise my voice alongside so many of my fellow Americans. I dissented. We dissented. We weren't sitting behind a keyboard somewhere in obscurity. We were being agents of change. It was the same at the Women's March in 2017. It was the same at every Moms Demand and Brady Campaign event for which I've performed. In the words of James Baldwin, “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” The hope that all of those strangers gave to me — hope that this country I love so very much — is what is at the heart of this album.

I could talk for hours about “Call Them In,” a song I wrote after John Lewis died, but I want to talk about the last song on the album. As I said, hope is the central theme of Changemakers, and so we had to close it out with “Hope Revolution.” I started writing that song in the back of an Uber on the way to the White House the day that the election was finally called for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I live in DC, so I've taken that route many times, but that day was so different. People were waving and smiling at each other in the middle of the streets, cars were honking but waving and smiling and people were honking back and waving and smiling (very atypical for the District of Columbia). And as we got closer, I saw all of these American flags out on people lawns and on their porches. I immediately started crying because I knew exactly what it meant. You see, those weren't there before. But, in that moment, people felt like America was going to get a chance to be America again — ever imperfect, but ever striving towards that notion of "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." I told Mark that if I had written it first, the album might just have been called “Hope Revolution.” I love that song so much! Even with all that happened in my city on January 6th, I remain undaunted and hopeful for this country. A loud, but small group cannot erase the more than 70 million votes for hope, love, progress, and justice. There is not enough hate among every neo-Nazi group, every bigot, every racist, every homophobe in America to erase all of that love and hope. "We the People and the future of our choosing." We chose love and the hope of a brighter future. That is something I am taking immense comfort in as I look towards the beginning of a new chapter in America.

"Call Them In", is a very powerful song, which is meant to honor John Lewis. Can you tell us a little bit about this song and why it was important for you to create?
In the summer of 2020, while the entire world was learning how to live through a global pandemic, America was in the middle of a reckoning nearly 400 years in the making. George Floyd's brutal murder at the hands of police in Minnesota sparked the kind of national outrage that had been sparked decades ago when John Lewis and so many others were brutalized on Bloody Sunday. In an interview Congressman Lewis gave on the Today Show, he said that he thought Dr. King would be very proud of how many Americans were standing up for justice, and speaking out for better. "He's looking down and he's saying to each and every one of us, 'Keep it up, and never give up, never give in, but to keep the faith and to keep your eyes on the prize,''' he said. As a fellow Black southerner, I grew up hearing about the freedom songs people would sing (like “Eyes on the Prize”) as they marched for justice, and I wanted this song to feel like something they would be proud of and maybe march to, which is why I wanted to build a choir into the song. Fellow social-justice songwriters Kyshona Armstrong and Heather Mae who are singing on the track definitely helped me achieve that. At 80 years old, and after having suffered so much cruelty and brutality, this great man was still doing the work of calling out injustice while simultaneously calling in more allies, more willing change agents, more of what Dr. King called "drum majors for justice." So when he died on July 17, 2020, I knew that I wanted to honor him. In a time where so many powerful people are attempting to treat history as something other than truth and fact, the truth of his legacy is something I wanted to preserve for the generations who come after me. I hope that this song passes on a little of the love and hope that he and Dr. King passed on to me and so many others. May we never stop believing in good trouble, or in the vision of America that Congressman Lewis bled for on that bridge all those years ago.

Making a song for homage is so valuable for these times. We felt your grief, respect, and courage with this song. What are the hardest parts of making a homage song?
You want to be as true to the subject as humanly possible. The song isn't about me, it's about someone else, a real person with clear thoughts and values. As a songwriter, it's so important to stay true to the person you're writing about — who they are and what it is they're about. You have to avoid the urge to write with your voice and stay focused on them and their voice.

Can you talk about the significance of John Lewis in your life?
As a social-justice songwriter, my approach to songs has always been to lead with love and hope, even when it is hard to do, especially when it is hard to do. That message is at the heart of “Call Them In.” It is so easy for those of us committed to justice to do the work of calling out injustice, but it is much harder to take that next step and try to invite people in. But that is the charge, that is the task before us. Not a lot of people did that better than John Lewis. That final letter he left changed a lot of hearts and will continue to do so for years to come. I hope that I can do as much good in my whole life as he did with his last breaths on this Earth.

Your music consists of many meaningful social messages, from the love of America and what that means to Black Lives Matter to gun violence. What do you want your fans to get from your art?
I believe in hope. Those four words are what has sustained me during the previous administration and all of the chaos and vitriol is brought with it. Dr. King said, "hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that," and I believe that hope is what fuels a love powerful enough to do that. If I've done my job right, people will feel incredibly hopeful after hearing my music in general, but especially the social-justice music.

You are a protest folk artist. Folk music also played an influential role in political efforts and anti-war protests so what do you think of its current role? Do you feel there is enough political music these days?
It's getting there. You're hearing more artists start to wake up to the power they have across so many genres. It's very encouraging.

What do you think about the queer representation in the music industry as a queer artist?
I identify as lesbian, not queer. For me, it always makes me happy seeing so many artists be their authentic selves. What we do is so very intimate in that it comes from a deeply personal place most of the time. When we're able to throw our full selves into our art, whatever we create will be that much better for it. I also think it's so good for there to be such diverse representation not just in how we sound, but in how we look. The LGBTQ community, like any other community, is not a monolith and so it's good for people to be able to see and hear that.

In addition to singing about issues, you are active with Planned Parenthood, ACLU, and Black Lives Matter. Can you tell us a little bit about your involvement in these different organizations?
The great Ella Baker said, "We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes." I believe that wholeheartedly, so I do whatever can wherever I can to keep us moving closer to freedom, closer to that more perfect union so many of us have been waiting for in this country.

The Black Lives Matter movement seems to have lost media coverage. How would you like people to continue to support this movement?
The fact that those three words are even being discussed means that while the Black Lives Matter organization as a concise entity may not be getting media coverage, the movement itself is alive and well. We are talking about economic justice, environmental justice, climate justice with more energy than we have since the Civil Rights Movement. That is part of what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter. We are talking about criminal justice reform and police accountability in a way that we have not talked about before. That is part of what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter. We are challenging the way we were taught about the origins of racism in this country from the school house to the White House. That is what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter. We cannot let up. As Dr. King said, "Democracy is thin paper transformed into thick action." We must continue to have these conversations, but we must also act and inspire others to act.

Did you do anything fun for Pride?
Heather Mae and I are getting back on the road and touring together for a week in June (18th-25th). We'll be in the northeast primarily, but it feels so good to be making music for people in person again and especially during Pride!

How are you staying positive during a shelter in place?
I've been writing a lot since the pandemic started. I've also found a deep love of gardening. Both of those things are keeping me pretty content amidst so much uncertainty. I've also been showered with love and kindness by so many of my fans who have been supporting my art via Patreon during the pandemic. It has been such a blessing.

What is your motto in life?
"All things work together for good." The Rev. reminds me every day and I see it in my life in both big and small ways every single day.

To find more about Crys Matthews, please follow her via the below platforms:
patreon.com/crysmatthews
crysmatthews.com
Instagram: @crysmatthews
Twitter: @crysmatthews
YouTube: @crysmatthews
Facebook: @crysmatthews

Photography Credits: Rah Foard

Crys Matthews Makes Us Believe America Again