The Crafted Child

By Steven Mercado, 10 min read

Eric Reyes of The Crafted Child

In the sixth episode of The Bread Podcast, hosts Andy Chung and Ariel Silva talk to Eric Reyes, frontman of Christian band The Crafted Child. Eric shares how The Crafted Child came together, his journey of songwriting, how God transformed his music making process, and practical advice when it comes to songwriting. Here is some of what Eric had to say:

HOW THE CRAFTED CHILD WAS BORN

The idea started late 2018, and that came with, for me, a bunch of stuff that happened in my life and my friends' lives ... Music has always been a part of my life and it's something that I want to start using as a vehicle to worship God and really make something that's honest and feels like ... me, in a lot of areas. Started in 2018, and all of 2019 was just running around, trying to gather [my friends] into my small little bedroom and record and make something out of it ... [but] I was never really communicative with everyone about what exactly I wanted. It was just like, I want to put all of this together and somehow, by God's grace, it came together.

IN COMMUNION WITH GOD: THE FIRST ALBUM

“About 90 percent of writing the album, I'd be sitting in front of my computer trying to figure out what makes me feel like music, even music-wise, what makes me feel communion with God? A lot of those themes came up. Even thinking about, like ... I've recently been through tons of family trails and struggles, losing loved ones, all of that, so the act of thinking about a child, especially thinking about my grandpa, who was basically a father to me, that theme was definitely there: the need for comfort and the need to look at God at an intimate level, but also look back and see where my life is and see a lot of the different, and you'll see this in the artwork, so many different colors and things that looked like it's normal nature, but also things that are weird and kind of pieced together in a weird way. I think that kind of describes me, not just looking at my own life and my own seasons, but also the seasons that my friends go through.

A REMINDER OF HIS STEADFASTNESS THROUGH EVERY SEASON

A big word for me was ‘remember’. If you are in need of remembering who you are, who God is, I definitely think this album is an honest intro to us. I almost think of it like if you just need a friend or if you need a friend who you feel like can understand, that can understand you, whether it's the joys of being a new Christian, or if it's like, I've been a Christian for 20 years and everything feels numb ... it's really for those people, saying we understand what that feels like.

WHO ARE YOU DOING THIS FOR?

Going into high school, I just wanted to impress people ... my relationship with music was kind of stuck in this place where I was like, man, I don't like what I'm writing, I'm just going to stick to singing other people's songs, whatever. Fast forward to now, I think a lot of those experiences with doing a bunch of these things, whether it's like performing for large crowds in high school or whatever was just not satisfying me. ... It wasn't until I started to merge how I'm feeling in my relationship and walk with God and intertwined that with music, that just brought more joy to me, even playing guitar, playing piano, and doing things I find enjoyable, it brings me a lot of joy, rather than trying to learn this cool piano lick so that one time, at a party, I can play it and someone could be like, "Whoa, you're good." Just really doing it for the enjoyment of creating. I think that's how my relationship with music has morphed into what it is now.

PRACTICAL ADVICE TO PUSH THROUGH DISCOURAGEMENT

Some of the biggest pieces of advice that I've gotten and I always stand by, and that I would give again and again, is you have to make the bad stuff in order to make the good stuff ... so just start, and be consistent. That's how it's worked out for us as a band and for me. And have friends around you. Whether or not you're trying to be a solo artist. For me, having friends and people that can speak into your life makes wonders with the way you can write and discover your own art.

FIGHTING WRITER’S BLOCK: GOING TO THE FATHER

One of the things that I've found myself doing is praying because I can't write anything if I'm not really looking at what I'm wrestling with, what I'm talking to God about. I'll always come back to that because whenever I hit a block, it's like, why am I not thinking about things that are progressive for me and the band, and it's because of this lack of communion with God, which is always prevalent with my life. It kind of goes back to trying to prove something. We put out a record, let me try to prove myself again with this band. It comes back to, what is your actual relationship with God? Are you just talking about him or are you talking with him? It sounds pretty basic, but it's the cornerstone. Reading His word and praying has been mountains of helpfulness when it comes to, like, how do I get over this writer's block for inspiration? I look to the Bible and see these, almost these stories that come to life and my feelings come to life for me. That's how I'm choosing to attack this writer's block.

SONGS THAT GLORIFY GOD

If it's not something that I would encourage you by saying, it's not something that I would put into the song. I think for me, that's been a helpful guide for writing something that feels like you're talking to me versus something that I'm just pushing out as a general statement about my faith. That's how I'm trying to navigate with the band, even through conversations. We're talking about these next projects, thinking about what direction could we go, a lot of it comes from conversation. What are we feeling, what are we wrestling with ... a lot of "Wild!" had to do with me looking at God and, even reading back these lyrics sometimes in prayers, to almost see if these are something that I have actually prayed to God with. I love the song "Holy" in the record because a lot of that is just a prayer. It's like, "Hold me fast, settle my soul, strengthen my faith." Those things resonated with me because I could sit down and it's not just saying this general statement about God. It's like praying to Him. Writing it in a way where it feels like I can say it to you has been a big guiding light.

FINAL ENCOURAGEMENTS

“For Christians, for believers that are trying to make music and live the artist's life or even just write something, my encouragement would be to just abide in Him. If you abide in Him, God is faithful and He doesn't change, as long as you hold onto that, everything that comes out of that will not only connect the people listening, but it's going to glorify God. Even if it's so far in left field, if you make it with the heart of abiding and trusting in God, He's going to be glorified.”

Eric had so many encouraging words to share. God changed his heart towards music and it’s such a blessing to see how Eric and The Crafted Child are using this gift to glorify His name.

You can hear the full conversation by looking up “The Bread Podcast” on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Be sure to check out our previous episodes as well!