How to break free from things holding you back

Image Credit: C2B Music

Molly Fairclough, 6th Oct 2020
Tags: Music Interview Drugs Mental health Rap

In this candid interview with up-and-coming rapper, C2B, whose real name is Caleb Brown, we discussed the meaning behind his music and how his faith has affected his life.

Molly: You’ve said in the past that you have been writing poetry since you were just 5 years old. How has your writing process changed over time?

C2B: When I was five there wasn’t a lot of effort put into it, but after writing for a few years it gradually developed into rap. Nowadays, I have got my song writing process down to tee.

Image Credit: C2B Music

I try to have a creative space wherever I am, so that I can make something outside of my day-to-day life. I make sure that the space is dark and usually turn on some LED lights, matching the colour of the lights to the mood of the song.

An idea will just come to me and I’ll start writing.

More often than not an idea will just come to me and I’ll start writing. I find that inspiration can hit at any time, so I always have that creative space around me.

Molly: Your music touches on a lot of painful topics like heartbreak, drug abuse, and mental health issues. Do you find it therapeutic to talk about such painful experiences?

C2B: It is therapeutic at times, but it can be really tough. My song “Looking Back” was the most difficult thing I have written so far, because I had to relive some pretty intimate details from my breakup.

Every bit of that process was painful, from the writing, to the recording to the production. But once I heard the final version, I felt a huge amount of peace.

The songs all speak about something that I have lived through.

The thing with my album ‘Unleashed’, in particular, is that every part of it is my life. The songs all speak about something that I have lived through or am actively living through at that moment.

Unleashed’ is everything I am and in a lot of ways will continue to be. 

Molly: Your songs like “One” and “G.O.D.” gives some insight into your faith. How did you become a Christian?

C2B: Yeah, I always say that I make faith-based music because it’s not necessarily all about Jesus, but he is the core of everything I do. My music has always been my life and so when I gave my life to Christ, my music became centred around him too.

Basically, I grew up in a Christian-ish household, but would have classed myself as a Christian. Then my grandfather and grandmother both died in the same year when I was about 14 or 15, which absolutely crushed me and my family.

I actually wrote a poem called “Hospice” during this time, which had a line saying, “They have memory rocks on the shelf but I denied them because, honestly, how comforting is a rock.”

I had a friend who continued to invite me to his youth group.

During this time, I had a friend who continued to invite me to his youth group and, despite not really wanting to, I agreed to go with him.

I found one night that something was hitting me super hard during worship and a friend of mine came up behind me and set a memory rock in my hands.

This meant so much to me, considering everything that had happened with my grandparents, and I gave my life to Christ that night.

Molly: So you went from having just 13 monthly listeners on Spotify on the day you released ‘Unleashed’ to 34,000 in under 3 weeks. What was your initial reaction when you started to see that growth happening?

C2B: The first day the album dropped it was pretty slow, which was what I expected. Then, the second day I checked my streams and they had doubled. After that it continued to grow super quickly and it has taken a while to wrap my head around.

35,000 people have heard this message of being set free.

It’s weird as life goes on because I’ve started to get recognised daily, especially when I’m on campus. It’s cool, but what gets me hyped is knowing how many people have heard the message of ‘Unleashed’. In 41 countries, 35,000 people have heard this message of being set free.

The album obviously tells my own story of how I have been set free from things in my life; but I hope it inspires the people who listen to it to set themselves free from anything that is holding them back.

Image Credit: C2B Music

Molly: Speaking of the message of ‘Unleashed’, what is one thing you hope people take away from your music?

C2B: It’s that freedom. However you get there is up to you. Obviously for me, as a Christian, Christ has set me free and I want people to see that.

People have mentioned that there’s something “different” about me.

In a few interviews I have done, people have mentioned that there’s something “different” about me, and I want people to know that that’s Jesus. There is nothing about me that is great, but everything about him is great. 

So, as cool as it is to see my name across the world, I just want people to know that Jesus is the reason I’m there.