Risk fuels creativity. When an artist steps away from their comfort zone, following their muse into fresh territory, it generally opens up an exciting new direction. Not everyone is willing to take chances, but Chris Rice isn’t your conventional artist. That maverick spirit and creative passion courses through every track of Rice’s new release “What A Heart is Beating For.”
After more than a decade in the music business that brought industry accolades, sales success and a loyal fan base, the singer/songwriter could have become accustomed to the status quo. He might have continued down the same path, reaping the same rewards, but that’s not what a true artist chooses to do, and it’s not what Chris Rice did. Instead he took a chance with his last album, “Amusing.” He left the security of his previous label home and partnered with longtime friend/producer Monroe Jones to become co-owner in the innovative imprint Eb + Flo. Then joining forces with INO/Columbia Records, Rice set out to expand his audience.
He shifted gears, tapped into the music bubbling inside him and created “Amusing,” a stylistic departure that changed and exceeded the already high expectations for a Chris Rice album. His risk paid off with the AC radio hit “When Did You Fall,” and the creative leap paved the way for Rice’s new effort “What a Heart is Beating For.”
“I’m more excited about these songs than ever,” says Rice. “I feel like they’ve taken me as a writer into new territory that allowed me to explore different aspects of my own writing and thinking. There aren’t constraints on it. There aren’t lines in the coloring book that I have to stay in.”
Well known as an earnest, thoughtful singer/songwriter with a compelling voice and a talent for penning literate, colorful lyrics, Rice’s last album found him delving deeper into matters of the heart. What emerged was a surprisingly romantic soul with the ability to write songs that made women sigh and men smile knowingly. If “Amusing” revealed his ability to tap more broadly into the range of human experience, then “What a Heart is Beating For” takes that even further.
Rice has always had a love affair with words. Growing up just outside Washington DC, his parents owned a bookstore and he developed an appreciation for authors and songwriters. He recalls belting out “Band on the Run” in the backseat of a station wagon with his brothers, and fondly remembers an elementary school music teacher using Jim Croce’s “I Have to Say I Love You in a Song” to illustrate a point in class. “Even as a third grader, I got it,” he says. “I got the way he used those words to express something and I could identify.”
A myriad of influences have simmered together to spice the songs on Rice’s new album, his sixth studio record. “The variety I think is almost part of the thread that unites it,” he says of the diverse collection. “They way I say things, pulls them all together.”
What a Heart is Beating For was produced by Monroe Jones whom Rice met when he moved to Nashville during college. The title song is a prime example of their creative chemistry. The track soars and swells as the music underscores the poignancy in Rice’s lyric. “It says just take a deep breath and throw open the door, that’s what the heart is beating for,” Rice says. “You are alive and your heart is beating so you can take these risks. You can live and love this way. Whether it’s romantically and you are connected to somebody and give your whole self to them or whether it’s seeing someone in need. You may not get anything in return, but give your whole self anyway. That’s what your heart is beating for, that’s why you are alive.”
Life is risky. Love is risky. Music is at its best when it challenges us to take those risks. “The first time I played this for some of my friends, I heard a young college student friend say under his breath—not intended for me to hear—‘Wow, that makes me want to be a better person,’” recalls Chris, obviously humbled. “That’s why I do this, just hearing that reaction. I hope this song has that impact on a lot of people.”
