Casey J is an Atlanta native and gospel artist. Reared in a Black Baptist Church while attending White Christian schools gave her a unique edge as an artist. Casey recently released her sophomore album The Gathering, which is a collection of prayers turned into songs. We caught up with the gospel singer to talk about the inspiration behind her new praise project and what she hopes people will take from it.
How did you get your start as a musician?
I’m a church baby. My mom is a choir director, my grandmom was a choir director. I was going to sing even if I couldn’t sing. Thankfully that caused me to have a history of serving in the local church. What I do now as a song carrier and a worship leader is an extension of that, and I’m thankful for that.
What inspired your new album The Gathering?
The core of the inspiration for The Gathering is this verse in Acts 4. It says, “And after they prayed, the place that they had gathered became shaken. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they walked away speaking the word of God with boldness.” I think that when we listen to scripture sometimes we think it’s this historical record, but I think it’s a present promise that every time we gather we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that’s not just for church on Sunday. For this record, I took about 50 friends to a farm outside of Atlanta, and we recorded the whole album outside.
What do you want people to take away from the album?
I think sometimes we limit the space we want God to move in. We think He’s only for Sunday, or He’s only for pews. For me, it was so dope to take people out of their element wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. We sat on the floor. We had s’mores. God was just as present then as He is on Sunday morning, and that was the message we wanted to give.
What song means the most to you on the album?
One that I would love to just share is called “Adopted.” I think sometimes for us, as believers, we have a hard time understanding the body of Christ and the spirit of adoption. We understand adoption in the natural sense. We understand you may go to an agency and you get to choose a child. You bring that child into your home, and as soon as that child steps into your home, they are in relation with you in the same way as any child before or after them. We wanted to write a song to really help people understand that this is the way God sees us.
