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Chris Rice has always had a knack for clever wordplay and turning a catchy phrase. We asked him to share some of his songwriting secrets.

Christian music has had plenty of witty, insightful songsmiths over the years. Pioneers like Larry Norman and Randy Stonehill were among the first, followed by the likes of Mark Heard and Rich Mullins, and now today's crop, including Chris Rice, Bebo Norman and Andrew Peterson. Rice is the seasoned veteran of those three, and we wanted to know just what goes into such good songwriting. Part of it is just life experience—and for Rice, that often means youth ministry, his other big passion. When he's not writing, recording or touring, Rice is often playing, leading worship and/or speaking at a college or high school conference somewhere.

Tell us about some songwriters you respect and why.

Chris Rice: I'm trying to narrow the list down. I don't listen to a ton of stuff, but every now and then something jumps out and I go, "Wow, that's great!" I appreciate lyrics that kind of take me in a memory somewhere or give me a real visual picture of what's going on or make me feel something. I try to incorporate that into my songwriting. Some people that do that well are Carolyn Arends and David Wilcox. I'll stop at those two.

What does the songwriting process look like for you?

Rice: I start with a phrase or something that becomes either the main thought in the song or that just begins the song. I almost draw a map in my head of where I want to ultimately take the listener to understand the message. Then I think, How do I want to get there? Do I want to tell a story? Do I want to spell it out plain and simple? Do I want to kind of hide it and do something really intriguing and make them work for it?

I love first lines of songs. I love how a really good first line makes you want to listen to the rest of the song. Then I just piece the song together little by little, almost as if I've made an outline. Next, I start drawing in the scenery, just to get to that place. It's a different process each time. Sometimes I go kind of fast, sometimes not. Sometimes I'll work on a song for five or six months.

Name a few songs that were written quickly.

Rice: One of the fastest songs I ever wrote was "Questions for Heaven" off of Smell the Color 9. Another is "8th Grade" off the new CD. I wrote both of those songs while we were already in the recording process, going home from the studio knowing I'd have to be there again at 9 or 10 the next morning. I finished those songs within a couple of hours. That's very rare, but those two songs are kind of goofy. Maybe if I'm going to write goofy songs, that should be my strategy. But I love those songs. I guess they could have been disasters, but they came out so well that I thought, I'm going to play this the next morning for my producer, Monroe Jones, and see his reaction. His responses were so strong that he immediately told all the guys in the studio, "Drop everything. Come in here and chart this song." I'd play it for them, and we went to town on it that day.

Your current project seems intentional in covering the past, present, and future, perhaps reflecting the growth of your writing over the years.

Rice: I guess. It wasn't intentional on my part, although I do approach a lot of my writing with those things in mind. There's a lot of progress in my writing. Childhood is a great place to start a song. So I do that a lot, like in "8th Grade." The record starts with "The Other Side of the Radio," which is very present day. I'm trying to capture people's attention right away with an upbeat song about us all singing the same song together. Then I do see somewhat of a progression. Later, there's "Nonny Nonny," a song about childhood and adolescence, the present, and the future, looking forward to heaven. Then the last song of the record, "Circle Up," is kind of a mellow song about looking forward to heaven. When we think about heaven, the images that come to mind are just golden streets and clouds and white robes. I take a real earthy approach to it and say, Hey, we're going to be celebrating, grabbing hands, dancing. Let's go worship.

How intentionally do you think about perspectives when writing songs?

Rice: I want to approach everything I write from just a little bit different angle than I've ever heard it before, because that really intrigues people. I think it makes them really pay attention to what you're saying ultimately when they finally get to the "Aha" moment in a song. They may never get there in some of the songs, but when they do, they've had to work their mind—they've had to stretch a little bit. I think it's just like working out. You stretch, you push, and you get stronger. And I think that increases their faith a little bit more because you're introducing not new thought, but a new way to think about it—or you're using a whole different circuit to get there.

What are you doing these days?

Rice: I've been speaking at a couple of retreats and camps. I was a Bible study leader and kind of taught, and I love doing that. I'm still a worship leader at various events, as well as touring in between. It's been a busy time. Also, I'm just really staying connected with people—especially high school and college students. Just about every night of the week, I'm doing something with students here in Nashville. My life is full of kids all the time.

Is there anything different you'd like to do in music someday?

Rice: I really would like to tour with a live string section. That would allow me to create some different treatments of songs I've always done with a full-blown rock'n'roll band. I'd like to do different arrangements—not symphony stuff necessarily, but simpler, real acoustic, string-oriented versions. Maybe acoustic piano. I'd do some different treatments of songs that people already know, but to hear them in a fresh kind of setting would be fun.

Any particular songs you have in mind?

Rice: All of them. Even the ones that slam the biggest in concert. The way I write lyrically can be done well with a whole band, or they can be treated in a real simple way. It could let the lyrics really shine and the melody really stand out.

Billy Joel does that, writing so that his melody can be interpreted classically. So a song like "Uptown Girl" can be played on the piano in a very classic style.

Rice: I think you have to get to a certain place in your career to do that. You can't do that on your second or third record because people are still getting used to you. If I'm still in this three or four years from now, when my music has kind of settled in, then it's a really cool thing for people to hear those songs redone. We were watching a video of Paul McCartney's live show on the bus the other night. It was great to hear these songs I've heard so many times, but to hear him do a different rendition.

An artist probably has to do that in order to keep enjoying performing their songs. I imagine songs can get stale after singing them for the 2,000th time.

Rice: You have to look at it that way. You have to look at the long haul. I think there are a lot of times when we try to do things a little too quickly. Then we think we've "achieved." But we're cheating ourselves of really having a cool moment in our careers if we're not patient enough and hang in there. I could very easily cheat myself out of something really cool down the road because I wanted to hurry up and get to a point that someone else got to in their career. I don't want that to happen to me.

To read more about Chris Rice, visit his artist page, where you will also find previous interviews and reviews of his albums, including his latest, Run the Earth … Watch the Sky. You can listen to song clips and purchase his music at Christianbook.com.

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