Michael Cochran of Cochren & Co is our featured guest this week! We’re exploring how to use the things that we’re naturally good at, in order to give back to the world. You’ll hear how Michael discovered the piano, and how he accidentally ended up playing a show for just $3, and why he wishes that it could have been free instead. Join us as we dig in to understanding how we can all use the gifts and talents for God!
Interview Links:
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Transcription:
Michael Cochren: I think when a kid sees someone else doing something on stage, especially like a young artist, or I remember for me, the first time I realized I could do music for the Lord was at a youth convention. And I saw Steve Fee up on stage and his band just shredding it playing Jesus music on stage. And I was like, holy smokes, you can do this. I can play drums for God. And I think when you take a kid and expose him to that just like, taking a kid to a basketball game, or you show him a rocket being launched or whatever, it opens something up in their mind they didn’t even know they had an interest in, and they may walk away going, wow, that’s something I would love to do.
Sarah Taylor: Michael Cochran of Cochren & Co is our featured guest this week on the Passion Meets Purpose podcast, where we explore the things that you’re naturally good at and how you use those gifts and talents to give back to the world. We’re going to hear how Michael discovered piano. We’re going to hear how he accidentally ended up playing a show for just $3 and why he wishes that it could have been free instead. Let’s get straight to it with our conversation with Michael Cochran,
Michael Cochran of Cochran and company. I think my favorite thing is that you are seated at the instrument that you play so well.
Michael Cochren: Yeah, that’s a fair place to be on the piano bench. So why not?
Sarah Taylor: Let’s start with, there is a hymn I heard that made you want to learn how to play the piano. You want, you wanted to play it. Jesus’ name above all names.
Michael Cochren: Oh, yes, yes.
Sarah Taylor: Do you want to just tell me about that season in your life, where you heard that song, what it did inside of you that made you want to learn how to play it?
Michael Cochren: I was like, five or six years old. My aunt used to play that song all the time on our big upright piano in my living room when I was a kid. And there’s something about the way the melody floating, the way she would move her left hand across a piano, like in an arpeggiated motion. And I just like, I want to learn this instrument. I want to learn how to do that. And so my aunt sat me down and taught me how to play it and worked really slowly with me, taught me like a very childish version. And that was like the first song that I remember playing the melody of, you know, and I’ve always loved the Gaither music and stuff, but there’s something just the melody of that song was just so sweet.
Sarah Taylor: And then you went through the drums phase. So, take us through that.
Michael Cochren: Yeah. The drum phase grabbed me pretty hard in the 6th grade. I was, I joined the band when the band director at my school, like came to the elementary kids and like brought all the instruments and said, you know let’s see what you can do, where you would fit in the middle school band or whatever. And I had an aptitude for the saxophone and for the snare drum, and the stand drum was like, one-third of the price of the saxophone, so my parents were like, hey, why don’t we go that direction? So, I picked the drums and I’ve joined the middle school band. I played in the jazz band and the pep band in high school. And I wanted to be a pro drummer for like five years straight. That’s all I could think about was just playing the drums.
Sarah Taylor: Whenever I think of someone who loved drumming as a kid, I always wonder about their mom, because, I mean, I’m surprised, I guess it was, so it was finances that got her to say yes to the drum kit.
Michael Cochren: Yes, it was a saxophone. I just remember being in my, you know, my mom was little strapped for money when I was younger, and I just remember the saxophone was so expensive. It was like multiple, multiple payments on this plan and the standard, I was kinda like just hit it. So, I mean, it wasn’t that expensive. And I think maybe, I don’t know, what’s worse, a kid learning the drums or a kid learning to play like a Reed instrument with just all the screens and the squeals and the, you know, I don’t know, to the basement either way, it’s going to be, it’s going to disrupt the peace and quiet at home for sure.
Sarah Taylor: How did she respond when you switched back to piano?
Michael Cochren: She was happy because, so when I started playing the drums, I was approached in high school by some upperclassmen that wanted me to play drums in like a metal band… Like a screaming rock, you know band, and my mom didn’t necessarily love that. So, she was happy when I, in my senior year, I started playing piano again, and it started playing, you know, Billy Joel and so that stuff, and that was more her cup of tea. So, she was happy. She could actually listen to the music I was playing. And she’d have to wear like a fake smile anytime. I was like, what do you think about this mom? Yeah.
Sarah Taylor: And I know that for our audience, first of all, I think you can’t play anything longer than 30 seconds, or I have to go find rights for it. So try to just say 20 second clips, but because I also love the music of Billy Joel, and it’s the first record I remember my dad playing when I was just like a toddler and I heard, yeah. I heard uptown girl and for the longest time, and I was like, what is this? You know? And there’s something about that music that I think marks both our childhoods. So, I’d love to hear, I think you do New York state of mind or piano, man. Like just give me a tiny little bit of your piano bar sound.
Michael Cochren: Of course. I will need the harmonica if you go any further on that one, I guess.
Sarah Taylor: And I hear that you learned the majority of it on youTube.
Michael Cochren: Yeah. You know, I took piano lessons when I was a little kid and I never really took them seriously. If there’s any young piano students out there listening to this, stick with it! Take it seriously. Learn how to read music too because I did not. And I kick myself constantly. And I try now to learn how, and I’ve developed too many bad habits, I think. But I didn’t take it seriously. So, when I returned back to the piano in high school, I didn’t really have like a strong foundation to go from, so I just started watching YouTube videos and I would play and pause a Billy Joel, Elton John, John McLaughlin, even. I would just like play their videos, stop them, roll them back. What are they doing? How are they making those movements and stuff? And I just became fast that there’s one in particular, it’s a Billy Joel video from 1976, I think he’s playing New York state of mind and just like smokey jazz bar, and I watched that video probably like a thousand times. He does just one lick, I mean, it’s so funny. He likes a cigarette. He sits on the ash tray all cool like, you know, whatever. And then he just like one hand he was hands up, you’re holding a cigarette, just plays this lick all the way down to the top of Canada. And I watched that probably a thousand times, just like, how is he doing that? Minus the cigarette part, but you know, how is he doing that piano lick?
I’ve got to learn that right there.
Sarah Taylor: That is just incredible. It reminds me, my dad took me to the Billy Joel, Elton John concert together. And we had seats way up in the nosebleeds. And there’s just something about being transfixed, like the way you were with that one part of the video and having to learn it. Like, why do you think it’s important that parents like take their kids to celebrate the music, whatever the artist is. Maybe someone’s not relating to us over, you know, these artists, but why is it important that parents instill that in their kids?
Michael Cochren: I think you can open up something in a kid’s mind that they didn’t even know was there. You know, sports are like the big thing in America. And I love sports. Sports is great. I played all the sports when I was a kid. But I think when a kid sees someone else doing something on stage, especially like a young artist, or I remember for me the first time that I realized I could do music for the Lord, it wasn’t a mutually exclusive.
I didn’t have to choose between God, and you know. Music was at a youth convention, and I saw Steve Fee up on stage with his band, just playing Jesus music on stage. And I was like, holy smokes, you can do this. I could play drums for God, you know, or whatever. And I think when you take a kid and expose them to that, just like me taking kids to a basketball game where you show them a rocket being launched or whatever, it opens something up in their mind they didn’t even know they had an interest in and they may walk away going, wow, that’s something that I would love to do. And music is something you’re never not going to have. I think there’s a day that comes for everybody when you can’t maybe do this sport or that sport, but music is something, it’s a passion that can get a hobby or whatever you call it, that can grab your heart and you can use that and it can bring you hope and bring you joy your whole life,
Sarah Taylor: Oh, I love what you said. I think that’s so great for our audience because someone might be listening, and it might not even be music or sports. It might be watching a cooking video or gardening or just whatever it is, but it’s basically when you see it represented by someone else, someone else is in their element doing what they love and you realize, oh, I’m made to do that. I must learn more about that.
Michael Cochren: Absolutely. I think that’s so true. I think like Chip and Joanna Gaines have done that for so many people. Oh, my gosh, I love making old things new, and you just never would have thought that until you see someone passionate about something. When you see someone passionate about something and going after that, then you realize there’s something, there’s something worthwhile in that, or they wouldn’t be passionate about it.
Sarah Taylor: You are very lucky in that. The label you ended up with is led by a man who is just natural at being a mentor and pouring into others. And he has decades of experience onstage, but also he aims to me be a man behind the scenes, that is the same that he is on stage. So, for our audience that doesn’t know who that man is, why don’t you talk about him?
Michael Cochren: Yeah, so I, in 2018, I signed a record contract. My very first record deal with Gotee Records, which is owned by TobyMac and his cousin Joey Elwood. TobyMac started that in the nineties. There was a Christian group that couldn’t really find their place in the industry and Toby wanted to support them and starting a label up to push them.
And that’s kind of been what he’s been doing with the label ever since is finding artists that are kind of maybe a little outside the box, whatever, and giving them a home in the Christian music industry and supporting that. It’s been incredible to work with. You know, I had my own fears or reservations early on because I just, all, I knew that TobyMac was the stage persona and his music style, which is a little different than my music style, so I had all these reservations of like, what’s it going to be like? And you hear all these horror stories from small town America of the music industry, mostly from people who tried it, didn’t make it. And they’re jaded and they’re angry and they say, well, music is, she just wants to change you. And so, my fear was like, I’m going to walk into this and Toby’s going to want to just make me a carbon copy of Toby, or whatever.
And that’s so far from the truth. One of the first things he said to me was like, I love that you love the seventies. Singer songwriters and Billy Joel and Jeff Strauss. I love that. It’s like, I don’t want to change anything about. It’s like, and he even just, he said, he’s like, I want you to make music just the way you are, which of course is, is you know, a Billy Joel song.
And so I found that to be true is that he’s really supportive, what he wants me to do musically, and he’s helped come around and make that the best version of itself, you know. Not somebody different, but just the best way that we can do it. And I really appreciated that.
Sarah Taylor: Your mom got you, a DC Talk CD at a yard sale. What is it like to, and you grew up in small town America, so when you got that, you thought it was brand new music and you wanted to like, tell everyone, like, listen to this new song? It turns out it was a decade old. So, you were a little late to the party, but what’s it like to have that full circle moment? You say something about going on tour with Toby and seeing his you know, like wardrobe case or something passed by you?
Michael Cochren: Yes, that’s exactly. I tell that story to a lot of my friends. It’s like, you know, my mom got me that CD at a yard sale. I listened to it. I didn’t even know who… we didn’t have a ton of Christian music that was like, like I’d never heard of Steve Fee until I went to that youth convention, we didn’t have Christian radio. We had like Christian talk radio in my area. I got the CD and I, I kind of heard of jars of clay and I was kind of knowing who Casting Crowns was growing up, but I didn’t know much. And then I remember the first time I heard a Toby Mac song with city on our knees and I loved that song. And that really meant a lot to me. And working Toby, like I had to, I kind of had to separate that out as we were making decisions about labels. And so, I had really trained myself to not try, not like fanboy out, you know? I wanted to view this as a business situation and I wanted to, you know, okay, don’t be overwhelmed by the fact that this is Toby Mac coming in and talk about this. Like, this is, you know, it’s about my career and blah, blah, blah, whatever. But yeah, the first time he brought me out on tour, a couple things happened. One, he out of nowhere just says, hey, I’d love for you to sing a song with me tonight and I was thinking maybe City on our Knees. And he had no way of knowing that’s my favorite song, you know?
So that was, that was pretty surreal to go out there and sing that. And then about three shows into that tour, someone was really a road case by that I saw like a stapled logo on it. That was the DC talk Jesus freak logo that he’s been using that case for, gosh, for a long time now. And that was when it really hit home for me.
I was like, holy smokes. Like, I’m going to be out here on tour with somebody who’s been doing this and it’s kept the main thing. The main thing. Yeah. So, I guess to me, that’s the most impressive thing about Toby. He’s got all these accolades, these awards and stuff, but really, I think I’m most impressed with knowing that the reason why he started doing you know, whenever we start doing it, it’s the same reason why it a now and that motivates me to be the exact same way.
Sarah Taylor: You know, I have to imagine that when those full circle moments come around, that that has to bring such delight to God’s heart. You have another one of those moments, and it actually involves how you met your wife. She sings. And so talk about, talk about that.
Michael Cochren: Yeah. So I met my wife in 2013 in the summer at a Christian concert that I was kind of headlining and she was opening for. That’s when we actually met and we dated for a couple of years, and then we were talking about Skillet for some reason, cause you’re going to be opening up your Skillet for another concert.
And I said, I remember seeing Skillet at Winter Jam in 2011 at Evansville. And she’s like, oh yeah, I was there too at that show. And I said, that’s crazy. Yeah. I ended up having to sit in the top, like overflow section, because you know, I got their selections. Yeah, we did too. That’s crazy. I was like, no way.
And she said, yes, I actually have pictures of where we were sitting. So she goes through this whole phone and pulls up these pictures. I see it on. Yeah. I was sitting right there and then I see this like strange figure and I zoom in and zoom in and zoom in on she and her friend and the selfie they took, and it keeps zooming in, and I see that it’s her in a seat, and then me sitting right next to her in that photo, which was taken a year and a half before we ever met. And I was like, holy smokes. And I don’t even remember her being there. We didn’t meet at all, and you know, I went through some wandering years, I guess you could say when I was in college, and if we had met them, it just would not, I would have been a catastrophe.
And so, it’s like, God’s just like shielded. It’s like, no, this isn’t the time. This will just be a wink you can look back at, down the road. And then we met a year and a half or two years later when things were right and it’s just, we go, we go back to that pretty often, when we’re thinking about god’s timing and how we pray for things and maybe it doesn’t work out. It’s like, you know what? God knows what he’s doing. He’s known what he’s been doing this whole time.
Sarah Taylor: Oh, that’s so good. I love that so much for anyone that thinks that, you know, being a musician and being on the road and playing sold-out shows every night is so glamorous. Why don’t you talk about how you once played a show in Omaha for $3, total?
Michael Cochren: This is not a story that I’m necessarily super proud of, but it is, it’s a character-building story. I will say that. I used to do everything myself. I mean, we, most people kind of nationally, I’ve only noticed maybe for a couple of three years. So, we’ve been doing this music thing for gosh, close to 10 years now. Independently for most of those years and just grinding it out, booking shows, calling places. Every 10 phone calls we get one, maybe every 20 phone calls, we get one. Yes. You know, whatever. So, we booked this show in Iowa and we wanted in Norfolk, Nebraska, and we wanted to show on the way. Because we needed some extra gas money, or we weren’t going to make it. So, I call them con called places, five families, places, Omaha, there’s this really cool coffee shop. And we go there and long story short, the promoter didn’t promote anything. They didn’t really tell anybody who were coming to that coffee shop. Nobody came. We actually had to pay to park the van outside of this place. So, we were already like $9 in the hole before we even play the show. The lady that booked us left before the show started, and it was this interesting coffee shop.
And I won’t say the name, But I will say that it had a stage, and it had a curtain that divided like the stage area from like a billiard, like hangout spot where the coffee shop was, and you had to pay $5 to get from one side of that curtain to the other. So, you can just listen to the band playing for free on this side of the curtain, if you wanted to see them, you pay five bucks. So of course, like every college town, nobody pays the five bucks to go and listen to the band. They just listen to them for free while you’re drinking your coffee, whatever. So, the only person that was in there with the guy that opened for us, his two parents, and the sound guys. And we play for an hour. At one point in time, I’ve been back to the sound guy that I was like, hey man, just open the curtain. Like we’re not, we’re not making any money right now. Open the curtain and at least let us see faces while we do this. He is like, he’s like, yeah, man, I, you know, I can’t, I can’t do that.
I was like, I don’t know how it goes, apparently. And so, we finished the show and after, after the show, he comes up to me, the sound guy, cause the lady that booked us, she’d already tucked tail and left, you know? So, the sound guy that comes up to me straight face, I mean, just all business says, Hey man, here’s your cut of the night. You were going to split it 70, 30, you know? And he goes, here’s your cut of the night. And it was $3 bills. $3 bills. We drove 10 and a half hours from seven Indiana, paid $9 to park, and they gave us $3. And that was one of those times where like, you know what, maybe, maybe I’ve done this for as long as I can do this, you know?
But then, you know, the next day we played at that church, and it was wonderful and the church was full and nobody knew us. The church filled up, you know, and it, it, it was like another moment of, okay, all right, we’ll keep driving this, you know, and then two years to, two years after that, I guess I played Omaha on its feet and the whole arena was full and everybody knew church and sang with me, you know?
And I told them that night, I said, guys, listen, this is the first time that I played in this, I played for the sound guy, and I made $3, so we’re already ahead of the game right now. Of course, the arena takes their side, you know, whatever. So from three, from two people in $3, to 8,000 people, you know? God, let me see the other side of that one.
Sarah Taylor: It was the, it was the opening guy’s parents?
Michael Cochren: Yes. It was a local, some local guitar players parents paid, and they paid, you know, I guess only one of them paid because it was $5 and 70% of that. So.
Sarah Taylor: Oh, I’ve never heard that. I’ve never heard that. Sorry. I’m going to have to sit with that for a little bit. That is character building for sure.
Michael Cochren: Yes, it is. It’s character building. It, because I really think it would’ve been better to make no money. Like for them to just spend like, hey man, you know, nobody came, you didn’t make any money. It’s like, all right, cool. No money. Yeah. $3 bills. Just feel. For some reason it cuts deeper. It’s like more demoralizing because I played for free. I play for free for years. You know, that does it. You know, I was used to that, but this was like, you know, $3.
Sarah Taylor: Let’s talk about some of your recent songs. Your new music that you’re working on, you’re going to get to play it at arenas again. I know you’re going to be in our area in the Pacific Northwest on February 25th. You’re going to be playing with Toby and CAIN and Crowder. I guess you have to have a C in your name to make the bill for this. Congratulations. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your favorite song to play on stage each night because of the crowd’s reaction.
Michael Cochren: You know, in this season of life, One Day is definitely my favorite song to play. Actually, when we went back out for the first time in February of 2021, earlier this year after we’d been shut down, and that first night, I forget what town we were in, but everyone’s got their lights out and everyone starts singing that song. I stood up and I just, I couldn’t get the chorus out.
I’m still emotional just for what that song meant to me. But also, I could see it on their faces, what it meant to them through the pandemic and through the hardship. I mean, we had, we had hospitals that were sending us footage of them playing that song through the hallways when they would release a Covid patient, you know, back home or whatever. I’m so I’m just overcome with gratitude that God would give us those words and that it would touch people. So that’s still my favorite song to play. I look forward to that every night, the moment when we all just sing those words together.
Sarah Taylor: For someone who’s not familiar, one day is a song about the reality that someday there’s not going to be any more sickness. There’s not going to be any more death. Do you want to, I know you’re kind of actually recovering from an illness, so I won’t force you to sing or anything right now with the Air Pods, but do you want to at least just give us the lyrics to that chorus?
Michael Cochren: Yeah, of course I can, the chorus just goes:
Hallelujah, there will be healing. From this heartbreak we’ve been feeling. We’ll sing in the darkest night, ‘Cause we know that the light will come, and there will be healing, hallelujah.
Sarah Taylor: So, one of my favorite things, just about your music and you know this, cause I like always use your songs on my Instagram is there’s so much soul that comes with, with your singing, with your voice. How did you find your sound?
Michael Cochren: Oh gosh. Well, my sound is like a big melting pot, which I think that’s probably true for a lot of people, but my dad like just fed me a steady diet of 60’s, 70’s singer songwriters across all genres. I mean, there was Billy Joel, Jackson Brown, Ray Charles, which was earlier than that, of course. But then he, he was listening to a lot of, you know, even the Commodores, and Lionel Richie and you know, even Sam Cook going back further. And then my mom was always listened to like what they used to call blue lights.
So, you know, where like a Hall and Oates. And my mom listened to like the Delilah Show a lot like that radio program. I love her, all the soft, like love ballads and stuff, you know. And then NSYNC was a big deal for me for whatever reason. Of course, you know, every small town in the Midwest has 57 classic country radio station. So that was thrown into that mix as well. And then my grandparents played nothing but Southern gospel all the time in their home. Bill Gaither homecoming videos. So, I think all of that just submerged. And you know, I really loved NEEDTOBREATHE when I first started writing music, and I think that they were influenced by the same things that I was, you know, the Eagles and all that stuff. And so, I was like, oh, that’s what it can sound like when you, when you put all that together and stir it up, you know? And so, they were a big inspiration for me. And I think that my stuff is just kind of, you know, with like maybe a Motown flair or whatever, on certain songs, and it’s just all of that, that rock and soul and pop and blues, and just all melted together and then poured over the piano keys.
Sarah Taylor: So, what’s next for you? What are you looking forward to in this new year?
Michael Cochren: Well, new music for one thing. I’m always pumped for new music, either writing. We’re about to go back into the studio. We’re going to have a new single coming up soon. And you know, of course the tour, I’m just super jazzed about that because that’s when I get to try out new songs and see how people respond to them. So, I’m hoping that this year means a lot of new music and just a lot of travel. And be in front of people and just sharing the message of hope.
Sarah Taylor: It’s just great. That’s kinda what I was hoping you were saying. I love to hear that you’re writing. I saw like a screenshot the other day. Was it you Matthew West and someone else?
Michael Cochren: Me and Matthew West, and a fantastic producer songwriter, jeff Pardot. He’s, he’s the man behind a lot of big records lately. He’s had a long career. He’s a fantastic musician, but that was really special. I’m really excited for that song and I’m hoping that that is going to be on the new record.
Sarah Taylor: So how do you guys decide, like who takes it? What if you and Matthew both love it?
Michael Cochren: Oh gosh. I think we arm wrestle for it, I think is what we do.
Sarah Taylor: And who would win in that situation?
Michael Cochren: I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe we should keep it, maybe she’s like rock paper scissors so that there’s no like feats of strength. So, so there’s there, you know, it’s less demoralizing if you lose or whatever. Maybe I would win just because I’ve been practicing a lot preparing to beat Matthew West. You know, that’s definitely, my life goals are to beat Matthew West arm wrestling. Every time I go to the gym, that’s what I’m thinking.
Sarah Taylor: I’ll make sure we capture that sound bite to get back to him. As we close, I want to know a little bit about… some people, there’s a, there’s a song writing documentary. I’m curious if you’ve seen it on Amazon. I think it’s called, oh, I forget the title. Something about it starts with a song. Have you seen this?
Michael Cochren: Yeah, I’ve heard of it. I don’t remember what tells either, but I’ve not seen it. I’m so behind on like all documentaries.
Sarah Taylor: I would be so curious to hear your thoughts because it’s just, it’s all it is as singer songwriters talking about their process. And then you see some of the writers behind, you know, what’s that Eric Clapton song changed the world. Like you see the songwriters talk about where that song came from. There were pop writers, a lot of country writers. But I’m always so fascinated at, you know, as not being a musical person, myself, seeing how, I call them little song babies, like, you know, let’s take, for example, take, for example, grave, right? That was not in existence. And then somehow in a room with an instrument and everything that’s inside of you, that song comes forth. And sometimes it’s alone and other times it’s with a group. Is there a way that you can describe, some people said it’s almost like lyrics are downloaded, like you wake up with a lyric or a melody? Sometimes they feel like they’re not even writing it, but it’s just coming from another source. Like, how would you say your process is?
Michael Cochren: It’s a mixture. I mean, I’ve definitely had those moments where, you know, I’ve written a whole song in 15 minutes and it just came easy and it felt, yeah, kind of downloaded, you know. Just like whether, I mean, whether it was from the Lord or just, you know, experiences, whatever. But then there’s other times where I feel like it’s like, I’ll just a little labor. There’s a song that I wrote, it actually ended up being the title of my most recent record that came out earlier this year, it’s called don’t lose hope. And that was one that I wrote myself. This is during quarantine. And that was the song that I just like poured over for like a few weeks to try to get it right. And trying to get those in their tracks. It was like, that would feel very mechanical, like very grinding it out, like in a factory, like you’re making it, you know, by hand and you’re molding it. And so that, like I have songs that are, you know, the idea comes to me when I’m waking up, when I’m in the shower or whatever.
And it feels more like an ah-ha moment versus sometimes I’m really thinking, here’s what I want to say. And now I’ve got to do all these mental gymnastics to figure out the best way to say it. So sometimes my process feels more like whimsical or light and almost like mystical, you know? Other times it feels very like practical and like honing your craft to sitting in a room pen to paper, you know, ripping the page apart, throwing it on the floor and going back at it, you know? Blood, sweat and tears type of stuff. So, it just depends. I think everybody probably can experience that sometimes.
Sarah Taylor: What do you do to find creativity?
Michael Cochren: Oh gosh. I listened to, I listened to all kinds of music constantly. I live in Indiana, so I have about a three-hour drive to Nashville all the time, and I use that to listen to I’ll put them on my playlist, oh, I love this about this song. I want to subconsciously download that into my brain, into my thoughts. It may be an element of that, like pop out. I listened to a lot of like videos of stuff from other songwriters talking like John Mayer. Guys like that. They’re just really great songwriters and some of their processes. And, and then I also, I love listening to sermons or some really wordsmith preachers, you know, that just say state such unique ways. And that has sparked several songs for me. I’m just like, wow, I never would’ve thought to like, say this biblical truth in this way. And maybe I can pull that somehow without infringing upon their intellectual property and write a song about that. You know Matt Chandler is somebody that I, I love listening to that he, I just used to say things in such unique ways. So, I listened to a lot of his services.
Sarah Taylor: Michael Cochran, such a delight to talk with you. Thank you so much. Really looking forward to having you out here in our area to play your songs live, and really looking forward to that new music this next year.
Michael Cochren: Thank you so much for having me. I love it. I love talking with you.
Michael Cochran with Cochran and Co., is on tour with TobyMac and the Hits Deep Tour right now, also featuring Crowder, CAIN, and Terrian. What a tour to be a part of. Our thanks to Matt Ingle for helping us with this interview, to Gotee Records, and of course, to Scott Karow, our fantastic producer from TerraFirma.
My name is Sarah Taylor, and I will see you again in two weeks.
