print: Men Of Standard - Interview (September 2006) | BlackGospel.com, Your Music Ministry Source!

Interview with Men Of Standard
September 2006, BlackGospel.com by Christopher Heron

It’s always inspiring to watch individuals with strength, character and ‘standards’ endure pitfalls, hardships and setbacks, only to go on and taste from the well of success. One could easily draw such inspiration and insight from the lives and testimonies of a few good men on a mission known as Men Of Standard.

Collectively, Isaac Carree, Lowell Pye and Bryan Pierce have dedicated ten youthful years and five first-class albums to ministry as one of Gospel music’s best-known recording groups. But these obvious accomplishments only tell a small part of their fascinating tale that have taken them from obscurity to notoriety, from the shadows to the forefront and from their step-child to first sons’ status.

It’s a fascinating journey that has included dwelling (in the early days) in the shadows of their contemporaries (Commissioned, The Winans), coping with a bitter business divorce with their former record label and enduring the departure of one of their original members (Michael Bacon). Yet, ten years later and five albums richer, Men Of Standard are producing better music than ever before.

In fact, with the release of Surrounded (Columbia/Sony), Men Of Standard have officially arrived as one of the preeminent recording groups today. It just goes to show that the race is not given to the swift nor to the strong but to the one who endures to the end. Just ask Men Of Standard. BlackGospel.com spoke with these courageous ministers, who grew up before our eyes and learned the hard and heavy lessons in life that would purge and prepare them for a much higher calling than they even imagined.

Christopher Heron: Let’s take it back 10 years ago to your debut project - Men of Standard. You were an instant success coming right out the block. For most Gospel listeners, it was the introduction to Men Of Standard, back in 1996. Tell us what were the dynamics that brought you guys – (Isaac Carree, Lowell Pye, Bryan Pierce, and Michael Bacon) together? Back then, groups like The Winans and Commissioned were still fresh in the minds and hearts of Gospel listeners across the country. How much of an influence did those artists have on your ministry?

MOS – Isaac Carree: Well the mindset back in ’96 was just to start a group that could offer something different than The Winans or Commissioned, although they were our mentors and paved the way for us, as far as contemporary male Gospel groups. We were still compared with those groups but our mind set was, “What can we do that’s different and fresh?”

What we wanted to do was mix a little old school with new school. Commissioned never did what the Winans did and the Winans never did what Commissioned did, since they were a little more contemporary and the Winans were a little more traditional. What we did was mix the two (traditional & contemporary) together and offer genuine, authentic, traditional and contemporary male vocals. We married the two together and that’s what you get from Men of Standard.

We grew up listening to The Winans and Commissioned, so we give them all the credit. But when Commissioned and The Winans decided to go on with their independent ministries, it left the market wide open for us. I think our Gospel footprints are kind of etched in stone now.

CH: Both Isaac and Lowell sang with (Rev. John P. Kee’s) New Life Singers back in the day. What valuable artistic and professional lessons did you take with you from that experience and bring to MOS?

MOS – Lowell Pye: One of the things we learned was how to treat people with honesty. We also learned what to do and what not to do with the people who work for you because when people are very diligent and faithful to you. You have to be kind to them. We learned that from John [P. Kee].

Another thing was just how to develop as an artist, as far as demanding attention while onstage, keeping their attention. Anybody who knows John knows he can keep your attention for 2-3 hours. So we learned from him how to have fun onstage and how to keep the audience’s attention and I think that we do that pretty good.

CH: Not too many recording groups are successful and dedicated enough to last five albums and ten years together. What are some of the factors that have allowed MOS to endure?

MOS – Bryan Pierce: First and foremost I believe it had to be God because groups just don’t stay together for ten years. We really respect each other like brothers. Of course we’re going to fall out. We’ve had it out before but we respect and genuinely love each other.   We respect the fact that we’re all different. We’re unique but when we all come together, we bring what God has placed in us that actually forms this MOS sound, blend, ministry that people love, crave, and actually need in this day and time.

One of the things that has kept us together other than God is that whenever you’re working with other individuals, you must have respect. And not just respect of each other but of each other’s gift, each other’s anointing.   Don’t disrespect what God has placed in somebody else because it may not be for you but it might be for somebody that’s listening to the CD or somebody that comes to the concert.

I know that for some groups, it’s just business. They only get together when they’re onstage or when you see them performing but with MOS, you’ll see us eating together, shopping together, just hanging out together. All of that has a lot to do with it.

CH: You mentioned that you are very different people, very unique people, and it is quite remarkable when you consider you from different regions of the country like Louisiana, Detroit and North Carolina.   Are your hometown traits evident in the group? Is the Louisianan a lover of gumbo? Is the Detroiter into pinstripe suits and gators?

MOS – IC: (Laughs) Good question, we’ve never had that question before. I’m from NC, Lowell is from Detroit and Bryan is from New Orleans. When we first started the group up until two years ago, Bryan was rocking a gold tooth!!! And we were trying to tell him, “Dude, don’t nobody wear gold no more.”   Gold went out in 81’ and so now he’s back to normal. Lowell, doesn’t wear gators. I’m from NC, but you would think I’m from L.A. or NYC because I’m all bourgie. We’re just all different but we all love the same things.

We also understand that when it comes to fashion, we’re original. Sometimes, Bryan tries to wear what I wear (LOL!!!!) We all have our own style but we all like many of the same things. In terms of personalities, we’re similar because we’ve been together so long. We three were together before the group formed. I knew Bryan in ‘94 doing Christian plays and Lowell and I were in John P. Kee’s New Life Singers together as well. We think the same things are funny, we laugh at the same things. It’s almost like we grew up together.

CH: There was a dark season for MOS a few years back that involved your former label concerning royalties. Now, without getting too much into it, in retrospect, do you think those were issues or lessons you experienced because you were young artists or are those just issues that are common between recording artists and labels?

MOS – IC: I think it’s both. I think we were young and we kind of put ourselves in that bad situation by not being educated on the business side of things. Had we been more educated, it would have prevented us from having to deal with the legal dispute. But that experience is still a part of the industry. And my thing is this. Being young still did not give the label the right to take advantage of us. So I think being young and the label’s experience both played hand in hand. That’s why we take responsibility for what happened but the label has to take a certain level of responsibility as well.

And with that we encourage all artists to ensure they have good legal representation and take the time to understand their contracts. Don’t leave it to your attorney to make decisions for you and you don’t understand what’s going on because at the end of the day, the attorney can make some decision about that contract which leaves them unaffected because it’s not their career.

The artists need to be able to break it down. Where we may not understand all the lingo, break it down to us in laymen terms, even if that means Ebonics. Our experience was a learning experience and it really helped us in our next situation. When we signed with Sony, we took a longer time to close this deal because we were very careful about making sure that everything was fair.

CH: Men Of Standard has always involved remarkable talents in the creativity of the project, whether in the writing or more particularly in the production. What has usually been the process in bringing personalities like Donald Lawrence, J. Moss and, most recently, Warren Campbell to the table? And what was the motivation for using Warren Campbell as your producer for Surrounded with special guest performances by Kirk Franklin and Tye Tribbett?

MOS – LP: Donald Lawrence kind of molded the sound of Men Of Standard in the beginning. We were free and really trusting in him, which was crucial at that time. With J. Moss, we all became friends and we really thought at that particular time that J. Moss would pull some things out of us that we didn’t do on the first album.

When we did the third album, we thought we were all grown up and we wanted to venture out and produce ourselves. In the fourth album, we thought Noel Hall would be great for the project. By then, we really started to grow as writers and producers. We also wanted to get more involved behind the scenes instead of just as singers. And so, we asked for Warryn Campbell’s help who me and Isaac had worked with before. We just felt it was time because he is such a great talent. I don’t think people understand just how talented and gifted he really is. Warryn plays every instrument and his creativity is just unbelievable. It was a great creative marriage and friendship between Warryn and us. So, I think it resulted in a great album.

We’re going to produce and write all of our future albums. God’s been great to us. He’s allowed us to meet great people who cared about us. I was telling people the other day, “You have to surround yourself with people who care about you and your ministry, not just people who see dollar signs, people who are able to tell you when things are wrong.” That’s what we did. We have been gracious and kind and God has been kind to us, letting us develop friendships with people in the music industry. We’ve been friends for years with Tye Tribbett.

MOS – IC: We worked with Kirk Franklin years back on the track, Something About the Name, Jesus, off The NuNation Project. From then, it’s been overwhelming how people have taken a liking to Men Of Standard and saw something in us. It’s something really special when people notice something special enough that they want to pour back into your ministry. We don’t take that lightly because there are so many artists out there, so many great singers out there.

That keeps us asking God, “What is it about us that makes you keep doing this for us?” It’s just the favor of God and we don’t take it lightly. We just got off a tour with Kirk Franklin a few months ago, we’ve toured with Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams. It’s amazing how God continues to show Himself and give us favor. It’s been ten years but it feels like the beginning, so we’re grateful to God for that.

CH: I have one final question. It has been ten years, which is a lot of time to learn about ministry and you as artists and individuals. What are the most valuable lessons that you have learned through this journey?

MOS – BP: One of the main lessons we’ve learned collectively as a group is to pick and choose our battles. Some things are worth fighting for and some things you just need to turn it over to God and leave it there. Personally, I’ve learned that everything happens in God’s season, in God’s timing and sometimes what we think is significant is not necessarily important when you compare it to the vision God called you to. So you’ve really got to be in sync. And this can work corporately also.

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You have to understand what is really important is the purpose God called you for. Even if you stray away from it, God will still find a way to fulfill it, whatever the vision He put in you to fulfill. A lot of times, we, as artists, get caught up in whatever is out there. And a lot of times, whatever is out there is cool to man but it may take you out of your mission and if it takes you off your mission, then you still won’t receive the success you really need because true success is really being obedient. Pastor Marvin Winans said that success is really about obedience to God. It is not how many accolades you receive, it is not how many awards you receive or how many albums you sell, but true success is obedience to God.

So we’ve learned as a group not to get caught up and it takes some growing, it takes some maturing, it takes some time, because its easy to get caught up in what’s going on with new trends or whatever is happening. But make sure that you are being true to your calling, obedient to what God called you to do as a group or even as an individual. We’ve learned how to really just be obedient to what God wants for Men Of Standard.

For more information on Men Of Standard, visit their official website at www.menofstandardmusic.com. To contact Men Of Standard for performances or special engagements, email them at mosministries@yahoo.com or call 770-837-2611.