John Mark McMillan chases success back home as his Mercury & Lightning tour comes to Charlotte

Fifteen years ago, when he was in his early 20s, Charlotte-based singer-songwriter John Mark McMillan wrote a song following the death of a friend that became a Christian contemporary smash. It’s become so adored and familiar it’s now sung at worship services.

The song, “How He Loves,” has been covered by everyone from the David Crowder Band (whose version was nominated for a Dove Award) to Christian crossover Flyleaf to a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” but McMillan has had a lot more to offer than hits over the course of six albums.

He’s grown as a writer and arranger, challenging himself and the perimeters of what’s sonically considered contemporary Christian music and drawing on the personal to translate the universal.

On his latest album, “Mercury & Lightning” – which brings him to Neighborhood Theatre Saturday – he ruminates on the chase for success, his own anxiety, current culture, and how it all relates.

“As an adult, I see the world differently than I did when I was younger. There was a lot of black and white. It’s a little blurrier when you’re older. The older I get, I realize things are more nuanced than I probably even know now,” he explains. “I had a lot of opinions, but strong opinions make for really good music. Nuance is hard. When you see both sides of a story, it makes it more difficult.”

McMillan’s albums have shifted between heady Radiohead-style rock and orchestral folk. But on “Mercury & Lightning,” his influences gel to create a complete picture that’s structured with layers of subtle fills and curious sounds that help create something unique.

“I was listening to a lot of Bob Marley and Prince. I don’t know that you hear any of that on the record, but I wasn’t listening to a ton of rock music as I have in the past. I was listening to ’80s and ’90s R&B,” says McMillan, adding that the Springsteen influence is always apparent.

He was also influenced by recording in Portland, Ore.

“Creativity often stems from the place. The people there are creative in a different way than in the Southeast. The Southeast is the birthplace of rock n’ roll, jazz, blues. Out there, it’s a little more modern as people try new things,” he says. “You get influences from different groups of people who settled there, I guess. You draw on the people you’re around.”

It wasn’t a solely Pacific Northwest affair, though. McMillan sent tracks to musicians he calls his “vibe team” in North Carolina and Indiana. They added strings, percussion and McMillan’s favorite embellishment: guzheng, a Chinese plucked string instrument that brings an Asian feel to some tracks.

The musical arrangements reflect the idea he broaches in his lyrics. For the song “Gods of American Success,” he created a horn-fueled rave-up.

“I wanted it to sound excessive,” he says. “We had this saxophone player come in and play these ridiculous runs. We were looking for something obnoxious.”

“Mercury & Lightning” is so layered, in fact, that listening to it on earbuds doesn’t really do it justice.

“There’s not a lot of sonic space the way music is compressed. It eliminates the opportunity to hear nuance,” he says. “That was a challenge to get all the nuance to translate.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 3:55 PM with the headline "John Mark McMillan chases success back home as his Mercury & Lightning tour comes to Charlotte."