Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, musician and producer Tenroc may not be a household name just yet, but with his debut album on the way, it’s only a matter of time.
The NYC artist knew how to play the piano, drums and guitar by the time he was 7 years old before getting into production in his teens and his since gone on to work some of the biggest names in the business, from Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers to Jon Batiste, Julia Michaels, Renee Rapp and Jon Bellion. Over the past five years, his work has already amassed more than 3.6 billion streams and counting, and with the release of his first album, God Is A Person, releasing on July 17, he’s just getting started. After releasing its first two singles, “PLAYLIST” and “mourning 2 dancing” featuring Tori Kelly and Jon Keith, Tenroc released the third single, “call My name (YHWH),” last month. Driven by Tenroc’s silky falsetto, the song is a reflection on faith, devotion and unconditional love from a higher place. We had the pleasure of chatting with Tenroc all about the track in the interview below.
Sweety High: What was the inspiration behind ‘call My name (YHWH)’?
Tenrock: The inspiration behind “call My name” was that I wanted to make something that was reminiscent of Phil Collins. I like the idea of songs that are ballads but are still danceable—a ballad you can dance to. Sonically, it was just to make something that kind of had that Phil Collins-esque pop thing.
SH: What does the track mean to you and what do you hope it will mean to your listeners?
Tenroc: This track is lyrically really interesting because I feel like there’s a multitude of songs that exist where people are sharing their faith in a way that is from them perspective-wise. I wanted to make it so that when people listen to this song, they hear how God feels about them directly. And so the entire song is written from the perspective of Jesus. It’s written from the perspective of God.
(Photo credit: Cedric Jones Photography)
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SH: What’s your favorite lyric from the song and why?
Tenroc: I love in verse two there’s a lyric that goes, “Child, from the day I called you mine it was easy to be loving you blind. Your smile is a lot like mine cuz I made you in my image, just right.” And so that’s God speaking to us as his creation. You know when people have children, oftentimes their children look like them. If a person has 10 children, you can find characteristics in those children of their parents. So the fact that God created all of us, he can sing that to seven billion people and still find something of himself in us because he made us in his image.
SH: What can you tell us about your upcoming debut album? Where does the new song fit into its wider narrative?
Tenroc: It has a large variety of genres on it and I think that no matter what style of music you’re into, you can find something on there that you love.
It fits into the narrative of the entire album because I feel like it is really good at displaying God’s personhood in that he has a will and desires for his children and and he feels a certain way about us.
(Photo credit: Cedric Jones Photography)
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SH: What does it mean to you to be gearing up to release your debut album?
Tenroc: incredible. It It means the world to me that God would command me to do so at this point in my life. It feels like this point in my life is just there’s a lot of new things happening. I’m about to become a father and so it feels like everything is changing all at once and it’s really refreshing.
SH: Why do you now feel like it’s the right time to release your first album now? How has your artistry evolved since you first started making music?
Tenroc: I feel like I have enough outside work under my belt that I know how to put an album together in general. I am working with so many artists, and seeing their artistry and the way that they approach their ideas and thoughts and how to get their message out. It’s helped me sort of take a blueprint from them and now I just know how to do it with my own ideas and my own ideologies.
SH: Is there anything else we should know about you or the track right now?
Tenroc: Well, I think that something that’s fun is that I’m really really inspired by the music of the ’80s, and so if that resonates with anybody there’s a lot more of that to come on the record, as well as the next single that’s coming.
The next single is my favorite song off of the record and it is the result of me trying to make a Bruce Springsteen song mixed with Charlie Puth. Those are the two influences for the song.
For even more insights from the artists who inspire us, click HERE to read our interview with Kevian Kraemer on his new EP, only if it matters.
