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Pop music probably comes to mind when you think of Michael W. Smith. Classic songs like "Friends," "Place in This World" and "This Is Your Time" have solidified Michael's place as one of the top artists in Christian music today. Yet, Freedom—an instrumental album—is the record he has always wanted to make. From haunting melodies like "The Giving" and the title track to upbeat offerings like "The Call," Freedom is an intimate and inspiring look at one of Christian music's most loved musicians.

FamilyChristian.com: At last, an instrumental album! How was the process of creating Freedom different from a vocal album?

Michael W. Smith: Well, it took about half the time, that's for sure! I think anytime you're having to write lyrics and do background vocals and all that sort of thing it's so much more time consuming. Doing the instrumental thing, you're really looking for the power of the melody to carry the record.

I will go on record and say it's my favorite thing that I've ever done. I can't wait to do another one.

FamilyChristian.com: I know that you've wanted to do this kind of record for a long time. Did you write these songs specifically for Freedom or had they been floating around for awhile?

Michael: We ended up having 55 songs and this is stuff that was written that I really thought would make the record. Some of them didn't because I got real inspired about doing the record and ended up writing things that were better than what I'd written in the past. It was very difficult to narrow it down. There are a lot of songs sitting around on my computer that didn't make it that I liked but you have to draw the line a little bit.

FamilyChristian.com: You had the opportunity to record portions of the Ireland with the Irish Film Orchestra. Had you been there before?

Michael: I sure love Ireland. The first trip I ever made was last year when I did this record in Dublin. [It's] one of my favorite places I've ever been ever [and I] can't wait to go back.

FamilyChristian.com: Did you take time to see the sights?

Michael: I took about five days. I got to see Dublin for [a few] days and then I went over to Doolin, which is on the west coast. I need to go over there and at least spend a week, if not two weeks, because there's just so much to see. There's just something about it. I think music is a big part of that. There's music everywhere and the people are really nice. And it's green-it's green as green can be. It doesn't matter if it's raining or not, there's a magic with it being overcast. It's very surreal in a way. I can't really put my finger on it but [it's] very inspirational.

FamilyChristian.com: It's been a dream of yours to write movie scores. If Freedom is a soundtrack, what's the movie about?

Freedom by Michael W. Smith

Michael: Well, it's probably just lots of vignettes. To me, I feel like I did score a movie except it was all in my head; it wasn't at the local theater. They're all just little short stories. Obviously, "Carol Ann" is about her life. "Freedom" was written about a [soldier]. The war was over and he was going home. He didn't die; he survived. [It] was inspired by living in Franklin, Tennessee. One of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War happened right in my hometown-the Battle of Franklin. I don't know if I had passed a marker or something or maybe I'd found two or three [Civil War era] bullets in my front yard with a metal detector [but] it just hit me. All the sudden I found myself back in that time and I began to write that melody.

FamilyChristian.com: It's interesting that you mention the Civil War since there has been a lot of discussion lately about urban sprawl taking over historic battlefields. Have you faced that in Franklin?

Michael: I'm actually the chairman of the historical foundation [in Franklin] called the Heritage Foundation in Franklin. We've got a pretty good group of folks, very influential folks, who are really striving to protect those lands and so far we're not having a lot of problems. We're growing too fast. Everybody wants to put up some sort of neighborhood but that's our biggest battle. Nobody's really trying to go on any of the historical land.

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