Interview: Caspar McCloud and Renae Truex
Caspar McCloud and Renae Truex have just released their new album, 'Outstanding In Their Field'. Louder Than The Music chatted to the two talented musicians about this departure from their usual style, as they deliver an exceptional instrumental album comprised of just guitar and violin. Read on for an in depth scientific discussion about the theory behind music tuned to 432 Hz, the supposed 'healing frequency'.
Hi Caspar, you've just released a new album, 'Outstanding In Their Field', with Renae Truex, and this is a bit of a departure from your recent albums. Tell us how this instrumental album came about?
Pastor Caspar: Hi Dave, Considering how chivalry is not dead and how in our Western European etiquette of following the proper rules of conduct in society, we have been taught ladies first, so let's have Renae share her perspective here.
Renae: Initially, we met at a conference and instantly we were placed together to play! What came out was truly a touch from the Lord. Afterward, people came up to us asking if we had any music for purchase. The journey began from there and ever since then, we had planned to do an instrumental record. Yes, it is quite a departure from our other albums. The Lord uses us to create all of this music, therefore expanding ever so further out to the masses of different musical tastes, spreading His light and peace.
PC: Yes, I recall the first time we played together a number of years ago, I was the worship leader as well as one of the speakers for a Hear the Watchmen conference. The organisers
asked if this professional violinist from Nashville could play one song with me. After we played together on that first song, I recall looking at Renae and saying don't get off the stage, play the rest of the set with me. I think we both knew straightaway that the Lord had anointed our worship to Him. When we did finally depart off the stage loads of people rushed up to us asking if we had any album that could get. We told them we just met 45 minutes ago and I recall a number of them thought we were taking the Mickey out of them. We stayed in touch after that, and a few years later as the world shut down in 2020, Renae rang me up to inquire if there was a chance we could record something together as everything in Nashville had pretty much shut down. We soon ended up recording an album and I think we're about 100 songs down the road now with numerous albums and concerts behind us. Renae is my musical twin and we have explored a number of musical adventures together. We had talked about doing an instrumental album a number of times, but in our hearts, we are both such rockers we have really been focusing on our band.
A few months ago we had some tour dates in UK and one of our tour managers asked as a favour to him if we would play at the elderly facility one afternoon when we play up North near Manchester. The chaplain at that facility was an Irishman named Andrew Robinson and one of the most thoughtful and kindest gents we ever met. He is the sort of person you want to be there with you to pray when you are in the last few chapters of your life.
So Renae and I went to play one afternoon for the elderly there, in between all the other places we were scheduled to perform at. My wife Joan, helped us stay organised, and one of our friends Roy took off work for the month just to drive us all over UK to play at various events, as we also ministered in a number of churches. Whilst at the elderly facility we met Joyce who had turned 100 years old and had gotten her letter of congratulations from her late Majesty before Queen Elizabeth passed away.
I told Joyce after we met that when I used to live in Manchester, I was up working on some portrait commission and listening to the BBC on the radio when the announcer informed us of an interview he did with a woman who just turned 100 years old and received her letter from her Majesty. The first thing the announcer asked her was how does it feel to be 100 years old? I will never forget that centurion response as she said, " Well Luv, there's no more peer pressure!" At that moment Joyce burst out laughing and told me it's true Luv. As Renae and I got ready to perform one of our friends told us they were expecting us to play a 90-minute set. Normally that be easy for us, but I think at that moment Renae and I were both wondering what to play for this age group as we simply didn't have 90 minutes of slow gentle songs to play for them. At which point I looked at Renae and said let's improvise some instrumentals. In church, we might say that we were flowing in the Holy Spirit. After we played and sang all our acoustic songs we just started improvising. Afterwards, the people there including the staff and friends visiting were so encouraging to us and asked if we had any albums of what we just performed. Renae looked at me and said I pray you can remember what you just did because we really need to record an album like this, it would bless a lot of people, not just the elderly. Well, that is sort of like remembering everything you said in a conversation at a party. We went on with our tour dates, and at some point a few weeks later instead of heading to London as planned.
I spoke to my friends in Gloucester where I had already ministered the week before Renae was able to join us and felt we were to return there. Before Renae was able to join us in Leeds I got to play some dates with one of my old mates from Manchester, Peter Clarke on Bass and Arthur Bird on drums. It was lovely getting to see them and make music again.
One of my childhood friends John and his wife Sheena came to see us from Bristol and the back cover of the album is a picture John took of Renae and me in Stapleton standing in the doorway at the house where Oliver Cromwell plotted out having a Civil War battle. Most people probably don't realise how wars are planned out in advance. The war we are all in now has inner dimensional proportions, and we know from the Almighty Word of God how it ends.
Anyway, my friends Tim and Bridget belong to one of my favorite churches in UK called Clearspring, where I have been privileged to minister numerous times with my friend Pastor Paul Lyndon Burtwell who is quite a master communicator in Apologetics. He also ministers with the organisation called Reasonable Faith in UK. We are looking at doing some events together in August in America. So felt we should get back to Gloucester as Tim and Bridget were able to help us add an extra event to our diary. I don't think Tim and Bridget could be any kinder if they tried. They have this old Medieval Barn that they refurbished and we had a concert there with a wonderful soundman. Before I shared a message on epigenetics and deliverance we played this acoustic concert and ended up playing some more improvisational instrumentals. The next day Tim and Bridget told us that so many people there had been blessed and some healed and restored that they felt the reason that they went to all that time, energy and expense to refurbish the Tithe Barn was so that we could be there.
Henry VIII once stayed a while in the home where Tim and Bridget now live and as an artist, I was always fascinated by the history of such places. So when we started recording the album I was recalling memories and revisiting the atmosphere of what we experienced there, as being with so many close friends is such a lovely memory.
When I brought our engineer Mix Mike into the seasons he was quite moved by the music and obviously, it was quite different than what he was used to hearing from us, as I think we have done 5 or 6 rocking albums with him at Outlawsound Studios. When I told Mix Mike how quickly Renae and I were able to record this album, he told me that he had some investors who be interested if we could we do a sequel.
The music is tuned to 432 Hz, the so-called 'healing frequency', for those who aren't familiar with this concept can you explain what that means, and why you wanted to record it in this way?
PC: First let me say, that "All", frequencies belong to the Lord.
That said, I have often gotten to minister and lecture at prophecy conferences with some amazing physicians and researchers, like Dr. Carrie Madej, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny Dr. Lee Merritt, Dr. Mike Spaulding and Derek Gilbert, we actually co-wrote a book with a few other friends called Solutions For The End Times which went to #1 on Amazon whilst we were back in UK. So over the years, this idea of frequencies came up a number of times and I was more than a wee bit of a healthy skeptical about it. Our last album was called Higher Frequencies as you know because I became intrigued by the idea. For example; what is it about some rock music that makes you want to dance? I mean why does some music make it feel almost impossible for some of us to stand still? For them, we need to start dancing right there inside their car listening to certain songs.
There has been a lot of research revealing that music created in the frequency of 432 Hz helps make us feel relaxed?
Certain songs can make us feel so emotional they can bring us to tears whilst others get us so exhilarated and inspired we want to go to the gym and do a workout with Renae. Believe me not many can keep up with her workout routines. In fact, Renae mentioned to me recently how she was listening to some of our newest recordings with our band and how much the new music helped her get through an exercise routine. Because we are here to pump you up!
I can attest to this as well, as I have been listening to our newest mixes for our next project which by the way is called Immortality and truly working out at the gym goes much quicker and easier whilst listening to such music, even if it is ours. And we did it our way.
So here is the thing, actual Science, not modern-day Faucitis science shows us that frequencies can affect internal functions like blood pressure and heart rate, the 432 Hz can also help reduce anxiety, and even help with digestion and help relieve pain symptoms.
I also think probably that most people don't consider or think much about what is music made of? Or how it does what it does.
Considering that All sound is made by vibrations. Because sound is what is heard and processed when sound waves which are vibrations pass through your ears. Scientists will sort out ways to measure sound which is done in frequencies that are called Hertz.
So the way you feel when you listen to things like music obviously affects your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. They way your brain responds when you listen, depends on numerous things including the combination of sound frequencies in the composition you are listening to. This is called the frequency response in science.
If I could simplify this, in theory listening to music in 432 Hz is reported to make for a rather improved listening experience. For one reason, there was a German physicist, Winfried Otto Schumann, documented what is now called the Schumann Resonance back in 1952, which was him basically claiming that the earth had a heartbeat of sorts and that its heartbeat, if you can call it that was beating to the 432 Hz.
Schumann claimed that global electromagnetic resonances exist within the cavity between the Earth’s surface and the inner edge of the ionosphere.
From that analysis he was able to determine that the frequency of these electromagnetic waves is very low, ranging from 7.83 Hz to 8 Hz. What I find fascinating whilst we are there, is just as a couple of gents, Barry Centerfield and Trevor Norman collected all the original data they could find over the last 400 years where Scientists did experiments with assorted methods to find the speed of light. After all the information they collected with all these statistics they came to the conclusion that the speed of light has been slowing down. It hasn't been proven as far as I know, but it's interesting to contemplate, as it is to consider this planet earth once used to resonate at a steady average of 7.83 Hz, but in the last few years scientists are thinking they are seeing our earth shifting towards an average of 8 Hz. Is the speed of light slowing down as the speed of sound is speeding up?
So what's 432 Hz got to do with the Schumann Resonance of 7.83 - 8 Hz? I am glad you asked that question Dave even if you didn't. Musically speaking, the two appear to clearly resonate with each other.
Back in 1713, there was a French physicist named Joseph Sauveur who brought forth the notion that instead of tuning music at 440 Hz or other variations, he observed that by placing middle C at 256 Hz, you could create a system where each octave of C lands on an even integer (whole number), instead of containing awkward decimals. Who wants to be awkward? Because Sauveur thought tuning instruments to 432 sounded more pleasant than tuning to 440.
There is now this whole debate about how the Rockefellers and Nazis wanted the world to tune to 440 for nefarious purposes. Most of those theories on them centre on the belief that the 440 Hz frequency was deliberately adopted by governments and regimes as a way to manipulate and control the masses.
Researchers discovered back in 1885, the Music Commission of the Italian Government proclaimed that all musical instruments and all orchestras should use a tuning fork that vibrated at 440 Hz, which was a wee bit radical from the 435 Hz most people tuned to back then and how the French were already using 432 Hz. I would like to research who was making the most profit from this as you follow the money trail knowing there was an agenda, as there is today.
Nevertheless, when you tune an instrument to 432 Hz, you get a C note at 256 Hz, which, due to the sympathetic resonance of the note overtones, will produce another C at exactly 8 Hz.
Yeah, 8 Hz is in the upper echelon of the Theta brainwave state. I wrote about brainwaves years ago in my book What Was I Thinking? Theta just happens to be the brainwave place that gives us a feeling of being relaxed, which opens us to more intuitive learning and other stuff. 432 Hz and 8 Hz are intrinsically linked if you resonate with the idea it be optimal to play music in alignment with the earth.
It appears that prolonged exposure to certain frequencies can bless or curse us in the physical realm. Over the last few years, we have been warned and forewarned about frequencies and adverse effects from mobile phones, microwaves and those sinister 5G towers. Is it possible the kingdom of darkness is using such frequency devices to inflict suffering on the masses, as the psychopathic, depopulationist, globalist/transhumanist meet in Davos Switzerland. They talk openly about their plans and agendas to bring a one-world government. The Pope announced the one world religion last year. I pray some of you reading this understand how close we may be to the return of Christ.
Besides their injection deceptions and worldwide Geo-engineering is it really any wonder that any of those nefarious devices have been found to be emitting artificial electromagnetic radiation, along with their artificial intelligence, fallen angel technologies which have been linked to diseases like cancer, depression, insomnia, and miscarriages. Lest anyone misunderstand the agendas of the WEF and Gates of Hell Foundation, which are like annoying frequencies from those car alarms that go off, but I digress.
We all have to deal with frequencies, quite frequently.
On this new album we pray you are not only comforted listening to our music but that it brings you healing and restoration too in the almighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Messiah Yeshua.
By the way the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, and numerous other musicians, like Mozart, all tuned their music to the 432 frequency because they were somehow convinced that it employed those “feel glad all over vibrations” that resonated with their audiences. I'm feeling glad all over just thinking about it. Renae did I ever mention how those Stradivarius violins, built in the late 1700s were tuned at 432 Hz?
The titles of these tracks are pretty intriguing - what inspired those titles?
Renae: Our recent tour throughout England inspired these titles. The wondrous countryside, the architecture, many structures and streets of old, telling their stories of their past and the history of England. What magnificent beauty. I truly felt at home.
PC: Actually most all the titles of the songs were inspired by being there with our friends in Gloucester, especially staying with our friends Tim and Bridget where you can see the famous Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake behind their home. This is really quite a mad yearly event where participants race full on down the 200-yard long hill chasing a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. I can't hardly wait to try, I am being facetious of course, however, come to think of it Renae probably could actually win that event. She's seriously like the Emma Peel of Nashville. I come down for breakfast with our group and I'm thinking Renae must be sleeping in and soon she comes rushing in through the front door telling us how she just ran 10 miles and got up at 6 AM.
Anyway, all the songs have a connection to staying there as Tim and Bridget have this charming ancient doorway to their home. Hence the opening track.
Bridget is also a gifted writer as is Tim a gifted historian. Bridget shared a story she wrote about what she imagined it be like to be a Catholic priest hiding out in a secret passageway as the priest hunter's acting on behalf of the British government, spied on and captured Catholic priests during Penal Times that were during the Elizabethan era in the 1500's. I am guessing those priest hunter's didn't read what the Lord Jesus said like in places like Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
If I recall correctly some parts of Tim and Bridget's home date back to the 1300's. So that was some of the inspiration for the compositions. Tales of the Priory and In The Kings Prayer Room are some of my favorite tracks as it really gives me that feeling of walking about their property with all the ancient pathways. I suppose because there is such a sense of peace there as they've had loads of prayer meetings there over the last number of years.
In The Kings Prayer Room, you can still see King Henry's royal emblem that was painted on his wall. I don't get the impression Henry understood much about the Gospel from the life he lived. That is the only track on the entire album where my guitar took off in flight of melodic solos as I was trying not to fall into playing a lot of fast solos as I do with our band. I suppose which is why Renae started calling me Sir. Shredalot.
The Ancient Doorway
On the Shores of Gloucester
Tales Of the Priory.
Brockworth Court
Inside The Court Tythe Barn
In The Kings Prayer Room
Timeless World
I understand that the two of you recorded this album in a pretty short space of time?
Renae: Yes we did! It was like we had all of this beautiful music pent up inside. We had been wanting to do an instrumental record for a while. Even a few times we had a song or two that we had originally thought would be an instrumental only for it to turn into a full band piece.
PC: My wife Joan and many of our closest friends seem quite amazed how easily Renae and I can invent some new music on the spot.
One of my mentor's Phil Keaggy showed me Psalm 33:3," Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise." Before I was a Christian and the Lord used that verse to help draw me into salvation as I got to wondering what that all meant.
I think you get to a place after years of practise and study where you can have a conversation through your instrument and that is really what we often do together and with our band.
Were you not tempted to introduce some additional musicians into the mix? Add some percussion or keyboards for example?
Renae: We didn’t feel the need for any extra added instruments for this album. It is calm and serene. We only heard a violin and an acoustic guitar. To have added anything else would’ve been too much. It is indeed quite a departure from the rocked-out sound we usually produce. Caspar is such a beautiful player. It is awesome to hear him rock out but it is also wonderful listening to him in this element.
PC: Renae is obviously a beautiful player too, and somewhat of a Nashville legend. We pretty much can play all the same things on our instruments, so it makes it quite easy to perform together, although I pick and she grins.
Actually I studied classical guitar for a long time since I was young and it clearly opened up possibilities on my electric guitar that I may not have discovered otherwise. For years after I left the major label, I was playing in a rock trio and seems that on my early recordings I had a tendency to be exploring what else we could do with just guitar, vocals, bass and drums. Once Renae and I started teaming up we started exploring what all we could do together with guitar and violin and our voices, and expand our musical horizons. Whether we are playing in our band or just as a acoustic duo we seem to be able to inspire each other musically to go into unknown territories. Because the truth is out there.
Plus Renae is one of the most optimistic people I have ever known, and her energy is such a blessing for everyone who knows her or has come to one of our concerts.
I agree we didn't need to add any other instruments as we were quite pleased with the results of just guitar and violin. Although I suppose there's always room for cello..... Renae can play cello too.
Do you see this as a one-off project, or might we see another instrumental album from you in the future?
Renae: I can clearly see us doing another instrumental record at some point. The Lord will let us know when. Then we will set up a few mics and go to it!
PC: I'm already starting to compose some more compositions for us to do Volume 2. I think we need some cello next time.
Talking of other musicians, can we expect the full McCloud Band experience again soon?
Yes, you can! We are so excited for what is in store for us. It’s going to be a crazily blessed time!
PC: Well actually we have been in the studio mixing our next band album with our Bassist Kenneth Bentley and drummer Carlos Merced.
As mention earlier the next album will be called Immortally, and our engineers at Outlawsound Studio Mix Mike and Mark have told us this next album is some of the best music and performances we have ever recorded. So we are quite keen on what is happening next on this musical adventure, but for now, we pray you enjoy relaxing to the sound of Outstanding In Their Field and pray against the globalist take over.
2 Timothy 4:18 - And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
