Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Tommee Profitt

Acclaimed composer, producer, recording artist, and songwriter Tommee Profitt is bringing the holiday cheer with The Birth of a King. Retelling the origin story of Christmas, The Birth of a King is an epic cinematic listening experience that features artists including Avril Lavigne, Stanaj, We the Kingdom, Clark Beckham and more.

The album has been fifteen years in the making, but, as the saying goes, the best things in life are worth waiting for.

We caught up with Tommee to chat about his career, The Birth of a King, and how it finally came to fruition.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Tommee: When I was seven years old, my parents bought me this super small keyboard, and I instantly became obsessed with it. I played it all day long. I started listening to songs on the TV and I tried to play them by ear. I basically ended up on their computer with headphones on all day in our basement, producing music and being in my own little world. I’ve been doing that for twenty-five years now.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Tommee: It was probably through my work with NF. He’s one of my best friends from Michigan, and we started working together. The work that we did ended up getting him signed, and he brought me along as a writer and producer. I feel like that opened up so many doors, including the opportunity to pitch music for TV and movies, which is something I was extremely passionate about, but I had no clue how to get into that world. Through signing a publishing deal with Capitol and starting to work with NF as his career was growing, a bunch of doors opened for producing and music in general.

PC: You’ve produced and written for a lot of different artists. How have those experiences prepared you for this chapter in your career?
Tommee: I genuinely love collaborating with everybody. I’m very grateful to be able to do music. It’s awesome to have this community. I haven’t had a bad experience with a musician or an artist; everyone’s just pumped about getting to do music. It’s been awesome.

I like when I work with an artist that pushes me to be better, to grow, to learn, and to reach some level based on pressure. If we did what we were comfortable doing, we wouldn’t grow or get better. Working with all kinds of different types of artists has helped push me to grow and learn things that otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have.

PC: You’ve had tremendous success throughout the years. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Tommee: Man, I don’t know. The thing that I’m probably most thankful for is the work with NF because we built this thing together from the ground up. We developed his sound, we watched him get a number one album, and then a number one song on Top 40 radio. Then, the next album went number one. When it’s happening to your best friend that you’ve worked with, that’s special.

PC: You’ve got a new album out now. Tell us about The Birth of a King and the inspiration behind it.
Tommee: I’ve wanted to make a big Christmas album for fifteen years, ever since I was in college and I had this class assignment. The assignment was to rearrange an old Christmas song, which I did for the assignment. I loved it so much. I was like, “Man, one day I want to do a whole album just revisiting all the classic Christmas carols.” I wanted it to be a concept record.

The Birth of a King is about the traditional reason we celebrate Christmas. That story is so epic: a king being born to save the world. That’s the most epic synopsis you could ever read. I wanted to make an epic Lord of the Rings-style soundtrack to go along with the story. So, that’s what The Birth of a King is—it’s an epic soundtrack using all of those old Christmas songs, hopefully doing something new and fresh with them to breathe a new life into them.

PC: There are some terrific collaborations on the album. When you were working on the album, did you have certain artists in mind? What was that process like?
Tommee: I didn’t have any artists in mind when I started each song. As I developed each song and arrangement, I started figuring out what I was going to do with it. For every single song, one artist popped in mind. It was all about their voice and their ability, not their name recognition. As I heard these tracks and as I started building, I basically studied that artist’s range and put the song in a key that would be good for them. I tailored it lightly to their style, but still kept with what I do.

Then, I finished the whole thing with them in mind before I even asked them. No one knew I was making this album. I knew who I hoped would sing on every song, and then I sent out requests. Thankfully, every artist said yes and was excited to be a part of it.

It was fun. There was such an eclectic group of artists with different backgrounds all coming together to make a super epic Christmas album. It was really cool.

PC: If you had to pick one song off the album that best encompasses who you are as an artist, which would it be and why?
Tommee: Oh man, that’s the hardest question because all of the songs are really special to me. There’s a lot of variety on the album, too. There are some dark, epic moments, but then there are beautiful, pretty, quiet moments. It’s all me. Piano and strings are my favorite things.

But, I would say the song “Noel” featuring Stanaj is probably one of my favorites. It kind of encompasses the whole record. It tells the story of what you’re going to get all in one song. It’s super big with a very dynamic, amazing performance by Stanaj and a big choir. It feels like a big movie. It feels very Christmassy. It feels like a song that could be very accessible around the world as a new Christmas song. So, I’d probably have to say that one and maybe “O Holy Night”.

PC: This album has been fifteen years in the making. What has it meant to you to have it finally come out? What’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
Tommee: It was so much fun to watch the dream that I had for fifteen years take shape and come to life, actually seeing it happen as all the artists came on and as the tracks were built. It feels really amazing. It also leaves me wondering what I’m going to do next because there’s nothing else like it. This was a lifelong work that I’ve always wanted to do, so this one’s extra special to me.

Honestly, I didn’t really know what the Christmas album was going to be when I started it. It changed a bunch of times over the years. Even though I wanted to do a big Christmas record, I didn’t know what it would be. At one point, it was going to be an instrumental album. I thought there were going to be a lot of instrumental tracks on it. As I started recording a couple of artists, it changed the whole thing. I saw how dynamic it got as I went and recorded people. I kept going in that direction and got different artists for every song.

I genuinely feel very content and happy with how it turned out. I feel like it ended up being the exact album that it was supposed to be. If I would’ve tried making this album one year earlier, I don’t think it would have been the same album. I’m glad I waited until 2020, of all years.

To keep up with Tommee, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify. Pick up or stream The Birth of a King today.

Photo Credit: Nolan Knight