Kevin Quinn – Real Me | 365 Days Of Inspiring Media

Capitol CMG

Release Date: January 19th 2024

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Kevin Quinn– Real Me (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

Real Me
Learning To Let Go
Blessed
Rise Above
I’m Not There Yet
Way Up
Give You Up

One of the recent signings to Capitol CMG, actor/Disney Channel star/singer-songwriter Kevin Quinn just released his debut CCM radio single ‘Wildfire’. To be honest, I don’t really know much about him. Aside from the fact that he’s an actor who starred in the Disney Channel TV series Bunk’d, had a supporting role in the 2016 remake of Adventures In Babysitting, as well as co-starring opposite Bailee Madison in the Netflix Christian drama movie A Week Away, Kevin’s basically been under the radar over the last few years. Maybe, the release of ‘Wildfire’, is here to change all of that.

There’s nothing much to say about this song aside from the fact, that anyone who loves pop music with an inspirational edge, will enjoy this track. The song itself has a sense of a universal pop-flair to it- it can be enjoyed by almost anyone: people of faith, or even people of no faith. To be brutally honest, this song doesn’t really excite me that much when it comes to the future of CCM-pop, because anyone who wants to create inspirational-pop can. To be very blunt, it’s very hard to distinguish CCM (at least the CCM played on K-Love that is not worship music) compared to the ‘inspirational’ pop in the mainstream, and that assessment doesn’t spell much hope for CCM in general. Now I love CCM- if you’ve been around the website long enough over the last 5, 6, 7 years, then you’d know. But there’s an unfortunate statement that I recently heard about CCM in general, that Jeremy Camp mentioned around a month ago, during his discussion with Skillet frontman John Cooper and ZoeGirl vocalist-turned-apologist Alisa Childers. And this statement made me very sad- ‘…there isn’t [any accountability or spiritual requirement for someone to get signed into CCM]. And I think that’s one of the problems, is that there’s an assumption because you sing a song about Jesus, that your heart is there. And of course, let me just say this. We all know Isaiah 29, and then Jesus actually repeats it in Matthew 15, when He says, ‘the people, they praise me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’. So, there can be an appearance of ‘yeah, they must know the Lord, they must be fine’, but their hearts are far from Him. Or you don’t know actually what they believe, and so I think that…I don’t know how to remedy that. I could tell you some thoughts, but that’s not really the question. No, there’s not a spiritual requirement, and so what happens is you put people on a platform once again, that are put into position where they have an authority, almost on who Jesus is, or how to walk a Christian life, that may not even have a clue what they really believe, and so that actually starts coming out later…’

It is in this quote that I realise that I don’t really know what Kevin Quinn actually believes. Or if he’s actually professed publically that he’s a Christian, following Christ, and wants to live his life for Christ. I mean, he may well be a Christian, but if listeners don’t really know and can’t really tell, then…well, what’s the point? Yes, ‘Wildfire’ is a cool song, with a cool beat, and a song that you can dance to. But compared to a song in CCM by an artist like MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Third Day, Casting Crowns, even Newsboys…well, let’s just say that the artists coming up into the CCM industry right now, aren’t doing enough to be different from their mainstream counterparts. There, I said it. Maybe it’s because I assumed that everyone who was in CCM was a Christian, and now since there’s a lot of people recently deconstructing their faith (I don’t have to list people who have been deconstructing recently, you all can go to your friend google for that!), I dunno. I’d love to think that Kevin is a Christian, but listening to ‘Wildfire’ and nothing else, it’s hard to even say that ‘Wildfire’ itself is a Christian song. Because it isn’t. It’s a mainstream song. I guess, I expect people who sign to a Christian label to create something that is different from the typical feel-good pop/inspirational stuff I already hear on the radio. Am I asking too much though? Can someone who’s not a Christian fit right into the CCM industry, and still create music that is vaguely Christian, and we as listeners wouldn’t even know? Whatever the case on Kevin’s the faith, the song itself is ok, but not if you expect this song to be some kind of theological help. No, ‘Wildfire’ is nothing like a ‘Praise You In This Storm’ (Casting Crowns), a ‘Is He Worthy’ (Andrew Peterson), or even a song like ‘In The Hands of God’ (Newsboys), ‘Shoulders’ (for KING & COUNTRY), or ‘Til The Day I Die’ (TobyMac). Maybe it doesn’t have to be, but it should’ve been something more than what was released though. ‘Wildfire’ as it stands, shouldn’t even have been made, under the old assumption, that songs and material released under Christian Radio Labels ought to have some kind of Christian undertone (because news flash, ‘Wildfire’ doesn’t really…at all!).

But knowing what I do know now, and how the accountability, just like any music industry sector, goes out the door…well, I just mourn for CCM at the moment. Yes, I’ll have my favourite artists going forward, but I guess I’ll have to be more cautious as the months roll by. I hope and pray that everyone who has been signed to CCM labels, are Christians, but at the end of the day, I’m not one to assume anymore. As for the state of ‘Wildfire’…yeah, not really listening to that song again, any time soon. I guess, give me some old-school Newsboys any day, I reckon. But who am I to judge, right? I’m just a humble music reviewer. If someone gets connected with ‘Wildfire’, and God uses that, then great. God can use Christians and non-Christians alike. Here’s hoping (and praying) that other older godly people are around Kevin, so that his own personal faith journey can flourish, and he can receive input from people who have been walking with the Lord longer. Kudos to Kevin for creating something that has a pop-inspirational edge, hoping and praying that the songs that come forth are more faith-orientated than ‘Wildfire’ really is.

You might think that it’s sloppy for me to insert this whole review of pop artist Kevin Quinn’s debut single “Wildfire” that we wrote back in 2021. But… given that Real Me, Kevin’s latest EP, released to stores a few weeks ago; I thought a reassessment was in order. What has changed since the 3 years passed when we were so critical and scathing of Kevin’s debut single? And the answer is… sadly, nothing much. Real Me is littered with repetition and cliches, and sure it’s probably better than much of the generic mainstream pop out there. But Jesus’ word isn’t explicitly spoken or stated, Jesus’ name isn’t proclaimed or praised, and sure there is inspiration, but we still really don’t know of the faith of Kevin Quinn. Yes, he has said many times that he believes in God. But the testimony is so vague, that it’s hard not to be critical and wonder if Kevin thinks he’s a Christian (and he’s not!) or if he really is one and is actually solid in the faith- unwavering even in the hardest of times and the most difficult of circumstances.

The title track mentions that ‘…I’m closer to the, the real me, real me, it’s hard being myself, easy to be someone else and not the real me, real me, but I got a story to tell, I been through heaven and hell…’, and though Kevin means well, it’s instantly forgettable and reminds me of something that Shawn Mendes or Charlie Puth could sing. “Learning To Let Go” speaks about loving yourself and moving forward, not weighed down by past regrets. Yet this track is still generic as ever and could fit on mainstream pop- which is fine if Kevin Quinn is marketed as a pop artist. Yet he’s marketed as a Christian artist, and there’s nothing that screams ‘this song points people to Jesus’ here. “Blessed” is a simplistic way of looking at blessings and how God blesses us (and we’ve heard this concept before with “I’m Not Lucky I’m Blessed” by Love & The Outcome, and “I’m So Blessed” by CAIN); while the pseudo-worship melody “Rise Above”, which is just nice and pleasant to hear, is too sanitised as Kevin sings about rising above adversity, and feels like the credits of a Disney movie, or something that Westlife or Backstreet Boys would sing (and no, that’s not a compliment!). “I’m Not There Yet”, a subdued and reflective track about not being the finished product and God (although not explicitly stated) working in us every day of our lives, is a song that is incredibly generic also, with Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Not Home Yet” presenting a better song with the same theme; while “Way Up” is so cringeworthy that I had to stop the song in the middle. It’s admirable that Kevin is singing about his mental health and destigmatising the condition, but “Way Up”, though littered with good intentions, is sloppy and lacklustre. “Give You Up”, a worship song to Jesus, is probably the best song on the EP, but with the track also sounding like it could have been sung by Kevin to a girl; well, the ‘best’ song on the EP is quite worrying. The EP has no mention of God or Jesus or a specific turning point and coming to faith… and on its own, these misses aren’t’ bad, but together they spell something quite problematic.

I’m not dissing on Kevin. I’m really not. If this was a pop album, I’d probably be singing its praises. But as it stands, Real Me, Kevin’s second Christian EP, is a letdown because of the generic lyrics, the vagueness of the struggle and because Kevin doesn’t offer up any solution like singing out ‘Jesus is the way, let’s praise Him, hallelujah because He rose from the grave’. None of that. it’s almost like it’s a self-help album. Kevin might be a strong Christian. He really might be. But this EP isn’t showing it, and that I reckon should’ve been first and foremost it’s primary message. To point people to Jesus. Real Me doesn’t do that. It says ‘I’ve been through the fire and I’m unscathed because of my own human efforts’. And there’s a lot of ‘you’ which probably means Jesus- but the fact that it’s still undefined here means that non-Christians can listen to this song and think it’s about a girl. Yes God can speak through mainstream music. Yes, he often does. But when you’re a Christian and you’re in CCM, there’s a standard. And Kevin, sadly to say, isn’t meeting it. One good thing though- Kevin is shining a light on mental health. The downside? That’s probably the only think memorable or noteworthy from the project.

I don’t think I would’ve ever gotten to this album and been able to tap into that creativity if it were not for what I had been through. I ended up really struggling with my identity related to what is now a working borderline personality disorder diagnosis. People with BPD tend to struggle with their sense of self and how they relate to other people. That was very much the case for me to the point where I was losing parts of my identity and I didn’t know who I was. It’s really amazing how the brain can wipe your ego and identity clean, but that’s the disorder.

The pressure to live up to fans’ expectations of me when I don’t even know who I am to begin with, before I was treated for the BPD, I think that was what led me to having a crisis. I felt they all had this vision of who I was that was based on some kind of celebrity or musician or actor or Hollywood figure that I never viewed myself as, so there was a discrepancy. I was really struggling with suicidality and didn’t think I could cope with the disorder. But I kept pushing through the treatment… and that led to a month-and-a-half-long [in-patient] program and an IOP program here in Los Angeles.

I’ve been doing dialectical behavioral therapy for the past 15 or 16 months now and it’s changed my life. It’s been a hefty journey but the good thing about DBT is you can go into remission and that seems to be where I am now. I really am the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been, thanks to treatment, but I can see how when people don’t get treated, their lives can spiral out of control.

I’d stay up late, past the time I was supposed to, and write about getting my sense of self-identity back, which is where the [title track] comes from. The rest of the tracks are this cohesive journey of tying in my faith and my most desperate moments of pretty much not wanting to be alive to eventually getting the help I needed to live a productive life and transition to a place of acceptance and will. I didn’t even have access to a phone; I hand-wrote all the songs and chord progressions on a napkin. I just needed to get the ideas out.

My experience working with Disney was incredible—the people, the employees, the network executives, everyone in production. The one thing I wish could be different for child actors is that if they are spending significant amounts of time on a sound stage or working where they’re not getting the time to develop themselves in the context of school or college or home life—when those actors move on from that gig that the network covers them with a transitional social worker. And that is something that should be paid by these corporations. To be working in that environment for two years and then suddenly you exit the show and it’s like, ‘Well now I’m back to this random life and I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do with it.’ To be honest, I’m not entirely convinced that transitioning out of that experience isn’t what [exacerbated] my identity issues. And it has nothing to do with Disney Channel. It was just being so young with that much pressure and not getting a chance to develop my sense of self.

I wish everyone in the industry was aware of just how stigmatized this issue really is. I don’t want to feel afraid to speak out and I don’t think anyone should feel that. And I like to think that maybe it’s what contributes to my creativity to an extent, this ability to be neurodivergent in a way that I become a better actor because of those experiences. I know there are others in the industry that also have something like this.