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Two years ago, Joshua Cole wanted nothing more than to write his next best thing.
“Honestly, I just wanted to make something that was really good. Impactful, and that could resonate with people, that could really touch people,” Cole said.
He plays keys and is a producer for Twin Cities band Gifted Handz, a gospel-fusion trio, which was formed when he and the band’s leader and drummer, Joe Mason III, were in their early teens.
In 2023, Cole’s bandmates felt the same: they wanted something new that resonated with them and their audiences. They wanted something fresh and powerful for a show at Mason’s college celebrating Black artists.
“I think we need to try to, you know, be impactful, be ourselves, but also, do something that's going to represent this night and what the theme of this event is about,” Mason remembers telling the band.
So, they sat down to write a song. What followed was “Freedom’s Intro.” They have been workshopping the song since, and now it’s considered a “sacred” piece that they perform sparingly, Cole says.
The song features Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I've Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which he delivered on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated. It was a speech Mason and Cole wanted to share with their listeners.
Bass player Jalyn Spencer says that beneath King’s speech, their playing takes cues from the 1970s, weaving history into the song’s sound and feel.
“It's like a funky bassline that's kind of following the kick,” Spencer said. “That's my favorite part, because it starts to make you feel like we're into a groove that we're not staying in for a long time. From what we know, it's kind of just to me that it was a small chronological nod to the 70s.”
Early on, the people closest to them quickly connected with the song. Mason remembered playing it as a voice memo for his mom. “She actually started crying. She was like, ‘This song is for me.’”
The song went through many versions and was set aside while they worked on other projects, but it was never forgotten. Playing it live for an audience is beyond special, they said.
The song often kicks off special performances as a sort of tone-setter, according to Mason.
“It's centering,” he said. “We got some dancing groovy tunes, but this one is the one that's supposed to center you, that's supposed to provoke thought, that is supposed to inspire you for the set, for what's to come.”
Mason, who puts together a special setlist for every concert, views music as a balm for listeners.
“I know that every situation, every crowd, has different needs. So I try to figure out, ‘okay, what is it?’” Mason said. “Then I can try to curate the medicine to make sure it's proper for that."
The song is dynamic. Cole has grown to love a pause about two-thirds of the way through.
“Right before we get into the, like, essentially the climax, big part of the song. We do a break where we all just, like, cut out. It's so dramatic,” Cole said. “But that's just my favorite part, because it's like a space to breathe.”
For Mason, he loves to hear Spencer live on bass, who often amends things on a whim.
“He'll play a note that's not really the right note, but it feels amazing. It feels better than what the right note is supposed to be,” Mason said. “My stomach just goes all the way to my back, like, why did you do that? It feels so amazing. That's my crying moment right there.”
It’s an original song for the group, who first started out playing their own music and sometimes doing covers.
“It’s always a relief to play,” Cole said. “It’s always a really therapeutic process.”
Not everyone can say they’ve stayed close and worked with the friends who knew them through puberty, but for Gifted Handz, that’s one of their best memories.
To this day, their band’s leader, Joe Mason III, has kept his pre-voice-change voicemail.
“I told him not to change it! I told him not to change it,” Cole said before calling Mason to hear the voicemailbox message play.
“Y’all are trolling right now,” Mason said, just before his younger voice played the greeting and made all three of them burst out laughing. Even though people have told him to change it, he refuses.
Mason and Cole founded the band nearly a decade ago after meeting in church. Both their parents had them play for a service, and after that first meeting, they never stopped, literally.
“Nobody left their instruments. We just stayed. And we kept playing for another hour and a half or two hours, and then my mom comes in, hears us playing, records us,” Mason recounts. “And she was like, ‘You guys got to be a band.’ And we were like, ‘Man, we're already a band.’”
They kept playing at local churches and parties and began booking gigs once they were in high school.
Around the same time, they met Jalyn Spencer, their bassist. They’re all freelance musicians, each involved with their music programs at church and separate personal projects, but Mason considers Gifted Handz their baby.
Their closeness is clear: they share creative ideas and help each other through challenges like burnout, depression and writer’s block.
“I think a lot of times, as musicians, it's a very vulnerable space, right? You're sharing something that is personal that you wrote,” Mason said.
“It’s so important to be able to get those ideas out and have a listener,” he added, explaining that self-doubt often keeps musicians from sharing their work. Spending time with his bandmates has been an encouraging and uplifting experience that helped him grow as an artist.
Spencer said he values this trust, as it’s something people in non-music careers don’t always experience. His bandmates always check in on him during breaks from playing, something that “means the world to him.” Mason and Cole have also relied on each other and on Spencer during their own hard times.
Being able to depend on each other was an unintended benefit, especially since they have come to realize music was their calling, a responsibility they don’t take for granted. “It's greater than myself,” Cole said. “I got to manage it well.”
And they hope that, through their passion and drive, it can inspire others to share their gifts.
“Our foundation is rooted in church, in Christ, so that joy, that love, we put all of that into our music, that empowerment. We want everybody to feel uplifted, to know that they're gifted and that they have something that is so unique that only God has given them, and the world needs that, right?” Mason said.
Gifted Handz performs live at the Berlin in Minneapolis on July 10.
English (US) ·