Preferring to work behind the scenes, he successfully produced a hit for Marvin Sapp (“One Thing That I Desire”), rearranged a song on the “Finally Karen” CD called “Praying Spirit,” wrote “Prayer Changes Things” and sung on Kim Burrell’s first CD and has worked with many others such as The Potter’s House Mass Choir.
Prior to his career surge along with his brother Demarcus, he formed the group “MD and the Voices” which simply stood for Myron, DeMarcus and the voices. “MD and the Voices” lasted 5 years before Williams said God “pulled him off that set.”
He shed his dreds, began to get to know God better and opened his eyes to ministering music without concentrating solely on its artistry. He would be tested on those lessons learned when he encountered the woman who considers him to be her spiritual son, famed televangelist Prophetess Juanita Bynum.
Their relationship led to perhaps Williams most notable effort, Juanita Bynum’s Gold recording, “A Piece of My Passion” for which he received multiple Stellar Award nominations including producer of the year.
Williams, a father and husband, racked up frequent flyer points and matured even more spiritually while taking a weekly trip to New York to partake in a prayer service as a pre-requisite to producing the album for Bynum.
“Going with the flow” proved that obedienceis better that sacrifice and paid off in an unexpected way. In this exclusive interview, Williams talks about his transition to the spotlight and shares the remarkable story of how he acquired Flow Records through Bynum’s incremental generosity.
Mona Austin: Tell me how you got started in the gospel industry.
Myron Williams: I’ve never ever wanted to be the guy that was out front but God had another plan for me and I ran into Dr. Bynum in a very strange way. There was a guy who wanted me to come and play for a revival service for her and I really didn’t know who she was. I literally told him no, I didn’t want to do it.
MA: How long ago was that?
MW: That was five years ago.
MA: Really! (This was post “No More Sheets”)
MW: Yes. It was five years because I was not a person who followed her ministry, or knew about “No More Sheets” or none of that. To this day I still haven’t heard the message “No More Sheets."
MA: It’s the famous one, the one that made her known.
MW: You know and as soon as a get a little spare time I’m going to pop that video in and figure it all out.
MA: So you ended up meeting her and it was that meeting that showed you that it was time to shift into the forefront?
MW: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I used to have dreds. One day I was in the kitchen cooking and I used to have this concert video out called “Bare” that was on MDM and Voices and it came on BET one afternoon and I was in the kitchen cooking and the Holy Ghost said “listen to yourself.” I think it was Video Gospel that came on. So I was listening to myself and He said to “go in and look at yourself” and when I went in there a looked at myself on T.V. I came to the conclusion that I don’t even look how I sound. So I went through this period. I cut my hair. Juanita asked me to come to 5 a.m. prayer. I don’t if you’ve heard the CD, “Piece of My Passion”?
MA: I have.
MW: Okay. Well I produced that project but the requirement for me to produce the project was to come to 5 a.m. prayer in New York City every single week for a year to actually understand where Dr. Bynum was spiritually. So in the process of doing that I found myself.
MA: When you say “5 a.m. prayer” do you mean literally there was a time set aside on a weekend or daily basis at 5 a.m.?
MW: There was a 5 o’clock prayer scheduled every week on a Tuesday morning in New York City at Elder Boyd’s church, Bethel.. And let’s say about 9 o’clock on a Monday night people would be lined up for blocks waiting to get into the church. The church seats about 2,000 people and you had another room that could hold about a thousand people as an overflow. So you literally had 3,000 people that would be in prayer at 5 o’clock in the morning. It was absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.
MA: Where do you reside?
MW: Everybody knows Dallas, Texas but I live in Arlington, TX, a suburb of Dallas.
MA: So you had to fly in from Arlington all the way across the country every weekend?
MW: Absolutely.
MA: Was your airfare paid?
MW: No, I paid it myself. It was such a sacrifice but the reward has been greater than the sacrifice. I must say that. I couldn’t even begin to tell you today the blessing in making the sacrifice. We were able to upstart the company that I am now owner of, Flow Records founded by Juanita Bynum. The album that I produced for Juanita Bynum went gold in under 59 days and were right now a couple of units away from being platinum.
MA: So you’re the owner of Flow Records? How did that happen? I thought Prophetess Bynum owned it.
MW: Now, watch this. That’s a testimony within itself too. You’re getting my whole story today.
At the Threshing Floor Conference that I believe she did in 2005? . . .I didn’t even know that this was going to happen. She called me out on the platform one evening and she said that she was very proud of me and she told my story to the people at the Threshing Floor. And in telling that story she said that God told her to give [him] 30 percent of the company. As one would have done I buckled up and started crying, and thanking God it was a blessing. Well here in Dallas we put the company together and I got a phone call telling Juanita I acquired a building and when we have a studio here.. We have a 5,000 sqaure foot facility here known to be Flow Records now and Juanita told me that when I took my seat she said that ‘God said for me to give you 50 percent of the company.’ Well we rejoiced over 50 percent.
Well, back in July ’07 while we were getting prepared to do “Live and Unplugged” the DVD “Unplugged”, God called her early in the morning and said ‘I think it’s time for you to turn over the label to your son, Myron Williams.’ I didn’t know anything about this. We went to a meeting and we were discussing some things concerning her makeup line that she’s getting ready to come out with. And in the meeting with the attorney sitting there she passed me a contract and I thought that she had passed me something else. It literally was her saying to me that she was releasing the entire record company to me. So, that’s why I say that I am the owner of the company and I never would have dreamed that I would end up in this seat. And it is an extraordinary company. We came up the ranks and have broken all types of records that even major labels haven’t been able to accomplish.
MA: Are you the second artist on the label with Juanita Bynum being the first?
MW: Absolutely.
MA: Are you looking for new talent?
MW: Absolutely. If you visit our website, JuanitaBynum.com, on Juanita Bynum.com there is a section for Flow Records that gives you all of our information. If you want to send a demo or something, we welcome all of that.
MA: . . .There are so many talented people out there and it feels like this is the day of the independent label. I always want to make sure people know there are alternatives and options for their talent.
MW: Absolutely. We look for the people who never really would get a chance in the majors. I was just talking to a friend before I called you and we were discussing about how some people who get an opportunity. If you looked at it from the outside, you would ask “How come I’m not able to get a deal?” or something along that nature. I always say to people “What do you bring to the table”. A lot of people always want to say “Well I’m anointed” and I say back to them “Well, so is so and so and so is this person”. So what do you uniquely bring to the table? And before you even send a demo, your listeners, please ask yourself that question because if you sound like another person, we’re not interested in that. We’re interested in somebody who has basically come up on the backside of the desert. Let me just say it to you this way and I could say this candidly. “If you tear up a church every time you pick up a microphone, please send me a demo”.
MA: Is there a certain specialty that you want to get recognized for such as say, Praise and Worship or Gospel Jazz. . .
MW: We are a company and we have artists that do everything. As a matter of fact, Juanita opened up a brand new division before she released everything to me and it is a Hip Hop division. One of our artists that is coming out this summer, her name is Susie Rockit and she’s a rapper so at the end of the day we welcome everything. You can send anything. Spoken Word is welcome. Praise and Worship is welcomed. If you have a choir, a quartet group. . .we’re not partial to anything.
MA: Well, what do you bring that’s unique as an artist?
MW: Well, I believe I bring what’s unique is the ability to impart Praise and Worship intoa setting that may not be as comfortable or be (pause). Let me this say it to you this way. I’ve been invited to many ministries who normally wouldn’t do the way I do it, but because God has given me a gift to impart it into a ministry. When I leave a ministry, here comes someone like Israel Houghton or Karen Clark. Most ministries, for instance the Word ministries and I can feel free to say this because people like Bishop Hilliard have spoken this to me. ‘We normally don’t do this,’ is what he says to me. ‘We’re so into the Word.’ Praise and Worship used to be a past time where we just sing a few songs, then we’d open our Bibles and we say our statement of faith. We read our Word, but because of my unique ministry God has allowed them to be a little more open to the flow of Him when it comes to Praise and Worship.
I never knew that is what I was able to bring to the table until Juanita Bynum allowed me to minister in her conferences and there would be times while I ministering I would be waiting on the preacher to come. I’m talking about we’ve been in Praise and Worship for about an hour and after the hour had passed I’m asking and sending notes and running people to find out where is the preacher, and what’s next the agenda. She would tell me “You don’t stop Praise and Worship until I tell you to stop”. So I would end up doing worship for about two-and-half hours and when she came out on the platform she would say “the Praise and Worship was the preaching for today”. People would be blessed and delivered and all kind of prophetic would go forth and so I never ever knew I had that in me.
Myron Williams currently serves as the Minister of Music for the Chosen Vessel Church in his hometown, Fort Worth, Texas. His first solo CD “Made to Worship” is in stores now.
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