ACCOMPLISHED Catholic musicians Emma Fradd and David Kruse have a unique story to tell – it’s about long distance falling in love and creating a Catholic recording label, the first of its kind in Australia.
In October 2020, when international borders were closed due to COVID-19, David, who lived in Minnesota and Emma from Brisbane, spoke for the first time by phone.
The pair, both multi-instrumentalists and recording artists, were introduced by a mutual friend in Minnesota who David had recorded playing cello for one of Emma’s songs.
They immediately hit it off and were soon talking about the idea of a Catholic record label.
Then came a spark of the heart that David Kruse recalls clearly.
“We talked about the record label for about a couple of minutes and fell in love for the rest of the phone call,” he said.
“And then we dated long-distance for 13 months because nobody could get in or out of this country (Australia).”
In December last year, with borders reopening, Emma flew to the United States to see David, and a month later the couple arrived together in Australia.
Their relationship blossomed and in June this year they married in Brisbane.
“… after falling in love and getting married, we are finally getting around to launching the label,” Emma Kruse (who retains her name Emma Fradd on stage) said, bringing the conversation back to the couple’s first venture together called Enemy Love Records.
The new label is as much a ministry as a business, according to David and Emma, and both wanted it to be firmly rooted in Catholicism.
“We want to give Catholic musicians the support that they need to be able to live out their Catholic identity, but also their identity as artists simultaneously without feeling like they need to compromise,” David Kruse said.
“That’s been a mission I’ve felt pretty strongly about for a long time.”
“The music industry right now is just very dysfunctional, because of streaming that takes all the income that used to go to musicians for sales of songs and it funnels it towards the owners of streaming services.”
For Emma Kruse, the goal of Enemy Love Records is “to evangelise and form Catholic artists, who will then go out and evangelise themselves”.
Her passion for faith and music is grounded in experience, having spent six years as a NET missionary in Canada, currently working for Evangelisation Brisbane, and releasing her third studio album ‘Fun Sad’ this month (November 12).
Husband David’s journey to Australia for marriage and music reflects a deep and honest faith, and included a life changing decision just months before meeting Emma.
Growing up in Minnesota, he described “ a perfect storm of musical upbringing” with most of his six siblings playing a variety of instruments..
There was a recording studio at David’s high school and he quickly learnt to record, produce and edit.
“I love recording, it’s like painting with sound,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest thing that I personally have to offer is I can help produce music, I can help co-ordinate the instruments – if you need a string section written I can write it out and we can find a string quartet to be able to play it.
“I did a lot of live performance between the age of about 14 and 22. And then that’s when I joined seminary.”
His training for the priesthood started at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona Rochester Diocese, and continued at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. He completed eight years of study and pastoral work.
“And then on my canonical diaconate retreat I felt like God was calling me to leave,” he said.
“It took me about eight months to actually leave because I didn’t want to, but I eventually did, and I’m really glad I did because I met Emma about four months after that and things have been very fruitful since then.
“I feel like I can do more for the Church outside the priesthood, and I think a lot of it has to do with the freedom to be able to do art and music and be an entrepreneur.
“A lot of those things I would not have been able to do as a priest of the diocese in Winona.”
David and Emma Kruse named their new label Enemy Love Records after listening to a homily by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, based on Matt 5:43-45.
“It was Jesus who first told us to love our enemies which is where the inspiration for the name came from. Loving our enemies isn’t just a cool concept, it’s a command from God himself,” Emma said.
David added: “He (Archbishop Coleridge) said if Catholics were called to have the capacity within ourselves, it might be called something like an enemy love.”
“It just means you have the capacity to love strong enough to those who are hurting you, pushing against you – having the interior strength to be able to love one’s enemies,” he said.
David and Emma Kruse are the first artists to feature on Enemy Love Records, together with a third artist, Valere, a young mother from the Philippines, living in New Zealand who writes rhythm and blues music with beautiful vocals.
Each are launching their albums as part of an Australian record label release tour that starts this month including gigs in Darwin, Lismore, Sydney, Wollongong and Brisbane.
Tour details and tickets can be found at: enemyloverecords.com
Details of the Brisbane label release party on Sunday, December 11 can be found here.
