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Matt Brouwer continues his deeply expressive songwriting on his new albums, "Unlearning" and "B-Sides Recordings, Vol. 1." We were eager to hear the stories behind them.
Suite: “The B-Sides Recording Vol. 1” has a nice mix of older and newer material. What is it you enjoy most about the older material? Matt: What I love when I hear those older recordings is remembering how pure and simple the process was back then. I was making music with some friends in Canada at the time and we never considered marketing that music. It was simply done to share with our friends in college. There was a very clear purpose and that had nothing to do with an individual agenda—it was great to be a part of that sense of creative community. Those songs take me back and remind me of what it was that inspired me to do this in the first place. Suite: Could you tell us a little bit about how music ministers to you personally? Matt: It picks up where words fall short in communicating what I feel in my soul and what I want to say with my heart to God, to other people. There is something powerful about music in certain moments and circumstances where it transcends human communication and it’s like God is in the room. I experienced that in the 11th grade at a youth conference and it almost knocked me over, I was speechless and overwhelmed. At that moment there was no other place I wanted to be then right there, it was a moment of worship that changed my life. Suite: I love your musical pairing with Kendall Payne on “I Shall Believe” (on the “Unlearning” album). Who would be your dream artist to sing with, if you could sing with anyone? Matt: First of all, I truly love to sing with other people. I’d much rather sing in a group than on my own. I love singing harmonies and just that collaboration and how you can feed off of one another as singers is so amazing to me. I’ve had the chance to sing with some great singers over the last few years, Jill Paquette, Jackie Key, Robbie Seay and of course Kendall I have a few dream duets I guess, Sheryl Crow, who wrote “I Shall Believe” is definitely up there and definitely Emmylou Harris and Ryan Adams. Probably everyone always says Bono, but for me I’d like to sing with Lyle Lovett! I’ve been a huge fan of his for a few years now ever since I got his CD, “Joshua, Judges, Ruth”. Suite: In the midst of touring and all of the industry stuff, how do you keep your focus in the right direction? Matt: I don’t think there’s a definitive answer to that, and I’m not sure that I always do keep my focus in the right direction. I will say that having people around who know me through and through, who are speaking into my life is huge. The single biggest wake up call in my life was traveling outside of North America and being a part of mission work. I’ve never felt so humbled as when I met people in poverty who we came to help in some way and then realizing that I was the one who was poor in Spirit and in need of the love and joy that these people had. Those experiences overseas have haunted me and ruined my life in a profound way because it made me realize for the first time the triviality of ‘western’ success and how our values are all out of joint. All the effort I was putting into my music and all my goals, it was so misdirected and then this beautiful death took place…the death of my dreams, which were really all about myself. In that painful place I started to realize that God’s dreams are something quite different. Our culture is so sped up these days that it just feels like it’s all we can do to keep our sanity. But we’ve been created by God for so much more than what most of us settle for. We are here on purpose by His design to know Him and to be known by Him. That is the message that I feel compelled to share with my generation because it’s literally saving me in the present tense, from falling to pieces on a daily basis because this world is getting more and more crazy, and the pull towards security, self-sufficiency, and excess is so powerful. I just finished writing a song called, “Where’s Our Revolution?” because I think that’s a question people are asking right now and a lot of us are starting to realize that we’ve had our heads buried in the sand. Suite: What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Matt: It’s funny how that changes when you get a bit older. When I was a kid we used to open 3 presents on Christmas Eve. All day on the 24th I’d be bouncing off the walls, driving my family crazy with my anticipation. But before we were allowed to open gifts my Mom would make us read the Christmas story together and sing some carols and then my mom would pray for what seemed like an eternity. I remember thinking, “how can you think about praying at a time like this, when there are gifts to be opened?? {I obviously really got the true meaning of Christmas as a kid, huh?} But you know, all these year later and so much water under the bridge, that time singing and praying is my favorite thing we do as a family every year now. I’ve sort of fallen into being the resident song leader now and just being together in quiet celebration and singing is my favorite part of our Christmas. If you had told me as a 9 year old that I would say any of this, I’d have told you that you were crazy, but hey—time is a powerful teacher! Now I make my nephews and nieces insane cause “Uncle Matt won’t shut up so we can open our presents!”
The copyright of the article Matt Brouwer Interview in Christian Music is owned by Kevan Breitinger. Permission to republish Matt Brouwer Interview in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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