Matthew West Talks TV Special, New Album and More!

Michael Foust recently sat down with singer-songwriter Matthew West to discuss West's new double album, his TBN television special and more. Here is a look at their conversation:

Michael Foust: Matthew, thanks so much for joining us today. You've got a lot going on. You've got this double album coming out on February 17. I'm going to read the name of it. My story, Your Glory. It has 22 songs, goodness gracious. You have a special on TBN, My story, Your Glory with Matthew West, which comes out Friday, February 10. So, firstly, why release a double album? How did that get started?

Matthew West: Well, I'm a glutton for punishment. I think that's what it is. I just, you know, when the pandemic hit, and so many of our concerts got canceled, and our tour buses were parked, I had plenty of time on my hands, so I was writing up a storm. But in truth, I'm a prolific songwriter. By that, I mean, a lot of artists still write enough songs for the record, and then they don't write again until they make their next record. Well, I sort of have two careers in Nashville. In fact, I tried to get a record deal for three years and got rejected by all the labels. And during those three years, I found a different career, which was being an everyday songwriter, writing songs with and for other artists.

So, I wasn't the singer, my first songs recorded weren't recorded by me, they're recorded by others. All these years later, now, I got a record deal, I'm able to make my own records. But, I never stopped pursuing that other part of the creative coin, which was the other side of it, which was for me to still write with my favorite artists, Christian music, sometimes in country music. And, so I'm always writing songs. And a lot of times, the pattern in music is you do an album, like 11 Song album, and then two years later, you do another one. And I got all these other songs. And that was just accelerated during the pandemic, when, you know, 100 concerts were canceled. And so I just got into it. And I was like, this feels right, this feels ambitious. I think creatively, you're always looking for a new mountain to climb. And then I had this concept for My Story, Your Glory that seemed to kind of feel like two albums in one. And so the first album is me telling the story of my life and the story of other people's lives like a singer-songwriter, it's kind of what I do. And then Your Glory is actually more of a worship record. And it's a worshipful response to how God is at work redeeming the broken stories of our lives.

Watch our video with West for the full interview.

Music courtesy: ©Soundstripe Library

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