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MQ: What do you love most about music in general?
MW: I love the opportunity to find my voice through a song, and to have this chance now to communicate my voice to people - not my singing voice but my heart voice. I think it's an amazing opportunity for me to stand up in front of an audience or record music that somebody can go buy - I have this chance to communicate to them a message. I really don't take that lightly. I try not to be irresponsible with the 11 songs that I can record. I want to pack in some truth, and have fun and encourage people. There's so much music that brings people down in the world, there's so much else to bring people down that I really hope my music can encourage people. It's that opportunity to connect with people that's just amazing.
MQ: Are there any issues that people our age are dealing with in this culture that you feel your songs can address?
MW: There are some songs on my record - there are two specifically - one's called ' You Know Where to Find Me ' and one's called ' The Lie. ' 'The Lie' basically addresses the lies we're told on this earth about what's ok. It goes on to say, 'Everybody's doing it, everybody's goin' out tonight, all your friends are feelin it, whatever it is that makes you feel alright, and everybody knows that anything goes, and everything you want is just across the line, so step into the flow and go all the way tonight.' That's the lies that we're told. And the chorus goes on to say, 'Don't believe the lie, don't buy into what they sell you.' From my perspective, it's like, 'Hey, I know you're being lied to. I know you want to believe that anything goes. It doesn't matter what decisions you make tonight when you go out with your friends. It doesn't matter if you want to sleep around with some girl or take some drugs or whatever.'' That lie that anything goes, everything's alright, you're fine, that it's not going to hurt you or leave you hurting inside or empty. I really have a passion to let people know that that is a lie. Then what happens is, you wake up the next morning after you make a mistake in your life, this voice comes to you and says, 'You're such a screw-up, you've messed up too many times, don't even try to get back up today, because you're a screw-up, you're a loser.' I've been there, I've beaten myself up with guilt and I've heard that voice that says, 'Man, how could you do that, what you did yesterday, that mistake you made, you tripped up and fell so bad, don't even bother this time, you can't get back up again.' I think that's the second lie that comes in. The first lie knocks you down and the second lie tries to keep you down...and I have a passion to let people know that 'Man, don't believe that first lie.' And the truth is that we're all human and we're all going to screw up. If you fall down, block out that second lie - don't listen to it - fight it off and say, 'You know what, I am going to get back up, I am going to try to do the right thing, I am going to listen to my heart - I'm not going to believe the lie.'
MQ: Now it seems that there is not much difference between Christian music and secular music in terms of the production. What comparisons would you draw between what you do and secular music?
MW: I think you're right about the sonic quality. I think that Christian music is at another level and hopefully my record is part of that next level as well. I felt like we were given an opportunity to make a record that sounds like it could compete with the major outside, secular music records. I would hope that only difference between my record and the mainstream records is the message. You're not going to listen to my record and hear bad language, or hear me talking about drugs, or girls in a negative way. But you will hear me writing songs about real life, about things I've gone through. I think one of the biggest things in Christian music, there's this stereotype that you can only talk about Christian topics. For me personally, I feel called to write songs about my life and everything in it and everything around me. The difference is that I'm writing it from a faith perspective - because the most important part of my life is my faith in God. So when that happens - when that becomes the most important part of your life, your focus changes and you view the world from a different standpoint. I think it affects everything I do. So if I write about love, I write about it from a faith perspective, knowing that this is the right way to view love. I'm not viewing it from the wrong, negative, degrading way of viewing women. I've just made it a challenge - I'm not going to be afraid of writing about the difficult subjects, or life in general. I don't have to be painted into this tiny box, but the difference is that we'll be coming from the message of truth - an undeniable message of truth, and I hope that people hear that.