Tauren Wells welcomes the new year on a high note. The Christian singer/songwriter and eight-time GMA Dove Award winner is preparing to release new music and open a church in Austin, Texas. American Songwriter chatted with the singer about his songwriting journey, finding his creative tribe, and how songwriting and preaching go hand in hand.
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“I think songs are a great doorway into more truth and that’s why I’m passionate about making music with a conscience, making music with depth that can point people to deeper truths that inspire them in their whole life,” he says.
[RELATED: Tauren Wells Talks Hosting the 2023 Dove Awards]
Following the release of his 2023 EP Take It All Back, Wells says he’s “about to do something different” with his upcoming music.
“Next album, we’re in exploration mode right now,” he says. “I know that I want what comes next to be the natural flow from my heart. The last album was so fun because it was exploratory and new relationships and people and I spent 10 days in LA and a different studio every day, some writes two a day.
“A lot of this process has been me alone, which is probably my favorite place to be,” he continues. “I do really value collaboration. … Now I just want to be in this place of, ‘God did it’ and I want to get in that flow. That’s the hope. We’re gonna see what happens but I’ve got so many voice memos on my phone and little song ideas that I can’t wait to see [what] comes to life.”
In American Songwriter’s Q&A below, Wells offers his insight and advice on songwriting, shares some stories behind his songs, and much more.
American Songwriter: How did you get started? Do you remember the first song you wrote?
Tauren Wells: I started with “Amazing Grace.” I was probably 10 or 11 years old. My dad is a musician. He plays multiple instruments, but mainly drums. We constantly had musicians in and out of my house growing up. I would get picked up from school, grab Burger King, and go to the studio.
I would take my dad’s music he was recording, which had no lyrics, no melody. It was just music and a keyboard and I would rewrite the melody to “Amazing Grace.” Somehow I survived changing the melody to “Amazing Grace.” Now that’s pretty sacred, but that was my first experimentation with making something my own. From that, for a few years, I would write songs with the music playing from the Casio pre-recorded music. … My youth pastor told me if I was going to lead worship, I needed to really master an instrument. So I dug into playing keys at that time. I would take the songs that I was writing in piano lab to my church youth group and we started singing them in our worship services. That was really the context for my songwriting journey.
AS: When was the moment you realized you wanted to do this for a living?
TW: I didn’t know that you could write songs for a living until 2012 so I was strictly doing it for the love. There were no real aspirations of being a songwriter. I didn’t know that that world existed from a professional level. Even though my dad was a musician, my family continued to encourage me to get a real job.
I hadn’t really thought about it until we got signed in 2011 and 2012 and they were going to give us an advance, a publishing advance. I was like, “What’s the publishing advance for?” It’s for the songs that you brought into the deal. That’s when I realized you can get paid for writing songs so it’s been a slow journey. I’ve had the gift of being naive and now being in it for so long I understand it. I’m grateful that the love was cultivated before there was any promise of results. That’s the place that I always go back to: What would I write for free? What would I do if no one listened? Because for a long time, no one was listening.
AS: When do you feel like you arrived as a songwriter?
TW: I think that’s still an internal battle now. I want to say that I feel like I’ve arrived. I think, being a fellow creative, it’s always how do I elevate? How do I continue to speak to people? How do I sharpen this craft? I think the greatest joy that I’ve had is getting in the room with people so much better than me, being sharpened by their gift and their handle on their craft, and getting insight into their process. That’s been the funnest part. That’s more of a growth mentality than a goal mentality.
If I had a goal mentality, it would be I need to write the best song. I don’t really feel that way. I just want to learn from the best songwriters and allow that to speak into my creative process. So I don’t feel like I’ve arrived. Even on my last album, Joy in the Morning, I feel like it’s the best songs I’ve ever been a part of. Some of the lyrics, the styling of it, was such a fun process. I think the best songs are up ahead.
AS: How did you find your songwriting tribe?
TW: It’s been organic for the most part. When I started, I knew no one. So all of the relationships came from my publisher, from the label. Now I understand people have different agendas for different relationships and what you’re hoping to get from it from a business standpoint, but my faith really informs who comes into my life. I think for the most part, it’s very divinely strategic to accomplish a certain purpose.
Sometimes the purpose is in that relationship, and sometimes the purpose is through that relationship. I’m always interested and suspicious in a good way of what God could be doing in a relationship. … I would say my writing circle’s more like a horseshoe. I got my people but there’s still a way in, so it keeps it fun and creative.
AS: Is there one song that holds more meaning to you now than the day you wrote it?
TW: It would have to be “Known” for me. It’s a constant reminder. Some songs, seasonally in life, I feel like you grow out of. We know it meant so much in a season and we can go back and reflect. That’s why that song holds a significant place. But “Known” is a reoccurring message in my life that in every season, in every phase it speaks so powerfully to me that I don’t have to project some image that I am not to be accepted. I am accepted.
I think so many of us go through life, feeling invisible to a certain degree. Even when people celebrate us at a surface level, it feels good in a way. But, it’s a much greater gift to be known well, than well known. A lot of the cultural emphasis is on being well known, that we would be celebrated and admired but you’re not really seen until you get to open up your interior world to someone and when they see you, they choose you. I think it speaks to everyone from those on the largest platforms in the world to my wife. … There was something about being seen and treasured that struck a chord with her and strikes a chord with me. There’s that quote that says to be loved but not known, is comforting but it’s superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is what it means to be loved by God. So that idea of being totally, fully, completely seen, known, loved, and accepted. My favorite line from the song is in the second verse: I don’t want to live on the surface and pretend to be walking on water when honestly I’m sinking.
AS: Have any of your songs been inspired while writing a sermon?
TW: The creative process flows both ways. I never want a song to just be a song. One of my favorite collaborators is Ethan Hulse, an amazing songwriter in Nashville, [he has] many, many hits, and he’s been a part of a lot of songs that that we’ve written. We got to get together about a year ago now. We were talking and he said, “What I love about writing songs with you is that a song is never just a song. It’s always more.” I feel that way. I feel like every song is a seed and there is so much potential in every seed and one little seed can be a whole apple tree with hundreds of apples over seasons of life that create something good for people to enjoy season after season. I’m always trying to figure out: is there more that we can get from this?
Every song, even in my Royal Tailor days, my band days, I was doing devotions based on the songs that took people deeper. I think songs are a great doorway into more truth and that’s why I’m passionate about making music with a conscience, making music with depth that can point people to deeper truths that inspire them in their whole life. Joy in the Morning has a six-day devotional with it. A couple of days on “Come Home,” a couple of days on “Crazy About You” to get people get these ideas in their hearts so that when they hear the song, they’re not just thinking about the lyric, they’re thinking about four pages of content that serves them. It goes back and forth. A lot of times I’ll be writing a message and it’s like, “Oh, this is a song.” Recently I was working on a song because I’m working on a new album, but the lyric was: If I can’t give you Sunday morning, how will I ever give you my whole life? And I’m like, “Okay, that’s a good line.” So I put it in a message that I preached that Sunday. It’s just that kind of symbiotic relationship.
AS: What’s your advice to songwriters starting out?
TW: You have to feel it first. If you don’t feel it first you can’t expect anyone else to feel it. If it makes you cry, it’ll probably make other people cry. If it makes you excited and want to dance, it’s gonna make other people dance. If it makes you feel nothing, people will probably feel nothing.
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
