Two-time GRAMMY nominee Tauren Wells tells EUR/Electronic Urban Report that his new solo LP, “Hills And Valleys,” explores the “terrain of Christian life,” and the title track of the same name encapsulates the journey of the human condition.
“I just wanted to communicate a reality that we all have to grapple with and live with. The terrain of the Christian life is filled with really high highs and really low lows. With mountain top experiences and with valley experiences and the two can’t be separated,” Wells explained to us.
“You can’t see a mountain without a valley in view and vice versa. And that’s what makes up the terrain of Christian life. And so I felt like we needed a song for that journey. And I saw a quote on Twitter that said ‘On the mountaintops of life bow low and in the valleys of life stand tall.’ And I thought, “That is a song.”
“Because I’ve heard messages and I’ve heard songs about how God is the God of the hills and the valleys but I haven’t heard a lot about what our response and our posture is in those places,” he added.
“How do we respond in success and in significance and in those big moments? How do we respond when we’re walking in the valley of the shadow of death? How do we deal with our struggles and our failures and our disappointments and this song kinda encapsulates all of that. I wanted to take the rest of the album and really dig into that idea more.”
Wells debuted his first solo EP, “Undefeated,” in 2016 with the impactful single of the same name and featuring Reach Records’ rapper KB. The track also served as the soundtrack for the internet-famous Dude Perfect’s “World Records Edition” episode on YouTube which, along with another Dude Perfect video featuring the No. 1 single “Love Is Action,” has garnered 73 million views combined. Additionally “Undefeated” is licensed by Fox Sports and heard regionally during NBA coverage.
“A lot of my influences growing up were Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake,” says Wells. “I grew up on a lot of Black gospel music as well. I try to communicate messages that are important and real, things from my own life experiences the things that I feel like will help build other people.”
Tauren Wells is the opening act for Lionel Richie’s upcoming All The Hits tour, with very special guest Mariah Carey. The tour kicked off July 21 and runs through September 5, wrapping in Seattle, WA.
“Hills And Valleys” is the follow-up to another song he’ll be sure to perform on the tour, “Love Is Action,” the No. 1 hit that held the top spot at radio for eight weeks.
Wells is the former frontman for the Christian pop rock band, Royal Tailor, which produced two albums over a five-year career, garnering two GRAMMY nominations and a New Artist of the Year award from the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards.
“If I get a Grammy or if I get an award, I’m going to be as happy as anybody else. But I’m not trying to get trophies. To me, that’s for athletes. I have a different metric of success for my life and that is, at the end of my life, how many did I deposit hope into? How many people did I pull greatness out of and how many people did I lead to Jesus? How faithful was I to what God has called me to do? Because God hasn’t called everyone to win Grammys. But he has called me to a place of significance,” Wells says.
“We get so mixed up with prominence and significance. A lot of people want prominence. You can be prominent and not significant. While others are just trying to be significant in the lives of others. So the greatest reward for me is hearing my kids in the backseat singing my songs instead of singing everything else that they could be singing,” he adds.
“It’s satisfying to me to hear the stories of people who have walked through some dark-dark moments in their life and a song that I happened to write, that God gifted me, helped them through such a difficulty. That is the win. And if I ever win an award, it’s going to be because of those people, and it’ll be great.”
When asked how he balances a music career with marriage and fatherhood, Wells states, “When I was 25, trying to figure it out, I talked to this mentor of mine, he was like, “Man, we’re musicians. We don’t really mess with balance. We operate in rhythm.”
He adds, “And so it’s important to find the rhythm of your life instead of chasing this myth of balance because you will never be able to achieve balance but you can find your rhythm and every season of life has a different rhythm. So you have to embrace the season that you’re in and let the spirit of God lead you through those seasons so that you’re not frustrated and beaten down.”
Continuing, “I’ve lived life in rush mode and nothing good ever comes from it. Rush leads to ruin and rest leads to blessed. If you rest, you’ll allow God to do what you can’t do and your life will be blessed because of it. So having a rock star wife is a big deal. Having an awesome support unit in my local church and my friends is a big deal, and then me trying to listen to who needs what at what time and trying to be present in whatever moment I’m in, that’s the goal for me.”
Tauren Wells Explores The ‘Terrain Of Christian Life’ On New Solo Album was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
