Christian music artist Matt Maher has written and produced five albums and is currently working on a sixth. “The Patriot” caught up with the singer-songwriter before his Jan. 22 concert at JC, where he performed in front of nearly 1000 fans.
Q: How long have you been performing?
A: I’ve been playing music my whole life. I think I’ve been touring for the past six years.
Q: Have you always been a Christian music performer?
A: I’ve always been a Christian. I wrote songs that people played at church. Then I also wrote other music, but I didn’t necessarily do that professionally. It was more like a hobby. I didn’t ask to have a career in writing church music, it just seemed like something that God led me into, and then basically I ended up signing a deal with a publishing company and other churches said, ‘Hey, will you come play your songs?’ Then after a while, it made sense to partner with a record company. It’s just sort of one of those things that I stumbled into.
Q: Where does your inspiration come from?
A: It just comes from living life. When you sit down and write, different things inspire you. I’ve been married for about four months, and my wife inspires me sometimes to write songs. Because my faith is a big part of my life, I’m just the type of person that I tend to look at things in life and see how they reflect back to my faith. So it’s really just living life around you and trying to see how if God really exists and [if] He’s really important, then it’s possible that He’s always trying to talk to us, and we just need to be listening.
Q: Do you have any musical inspirations?
A: Growing up, I loved listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, classic rock. I listened to music like everyone else. I listened to Nirvana in high school and different singer-songwriters. I’m just like everyone else. I look on iTunes and see what’s new and check it out.
Q: What is your favorite song that you’ve written?
A: It’s something that you’re going to hear tonight. It’s a song called “Hold Us Together.” I wanted to try to write a song that’s going to help people struggling financially or going through hard times in life because I think that sometimes Christian music gets the reputation of being sort of like happy-go-lucky music that’s for people who have their life together. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think it’s music for people who are able to clearly identify [with the fact that] that they need God. I think that requires a certain level of desperation than a lot of other things because it’s kind of humbling to admit that you need someone or that you don’t have all of the answers and you can’t figure out life on your own. So that was my inspiration, and also to write something to give people hope, and I think that it did that.
Q: How many concerts do you have a year?
A: It depends. Last year I was on the road over 300 days. That doesn’t mean I played 300 times, it just means I was on the road [for] 300 days. This year it will probably change a lot. My wife and I left Phoenix Jan. 2, and we haven’t been home yet. She goes home on Monday, so we were gone about three and a half weeks.
Q: Where is your favorite place that you have been to during a tour?
A: I love going everywhere. It depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I love New York City when I’m in the mood to be surrounded by a billion people. I love Montana and the Dakotas. It’s beautiful out there. I love going to San Francisco and driving up the California coast. I love being everywhere. I love traveling. I sort of lucked out that it’s part of my job description.
Q: What’s your favorite part about going on tour?
A: I think it’s getting to meet people and see new things and getting to check out local food that you don’t necessarily get to taste in Arizona. That’s always fun.
Q: What kind of message do you want to leave with your fans, especially tonight?
A: I think ultimately it’s just to encourage people to always be open to the possibility that God wants to be a bigger part of their life than He currently is. I think that we live in a time where there are a lot of easy, temporary solutions to problems, but they’re not long-term, good ones. So if you’re bored, you can look on Facebook or Twitter or go on the Internet, but you could be bored because you’re lonely or you don’t feel connected to anybody. I think part of the reason we spend so much time on the road traveling and playing music for people is so that we can connect people with God and with each other. I think the great thing that happens when you’re at a concert is that there is an interaction, not only with you listening to music, but with your friends, and so that’s why we are here.