Your Stories, His Songs

Matthew West lets fans do the talking through his music

Matthew West has found a new and uniquely intentional way to find direction for his music: let the fans tell him their stories.

“With my last record called The Story of Your Life, I really gave people the power to tell me what I needed to write about, because I asked them to send me their stories,” he said. “So I’ve always been active in having people involved in the music I’m making.” 

At his website, Matthew is collecting stories now for his next album, giving fans a free song download when they share their story. He shared how God has directed the entire process.

“Ever heard the saying, ‘Man plans, God laughs?’ I was going into the studio to record a few tunes to release an EP this spring and wasn’t going to release my next full record until 2013,” West wrote. “But while we were in the studio something special began to happen. These few songs were inspired by stories that were sent to me back when I was making The Story of Your Life. I was reminded of just how powerful the stories are that everyone sent and God began to put it on my heart that maybe it wasn’t quite time to move on to something different yet.”

West continued: “Most nights after concerts I walk back to the bus with a stack of handwritten stories that people deliver to me after the show. Many of the people say things like, ‘I know you’re done collecting stories, but I want you to read mine.’ It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that maybe, just maybe, there are more stories that need to be told.”

One of the most memorable stories was featured as the title track of his recent The Heart of Christmas release. “It was based on the story of a one-year-old little boy in Illinois diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. He and his family were taken to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and this little boy spent 18 months receiving aggressive treatments in an effort to save his life,” West said.

“After the doctors had decided there was nothing more they could do for this child, they sent the family home saying the child had four - six weeks left to live. The father decided to put up all the decorations early in the fall. The neighbors caught on to what was going on…and every house in the neighborhood started putting up their Christmas decorations,” he said. “It was just a beautiful story of how a family and a community rallied around this little boy so that he could have Christmas one final time.”