We are so happy to have Andrew Peterson as our special guest on Episode #167.  He has been a great encouragement and support to what UTR is doing.  He’s one of my personal favorite singer-songwriters, and an always intriguing person to interview.  Here’s a peek at some of our most recent conversation:

DT:  Do you feel like your most recent CD (Counting Stars) is a bit peek at your more mellow side?
Andrew:  Yeah, I guess it’s different. I always think of my music as being pretty laid back.  There’s no big orchestra on this record, some of my albums do that thing.  It’s funny because people have mentioned more than once that it feels a little bit more mellow.  I just say, “Alright, I guess so.”  Part of it may be that Ben and Andy have been working for years to get me to sing my songs in a lower key.  I grew up in the 80’s and in that era your coolness was in direct proportion to how high you could sing.  So, I was always trying to write my songs too high, and my voice would get kind-of nasally.  But the older I’m getting I’m believing them more and more. They would just make me lower the capo two or four frets.  My voice is a little warmer in that register, so that may be part of it.

DT:  Most people still recognize you because of the breakout hit “Dancing In The Minefields.” What was it like to make your first career music video for that song?
Andrew:  Boy, I never thought that would ever happen. Ben [Shive] bought me this obscure band’s record for my birthday, and it was really cool music.  I went to the band’s website and the first thing I wanted to do was click on their video.  I was thinking, “I wonder what these guys look like – I wonder what their video would be like,” and that’s what I checked out.  And it hit me; we live in an entirely different world than when I started playing music ten or twelve years ago.  It used to be, if you made a music video, where was it going to get played, on ZTV or the Trinity Broadcasting Network late at night?  I don’t know how that works.  But I knew that I wasn’t ever watching Christian music videos.  But now with YouTube, the Internet, and blogging and stuff, I was like, “Hey, maybe we should try doing this thing.”  I asked my manager if she thought it would be a good idea and she said it was.  So, we ended up deciding in a meeting in about five minutes let’s make a video for “Dancing in the Minefields.”  We’ll get some old couples in our lives who represent this beautiful, lasting marriage idea and get them to dance, because I knew there was no way in the world I was going to dance.

DT:  If you had to pick one, what Counting Stars song are you excited to play live for people?
Andrew:  If I had to pick a song that turned out the way I wanted it to turn out, I would say it’s “The Reckoning,” the last song on the album.  I could barely make it through it when we were singing it in the studio.  It was a pretty new song – I had written it and sung it for the guys before we went in the studio – but the day we had recorded all the tracks on it I was in there in the dark with my headphones on singing, and that was the first time I really experience what it was that I was saying.  The song is my voicing of my own frustrations with God’s tarrying.  I found myself ending a lot of prayers lately with, “Jesus, please hurry back,” even on good days.  I believe in bones that even our best days here are just a glimpse of what will be.  I’m watching my children grow up, so I’m watching the leaves turn in my little boy’s heart.  As he goes from this “edenic” childhood, where he doesn’t know about the dangers of the Internet yet, and he’s never had his heart broken by somebody.  I’m watching this little boy grow up and it’s breaking my heart to know what’s in store for him.  It makes me long even more for the day when the earth will be restored and renewed – when there will be justice – where there won’t be this color of longing and sadness at the edges of our hearts.  The  end of the song says,  I know I don’t know what I’m asking, but Lord, I long to look you full in the face.  I think that’s probably the most succinct summary of how my heart has felt for the last couple years.

DT:  Can you reflect on the making of my personal favorite A.P. project, The Far Country?
Andrew:  Yeah, I remember when we were making The Far Country. Each album reflects whatever it is that’s going on in my heart for the previous couple of years. The Lord of the Rings movies were still being made when I was writing the songs for The Far Country and I had a re-awakening of my love for C.S. Lewis and his ministry.  Some of the songs, you’re right - I don’t know if esoteric is the word - but you have to think about it, you have to use your imagination. I remember saying several times before we ever went into the studio that I felt this was an album about the Gospel.  I wasn’t going to try to make the songs artsy just for the sake of being artsy. I was going to try and tell the truth the best I knew how.

Make sure to check out this week's UTR to enjoy music and conversation with Andrew Peterson.  He talked about "The Reckoning" and you can watch a live performance of that song in the UTR Studios.  Also feel free to browse his name on our site to find a bunch of interviews and exclusive videos.