getting down to the root of what am I running from , what pain am I numbing . And that ’ s hard work to do , to dig down deep into your life and try to understand what ’ s way down here at the bottom that actually is impacting what ’ s happening up here on the surface .
And through that process of doing that work and getting healthy , I started to write these songs . And these songs were not songs that I thought I would share with anybody else . It was moreor-less a journal entry . They were very personal , very vulnerable , very honest conversations with God . They were conversations with my own soul .
But as I continued in the process of healing , I started to meet people along the way who were in that same process of recovery and healing . And I realized that again , if I was honest , and maybe if I shared these songs and my story with somebody , maybe it could help somebody else get honest and help somebody else heal . And so that ’ s when I started to really think about and pray about recording these songs and making a record .
But I would say that the genesis of it started at the end of 2020 when I hit that rock bottom , like you said .
[ WM ] The title song , “ Make It Out Alive ”, is magnificent and brutally honest . Please tell us about this song . I love the lyric ,
“ It ’ s gonna take some time Healing always does Embrace the road you ’ re walking
Be patient with the process You ’ re gonna make it out alive Just embrace the road you ’ re walking Be patient with the process You ’ re gonna make it out alive ”
[ Kristian ] Yeah . Yeah , that ’ s a very autobiographical song . I lived every lyric . Every line of that song , I lived it . But I also think that it ’ s a universal message , and that is the message that I wanted to send to people . If they listen to these songs , if they listen to this record and maybe they find themselves at a rock bottom like I found myself at , and you look around in that very low , desperate place , and all you see around you is brokenness , all you see around you is wreckage , all you see is darkness , I wanted to encourage somebody in that place to say , “ Hey , look , it ’ s going to take some time and it ’ s going to take some hard work , but you are going to make it out alive one step at a time , one day at a time . This is not the end of your story . You have to get up . You have to start walking . You have to start walking with the people in your life , start walking with Jesus . Embrace the work that you have to do . And then one day you ’ ll look up and you ’ ll be on higher ground and the light will be shining on you again . And you ’ ll have a story of redemption to tell .”
And so that song in particular , it means a lot , it means a lot to me . And I wrote that song kind of looking back after I had journeyed almost a year from November 9th , I wrote that song looking back at that low moment and kind of talking to myself and going , “ Hey , I know you don ’ t think that you ’ re going to make it , but you are . You ’ re going to come through the other side even better .”
another ”, yet Scripture tells us ( Jn 2:24 NIV ), that Jesus , “ would not entrust himself to them , for he knew all people ”. Where did this song come from ?
[ Kristian ] Well , again , I was terrified to open my life up to other people . I thought that if I did , there would be a lot of shame , there would be a lot of judgment , a lot of maybe looking at me going , “ Man , what ’ s wrong with you ? I ’ m not struggling , I ’ m not broken . I don ’ t have any problems in my life .” That ’ s what I thought I was going to get . I got the opposite . So finally , when it was time to stop pretending and finally be real and honest , I thought I was going to get shame . But what I got from my community and from God was grace .
And so now the thing that I was most terrified of for so long is the thing that I can ’ t live without . I was terrified to live in open , honest community and connection with other people because I thought I was going to get judgment . But now I can ’ t live without this connection to the people in my life and this connection to God .
And so that song , again , it ’ s very autobiographical . That song is about very specific people , about very specific things that have happened in not just my life , but in my community ’ s life . But I also think it applies to everyone . We were made to live in community , connected to people . This is how we are going to make it . If we want to run the race and finish well and cross the finish line following Jesus and in love with Jesus , we have to do it with other people . And so , this was one of the main themes of the last two years of my life , is
And so that song ... we titled the record that because I thought , man , if there ’ s one thing I want to say to people in that low place , it would be that .
Make it Out Alive
[ WM ] And the song “ We Need People ”, resonates profoundly with me . It ’ s a strange paradox when Jesus tells us to “ love one
We Need People