sound , that roots country kind of sound , came out . That was one of the first times I felt okay with it , just comfortable with it being that way . I think for some reason I had thought that maybe being in mostly worship leading and mostly writing songs for worship , I thought , well , “ They probably can ’ t sound too much like country or too much rock ”. That ’ s because I thought I wanted all the churches in the country to want to play my songs . I thought maybe it should have some general bland sound to it . And so I think in some ways I was writing that way to try to disregard my culture , so to speak . But there was something with “ Stand In Your Love ” that happened where this song just came out . It sounded like it sounded , it felt honest to even who I am as far as the music that I love . And then it ended up reaching more people than any song I ’ ve ever written . I think I felt the Lord was saying to me , “ Hey , just this is the sound I put in you . If it ’ s where you ’ re from and you were raised in the South , and a lot of times the music ’ s just going to come out and sound like that . Just be who you are to be your most authentic sound , and that ’ s who people are going to grab onto .” Whether they like that sound or not , they ’ re mostly going to grab onto it and feel like that is Josh being totally Josh in this song and in this moment .
Through the years I ’ ve felt more and more comfortable being that , and that a lot of my songs are just inspired by the kind of Americana , front porch , acoustic music . And I think I ’ ve just been more and more okay with that .
[ WM ] Well , keep going . That ’ s the way it should be . So , there ’ s an old saying here in Nashville that a good song is always born from experience . The same hold ’ s true for worship and the same holds true for you . That was your experience growing up in North Carolina . And by osmosis , you have a lot within you that needs to come out that way .
[ Josh ] Totally .
[ WM ] And you ’ ve been part of the Bethel Collective now for about the same length of time . What was that like for you to relocate from North Carolina to Northern California and fit in with a whole new group of folks and culture ?
[ Josh ] Oh , it was a whirlwind . And the transition , honestly from that was so much smoother than I thought it would be . I think there was a launch timing in all of it . I had been friends and known a lot of the people out there , Brian and Jen Johnson , and a lot of the leaders and speakers out there at Bethel for years . So , I had a relationship with them . And honestly , when I joined Bethel Music we never had an intention to move out there . We were going to stay in North Carolina !
I was a worship pastor at my little church in Charlotte . and we were going to stay there . But then also have the Bethel Music side of things . It was kind of the best of both worlds to me , in my opinion , and then after a year of that we just
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