Tauren Wells is a six-time Grammy ® nominated artist , four-time GMA Dove Award winner , a platinum-selling singer / songwriter , multiinstrumentalist , as well as a public speaker . Accumulating 435.3 million total solo career streams with 1.6 billion audience impressions , Tauren has established himself today as one of the most talented and exciting young artists in the music industry . He ’ s recognized for tracks like the platinum-selling hit " Hills and Valleys ," as well as the Gold-certified " Known ," His second full-length album Citizen of Heaven was released earlier this year . In addition to all of the above and touring with Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey , he ’ s a worship leader on staff at Joel Osteen ’ s Lakewood Church in Houston , TX , and in this writer ’ s opinion , is a solid , articulate , and well-grounded Christian man , with understanding beyond his years .
Wynona Judd , and Travis Tritt and all of that , but also Prince , and James Brown , and the Isley Brothers . So , I listened to a lot of different music growing up , until we started going to church and I started getting hip to Fred Hammond , and some of the gospel artists like Kurt Carr , Donald Lawrence , and Israel Houghton . We were doing their music at church . That really developed a lot of musical diversity just within what I liked . When I started leading worship , I was leading Gospel music and contemporary music . So that kind of developed my musical styling . started writing songs for our two hundred and fifty voice choir . I wanted to do more , but I didn ’ t see myself doing the choir thing long-term . At the time I didn ’ t think it was cool . This is before Kanye West had a choir , so it wasn ’ t that cool yet . I was wanting to do something that spoke more to the youth , so I started a band and started writing more singer-songwriter band type songs . I had no context for touring . Music happened in a fairly fairy tale way , and I had no context at this point . I thought you call your friends who had parents who were pastors and see if you could go play some shows at their church , teach Sunday school , and then do a concert for youths on a Friday night . So that ’ s what we did , and we did that for two years before we got signed . But those years greatly informed , influenced , and developed who I am today , no question .
[ WM ] Tauren , I really appreciate this interview time with you . Thank you so much !
[ Tauren ] Thank you .
[ WM ] For those of us not familiar with your earlier background , where did you grow up and who were your earliest musical influences ? Who and what drew you into music ?
[ Tauren ] I grew up in Battle Creek , Michigan , which has the moniker “ Cereal City USA ”, because it ’ s the home of Post , Kellogg ’ s , and General Mills . All the good cereals ! I grew up with my house smelling like Fruity Pebbles , and my Dad worked at Post for years and years , and still does . We started going to church when I was about nine years old . I got into the church choir and started singing there and grew up in a really musical household . My Mom and my Dad met in musical theatre , so they ’ re both musical as well and not afraid of the stage . They separated when I was young , but their separation really put my Dad on this track of discovering who Jesus was and realizing his faith . That led to me going to church as well .
But growing up , we listened to so much different music , my Dad loved Bonnie Raitt , and
Hills and Valleys
[ WM ] You have a choir background in addition to your college major of Theology . Were your years at Indiana Bible College , where you met your wife , impactful to you in music ? There are very few songwriters and artists that have taken your academic path . What are your thoughts on this ?
[ Tauren ] My years at Indiana Bible College were probably my most formative and exploratory , and I think that ’ s a lot of what the college experience is - you ’ re exploring yourself as an individual and finding the people that you like to be around . It ’ s your first- time making decisions that your parents aren ’ t making for you to a great degree . So , I was exploring a lot , and because of God ’ s grace I was able to do that in a safe environment at Bible college . My only context for music really was the Gospel style , if I was going to be writing about my faith . I really wasn ’ t aware of DC Talk , Steven Curtis Chapman , and Michael W . Smith . I knew who they were , but they were kind of on the margins for me as far as what I was comfortable with writing and leading . When I was in college I
[ WM ] It ’ s pretty tough to number any amount of artists that are as excellent and accepted in so many musical genres as you are . You traverse Gospel , Worship , Pop , Dance , R & B , Hip Hop and Soul music with enormous musical gifting . A jazz musician friend of mine once told me , “ In every style of music you can find greatness , which I happen to call ‘ it ’. Our job is to find “ it ” in whatever we listen to .” I know that the word impact is important to you , as is worship . Tell us about your vision for impact and bringing “ it ” to our culture .
[ Tauren ] I ’ m really just trying to bring “ Him ”, not necessarily “ it ”. I want people to see Jesus and I think so often we put Him into whatever our cultural context is , and I want to be able to express Jesus in the way that I ’ ve experienced Him , what I ’ ve learned about the nature of Him , and what He does , and how He operates . I ’ ve been able to see that at this point through many musical lenses . Music is all kind of derivative , there is so much crossover between Jazz and Gospel , Gospel and Rock n ’ Roll , Rock n ’ Roll and Blues , Blues and R & B … these are all connected . So , I think as humans we do a really good job of putting labels and categories on things , and I think they ’ re helpful to a certain extent , but I also think they can be extremely