Sleeping Fire: Interview with Adam Watts

By Kelly Carroll

Adam Watts is a successful songwriter as well as a gifted independent artist.  His CD, Sleeping Fire provokes questions about a relationship with God and somehow inspires the listener to search and hear their own answers.  The songs are a powerful mix of guitars and faith.  A great listen that contains much grace.  Download Sleeping Fire on Itunes and check out all the current info about Adam at www.adamwatts.com   In this interview Adam shares his perspective on a successful creative life and his personal relationship with God.

KC:  I have been writing about the true meaning of the word hope for a book I am writing.  You wrote the lyrics, "wanting is a dance of hoping and of fear”.  What can people learn about creating an inspired life instead of wanting and wishing and kind of hoping?  The actual definition of Hope is:  To cherish a desire with anticipation. Trust.  To desire with expectation of obtainment.  (That is so powerful compared to the way most people use the phrase "well...I hope so...")

AW: I think one of the key elements in walking with the Lord is to surrender in faith. Which is as hard and as easy as it sounds. Dang those paradoxes! Those lyrics are from the song "Invisible Light", which is about how it’s often impossible to know or understand what exactly God is doing in our lives. As I understand it, we can trust in his promises and hope for things to turn out how we want them to, but faith is about believing that whatever does happen He is in control and cares about us. Maybe hope is like fuel, faith is the engine, we are the car, and God is driving if we let Him!

All of the good things in my musical life have been a result of working hard on honing my abilities and trying to honor the opportunities that the Lord has put in front of me. A good little equation might be: surrender and trust + hope = peace. It seems like the best creativity in life and art comes from letting things happen, which is a kind of surrender. Don't get me wrong, I try my head off. I'm way guilty of chasing things, which can be good too I suppose, if it's not a desperate, ego driven chase. But, most of the time when I let go, or make myself open to inspiration leading me; those songs seem to be the most real and timeless. So I guess for me, the right mix of surrendering to Jesus and hard work is a good place to start. 

KC:  Please tell us why you call your music your ministry.

AW: That's a good one, because I think it's possible to be a believer and make music that isn't really a deliberate ministry, though I guess it could be on accident! For me, usually my belief plays an active role in my song writing. I want to share my experiences as a believer in a way that glorifies God, is honest and hopefully encouraging.

When it comes to music as ministry, I'm always trying to accurately portray the human experiential side as it relates to the truth as the bible teaches it. So I guess it's a ministry, in that, I'm trying to reflect what I'm going through off of my belief in God and try to always point upward towards Him in some way. Whether it's subtle or very overt. The goal is to have some kind of positive effect on people and share my experience as a believer in a way that hopefully reaches out and invites them to know Jesus.

KC:   How can music bring someone closer to God?

AW: Music is so powerful and it seems like it's as universal as other human expressions like smiles or frowns. It's a transcendent form of communication. It's as if God gave us music as a way for us and Him to reach across social, economic, political, ethnic and almost any other perceived boundaries and affect us. Music can change your internal environment in a matter of seconds. It's crazy! I love that part of it. Since a lot of times we act and react from an emotional place, the fact that music can change emotions like that can be very powerful. So if the change is towards something positive it can change the next thing we do. I believe God works through any music that is expressing something truly good. Music is one of His tools, we're just borrowing it. Often church services start with music because it can put everyone in a unified place to seek God or worship Him.

KC:  How does it feel when you are inspired in your creativity?  What does that mean to you? 

AW: Oh man, I love it when things are flowing. It's the best. If I'm honest, it feels like it's not really me doing it so much as it is me kind of being a passageway. I know that might sound kinda magical or pretentious, but that's kinda how it feels. And really that's the humbling thing about it. When I feel like I'm the one doing it, that's when I'm probably creating more of a derivative piece of junk. Usually that's a sign that there's a bit too much ego involved. Sometimes I can catch myself, stop in my tracks and try to get to that surrendered, open place again, where I'm focusing on the truth. If I find myself harshly judging what I'm creating while I'm creating it, I'm in trouble.

It's such a gift to be able to create. It can feel like a curse sometimes too! But only when it's out of perspective in my life. I think a lot of creative people are wired to really need to create. Almost like if we don't there's this feeling of deep hunger. That's a sign I think, that God has blessed you with the gift of creativity and wants you to use it for His purposes, when there's a desire to do it and some kind of natural ability or vision attached to it. I think a lot of the out of whack elements of celebrity culture come from people worshipping the art and the artist rather than its true source, God. I believe every gift or talent God gives is important, society just values some over others. That's something I always want to remember.

KC:   Creatively, what can you say to others about being what God put in your heart to be?  So many people seem to have fear around successfully following the creative path full time.   Did you have concerns when you were first starting out?

AW: I think if you take a look at yourself and you're honest about what your natural abilities are, that's a good place to start. God made us with unique gifts that are given to us to use for His purposes. We're like little super heroes and we need to use our powers for good! There's another side to it though, and that's that society celebrates some talents more than others, so that tends to blur things a bit. You may have the idea that you want to be the next Stevie Wonder, but maybe your specific gifts are different and God's plan for you is different and if you don't embrace who you really are you'll be beating your head against a wall. So it's so important to be original and embracing your uniqueness. It's really freeing to know that you're meant to be you and that's a beautiful thing. A friend of mine has said, "Money flows to good ideas", I think that's true. Build on your gifts and try to be great at what you do and do great work. Create meaningful music first and I believe that the Lord will open the right doors if you trust Him with your career. I used to be worried that I would miss opportunities or that I needed to sort of make things happen in a slightly panicked way, and I've found that never really does much to further the career. Especially if your kind of forcing things and you forget that you can be annoying when you’re overly ambitious. So yeah, focusing on doing good work and being relaxed and conscientious to people you work with seems to lead to success. Not to mention a lot of faith and grace. 

KC:  “Real For Me".  That song has such a great feeling and message.  This is the desire for so many... since writing this song, has God become even more real to you?  And what does God becoming more real mean?  I think the way the song talks about it truly gives the listener a chance to think, "if I want God closer to me and even more real in my life, maybe all I need to do is ask."  Ask and it IS given!

AW: Yeah, inviting the Lord into our life and circumstances is so central I think. We're free to go out on our own or surrender to the Lord. But, it's not like there's a little God-button that you can push and get what you want when you want it, sometimes I wish there was! For me a lot of times my perception of God's distance is due to something I'm doing. The first line of "Real For Me" is "I'm far from anything worth being close to". Often it's some kind of perpetual sin that I'm too comfortable with in my life or I'm not seeking Him in prayer. The song is about how sometimes I can feel that I'm stuck in a rut and my conscience is a bit desensitized. When that happens I need to stop in my tracks and say "Ok Lord, come back and help me put things in perspective". It's really a gift to feel a glimpse of the reality of God's love and grace. It's not a joke, it's real, I can see it when I look back at my life and see how He's orchestrated circumstances in such an amazing way. So the "real" I'm talking about is seeing life more through His eyes. 

Check out Sleeping Fire and Adam Watts at www.adamwatts.com

 About the author:  Kelly Carroll is a writer who is passionate about giving inspiration to others in many forms including lyrics, books, and a screenplay.  She has a private coaching practice with clients in entertainment and creative fields who join with her to maximize creative intuition and true success.  Contact Kelly at 360 739 8628   email kelly@canyon-news.com

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