Tauren Wells’ third studio album as a solo artist, Joy in the Morning, came out earlier this year. The ten-track record includes his recent Top 20 single, “Fake It,” along with his current single, the title track. With his place in music firmly established, the Michigan native says Joy in the Morning will forever be one of his favorite projects he has ever recorded.
“It’s a really special album to me,” Wells tells Everything Nash. “It was a whole journey for me, honestly. God used it in my life as a key to unlock a new space for me, and I mean that in a very personal way, and then in an artistic way too. I was in one of the early writing sessions actually for the title track of this album, and the guy that I was writing with, he’s a pastor and writes a lot of songs with Elevation Worship. They just did this huge collaboration with Maverick City that blew up, but he was kind of the impetus behind that.”
That pastor was Steven Furtick who, like Wells, has a love of a lot of different styles of music, which Wells was able to marry in Joy in the Morning.
“I was talking to him about the struggle of loving r&b and loving hip-hop, and loving pop, and loving worship, and loving the church,” Wells recalls. “But also loving people outside of the church who may not even think about God. How do I choose which way is the most authentic way to express myself?”
As Wells and Furtick continued the discussion, Wells quickly realized they were talking about more than just his next record.
“He said that I really have to be willing to bring my whole self into this next season of my life,” Wells recounts. “So it was a bigger statement than just the music, than just the album, but also bringing the thing that I just love about dancing that would provoke me to make a video like ‘Fake It,’ or the relationship that I have with my wife that would be the catalyst for songs, like ‘Has To Be God’ and ‘Afraid With You,’ and actually bringing all of that into this creative space. So Joy in the Morning is a culmination of that boldness and freedom, and the effort to bring everything I feel like I’ve been designed to do into a succinct body of work. That’s Joy the Morning, and I hope that it gives people permission as well to feel.”
Wells’ biggest hope and aspiration with all of the songs on Joy in the Morning is that the record would give listeners the ability to feel and experience even the hard things in life, knowing that even amid hard seasons, there is always hope.
“I think a lot of times music and entertainment give us beautiful places to escape to, but with this album, I wanted it to be an entrance into some of maybe the dark places we don’t really love to go and to find the beauty there,” Wells says. “That’s the heart of Joy in the Morning. It’s been resonating with people and I think it’s still got a lot of life left to give.:
Wells will resume his Joy in the Morning Tour in 2023. Find all of Wells’ music and upcoming shows at TaurenWells.com.