Happy 1st Birthday Collective Worship!

Y’all, I can’t believe it. It’s been ONE YEAR since the release of the Collective Worship album. One year since the release, and coincidentally – one year since shelter-in-place kicked in as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s been the weirdest possible album release cycle. Normally when an album drops, the artist at least plays ONE time in support of it (and hopefully, many more than that)! My hope was to tour on Collective Worship, lead at various churches across the country, have worship nights, play gigs, make CW t-shirts, songbooks, the whole nine. Obviously, none of these things happened.

It’s also strange because this is the most COMMUNAL album I’ve ever done. 57 worshipers and creatives from across the country contributed their talents and skills to this project (thank you so much friends). And then… BOOM! Social distancing. My world went from the GREATEST amount of social interaction/collaboration ever to the LEAST!

And yet, God has used this album beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined. I’ve heard such sweet things from people about how these songs have blessed them through this crazy season. I know they’ve blessed me. People have been listening. Worship bands have played some of the songs at their churches. Glory to God!!

God willing, more and more people will be vaccinated soon and we will reach herd immunity. This will allow the world to open back up. I can’t wait to hug all of my people again! A year with no hugs… “no sir, I don’t like it” (quoth Mr. Horse from Ren & Stimpy).

As you may know, I’ve moved to Austin. I’m just about to re-open my recording studio and I already have some clients coming down to record. I’ve also begun to think about Collective Worship vol. 2! I’m thinking it’ll be an EP. I’m also thinking of doing a Collective Worship vol. 1 & 2 tour… Maybe getting some vinyl pressed of the live tunes… Maybe creating that songbook I’d been thinking about. Printing some CW shirts. More videos…

But these are all ideas. I’m going to be spending time in prayer to figure out next steps. I may not know where that’ll all end up. But what I DO know is that I’ve missed music like crazy. I’ve missed YOU like crazy. And I cannot wait to have both of you back in my life. I hope to see you soon!

– Matt

P.S. – click here to listen to Collective Worship on Spotify!