Mat Kearney – Time Well Spent

CCM: Plus, that has to keep you interested, this mystery of creating.
MK: Yeah, I feel like the mystery of songwriting is still so strong. There are songs I’ve worked on for three years and have put 100 hours into and they’re still terrible. Then there are songs where I’m literally tired and got in a fight with someone and I’m sitting on your porch and write your best song in two minutes. You look back and you’re like, “Man, the best song I wrote in the last ten years happened in one minute.” The mystery of the process is very elusive and it keeps you coming back for more.

CCM: You mentioned thirteen years earlier. Is there a moment that you’re most proud of that you’ve been able to achieve with the music in that time?
MK: I’m just proud of the way I’ve been able to do it. There are a lot of people, artists, whose success broke them in ways. They’re not able to keep doing it. So, just the fact I can keep doing it and how we’ve done it and the team around us—I sleep well at night. I was never in it for the short-term thing. The long-term was always about great songs that move people. There are definitely steps where you say, “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have taken that,” when you look back, but generally speaking, I feel like I put out records that I’m really proud of. When I listen back to them, I think, “I still like that.” That’s not easy to do. [Laughs] I mean, there are definitely songs I don’t love, too. I listen to some songs and think, “What was I thinking?”

CCM: Are any of those fan favorites?
MK: Luckily, no. I love “Heartbeat,” but that song was me trying something for fun. I wouldn’t say that it came from my soul. You can have one misstep every once in a while. Luckily the songs that have done the work for me are close to my heart, songs like “Nothing Left To Lose” or “Ships In The Night” or even the more poppy songs like “Hey Mama” are very much connected to my story. I really enjoy playing those songs still.

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