Unveiling the noise inside with Adam Watts
12-20-2006
by Brenten Gilbert

If the term "Get'cha Head in the Game" means anything to you, there's a good chance you've seen the Disney Channel movie, High School Musical. What you might not realize is that one of the musical minds behind this project happens to have something of a secret life as a solo artist and songwriter.

In 2004, Adam Watts released The Noise Inside on BEC Recordings which was something of a sleeper hit due to it's lack of intentional radio hits, but undeniable artistic flair. Recently, Watts has followed up that release with an independently produced, Sleeping Fire.

CMCentral.com's Sr. Editor caught up with Adam Watts to talk about the new release, his never-ending string of hit songs for Disney, Jeremy Camp, Jesse McCartney and more, and his future plans. Below is that converstaion - an interesting one at that.

How are you doing?

Pretty fantastic. I'm eating some chicken strips from Jack-In-The-Box and they are good.

We don't have Jack-In-The-Box out here. I hear good things about them but, when it's all said and done, it's still fast food. . .

(laughs) Yeah. It's very not good for you, but it tastes good.

Sorry I'm a few minutes late. . .

It's fine. . . It actually worked out well because my fiancé just got here and was able to give me a little birthday gift.

Oh, is it your birthday, too?

Tomorrow.

Happy birthday, you're going to be 18 now, right?

yeah, 18

(laughs)

Yeah, just graduated high school.

Well, since you mentioned high school. . . I saw your musical not too long ago.

Oh, you did? (laughs) That's a classic piece of work right there.

Indeed. And you're the reason that Jeremy Camp is so successful now right?

Well, I wouldn't say THE reason, I played some role, however big or small.

(laughs)

Fair enough. Well, you definitely have worked on a lot of big projects over the last few years. Actually, it seems like you are the go-to-guy for Radio Disney. How did that all come together?

The thing with Disney all happened basically because of one song, which was a song called Beautiful Soul. We - me and my buddy Andy [Dodd] - wrote [that song] for Jesse McCartney. We were part of this little company called Taxi. . . have you heard of Taxi?

I don't think so.

They call themselves an independent A & R firm company and basically anybody can sign up. What they do is screen music and then send it off to labels or anybody who would be looking for music in the industry. They are sort of a go-between, a middle man, so to speak. They charge you a few hundred bucks a year and they send you listings every two weeks, like "President of A & R at major label, looking for this type of song, songs for these type of bands or whatever." So you don't actually know who you are sending music to. You send it to them and if they think it is good enough, they send it on. So, before we ever worked with Jeremy, we did this Taxi thing and we would just send songs in as a way of motivating ourselves or whatever. We sent a song in and it got to Jesse McCartney's management and we didn't even know it at the time. They called us up and asked us to write more songs and we wrote Beautiful Soul and he ended up getting signed to Disney kind of because of that song. It had already gotten some play on Radio Disney and stuff. So they signed him and then recorded the rest of the record. That song ended up being the first single and it did really great worldwide. We were stunned and then we got a call from Disney and they were like, "Hey, we heard you wrote this song, can you guys do anything else?" We were like, "Yeah, we've worked with a bunch of Christian artists and I have a solo thing that I do. We write all different styles of music together and I write separately." So, we had meetings with them. They asked if we wanted to do a deal, a songwriting deal and we were way into it. One thing lead to another and now we are kind of staff writers for Disney.

That's pretty cool. That was a pretty good move for you then.

Yeah.

Now, you also do your own music which has a slightly different feel to it than the Disney stuff. . .

(laughs)

Slightly.

How is it different for you to work on someone else's album or songs than it is working on your own songs?

Well, there are definitely varing degrees of that difference. I would say that the High School Musical thing was probably the furthest thing away from what is really closest to my heart - my solo music and really expressing myself. So it's sometimes really different. Working on something like that, you draw a lot more from external sources and you are kind of asking what they are looking for. You are basically trying to figure out what someone else wants, which is amazingly fun. It's a great way of using whatever talents God gave me, [trying to] decipher what it is that somebody else is looking to do, whether we are hearing it from executives at Disney or whether it is a solo artist like Jeremy or Jesse McCartney. With any of those people it becomes a process of helping them translate what they want. It's just really fun. It kind of appeals to my analytical nature and sort of blending basic musical knowledge and trying to find inspiration in a real specific way. So I would say that working on stuff for Jeremy Camp is one of the closer things to my heart in terms of what I naturally do. His music is mostly written by him, and includes God in a very open way. It's very personal, so I'm able to connect to that more than some of the pop stuff I do, but there is always something I can find in whatever I'm working on to inspire me to get into it.

I'm sure that's always a challenge.

It is, but it's really great. The fact that I get to work with Andy on it is a really huge thing. We're good friends. It's really as much about friendship as it is about music. It's really great to work with someone else when you are doing something that is less personal. When I do my own music, it's very much a private, personal thing where I'm sitting by myself and trying to express my feelings and thoughts and stuff. When I'm working on somebody else's music, it's great to have a friend there who is very collaborative and cool in that way. It makes it a lot different and fun.

Very cool. So, your new album is called Sleeping Fire and, judging by the album cover, fire sleeps standing up, is that correct?

(laughs) Apparently.

What's the story behind the title of the album?

The title is sort of the next step in my life, a little artistic journey that I'm on. It relates to the fact that, because I spend time working on music that isn't my own - stuff for Disney or other artists - there is a subtle tension between those two things. So if I spent all day working on a pop song - which is a fun thing, but not something that I'm really personally driven to do - at the end of the day, if I have something to express myself, it's a little bit harder to go there. But I've found that the fire that burns inside of me to write music is my purpose as a Christian. I feel like God made me to express myself through music. And a lot of times, that fire can kind of go to sleep and be pushed down under the surface while I'm living life and trying to connect the dots of my life. So the title and some of the songs on the album are about not forgetting that [purpose] and sort of waking up that sleeping fire inside, getting to a place where you are connected to real purpose. I feel like my purpose is to make music that glorifies God and I never want to forget that. I want to keep that alive.

How do you see this album as a logical follow-up to The Noise Inside?

They are in the… I think every song on both records are like Poloroids. Each song is a snapshot of that exact time when I wrote it and recorded it. So it's really more like a diary of my thoughts and feelings throughout time. However they relate, it's kind of like, in a way, that's for somebody else to figure out. If somebody else sees that they relate musically or topically or anything like that, it's just sort of a reflection of my life. There are definitely differences. Hopefully, I'm improving in certain ways. I'm always striving to be more and more honest and get a deeper understanding of life, spirituality and all of that. So hopefully, it's an improvement from the last record,

Are there some songs from The Noise Inside that you look back on and think, "Wow! I've grown so much since I wrote that?"

Yeah. I think the most growth has been as a singer. I only started singing when I was about 19 or 20. So in that way, I kind of got a late start. Discovering myself as a singer has been something where I feel like I'm developing weekly. In contrast, I started playing drums when I was like 10 years old, so I've been drumming for 20 or so years. It's a different thing in that regard. But in terms of the songs, yeah, I hope I'm getting just closer to the heart of why I write songs. There may be a couple of songs on the record where I was trying to make broad statements and hoping that would encompass a feeling. I think the more specific a statement is, the more poignant it is, you know? Like a song like God of Grace. The verses are very specific and the chorus is very broad. I feel like there is a way to do that where both things are very specific. Not that it's bad to be broad, because there is a lot of truth in those broad statements about the Lord, about His faithfulness and His truth and things like that.

But it's easier to connect with people when you make a more direct statement. . .

Yeah, I totally agree.

Alright. What are some of the highlights on the new album for you - both musically and lyrically?

I think Something Better is a high point of me, because I feel really connected to that song. It's about not feeling stagnant or complacent in life and realizing the second that you are proud of yourself for doing the right thing. There is instant pride in that, so you need to continually see yourself, as much as you can, the way God sees you. It's just like a fallen human being who is sinful. You have to never stop trying to be the right thing and do the right thing and instead, seek the Lord. The chorus of that song is, "I should be something better." That kind of says it all. So that song is important for me - they all are - but another one - and these are the last two songs that I wrote for the record - Come Around Again is another one that I think musically, lyrically, and just kind of across the board feels like a reflection of me. That song is about patience and faith and just kind of no matter how you feel in the moment, God is there and He is going to show His face to you again. Probably the reason why I can't see Him in some moment is due to my sinfulness or due to Him wanting to teach me a lesson or grow in my faithfulness. So it's sort of about waiting on the Lord, but still having a lot of faith while you wait.

Very cool. Would you say that it was easier or more difficult to put this album together as an independent artist than the last one was as part of a label?

Well, I think it was, in that sense, equal because my situation at BEC was really great. Brandon [Ebel] loved my music and was really supportive and he told me flat out that he was putting this record out for the "art" of it. So I really didn't feel much pressure to have hit singles or anything like that. I just felt like, "Here are my songs" and he was willing to put them out. There were times when he would encourage me, like, "Are there some other songs that you have or that you could develop that might work better on radio?" But it was never a demand, so I felt free on both projects.

That's good. What else have you been working on these days? Do you have time for hobbies or anything like that?

(laughs) Yeah, music is a job and a hobby that I love. I've been working on a lot of music. I've been working on. . . Since Sleeping Fire came out, I probably already have enough songs for another record - definitely written and I have maybe like eight or ten songs recorded. I'm constantly writing and recording and trying to push myself in that way, but I'm also working on stuff with Disney. All the projects that they have going on include Jesse McCartney's latest record and Hannah Montana, which is a show with Billy Ray Cyrus's daughter. We did a song for that and then a song for the next season, also. Through that, we ended up writing a song with Billy Ray Cyrus for his latest record, a couple of songs on Jeremy's new record. . . What else is going on? A girl named Hayden Panettiere, who is one of the stars of that show, Heroes. She's making a record, so we've done a couple of songs with her. And then High School Musical II, the sequel to High School Musical. We wrote a song for that also. Disney keeps us pretty busy.

Yeah, sounds like it.

There is always something, because they have so many avenues. They have the label. They have Disney Channel. They have Radio Disney. There is always something going on over there and they call us up and ask us to do things, which is great.

It keeps you busy and keeps a roof over your head.

Yeah, totally. And actually, I'm getting married this Sunday. So that is a big thing in my life too.

(laughs) I'd say so. That's great. Man, December is going to be a crazy month for you.

It totally is. (laughs) I'm excited about being married, because she's a singer too and we both love music. I'm excited to encourage and support what she wants to do with music and do stuff together and all of that. This is new stage in my life as an artist with Sleeping Fire just coming out and all of that and I sort of have a new vision for what I want to do. It's really important to me. I have been blessed with such a great career as a producer and a songwriter, that I feel like I can really do my music in a pure way for all of the right reasons. So my next step with that is to build a website and have my music available as I write it. To really connect to the fans and be like, "Hey. I wrote this song two days ago and recorded yesterday. Now you can hear it and download it." A big part of that will be giving to charity. I want people to be able to get the songs, buy the songs, and know that some of that money is going straight to a great cause. Just because I can. I don't need to do my solo music for the money right now and that's an incredible blessing, it keeps it in a really pure place.

Cool. Kind of a throw back to Keith Green in some sense. . .

Oh yeah. Right. I heard he did something like that. . .

When he got to a certain place in his career, he just sent out his album and told people to give whatever they could for it. . .

Yeah, it's an amazing thing and I think the heart behind that is just great, totally pure. And I think it frees you up to create things that are meaningful instead of thinking about what is going to make a dollar. It's great because I'm really close to that on a daily basis with Disney. Everything they do and everything that they put out has a lot of business-minded approaches to it. Somewhere along the line somebody is asking what is going to sell. Sometimes that's great and sometimes that can really injure good music.

Yeah, it's pretty tough to find a balance between something that really expresses what you want and something that will actually be profitable as well.

Yeah, definitely.

Alright, you mentioned that you want to get involved with some charities. Do you have any specific charities in mind?

Yes. A month or two after I did my release concert at Saddleback Church for Sleeping Fire, I was sort of in the place of thinking about what I was going to do in regard to looking for a different label or whatever. My fire was kind of sleeping, to be honest. (laughs). I was kind of wondering what to do and how to do it and I remember sitting on my bed and praying and thinking about my life. And I just felt God telling me that I didn't have to do it for the money. I don't have to do if for a career. I don't have to do anything other than just be honest with my music. I could become a non-profit artist, if I wanted to and I was like, "Wow! That's true." That really struck me and I was like, "Okay, God. Just open some doors, if there are any."

It wasn't until about six weeks later that a friend of mine called me and said, "Hey man, I'm really passionate about all of the horrible things that are going on with human trafficking and forced child prostitution all over the world." He told me that there are more slaves today than there have been at any other point of history.

Wow.

Yeah, and I was like, "What?" That doesn't get a lot of publicity. And in these crazy places, these kids are being basically kidnapped and forced into prostitution - kids as young as 5-years-old. It's awful. So I felt like that was a door that God was opening and my friend was really passionate about raising awareness. He realized that he was sort of one person away from [knowing] a lot of people who have notoriety and fame and figured that if we could get everybody together to raise awareness on this issue, we could funnel money towards people who are already in there trying to do good in the name of the Lord. So that's something I'm definitely going to be involved in and it's sort of in the beginning stages - his specific thing is in the beginning stages - but I'm definitely going to play some role in that.

Sounds good. Alright, I warned you that it was going to come . . . If you are walking up and down the frozen produce aisle at Ralph's, what frozen vegetable would you say best represents where you are right now in your life.

Probably carrots.

Why is that?

I would say carrots, because it's the closest thing to the color of fire. And carrots are good for your eyes and I want to see more and more clearly.

Very good.

The more clear my eyes are, the more truthful I can be.

Well, thanks a lot for taking some time out of your schedule. Is there anything else you wanted to mention that I might have missed?

I feel like we covered it all. I'm really flattered and stoked that you wanted to talk man.

Hey, no problem. Have a good one, happy birthday and congratulations on the wedding and all of that.

Thank you.

Find out more about Sleeping Fire and Adam Watts at AdamWatts.com or MySpace.com/AdamWatts or pick up the album at iTunes