Louder Than The Music

Grammy Nominated singer/songwriter Matthew West will again seek to turn fan-penned stories into songs for his forthcoming album. In 2010 he released 'The Story Of Your Life', an album inspired by 10,000 letters from all over the world that were submitted by his fans. The acclaimed songwriter has now announced that he will record a new album this year, planned for release in the Autumn, and has invited fans to again submit their stories before the end of March.

"I had my whole year planned", explains West. "and that's when everything changed! I was going into the studio to record a few tunes to release an EP this spring and wasn't going to release my next full record until 2013. But while we were in the studio something special began to happen. These few songs were inspired by stories that were sent to me back when I was making The Story of Your Life. I was reminded of just how powerful the stories are that everyone sent and God began to put it on my heart that maybe it wasn't quite time to move on to something different yet."

The singer has continued to receive on average over a hundred stories every week for the past two years via his website and many more are handed to him after his live shows. For every submission received until the end of March Matthew will give away a free download of 'The Story Of Your Life'. He will then begin recording the new album in the spring of this year with a plan to unveil the set of new songs in September.

"You can write about anything", Matthew says. "Your faith, your fears, the best day of your life, or the worst. You can write about your family, your enemies, your secrets, whatever. The only rule is, be honest with yourself."

Just a month after finishing the nearly sold out 'The Heart of Christmas Tour' with fellow Grammy nominee Mandisa, West is embarking on the nationwide 'Come To The Well Tour' with Casting Crowns this spring. The tour will visit around 40 cities from February through until May.