Interview: Brandon Watson
Internationally known recording artist, worship leader, singer/song-writer and producer Brandon Watson from Texas just released his new single 'Just Want To Be With You'. Louder Than The Music chatted with Brandon to find out all about how he started in music, the story behind his songs, and his plans to release a full length album.
For those who haven't heard of you before, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got involved in making music?
I am a pastor's kid born and raised in San Antonio Tx, most of my childhood I grew up in a small church in Bandera Tx (Cowboy Capitol of the world) is what they like to call it. If you know me at all I am definitely not country however, growing up in a smaller church pretty much taught me to step up and learn how to lead worship. When I was 9 years old I was the church drummer and by 13 years old I learned guitar and began singing and leading worship for our church.
Tell us about your new single 'Just Want To Be With You' and what the inspiration behind it was?
Most of my music is upbeat, energetic and VIBEY. For this song I kept coming back to the scripture in James 4:8 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you". I wrote off over that idea with Corey and Audrey Harbert with CortxAudio my producer and he came up with the idea of having the bass line being the foundation of the melody of the song. That's how "Just Want To Be With You" was written.
Do you have any plans to release further music in the near future?
Yes! I do! A lot actually, I am currently working on new original music set to release this fall and winter!
I am also really excited to collaborate with a Christian/Rock band called "OutCry" out of Swaziland South Africa. They took one of mine songs called "All this time" and we recorded our videos separately during quarantine and released it during the summer and got an overwhelming response from our fans. CCM Magazine featured it as well. So we decided to get together and work on a few more surprises for the fall!
What message would you like people to take from your music?
My life and music have one common message that I truly believe to be important. It's a message of HOPE, LOVE and acceptance by God, no matter how far any person may have fallen or gone. God loves them and has never given up on them.
How would you describe your style of music and what are your influences?
I am a church boy through and through! But I do like to have fun and I really think you can see and also hear that in all of my music. My music is passionate and energetic. It just makes you feel good when you hear it! Either you want to dance or you want to vibe out to it.
It's hard to gauge who I sound like because I have so many influences from CCM (Mercyme, David Crowder, Chris Tomlin) to gospel influences (Kirk Franklin, Travis Greene, Todd Dulaney) all the way into blues music which you can hear in my guitar playing (B.B King, John Mayer, Eric Clapton) But I am officially labeled as a Pop/CCM Artist.
If you could work with any songwriter, who would it be and why?
WOW! That's so hard to pick just ONE. I would love to write with Bart Millard from Mercyme, Ryan Tedder from One Republic, Jeremy Camp or Shane Mcanally.
How would you define success in your career as an artist?
If someone got saved through a song I wrote. If someone was inspired to be greater, to be innovative and take a chance. Honestly people just being changed by a song that God gave me, I truly feel like is HUGE! That's a win for me.
What is your favorite album of all time?
Anything from Integrity Music from the early 2000's I am a sucker for older worship songs!
The Continuum album from John Mayer was a big one for me as a musician. U2 shaped and molded my creativity as an artist I would say.
You're stuck on an island, it's hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your phone. What track is it?
Creation Calls (An old Vinyard worship song) Remember I am a church boy through and through!
What does the next year hold for you?
I will be officially releasing my full length Album. I WILL BE TOURING AGAIN! Hallelujah! I miss being on the road. But you will just have to stay close to the journey. I plan on releasing and putting out a lot of content this next year. Videos, new music, new collabs with different artists and bands! I'm excited for the next year!
