A few years ago Chad Mattson had three words to describe his life — dark, deep and desperate.
“I grew up in church, but I got derailed along the way and got into using drugs and alcohol,” he said.
It got worse and worse. And around the point where he felt like time was about to run out for him, Mattson got a card from some missionaries he knew in the Dominican Republic.
“Sort of like a Hail Mary, like one last big play in the game, I got in touch with them and said, ‘My life is a wreck, but is there any way I could come hang out with you for two months?’”
They said yes.
And while he was there, things changed.
“For the first time in my life — even though I grew up in church — I started to hang out with God and pray and read the Bible and get to know who Jesus is,” he said.
To know Jesus is to love Him, Mattson said. “And to love Him is to truly live.”
That’s the message he shares now as lead vocalist for the musical group Unspoken. It was something God began to work in him from the moment he started really getting to know Jesus.
“I met a guy in the Dominican Republic who played guitar and he moved back to Maine with me, bought my grandparents’ blue Cadillac with 175,000 miles on it and we started making music.”
‘Living below the poverty line’
They picked up two more band members and started singing at open mic nights and concerts whenever they could.
“We were all literally living below the poverty line,” Mattson said. “We were leaving our families every weekend to play music and working odd jobs when we were home to try to make ends meet.”
Life was an immediate struggle, and “that was the first 10 years,” Mattson said, noting that the band — now in its 13th year — has added a fifth member.
And they’ve seen some success from their first album, enough to be able to focus on their music without having to worry about the electricity being turned off, he said.
“We’re all in awe of what God has done,” he said, and that spirit of thankfulness is all over their second album, “Follow Through,” which releases Aug. 26.
‘Gratitude-driven’
“These new songs came out of a different place from the last record,” Mattson said. “In the past there was so much uncertainty and struggle in our lives that was reflected in our songwriting. Now we’re writing songs that are really gratitude-driven. This new record is joyful and uplifting as opposed to being born out of the grind and the struggle. We’re just grateful for where we are now, for where God has brought us on this journey.”
“Higher,” the first track on the new album, sets a great tone for the project, Mattson said. In that song, the band sings that “the lower I go, the more I’m gonna lift You higher.”
“It’s inevitable that we all have highs and lows. Every season is different,” Mattson said. “Our circumstances and our feelings can’t dictate the worthiness of God. This song is our way of worshipping in the midst of that.”
Another track, “So Good to Me,” was written in such a way as to step back and look at what God has done for the band over the years.
And “Life in the Death of Me” is Mattson’s personal testimony.
“We wanted to go back to the basics of why we started and what the vision was 10 years ago,” he said. “We wanted the album to remind us that we’re followers of Christ, that we should be passionate and hold onto that first love and finish strong.”
For more information, visit www.unspokenmusic.com.
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