It’s interesting that you describe this new album as a more honest
example of who you are, because I get the sense that you’re having much
more fun with this record than you did on your debut album, One of the Ones, which was, dare I say, a much more somber, heart-wrenching affair.
[Laughs]
Yeah, [One of the Ones] was not necessarily what you’d play on a hot
summer day if you wanted to feel good about life. [Laughs]

Writing
is my therapy. It’s how I deal with wherever I am in life. At the
period of time in my life [when I was recording] The Gospel According
to Levi, I was dealing with wanting to articulate what my past was… come
to terms with it and let it go. And [the album] accomplished that for
me. I have been able to let that go and it feels really freeing.

Now
Where I Belong represents yet another new direction for you in much
the same way that your sophomore effort, The Gospel According to Levi,
represented a significant departure from One of the Ones. But would it
be fair to say that this new album symbolizes not a compromise but a
meeting point for you between the two musical extremes you previously
explored?
I like the way you put that because if it feels like
Where I Belong strikes a balance it’s because I finally feel balanced.
I never want to take away that old desire I had as a kid to be a music
minister and I’m always going to want to make music that is positive,
inspirational, and healing. But there’s just no brooding in my life
right now.

I think that acceptance and coming to terms with what
my past has been has put me in a place of such gratitude for all the
stuff that you and I both know that we’ve gone through -- for my roots and
[for] that installation of faith -- that is still instilled in us and a
part of who we are.

[It’s about] putting all of the
misconceptions aside and saying that I’m really OK to sit here in
balance and harmony with the absolute protection of the whole journey.