Walk With Me

The subject most obviously shows up on pop-centric “Loved By You” and celebratory lead single “Love Is Everything We Need,” which affirms that loving our enemies is always the best course of action. Anchor track “What He Says About You” expands on that seminal topic of God’s love by challenging the false labels society places on us. Thinking about his young daughters and the message he wants etched on their impressionable hearts, Mattson wrote the driving, guitar-heavy selection with his bandmate Jon Lowry, alongside ace songwriters Ethan Hulse, Chris Stevens, Tedd T., Tony Wood and Tyrus Morgan over the course of six months as Mattson wrestled with the lyrics to get to the core of our identity in Christ, ultimately reminding listeners we are loved, chosen, held, forgiven and treasured by the Creator of the universe. “It’s really hard to differentiate the truth from how we feel or who culture says we should be. So I hope this song just washes over people’s spirits and minds and hearts, reinforcing what the truth really is,” Mattson says. “There’s only one voice that matters, and it’s the voice of God.” As he grappled with the song’s lyrics, the father of three realized he was writing them for himself as much as his children. “The same stuff that’s affecting my daughters is affecting me. I allow a lot more things from the outside world to inform my identity than I do Scripture. I often find myself on my phone more than I’m in the Word,” he admits. “I think it’s our job as parents to help our kids navigate these things and also limit, not only our children’s exposure to it, but our own.” Like “What He Says About You,” the selections on IV feel like they were written in real time in the midst of real life. Penning nearly 100 contenders over the course of the past five years, Mattson reflects, “I think we’ve just tried to write the songs that were in front of us.”