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So you grew as a producer at the same time. When did you start favoring your production career?

Taylor I probably learned most about production when I worked with the rest of the band and [producer Matt Wallace] on the Chagall Guevara record. And eventually, I found it difficult as both a Christian and an artist to continually do stuff that's centered on your persona. It becomes hard to reconcile it with your ego. I knew a teacher who encouraged his students to find a childlike vulnerability within them, and he said, "Don't think you don't have it, because if you were a totally well-rounded mature individual, you wouldn't need to get up on stage in the first place." That's very true.

As you go on, it becomes hard to balance all that self-promotion with being a follower of Jesus. I appreciate those who are able to do it well, but it's just something that can wear you down.

Is that one of the reasons you've drifted away from a solo career?

Taylor Well, it's probably part of it. Certainly producing and looking out for a band's best interests are good too. They take you out of your own headspace as you work for the good of another. Even starting a record label was primarily to see a Sixpence album released by someone who cared. As [Squint Entertainment] quickly grew and flourished over those years, it was more and more about investing my life in the lives of other artists and my staff.

Part of it was just out of boredom too. If you keep following the same routine of writing, recording, and touring over and over, it gets tedious.

Your fans are wondering: Will you ever make music again?

Taylor I don't know! The other guys in Chagall Guevara came across these old live tapes of a concert we did in town. We transferred them to preserve them, and my friend [engineer Russ Long] did a mix. It sounded really good, reminding all of us of enjoyable times.

But on the other hand, when I decided to pursue filmmaking, it's really not a good career for dilettantes. I still enjoy making music, and plan on making music in the future sometime. But I'm also mindful of the people that have invested in this movie and hopefully other ones—I don't want them to think this is just a little hobby I've got.

So someday, when the time is right …

You're also still active with newsboys—producing and writing—even now when they've steered away from the witty songs in favor of a worshipful focus. I was surprised you were so involved in that.

Taylor Well, a chunk of it. That was an easy shift for newsboys, but difficult for me. Adoration ... I haven't talked about this much, but I actually tried to bail out of it. I really enjoy Peter Furler a lot and working with him, but we'd been working on it for a long time, and things were going really slow. We barely had ten songs—mostly live cuts from the Thrive album.

I grew up singing hymns at my church—more traditional instead of the modern worship thing. I just didn't understand it, to my discredit. And my home churches have done more of that stuff over the years, but it always felt like warmed over Kenny Loggins or James Taylor to me. Again, to my discredit, it just seemed like really boring music that I wouldn't mind missing out on. It was as much a spiritual malaise as anything.

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