Bebo Norman's sixth project on Essential Records, Between The Dreaming and the Coming True, introduces an artist that has rediscovered purpose in life. From despair to hope, from depression to happiness, the theme of this record comes directly from where Bebo is living today.

In this candid interview, Bebo talks about where he has been and how that life is now behind him. He delves into his writing process and how even that has changed as he discovers joy in relationships and a greater peace in how God fits into an ever changing world. In the end, he shares how this album is completely different for him personally than any other album. For us, it simply is his best yet.

Let's clear the air about something right from the start. You stole the title of your record from someone else. Tell us about that.

Well, I don't know that I would use the word steal...how about borrowed? I was fully inspired by Between The Dreaming and the Coming True by Robert Benson. I think he wrote it back in the mid-90s. His book is basically about his struggle with depression as a believer and coming out of that while trying to find God in the middle of everything. I haven't struggled with depression like he has. However, I think we can all relate to the fact that we live with a perfect God, but we also live in an imperfect world. There's a great irony in that.

How did that book impact your song writing for the new album?

I always promised myself after I read that book, that if I ever wrote the perfect group of songs that I would title my album Between The Dreaming and the Coming True. The truth is, that hadn't happened until just recently. This new group of songs really made sense on that front.

I was really struggling in the early stages of writing this record on where I was going to write from. I've already written from despair and loneliness. I guess desperation a little bit. That has sort of been the theme of my life that has really drawn me into who God is.

Strangely enough, the last two or three years of my life, I think for the first time ever, I've been in a season of genuine peace and it's been beautiful. I hope it's not just a season. But, I was really struggling with how to write from peace, because I've never done that before. And so, as I began to pour into writing and drove into that world, my first couple of efforts on songs was just all peace and no reality. As I continued to force myself to write, I ended up writing songs about peace that is played out against a backdrop of unrest. In other words, we have this hope eternal as believers that passes understanding, yet it is played out in a world that is very temporal. It's a very difficult balancing act that Christians have to do to try to walk through a world full of unrest when we feel very peaceful.

That's a great perspective. I was reading that you also produced the album with Jason Ingram. What was it like working with him? Are you guys good buddies?

You know, we are now. I had already started writing for this record when I was introduced to Jason over dinner one night. In this really strange way, we just became fast friends. We went ahead and set up a writing session one day just to hang out. On a selfish level, I'm scared to death of most of my first writing sessions just because I don't know if I'm really going to connect with the person, but when Jason and I first got together, we just connected. We didn't write for the first six hours and just used that time to hang out. That caught both of us off guard. What started out as a nervous first moment ended up with great conversation. The last two hours of that day, we wrote "Bring Me To Life."

For those of us who don't know Bebo, tell us about what a writing session is. How do you plan something like that and what's it all about?

That's a great question, because up until recently, I've never done co-writing. Basically my writing process was to lock myself in a room until songs came out. But a writing session happens pretty much wherever music happens. It's pretty common. When a couple folks get together to write, we'd schedule it just like a work day. Sometimes they are a few hours and sometimes they are for the entire day. During my writing sessions, I'll bring an idea of a song that contains both the lyric and the melody and we'd start there. What I've realized is that writing sessions, for me personally, have more to do with being relational with people than they do with actually writing songs. I think that is why I've enjoyed co-writing as much as I have.

When relationship and conversation happens, then community begins to happen and something in my soul is really stirred by that. That is usually when the most creative things begin to happen. For Jason and I, a lot of the songs we wrote came out of thin air. They came out of our conversation that sparked an idea and we'd look up three hours later and there would be a song there. It's just a magical process and for us, who believe these songs genuinely come from God, it ends up being a very spiritual process as well. It really is beautiful.

Well, let's talk about Bebo the person. You've been married for a few years now and live in Nashville. What's a typical day for you look like?

[Laughs] Well, my day started with drinking coffee and watching The View, which made me a little late for our phone call this morning. Im not really keen on admitting I was watching The View. After we finish talking, I'm going out to cut my grass. A normal for me looks really normal. I'll wake up, sit in my favorite chair, I try to read for a couple hours and then exercise for a hour, or shorter. The shorter I can make the exercise, the better. After that, I've scheduled writing sessions. If I'm not in a writing mode, I'll do whatever my wife wants me to do around the house or I'm on the road traveling.

Let's talk about some of the songs on the new project. The first single is "I Will Lift My Eyes."

That's a song that Jason and I wrote together. I brought that song in with a chorus and the beginnings of some versus. I was calling it "Can You Take Me Higher" and was basically a song about needing to be lifted out of the things around us. For me, those moments come from prayer where my eyes are turned away from the things of this world that can sometimes make me sad and challenge my faith. My eyes need to be lifted from those things in order to realize that God is still in control.

Any other songs on the project that really stick out to you?

Musicians like myself always say that our favorite record is the one we just did and then three months later, we're ready to make a new one and move on. I've been done with this record for a number of months now, and once we finished it, I really loved it and I didn't want to ruin it for myself. So I picked it up the other day and listened to it just to see if hated it yet, and I didn't. That really caught me off guard. All that to say, this record for me has become one that should stand the test of time for me, not because it's some masterpiece, but because it talks about how I fit in this world in light of who God is. It's bigger than my own private perspective.

The very first song on the record is called "Into The Day." It's a song about stepping out of the dark night of the soul and stepping into light. Jesus is described as the great light of the world. My last few years have really been about stepping into the day. In the past, whenever my faith was challenged or doubted, my tendency was to err to despair. Now, when I'm challenged, I tend to err to hope. Maybe that's the definition of peace.

When you're driving down the road and hear your song on the radio, how does that make you feel? Is it weird?

[Laughs] It is weird! My wife laughs at me because my first instinct whenever I hear one of my songs on the radio is to change the station. But she forces me to turn it back and it does help me to stay plugged into the fact that this is what I do. Even if the radio wasn't turned on, that song would still be playing, and that's a great indicator to me that God uses music way beyond what I have the capability to do.

That is so true. Well, we've run out of time but thanks for chatting. I really appreciate it.

Hey, thanks so much, it was good talking with you!