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Slow Down” is the first single from my upcoming sophomore album. The idea for this song really started a few years ago with a Dallas Willard quote that punched me in the gut. He said “you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” When I read that I stepped back and thought about how little margin I had in my life for resting and unhurried time. And I’m not talking about resting via a Netflix binge, I’m talking about just being still. My days and weeks move so quickly from thing to thing and that quote made me realize the toll it was taking. That lifestyle was pushing a subtle but steady message that my value is exclusively in what I am able to produce or create, and that mindset had started to poison my art. I had started writing to prove my worth in some ways and creating for people’s approval. I wrote this song about that internal struggle and about the voices in my life who counter that message with a message that my worth is very simply in who I am. And writing songs FROM a place of approval feels much better than writing songs FOR approval. 

Joel Ansett

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