I Love You Twelve

Can you tell me a little about this album? When I went back to the drawing board to work on this album I thought I was gonna have a lot more of the horizontal songs that I normally sing – which is me telling you about my relationship with the Lord and things that I’ve seen. But before I knew it, I had a lot of vertical songs that were conversations between me and the Lord or songs that were directed through scripture. So I remember asking my husband and friends of mine for their advice, like, what do you think I should do with this? And people have asked for years, “When are you going to do a worship album?” And I’ve just been like, I don’t know it’s not me right now. Before I knew it, the Lord started opening up doors. My husband introduced me to Ed Cash and he went into the studio and produced the album.What drew you to the title “Captivated”? Well, the opening song is called “Holy Captivated” and it was one of the first ones that I wrote for the album or, actually, not for the album but first I had written in my worship segment of writing. And it just says, you know, when I behold Your wonder and many wonders I am captivated by Your Magesty. It just hit me that it really so many times we are so self-absorbed and I think our culture feeds us on that even though we deem ourselves as insecure – really it’s about me. But when you worship, it’s you being captivated by something other than yourself. And to be captivated is to be filled with wonder and delight. So for me, my life is wrapped around Jesus Christ. I’m captivated by Him. I am filled with wonder. I thought it would be an appropriate title to describe where I am and at the same time an invitation to other people to taste and see that He is good and to see Him as captivating as well.

How was the writing process? Was it weird writing differently than you normally do? I don’t know. It really wasn’t. That was the thing that was probably the strangest- that it did feel normal. I ask God all the time and say, “Let me be Your secretary. Tell me what’s on Your heart…what You want me to write. And what the people need to hear.” ‘Cause I can guess all day long and I can guess wrong all day long. But if I listen to Him, He knows the people. And so I ask Him from that aspect of being a secretary and then I ask Him again to be the mail carrier. Teach me and tell me where to go to deliver the mail. And so writing, He makes it so natural in a supernatural way. But when I see people come up to me and say “This song has touched me in this way” or, I got an email a couple days ago from a lady who watched me sing a song from the new album and she was about to commit suicide that day. She was a single mom and she was just saying thank you because the Lord used my song to give hope and bring life. For me I know it’s not Nicole C. Mullen. I have no power to do that. But I know the One who is All-Powerful- He is able to do that. He knew her story perfectly. And He knew how to take what I said and to translate it into what she needed to hear from Him. When that happens – regardless of record sales and radio success and all of that – for me, that is mission accomplished.

Do you have a favorite song on this album? The thing about picking a favorite song is kind of like picking your favorite child. I like them all! I really do! They’re all different pages of my journal. They’re all different things that I’ve gone through – different times. Different days they speak to me differently as well. I’ve been writing for a long time. I put my first song that I ever penned on here. I wrote it at the age of twelve. This is the first time that I have recorded it for public hearing. It’s called “I’ll Praise Your Holy Name”. That’s on the album, so that’s special to me. Of course, “Holy Captivated” is special to me. One of the songs that I did on here that I did not write, “My Tribute” which is also very special to me and I coupled it with “Redeemer” which is a song I did write. There are a lot of different ones and on any given day maybe it’s “I Can”. And another day it may be “I Need You/As the Deer”. Another day it might be “Forgive Me” because I’m in need of that. But I think at the same time it’s hard for me to pick a favorite, I’ve heard a lot of different people have their own favorites as well depending on what they’re going through.

What kind of advice do you have for aspiring writers and singers? I love to tell them all the time – first of all, take your craft and give it to Christ. Take what He has given you and give it back. Just like the little boy and the loaves and the fish. He took what he had and gave it back. And then he was able to watch God multiply and feed many. I think that’s step one. Step two, I would say, practice practice practice. If you’re a songwriter – practice. Learn the craft of it. Look it up. Go to classes. Go to seminars. Learn how to do it. If you’re a singer – learn. Get in the mirror with a hairbrush or toothbrush. Look at yourself and see what you look like as you’re doing it. And then I’d say, thirdly, take any opportunity that God brings available to you – as long as it’s legal! It might be in front of two people or it might be in front of two thousand. But really the magnitude of that platform is up to Him to decide. But what we put on the platform is up to us. David in the Bible was skilled and anointed. The anointing comes from God. But the skill part is what we have to work on. If people are working towards their craft and on that craft then they are working on the skill for that craft. Those are the three things that come to mind. Number one, give it back to God. Number two, practice practice practice. And then number three, take the opportunities that He gives and makes available.

What has been the highlight of this year for you so far? This year so far? Probably yesterday. Mother’s Day. I was surrounded by my kids. Normally on a typical Mother’s Day they make me breakfast in bed. It’s kind of one of our traditions. But this year, they made breakfast in bed and it was still hot! It was great! But the highlight for me was not just the meal they had prepared – they made my favorites. But, they stood around the bed and they blessed me. They used their words and they spoke life into me. My husband had them go around and say what they love most about Mom. And what they had to say floored me, humbled me, and brought me to tears. And then he said “Let’s pray” and had the kids pray a blessing over me. For me that was the highlight because we go out and meet hundreds, sometimes thousands of people a year. And I hear good reports about what God is doing in their lives. But for me, there’s nothing like hearing that your kids are walking right before the Lord. Your kids are loving you and loving Him. For me, that’s just special to me. Not just because my kids are getting all A’s in school. But that they are loving the Lord and learning to respect people. Yesterday for me was quite the jewel. It was a memory that will last for a long time and I’m extremely grateful for it.

Do you have any projects coming up that you can share? We have another project that’s called Captivated by Prayer and that’s a DVD. It’s a six session series on The Lord’s Prayer.

What does the “C” in your name stand for? The “C” stands for Cool Captivated. No really. The “C” stands for Coleman, which is my maiden name. It’s really Nicole Coleman Mullen but that’s such a mouthful. So we shortened it to Nicole C. Mullen.