Chris August is a popular up and coming artist in Christian music. His song "Starry Night" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart in 2010/2011. He was nominated at the 2011 Dove in five categories, winning Best New Artist and Male Vocalist of the Year.  In 2012 August releasd his second album entitled, The Upside of Down.  

We would like to thank Chris August for taking the time to do an interview with BREATEcast on Tuesday.

BREATHEcast: Looks like one year ago tomorrow (April 24) was actually your skateboarding accident?

"That is nuts, but trust me I know." (laugh)

BREATHEcast: So what has the last year better like coming off of the injury & everything that has happened through that?

"My life definitely changed. It was a pretty bad accident. For those who don't know,it was skateboarding accident, I had a brain bleed, brain swelling and all that.  Kind of the hardest part for me was the month following, just dealing with my health.  Definitely the hardest year of my life as far as health goes.  It's crazy how much a brain injury effects the rest of your body a lot more then you think.  You don't really realize until you are going through it.  It changed me a lot in the sense of, naturally you get a bit of a wake up call and a sense of urgency to just make sure everything in my life is right.  Probably the coolest part was probably for me to see the power of prayer.  I knew it was powerful but just to have people pray over me and see God move in that was just so cool.  Just learning to receive Gods blessings, it's crazy all of the stuff that I have learned in the past year from me being unconcious on the ground after an accident.  But you really see that there is joy in the morning and I wouldn't change it if I could."

BREATHEcast: How long were you effected immediately after the accident?

"I was unconcious for 4 minutes, but I don't remember anything for a day.  From about 30 minutes before the accident to a day after the accident.  I would go in and out of remembering stuff, just like short term memory loss.  As far as not playing any shows, probably like anyone who enjoys doing their job, I missed two weeks and probably went back a little too early.  I was opening for Mercy Me when I had the accident and I didn't want to miss the shows for anyone who was counting on me being there So I only missed a couple weekends and then ended up missing a few shows in the next several months from different complications."

BREATHEcast: You were out on the West coast side of 'Winter Jam Tour' and then the 'TobyMac Hits Deep Tour', what have you learned from being on the road with TobyMac?

"Honestly it was just cool for me to see someone who has been doing it for this long who wasn't burned out or jaded.  You hear these stories about people who let it get to them.  Toby has one of the biggest hearts of any artist or person for that matter that I've ever met.  To see what he does for people and see how much he really cares, it was really cool.  When you go on a tour and just get treated so amazing by someone of that stature it really sticks out to you.  When I had my skateboarding accident, it was amazing to see how artists reached out to me.  Toby text me at like 7 in the morning, just told that his whole family is praying for me, let me know if you need anything.  Just to have someone like that who cares that much and would go out of his way to do something nice, it was really cool.  Just to see how humble he is on the road, how he is on stage is how he is off, there is no change whatsoever.  That for me was a learning experience and just to take notes from that and never let things get to me and just love on people.  So that was a great learning experience."  

BREATHEcast: You're most recent record has been out about a year, so assuming you are writing and working on a new record?

"Yep, just started writing for the new record and getting that ball rolling.  Really by the time you get a record all finished and out it is time to start working on the new record.  I'm really now starting to strategize it and get the ball rolling.  It's always fun putting something new out.  As each year goes by, God is telling me new stuff and just writing about those experiences."

BREATHEcast: So is there a tentative time frame for a new album?

"We are actually meeting in a few weeks to start talking about a time frame for things.  I would say right now probably looking at Fall of 2014 but you never know what can happen."

BREATHEcast: So you used to play keys for Ashlee Simpson and Ryan Cabrera and others?

"Her (Ashlee Simpson) dad was actually my manager and I was signed to Geffen records, the same label she was in LA.  I was doing Pop/R&B music and working on my album and this girl that was playing keys for Ashlee quit and they said if I came out and played keys for her I could open the show and play my own set.  So the next thing you know I ended up playing for her about a year and did the same thing for Ryan Cabrera where I would play keys for him and then open the set.  So it was a great deal for me, I could get on these tours, just play keys for them, which is fine for me.  So it was a good time."

BREATHEcast: What inspired your current single, "Restore"?

"I had a song called "7x70" which was a song about forgiveness. I come from a broken home and broken family kind of deal and I set out to write a song about being hurt and God taught me about forgiveness in that moment.  It was crazy, people would come up to me after shows and I would hear their stories of forgiveness how the song had inspired and impacted them in some way.  A common story I would hear almost every night it felt like was, a husband and wife coming and talking to me saying, "my husband did this, my wife did this" and we thought no way would this marriage work out, it's done, this marriage is over.  Then they would come to me and tell me this and then say that they heard my song "7x70" and it inspired us and now God has completely restored their marriage. I kept hearing these stories about restoration and God healing marriages and stuff that even I would say, that would be hard to forget.  God is overcoming all this stuff and He's got the power to do that.  In a time where we have made it so easy to just quit and give up, I feel that we have forgot that this is something worth fighting for."

BREATHEcast: What are your touring plans for the Fall?

"I can tell you that I am for sure going out with Big Daddy Weave this fall, I was out with them in the spring and it was one of the most fun tours I've ever been on.  About a week into the tour I'm calling my manager saying we've got to do this again, it was that awesome for me. Just to see people respond and see what God was doing every night, I was just blown away.  I am doing something else again that I have done once before I just don't know if its public so I can't say it yet, but it is around November-December and you will definitely want to be there.  Thats all I can say (laughs)."

BREATHEcast: Name of secular and Christian artist that you would like to work with?

"John Mayer for sure.  He is just such a talented songwriter and guitar player, always working on making his craft better and as musicians we respect that.  On the Christian side, its a pretty small community, so you get to meet everyone pretty fast and I've written with some of my heros like Chris Tomlin and David Crowder.  There is definitely one guy that I haven't even met yet that I would love to hang out and write with and that is Matt Redman."

BREATHEcast: Is there anything else you want to share with everyone?

"I want to just say thanks to everyone for praying for me after my accident and hugely appreciate that.  It humbles me to know that people would take time out of their day to do that.  Just appreciate people being an encouragement and listening to the music and hope that we can be an encouragement.  We hope that our music can encourage you to live for something greater than yourself.  I know we appreciate people coming out to shows and hearing their stories and making that connection, that is what it's all about!"