Brett Kiewiet Releases New Album ‘God Above Looking Down’

For more than two decades, Grand Rapids, Michigan songwriter Brett Kiewiet has been turning personal experience into songs. On God Above Looking Down, his new seven-song album, that process feels especially intimate. The singer, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist and producer confronts marriage, fatherhood, faith, fear and mortality while ultimately arriving at a surprisingly simple question: What actually matters?

Opening with its title track, “God Above Looking Down,” Kiewiet immediately puts that question on the table. The song draws from his experience with OCD and longstanding fears surrounding death, but becoming a husband and father has given those fears a different context. “Writing this felt effortless,” Kiewiet says. “It’s a story of self discovery and what truly matters most.”

“It’s a story of self discovery and what truly matters most.”

The album’s emotional center continues to shift. “Thread a Needle” is a reflection on marriage and the importance of being present, while “I Can’t Decide” takes a look at the uneasy distance between the art we admire and the lives we actually live. For Kiewiet, that realization ultimately leads back to Christ.

There’s an appealing looseness to the record, too. “Most of the instrumental takes on this album are my first recording of the part. Fully improvised,” he explains. “Because of that, it feels very organic.”

That organic quality suits an album built around honesty rather than polish. As the final installment in a three-album collection, God Above Looking Down feels less like a grand conclusion than a moment of clarity. It’s a record about choosing love over fear and, perhaps most importantly, being fully present for the life in front of you.

Listen to God Above Looking Down, out now.

God Above Looking Down by Brett Kiewiet