People will know Dan Haseltine as the singer and songwriter in the band Jars of Clay, but Dan has being doing work with another “band.” He and is bandmates alongside activist Jena Lee Nardella created an organization called Blood:Water.

Blood:Water is an equipping agency that partners with African grassroots organizations to address the water and HIV/AIDS crises. We do this by identifying Africa’s hidden heroes and coming alongside their vision for change. Through technical, financial, and organizational support, we expand the reach and effectiveness of African civil society organizations and the communities they serve.

Since 2004, Blood:Water has partnered with grassroots organizations in sub-Saharan Africa to join them in serving the communities where they work and to improve the health of community members. Through outreach and intimate knowledge of the areas where they work, our partners identify and empower local heroes to champion issues affecting the health of community members.

I spoke with Dan about his organization, his music and fatherhood. Dan and his wife have two boys and live in Tennessee.

Art Eddy: Let’s first talk about the work you are doing for the organization that you created called Blood:Water. Tell me about the work that you guys do?

Dan Haseltine: Blood:Water is an organization that helps people in Africa have access to clean water. We work predominantly in communities where HIV and AIDS are prevalent. So they are often places where people are often marginalized or where they are overlooked. The economic problems are too great for people wanting to step in and work with. So we seek out those communities.

The first step in helping people grow a community is that they have to have access to water. Most of these communities’ people walk miles and miles every day to collect water from rivers and streams and anywhere they can get water. That is what they use to drink. Often it is filled with bacteria and diseases. It is killing people.

We step in and work with local drilling organizations on the grounds. They learn about what it takes to drill or create rain catchment tanks. We come alongside of them and say how can we support what you are doing there? How can we provide resources and finances and technology? It is all the things that you need to become a sustainable organization to rehabilitate entire regions. It is Africans being heroes in their own community. That is what Blood:Water does.

We started it about 12 years ago. As songwriters we look at the world and describe it. Occasionally you come across a story that is not enough to simply describe. We want to do more. In this situation we just found that there were a lot of people that were being treated so inhumanly and be ignored. We didn’t like that. We felt at the time that had a platform to tell that story and have an impact. Now it has been going for 12 years. We have been able to help over one million people have access to clean water. It has been an amazing story to be a part of.

AE: I know that people can help your organization by donating money, but tell me how people can help you guys out in other ways.

DH: A lot of it is just talking about it. There are so many issues in our world right now. I think a lot of the people look at the world and they see that there are these huge problems. Water crisis, disease, poverty, famine and all of these things, but we don’t really know how to get onto the on ramp. How do we get involved?

How do we step into these stories and not just look helplessly at them and think that there is nothing that I can do. Part of reducing that helplessness is just talking about it. Saying do you know that it only costs forty dollars to give someone clean water for life. You really can do so much with so little. Just being in the conversation and learning about what is going on. Realize the more you talk about it and spend time on it the less overwhelming it becomes. You realize that there really are things that we can do to make a difference. We all want that. We all really have this sense of that we want to have meaning in our lives. We want to have this impact and feel significant in this world. This is just a way to do that.

AE: You also are in the band Jars of Clay. From the time you started to now, how do you feel your music has evolved?

DH: We loved music at first. I think the evolution was just getting better at our craft. Being able to define why we were making music. We kind of just stepped into it because when we were kids we all learned how to play instruments and that is how we got girlfriends. Then we went to college for music.

You learn the history of it or the science behind it. You are like oh that is why this is the way that chord sounds like it does. You start to gain a sense for the craft. Some of the stuff that I learned was on how to be a communicator and how to mix what is really great art and with substance that matters. On the flipside of that coin is learning how to take the pressure off. Let music be music and let it be what it does.

I think there were seasons where I felt a lot of weight on the band to communicate things that were spiritual or just have this profound quality to it. I think some of the songs just died under the weight of that. In certain seasons some of our joy was dying under the weight of that. It was kind of a self-proclaimed position that we put ourselves in. We had to let that just go. Let’s just enjoy making music and telling the truth. Let’s not spend so much time feeling like everything that we say has to be revelatory or have some sense that it is going to change somebody’s life and their world. We can’t have any control over that. Early on you try to control all of those elements and make everyone happy.  It doesn’t take that long to realize that in the world of entertainment and art there is no way to make everybody happy. (Both laugh.)

AE: What do your kids think of your music and have they followed in your footsteps in the world of music?

DH: I am amazed. I am actually shocked. They both enjoy my music. I have friend’s kids who could just care less about their dad’s music. I just kind of expected that was the way things would work. They are actually into it. My younger son is an athlete. He loves Pop music. That is his thing. He and my wife both love Pop music.

My older son plays acoustic guitar. He is a Bob Dylan, John Prine and Merle Haggard kind of fan. He is into a lot of the classical singer, songwriter County artists. He has his own record player in his room. He plays the guitar a couple hours of the day. He has shocked me by getting up and performing in front of a crowd when I had no idea he could do that. He has got a good voice. He is making his way by doing that. I don’t know if that is something he will want to do lifelong in terms of a professional career, but he really enjoys it. He likes the social aspect of it.

The most I could ever want from my kids is when they approach music is that it is something that they could enjoy. When I see my kids enjoying music it is the greatest thing.

AE: What was the first few thoughts that popped into your mind when you found out that you were going to be a father for the first time?

DH: Fear, initially. I was 24. I just did not feel prepared to be a dad. I didn’t feel like I had the maturity to handle that. I wondered what am I going to do? I am going to lose all this time. I am going to lose all this freedom. What is it going to do to my marriage? All of those thoughts just started creeping in. I was afraid that I wouldn’t know what to do.

I had a good family. Our family also had its problems, struggles, obstacles and challenges. I just thought that I didn’t know that I was going to be a good dad. I don’t know what is going to present itself that I learned from my parents that were going to be bad things. That was me most of the time feeling inadequate and feeling that there was no way that I was going to be a good dad.

It all really changed after my son was born. For a guy when you are going through the nine months while your wife is carrying the baby there is still an element that you feel disconnected. I know that it is my son, but I don’t see him or feel him. That first time that I held my son it all just changed. A lot of those fears at least in that moment went away. It is almost like growing a second heart that was just simply for him. You look at him and go oh wow all of a sudden I feel like I got the capacity to love this kid more than anybody. It was a beautiful moment.

AE: What are some of the core values you look to instill into your kids as they grow up?

DH: We have done a few things over the years where we would get a call from somebody saying could you help paint somebody’s fence or could you do some sort of physical labor task. I would bring my kids to help out. They would be so confounded that we would be doing something during the day doing something difficult and not get paid for it.

I would recognize the conversations afterwards. I could just see their wheels turning. They would think that if you do a task you get rewarded for it. So to present it and say you know what actually helping someone else has its own rewards that are internal in a lot of ways. We help people. The benefit of that is that we feel significant. There are studies about what do Americans want out of life. They all want to be happy. Well how do you be happy? You have to feel significant. If you feel significant than you feel happy.

How do you feel significant? Well by helping other people. Doing something for someone else. When I was in Jars a few years ago I went through a pretty serious depression. The antidote and not to oversimplify, but a big part of the antidote of pulling myself out of depression was getting out and taking a few risks and just helping other people. Just getting outside myself. Even just modeling that to my kids if they are bored or they just are not feeling good I will say let’s just go do something for someone else. Let’s see what generosity can look like in this situation.

AE: What is the one biggest piece of advice you have for new dads?

DH: My wife would call me the minister of comfort and safety. (Both laugh.) She first gave me the title because I didn’t want to give my son the ability to fall. I was always so aware of what the potential catastrophe could be. I was always one step ahead, which is somewhat pretty good. At the same time I think what I did with my first son was that he learned from me to be a little more timid about just jumping into life.

I think I was always just a bit ahead of him going alright be a little careful or don’t fall here. I think not hovering so much was what I needed to do in that situation. I think we can teach our kids a lot about fear when we don’t mean to. We want our kids to have the opportunity to be explorers and have a sense of wonder and be a lifelong learner. When we present life as this thing could hurt you or this thing might hurt you or don’t do that because you might get hurt you start to chip away at your kid’s internal force to move them into that space as an explorer. When I think back on it I wish I was a little aware of that and just let my kid experience life a little bit more than what I did.

Life of Dad Quick Five

AE: Do you guys have a favorite family movie that you all love to watch together?

DH: It is the Star Wars films.

AE: Do you guys have a favorite song that you all like to sing to or dance to as a family?

DH: No. In fact it will start wars in our house. (Both laugh.) The genres are so opposing. There was a season where it felt like Taylor Swift was in our house all the time. That meant that my older son would just leave. He couldn’t handle that.

AE: Describe the perfect family vacation.

DH: We had the perfect family vacation and we are all trying to get back there. It is like trying to get back to the Garden of Eden. We went to Hawaii. I was doing a speaking engagement. We had a friend that lived up on the North Shore. He told us to come out and hang out there. We did.

One morning we woke up and he lived right out on the beach. We were walking on the beach and there were these massive turtles. They were just lying on the beach. My kids were younger and I saw the wonder just explode out of them. You see this immense joy. Plus it is Hawaii. It is gorgeous and beautiful. It was all the right things for a vacation for us.

AE: What was the first album you purchased as a kid?

DH: The first album that I purchased as a kid was Duran Duran’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

AE: Do you have a favorite venue where you and your bandmates played in your career?

DH: There is a couple of them, but I would say there is a venue called The Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina. It is an amazing music venue. Then the Ryman Auditorium here in Nashville is just magical.

Follow Dan on Twitter at @scribblepotemus and go to bloodwater.org to learn more about the great things that Dan and his colleagues are doing.