Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Matthew Schuler has a new Christian single out.

“Vices to Victory” landed on digital sites Friday, and Matthew says it’s a song he and some friends started working on even before he auditioned for Season 5 of The Voice.

He was a student at West Chester University at the time and part of a program called Young Life in Chester County, Pa.

Students in that program would go to Eastern University in nearby Philly for training and worship nights.

In a Facebook chat with fans, Matthew said he recalls a speaker talking about how a Christian can turn vices into victories, their own struggles into encouragement for others.

“That hit me. I’m like that’s a song.”

Indeed, it’s a song he posted to YouTube at the time, before advancing all the way to the Top 6 as a 20-year-old singer on The Voice.

His brand new acoustic version of “Vices to Victory” is Matthew’s first release since his alternative EP “Baby Steps” last year.

“I’m a Christian and I want to make music for everybody,” he says. “But I also want to make music that will edify the church and build people up. Every lyric of this song is about that. It’s about the gospel.”

Here’s a snippet of the new version of “Vices to Victory.”