Lins Honeyman talked to the hip-hop artist, actor and film director CHAZ MILES

In 2015, Chaz would write, direct and act in the first of the two Love Me short films - the narrative of which deals with finding love, going through challenging times and ultimately finding identity and purpose in Christ. "It's kind of crazy how that all happened," pondered Chaz. "I never set out to write, direct or act in a film although it's always been something I was curious about. I never thought I'd end up doing any of that until my 'A Very Chazzy Christmas Vol 1' EP went out and there was a single from it called 'Mistletoe'. It's a Justin Bieber song but I covered it and we put a video out for that track. At the time, I was in my mid-20s and a lot of my friends were talking about desiring a relationship or longing to be married. Now, there's nothing wrong with that but when you think having a relationship is the only thing that can make you complete or the only the thing that's missing from your life it can be dangerous because, when you get it, you realise it's not all it's cracked up to be and you can be devastated. You can want a relationship so bad that, when it comes, you end up putting so much pressure on the other person to make you happy and you just can't do that.

"I was watching an edit from the 'Mistletoe' video and I realised there was a story to be told," added Chaz. "I went home and wrote the movie script for the first Love Me film and I spoke to my videographer friend Patrick Edmiston to ask him if he thought it could be done. I cast all the actors and actresses and directed the film and it was so much fun to do - so much in fact that we filmed a sequel and there are probably five or six more that we can do to make it a full series. The goal behind it is to communicate hard truths about the things that young adults go through. I've seen a lot of Christian films - and this isn't a dig against them - but sometimes they can skip the hard parts. I wanted to show the ugly stuff and there's a scene in Love Me 1 where I get in my girlfriend's face and I seriously lose my cool and throw her phone against the wall. That happens to people - even those who love the Lord. How does a relationship bounce back from that - what happens when that happens? I wanted to show that."

Hot on the heels of the first film, Love Me 2 continues to deal with the thornier aspects of relationship life, as Chaz explained. "The follow up is about dealing with someone's past. It's about being in a place that sucks but still looking forward with hope."

With plans to have 'Dream Season Vol 2' out sometime in quarter one of 2020, Chaz is maintaining a work ethic that is reminiscent of his days as an athlete. "I'm also doing a hymn project with my band Run51 and that's what I'm working on at the moment. I'm also working on another film called Sentenced To Live - an addiction story that I've written and directed which will probably come out about Easter time."

With much of our talk centring on his solo work and filmic output, I asked Chaz to chat briefly about his involvement with the band Run51. "Run51 is kind of like a supergroup of a bunch of talented people from all over the country," he advised. "We met doing some camps for Christian sport ministry Athletes In Action because all of us were college athletes. We'd get together to do music and lead worship for these retreats and we thought collaborating together was really dope and we've found it really works. Everybody in the group does their own thing. Josh the vocalist is on staff at Saddleback. Genie - another vocalist - is in Dallas, our drummer JB is in Miami, our musical director and keyboard player is in Atlanta and our bassist is in LA. We've got an EP out called 'This Moment' and Run 51 is a very high energy group - we like to party when we're up there on stage but we also like to lead you to the throne room. It's a very cool thing to be part of."

I asked Chaz what keeps him going aside from the obvious diverse and busy nature of his creative output. "I'm grateful and I feel privileged to do what I do," he answered without hesitation. "I get to do music for a living - I don't have a boss - and I can go make a film or a music video if I want to or I can make an album. It's such a cool thing and God has been so gracious and good to me. I really have a heart for people and I want to inspire people - that's part of what I feel God has called me to do. I want to go out there to serve them some kind of medicine - whether it's just a smile or something fun or funky to enable them to leave their problems to one side for a moment or whether it's going a little deeper to enable people's lives to change by experiencing God in a very real way."

In closing Chaz added, "Life can be hard for a lot of people and we, as creatives, need to do whatever we can to allow people to escape for a little while whilst showing them there's a place of truth, love, hope, courage and kindness that can make their lives better."