Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Natalie Layne Never Had the Dramatic Testimony and That Is the Point

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Natalie Layne Never Had the Dramatic Testimony and That Is the Point · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: Natalie, thanks for joining me.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me today.
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  Speaker 2: Natalie Lane, Dove-nominated, K-Love-nominated artist who has a new EP.
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  Speaker 2: I've really enjoyed listening to this. Still Running to You
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  Speaker 2: is the name of it. September the 9th is the
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  Speaker 2: release date. Natalie, your testimonies really has impacted just me.
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  Speaker 2: I've enjoyed learning about you. You grew up in church
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  Speaker 2: and you have said that sometimes church kids can kind
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  Speaker 2: of feel a little bit less when it comes to testimonies.
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  Speaker 2: they don't have that dramatic testimony about being lost in
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  Speaker 2: an alley and somebody coming up to them and telling
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  Speaker 2: them about Christ, which is a great testimony. They don't
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  Speaker 2: have that. Is that one of the themes? And this
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  Speaker 2: is kind of your story as well. You don't, you
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  Speaker 2: don't have that dramatic testimony. Is that, is that one
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  Speaker 2: of the themes of still running to you of you
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  Speaker 2: wanting to just still praise the Lord through all these years?
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  Speaker 2: And the fact that Christ saved you and the testimony
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  Speaker 2: of a church kid is, is, is amazing still.
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  Speaker 1: Totally.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: This EP really is my testimony in a project. And
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  Speaker 1: so it's been really cool to share my story kind
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  Speaker 1: of through these songs. But even that title track, Still
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  Speaker 1: Running to You, is just about me as a kid
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  Speaker 1: loving Jesus and trying to still run to Him and
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  Speaker 1: love Him that way now. And I think, yeah, like
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  Speaker 1: you're saying, like for a long time, I thought that
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  Speaker 1: my testimony as a church kid wasn't as powerful as
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  Speaker 1: somebody else's, just because there weren't as many of those
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  Speaker 1: twists and turns, you know. But I think I'm kind
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  Speaker 1: of realizing now that a lot of church kids can
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  Speaker 1: feel that way, you know, and really that our testimony
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  Speaker 1: is so powerful, even if it's not as much about
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  Speaker 1: what God has brought us through, but it's about what
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  Speaker 1: he's kept us from, you know, he's protected and provided
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  Speaker 1: for us and done that from such a young age.
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  Speaker 1: And so that is also a really powerful story. We
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  Speaker 1: get to say those things about God. And I think
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  Speaker 1: that's what's amazing about each of our testimonies. We get
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  Speaker 1: to kind of see different aspects of God. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I might call him protector and provider and somebody else
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  Speaker 1: might call him rescuer and savior. Like we just get
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  Speaker 1: to see our God in those different ways. And so
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  Speaker 1: I just think every testimony is a miracle. Every salvation
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  Speaker 1: story is a miracle. And so this one's for the
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  Speaker 1: church kids who that's their story, or maybe now they're
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  Speaker 1: raising church kids and giving them that story. I just
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  Speaker 1: think it's a really beautiful testimony to have.
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  Speaker 2: I think as a church kid myself, I think if
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  Speaker 2: we could see ourselves from God's perspective, we wouldn't see
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  Speaker 2: ourselves as so pure and holy anyway.
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  Speaker 1: Totally. We're pretty tainted anyway.
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  Speaker 2: And there's a lot of times that a church kid
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  Speaker 2: can grow up thinking, what did I miss in terms
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  Speaker 2: of rebellion that some of my friends experienced? Instead of
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  Speaker 2: appreciating what God kept you from, you're still tempted to
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  Speaker 2: kind of go that way.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: It's just kind of my thing. my two cents there. Natalie,
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  Speaker 2: you grew up in the church. When did you decide
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  Speaker 2: you wanted to pursue this? I guess I should ask
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  Speaker 2: before that, when did you start singing in the church?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was really young when I started singing in
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  Speaker 1: the church because my parents are both worship leaders. So
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  Speaker 1: my mom would always be singing. My dad would always
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  Speaker 1: be playing bass. And so I would just be running
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  Speaker 1: around the little worship rehearsals, even as a kid. And
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  Speaker 1: so when I was about 12, they asked me to
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  Speaker 1: come start playing keys. And I don't know if that's
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  Speaker 1: such a great idea for a 12-year-old to lead the worship,
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  Speaker 1: but it worked for me. I had great mentors who
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  Speaker 1: really helped me along the way. So yeah, I was young.
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  Speaker 1: And through that, I realized that was something I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to do for a long time. And I really committed
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  Speaker 1: to Jesus when I was about 13. And so after that,
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  Speaker 1: he started kind of speaking about maybe going into music,
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  Speaker 1: and that was scary to me. And He just kind
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  Speaker 1: of led me all along the way. He knew that
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  Speaker 1: I needed that, you know, but kind of as a teenager,
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  Speaker 1: he started calling me into it. And it was something
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  Speaker 1: that I loved already. You know, I loved music my
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  Speaker 1: whole life, but as a teenager, it really solidified. That's
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  Speaker 1: what I wanted to do.
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  Speaker 2: And so how did, how did you, how did you
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  Speaker 2: go from that, that point to where you are now?
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  Speaker 2: How did you end up recording EPs and albums?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Crazy. I mean, I, I went to music school
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  Speaker 1: for college, so I, I ended up at an awesome
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  Speaker 1: music school called Belmont University in Nashville. And I didn't
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  Speaker 1: really know that I needed to be in Nashville, but
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  Speaker 1: I just liked that college. And so the Lord knew
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  Speaker 1: that I needed to be in Nashville. So coming to
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  Speaker 1: school here has been like the best thing. It just
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  Speaker 1: introduced me to all these people too that I could
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  Speaker 1: collaborate with and write songs with. So that really got
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  Speaker 1: me into it. And just living here for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: you get to meet all these people and really start
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  Speaker 1: Not only connecting with them, but just getting to actually
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  Speaker 1: create together, which is such a blessing. So I've been
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  Speaker 1: here in Nashville now almost nine years, and it's been crazy.
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  Speaker 1: It's been so awesome. Just being here has been kind
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  Speaker 1: of the thing that's opened the doors for me to
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  Speaker 1: get to do this.
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  Speaker 2: Is songwriting one of your passions in life? I sense
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  Speaker 2: that from just watching your social media that you don't
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  Speaker 2: just like to sing these songs, but you like to
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  Speaker 2: really express your heart through these songs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, writing is one of my favorite parts of the process,
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  Speaker 1: for sure. I started writing songs when I was super young,
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  Speaker 1: just from like scripture, I would take scripture and set
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  Speaker 1: it to music, you know. And so I still I
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  Speaker 1: still do that. And that's my really my favorite way
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  Speaker 1: to write songs. And but I love the songwriting process.
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  Speaker 1: I think some artists love it more than others. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm one who like I could be in the studio
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  Speaker 1: every day writing songs like I just love, love that
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  Speaker 1: piece of it. And I love to share it. And
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  Speaker 1: it be something that came from my story. Like, I
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  Speaker 1: think that's so cool that we could share our stories
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  Speaker 1: through songs. So yeah, I love to write songs.
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  Speaker 2: Do you sometimes wake up with a song in your head?
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. In the middle of the night. What do you,
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  Speaker 1: what do you, what do you do? What do you do?
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  Speaker 1: I do a little voice memo, you know, I'll kind
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  Speaker 1: of sing what I'm hearing into my phone, but then
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  Speaker 1: you wake up in the morning and you make no
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  Speaker 1: sense on those. It's like, it's just not working. So,
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  Speaker 1: Only sometimes does that pan out. Oh, that's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Let's talk about a few songs on the new EP
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  Speaker 2: still running to you. I think one of them that's
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  Speaker 2: really cool is I think it's called Big World. It's
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  Speaker 2: filled with horns. When I've seen clips of you guys
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  Speaker 2: singing it, it almost looks like a big party in
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  Speaker 2: a big room. Tell me the heart behind that and
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  Speaker 2: why you wanted to have that sound.
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  Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah. That song and just the collaboration
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  Speaker 1: of it all. I feel like you can feel that in,
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  Speaker 1: in that song. It's, it's one that I wanted to,
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to write so that we could play it
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  Speaker 1: as the first song of our shows of our live
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  Speaker 1: shows to kind of bring people into the room and,
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  Speaker 1: and remind us that we're doing this together. And so
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  Speaker 1: it's cool because then it kind of spurred the first
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  Speaker 1: kind of part of this down and, And I knew
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  Speaker 1: that I wanted to use lots of horns and, and,
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  Speaker 1: you know, so we've got saxophones and trumpets and trombones
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  Speaker 1: on it. And so it's just, it just became a
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  Speaker 1: whole kind of communal thing. We brought everybody into the
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  Speaker 1: studio at the same time and recorded it, which is
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  Speaker 1: also rare these days. Usually it's like one person tracking
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  Speaker 1: and time, but we all did it together. And so
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  Speaker 1: that's what that song just reminds me of. It's just
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  Speaker 1: like any part of you that thought you were doing
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  Speaker 1: this alone, you're not anymore. Like it just is such a,
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  Speaker 1: such a community focused thing and that's what the song's.
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  Speaker 2: About too well yeah what's what's the theme of the
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  Speaker 2: song big world yeah yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It just says it's the same blood.
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  Speaker 4: Through our veins you know and it talks about actually
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  Speaker 4: like at a live show or something like that you
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  Speaker 4: bring everybody into the room and you kind of just
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  Speaker 4: feel this this idea that man we're not doing this
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  Speaker 4: alone it's the same blood running through our veins we're
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  Speaker 4: all kind of walking through a similar maybe different disappointments
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  Speaker 4: and joys, but really we're all, we're feeling those same
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  Speaker 4: things walking through those together.
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  Speaker 1: So that's all I want people to feel.
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  Speaker 2: I think, I think you have a, do you have
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  Speaker 2: a hymn on the album as well?
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  Speaker 1: Blessed Assurance, I believe.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Why did you want to put that on there?
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  Speaker 1: I love those lyrics. This is my story. This is
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  Speaker 1: my song, you know, praising my savior. I felt like
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  Speaker 1: that really encapsulated my story, my testimony, just loving Jesus
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  Speaker 1: way back then, loving him now. And I think those
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  Speaker 1: lyrics of the hymns are so powerful, like so theologically rich.
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  Speaker 1: And so to kind of use those in a new way,
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  Speaker 1: that's what we did with still running to you. I
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  Speaker 1: have it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's blessed assurance.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, sometimes people will update it. We'll update it home.
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  Speaker 2: What did you guys do with that one?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of what we did. You know, we
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  Speaker 1: put the lyrics of it into the chorus and just
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  Speaker 1: singing them in a really kind of high and powerful way,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and it's cool to see those hymns that
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  Speaker 1: I've loved so long. done in a new way and
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  Speaker 1: i still just get to sing them for years and
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  Speaker 1: years i think it's so cool.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me a singer can choose any genre of music
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  Speaker 2: you know you you probably could have been a country
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  Speaker 2: singer you could have been uh i don't know you're
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  Speaker 2: a classical pianist you could have done piano and and
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  Speaker 2: maybe been in an orchestra or something why have you
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  Speaker 2: chosen this lanes for music.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah one of the things is as long as i
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  Speaker 1: can remember the songs that i've been writing have been
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  Speaker 1: for the lord And I think, you know, we got
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  Speaker 1: to pay attention to where do we naturally go to like, where,
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  Speaker 1: where does our gifting kind of lie? And, and so
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  Speaker 1: that's one thing I just, I also just have always
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  Speaker 1: loved the way that Christian music brings hope to people. And,
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  Speaker 1: and I always want to make music that brings a
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  Speaker 1: lot of hope and joy. And so this is the
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  Speaker 1: lane that we can kind of do that. And we
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  Speaker 1: get to just worship while we do it, like it's
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  Speaker 1: the best. And so getting to see too, the way
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  Speaker 1: that that brings families together, a lot of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: people of different ages enjoy this music and, and get
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  Speaker 1: to enjoy it together. So I think it's a mix
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  Speaker 1: of like my gifting and what comes naturally to me
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  Speaker 1: and then what I want to see in the world.
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  Speaker 1: And this really brings that together for me.
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  Speaker 2: What artists impacted you in this genre when you were,
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  Speaker 2: when you were growing up?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I mean, I grew up on 90s Christian music.
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  Speaker 1: So best of the best. Michael W. Smith, a lot,
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  Speaker 1: you know, some gospel stuff to Kirk Franklin, Israel Houghton,
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  Speaker 1: people like that. So my music kind of fuses those
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  Speaker 1: in some ways. And I like I like both kind
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  Speaker 1: of those sides of the genre. I think it's really cool.
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  Speaker 2: You have been to Caleb Awards and Dove Awards as
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  Speaker 2: well in terms of the shows themselves. Have you ever
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  Speaker 2: met any of these people that you grew up kind
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  Speaker 2: of looking up to?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, totally. One of them for me was Nicole Norderman.
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  Speaker 1: Do you remember her? Like you can't have songs and yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So she, I kind of freaked out a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: I don't fangirl very much, but with her, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that's my girl. Those are my songs. So it was
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: pretty cool to meet her and just tell her, you know,
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  Speaker 1: how much her songs have meant to me over the years.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I'm always encouraged when I go to these award shows
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  Speaker 2: and interview the artists and hear the heart behind a song.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's easy to, I think in today's world, it's
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  Speaker 2: easy to get I get kind of skeptical and think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, these songs are just written just for money,
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  Speaker 2: but they're really not. There's a purpose behind every song,
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  Speaker 2: and it's so fun, just as I'm talking to you,
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  Speaker 2: as I'm talking to the other artists as well, to
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  Speaker 2: hear why they wrote the song and why they still
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  Speaker 2: sing the song. You have some tour dates coming up
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  Speaker 2: as well. People can find out more information about those
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: at natalielane.com. Are there any specific ones, or what do
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: people need to know about your upcoming dates?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're excited. We've got some dates throughout the fall.
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  Speaker 1: And then we'll have a lot more next year. So
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  Speaker 1: if people wanted to stay up to date with all
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  Speaker 1: that and also the new music and the videos and
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  Speaker 1: all the stuff. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: And you are very, very active on social media. People
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  Speaker 2: should follow you. Instagram, I know, is one where I
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  Speaker 2: see your stuff. Is that the main one for you?
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  Speaker 1: Everywhere. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Whatever you do, we're there, too.
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• 12:13
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• 12:16
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• 12:19
  Speaker 3: at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
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  Speaker 3: If you go to lifeaudio.com, you will find dozens of
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