DEBUNKING MYTHS ABOUT EXCELLENCE

What is your current go-to song? Go to song would be Uncomplicated by Hillsong Young & Free. It’s the first worship song I’ve genuinely cried to for a longtime and I think it’s because of how simple and declarative it is.

What brings you joy? Every time I FaceTime my misses (who is currently overseas). I’m an introvert so every time I feel drained socially from big groups and need some alone time, she refills me way better than me just trying to refill on my own.

Do you write the lyrics or the melody first? It depends, if I were to sit at a piano and start writing with no inspiration to start with I would always start with melody first. I’d just start singing random things about life and God intentionally, so it kind of gives God room to maybe place a cool lyric in the random melodies I’m singing.

Where do you like to write? I hope I don’t get in trouble for this but when my house is crowded and loud (which is all the time) I’d go down to church and sit on the grand piano in the chapel and write for hours.

Biggest supporter? My family and girlfriend is a given, but I’d have to say Tyler Douglass hands down. I’ll always give him a say in my life because he honestly cares about me and my future, he always sees things that I don’t see and he has proven to be right with a lot of the things he tells me.

What about music impacts you? The thing that fascinates me about music is how it connects to emotion, you can tell a story and actually translate the emotion into the musicality and lyrics of the song. It’s even better with worship music, I believe that God inputs Himself into worship.

What’s your earliest childhood memory of music? I remember when I was eight and I had just started doing piano grading and I absolutely hated it. My teacher at the time who was incredible, always said that I have a huge problem with looking down at my fingers instead of at the sheet music, I would never play by reading sheet music, but by hearing and memory. Which is a pro ,but a con at the same time. So every time we had piano grading I would get so stressed that it would clog my memory to the point of me forgetting what I was even there to do,. That affected me so much.

What made you want to become a musician / singer / songwriter? A little thing about me is that I was homeschooled my entire life, so what made me want to become a musician / singer / songwriter is that it was the only thing I wanted to do in my free time and for ‘school time’. JP Starra and Paul Cox were my drum teachers, Eli Escoto was my guitar teachers. I had a piano teacher (but I wish it was David Andrew) and bass was easy.

What’s your favourite lyric that you’ve written?

“In the silence / My heart grows fonder / To seek and to find That what I’m looking for is You / Like water Tastes more restoring / When my thirst is dry I know that nothing else will do”

These lyrics came from a song about the silence of God, it was a hard song to write but it’s so common for people not hear the voice of God. 1 Kings 19:11-13 is when the Lord talks to Elijah and tells him to stand on the mountain and then a powerful wind

rapid fire with

ISAAC FISHER

comes but the Lord was not in the wind, then an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, then a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

When I read that verse, I just imagine God telling us our calling or giving us direction but God then says nothing after that. You think to yourself “but God gave me such clear direction”. I was in this season myself. But one day my mind jumped to this one quote that everyone has heard before “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”, and in that moment it all made sense to me. Then I thought about thirst and how when we are most thirsty water tastes like heaven to us. And only water can properly quench our thirst, its the same with God and His voice for us.

Sometimes Gods voice can be disrupted and we need to find out way back to that communication, but either way we need to continually search our way back to that communication.

How do you deal with comparison? Honestly I still struggle with this, the enemy will really try use this one on me. Something mums teach all their kids is, “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.” I got this drilled into my head and I am thankful for it because I’ve turned it into how I deal with comparison. It taught me to stop and think and when I did that I always thought about the Bible verse ‘rejoice with those who rejoice and morn with those who morn’ and that lead to more verses and more verses and eventually God gives me peace.

Who is an artist that inspires you? Why? Hanan Sugunarajan inspires me. His songs are amazing and he is constantly devoting himself to writing worship to God. He always makes sure his own heart is in the right place because writing worship isn’t just about musicality, but also about devotion and so much more.

Do you ever feel that your music is finished? Is art ever complete? I am a visual person so when I read this question my mind went to this image. With my music, I wouldn’t consider it finished until I feel like it’s kind of a house where God can live in and stay in so that when people listen to that song, it’s like they are walking into this house where God is at and then God encounters them.

What about music makes you feel passionate? It’s always something new, never done before and its exciting. If its a lyrics no one has heard before or a sound no one has heard in a song before, I love it.

What’s a creative medium that you’ve never tried, but that you would like to? I would absolutely love to one day MD a youth program while playing either bass or keys. Please Tyler Douglass let me do this one day.

Whats one piece of advice you’d want to share with the world? If you are a songwriter who struggles sometimes like me, remember that there is no right or wrong way to song write, there is just your way, don’t compare just figure out the best way you can song write.

LESS & MORE

Words: Amanda Viviers

“I have always believed in ‘less is more’ in everything I do, from work to my personal life” Tory Burch

Disappointment can set in the middle of the year. It feels exciting to begin something and then when we can see the end in sight we can power home but what about when we are in the middle.

Distraction can be a roadblock in seeing the fulfilment of the goals we have set.

What is distracting you in this current season?

Often I am black and white. In the midst of distracted seasons, I try to make big decisions by saying okay tomorrow I am going to change everything.

For example; “Social media is distracting me away from my work, so I’m deleting every app off my phone.” my goals at the beginning of the year, so I am going on an extreme eating regime to lose that weight. These black and white moments can be incredibly destructive when I continually fail, because of the level of commitment they require.

What if we allowed a sliding scale between the goals we have for the year?

What if you replaced those things that are distracting you, with kinder options?

A little bit like this less and more poem I have written above. Less technology and more paper. Straight away, rather than making the goal firm, it becomes more fluid. Helping replace what has been distracting with something positive.

If you started thinking about what you could replace, with kinder options rather than listening to the critical voice, is extremely harmful to yourself. It can make all the difference in the fulfilment of what we set out to achieve. We can be our own worst critics, and the way we speak to ourselves will manifest in our lives.

Taking the time to pause in the middle and refresh our vision of the year or season is a powerful tool.

You are worthy of taking the time to pause and reset.

Social Media and technology are my arch nemesis. I love the inspiration and the opportunities that I find there, but in the same breath, I become so distracted. I am despondent by the after effect of scrolling.

Today why don’t you write your list of less and more?

When it comes to seeing the breakthrough in our lives, I think we can sometimes believe that the stricter we are on ourselves, the more successful and lasting the change will be.

However, I am learning to have a sliding scale of grace; between less and more. It helps to bring a gentle voice of encouragement to those places needing change.

Less technology, More paper Less shopping, More outdoors Less clutter, More space Less rush, More rest Less consuming, More creating Less junk, More real food Less driving, More walking Less noise, More silence Less focus on the future, More focus on the present Less perfection, More grace Less work, More play