Worship Musician August 2018 | Page 22

is probably the simplest song on the record. Going back to what I said before, I think we’ve all been through a bit of a trial season. I think about the Psalms and there are so many verses where God is teaching David, trialing him to strengthen his hands for the work, and for praise. It’s so relevant to us and where we’ve been. I love this song so much because we so quickly forget to look back, you know? It’s so easy to be caught up in everything we’re doing. What’s the next thing I’m working on? What’s the next thing I need to do? What’s the next thing I need to stress about? We so quickly lose sight of what has happened. The things we’ve prayed for. The things we’ve hoped for. “Days Gone By” is about looking back, and seeing the faithfulness of God. Seeing that He’s been there working it out. Remembering that I was crying over this, praying for that. Looking back at God’s faithfulness. Looking back at what He’s done. [WM] You co-wrote “Wake”, “Alive”, “Love Won’t Let Me Down”, and “Real Love”. As I look back, I’d have to say that those are probably my favorite Y&F songs. Most people don’t wake up one day and start writing ‘hit’ say, “Write another song!” and it would be like, is best. God’s been good, He’s helped me write worship songs, so who are some of the people “Rip my heart out – tear it into a million pieces!” some okay songs I think. (laughs) who spoke into your life about writing, and how What’s funny is that we had a conversation the did that impact you? other week and laughed about it because when [WM] What advice do you have for churches we first wrote “Alive”, I showed it to him and on raising up the next generation of songwriters [Alex] One thing that I’m so grateful for about he was just kind of like, “I think it sounds like from within their ranks? the size of the Hillsong team is that people are something else, I don’t know about it man.” It still giving us feedback, still speaking into us, was kind of devastating to me, but at the same [Alex] Just let them be a part of it in whatever still challenging us on our melodies, our lyrics, time there were other people that did believe ways you possibly can. If you’re a worship and all that stuff. While I was still in college and in it. team making music, let them in the room. Let serving in youth, I had a worship pastor who I served directly under. I would send him songs One thing I’ve learned as a song writer and all the time. More often than not he would just a worship leader, having peoples’ opinions be like, “Cool bro, that’s a pretty good idea.” I’d that you value is good. But being confident in be like, “Yes! What can we do with it?” and he’d yourself, backing yourself, and trusting yourself “Days Gone By” // Hillsong Y&F “Wake” // Hillsong Y&F 22 August 2018 WorshipMusician.com Karina Wykes