You know her voice as the original voice of Hillsong United ’ s “ Oceans ”. Since 2013 “ Oceans ” has impacted and touched the church world . Her first solo project , Taya , has just released and presents a varied sonic landscape of worshipful tunes including the recent single releases , “ For All My Life ”, “ All Eyes on You ”, and the current radio release , “ Getaway .”
Taya ’ s vocals are heard on over 1 billion global career streams . She has performed live for over 10 million people in 12 different countries across 6 continents .
[ WM ] It ’ s such a pleasure to meet with you today !
[ Taya ] Thank you for having me . It ’ s lovely to be here .
[ WM ] We ’ ve all loved your voice and contribution to worship from 2013 ’ s “ Oceans ” until present . You made that song your own , yet accessible to everyone , and that ’ s not easy to do . What are your recollections about being chosen to present that song to the world ?
[] Well , it was a surprise , I ’ ll start by saying that . I think I was the fifth person to have a go at singing that song , and I say that because I found out later on that was the case , and to be honest , my life has completely changed because of that song . I love that God ’ s kindness to me was the content of the lyrics and that it was a faith step . It ’ s a song about trusting God completely to a point where when he ’ s calling us out , even where there are no borders to hold onto or to potentially be I guess holding us back into the harbor , and to be in such a place with Jesus that wherever He would call us we would go , and that we would be willing .
And even if we take a misstep of faith where feet may fail , that we would continue to be people of faith that we would step out . So , I personally am grateful that was a song that I was given to steward because I would need that for when the song came out and it did what it did . It was
TAYA - Official Album Trailer
a complete surprise because it has traveled to places and to areas and people that I never ever thought .
This is going to sound crazy , because I ’ d been living in Sydney for a couple of years . I moved there at 21 . I told my parents that I was going to leave home and become a recording artist . I ’ m more of a worker bee rather than a CEO type so I didn ’ t really have a plan to make this work , and so I just moved to Sydney , told my parents that grandiose plan and then I just started working in retail . I was just selling clothes , which is what I did back home . So , I just joined a local church , became a youth leader . I loved it and that happened to be Hillsong Church . I was just learning discipleship and I started being a part of the worship team on the youth side of things , not necessarily a big church , and I thought I ’ m going to become a singer , that ’ s what I told my parents .
So , I tried out for The Voice a couple of years out . At the end of 2012 , I made it through to just before you get onto television , and I sang my original songs . I was fully dressed up and they said , “ You ’ ve nailed it . This is brilliant . We ’ ll call you in two weeks , but you ’ ve done a great job . Thank you so much .” So , then my friend said if you do this , everything will change , but I ’ ll back you either way and so I kind of freaked out
Oceans
at the change word . And so I said , “ Lord , if this is what you want me to do , open the door . If it ’ s not what you want me to do , please shut it .” I had a friend that prayed that prayer a couple of years ago and it worked for him .
He ended up winning Idol . So , I was like , “ Oh , maybe I ’ ll just pray the same prayer , whatever you want .” But I got filled with peace and so I wasn ’ t worried about it anymore and I just trusted God , and two weeks later , I got forced to go on a retail holiday because it was coming up to Christmas and you couldn ’ t take any time off and I tried to get another week , they didn ’ t let me , I tried to fly home to see my family , but all the prices were through the roof and I was living week to week , paycheck to paycheck in retail - spending most of the money on the clothes that I was trying to promote - which is classic . ( laughing ) I loved it though , not complaining and so then I was stuck in Sydney and it was wild that the first day of my holiday , I get a text from now one of my really good friends , our guitarist and producer in United , Michael Guy Chislett and he said , “ Hey , would you come in and sing some background vocals for the latest United project ?” And I said , “ Well , actually I can because I ’ m on holidays .”
So I came into the studio , sung a song , but it was the melody . I didn ’ t say anything because they ’ re just like sing this and sing along and so I just sung along to a song and turns out that was a lead of another song and they asked me to come back the next day and I did , and that ended up being “ Oceans ”. It ’ s kind of just crazy ! I learned , sang the verse , learnt the chorus , came in , learned the bridge , sang the bridge and then they just kind of let me just have a bit of a go and they ’ re like free worship , see what happens and sang a few different things , and then they stopped the recording and they said that was really great .
They said , “ Now , if you could please sing it into the microphone ”, because unbeknownst to me , I had turned around during the studio session and because I was a bit self-conscious and I just worshiping at the wall . They ’ re like ,