[ Jen ] I’ m sure you can imagine, it was incredibly surreal. I’ ve just been so honored to be a part of Skillet for so long and I feel humbled, almost like I can’ t believe God would allow me the opportunity to be a part of something like that. Getting to do the solo project as Jen Ledger has been very much a dream in my heart. But I didn’ t know if the timing would be right and I didn’ t know when I’ d get to do it. I want to honor everyone involved and didn’ t want to seem ungrateful to the Coopers who have given me a massive opportunity. They actually ended up really taking me under their wing and supporting the project in a way that I never imagined. It was an incredibly exciting season.
So we did the EP and even though we’ d been kind of working towards it for about five or six years, in the end it was rush, rush, rush to get it in on the deadline to have it ready for tour. It’ s always funny the way things work out like that. When the EP came out it was very much,“ Let’ s just see how the fans like it, and if the Skillet fans are drawn to this, and let’ s get out on tour and see how it goes.” And then I found out that in a matter of weeks it had gone to # 5 on the Emerging Artists Billboard, I was kind of stunned. I just didn’ t expect any of that and I can’ t even describe how humbling and wonderful it was. But, also a shock to the system to see it finally out after all those years of praying into it and working towards it. Surreal is the only word I can say, sorry I keep repeating myself( laughs).
[ WM ] You co-wrote“ Ruins” with fellow Skillet band member and Ledger co-producer Korey Cooper six years ago, and your vocal performance on that track is awesome. Noting that the video for“ Ruins” has over 400,000 plays on YouTube, can you tell us about the journey from writing that song to releasing it on your debut album?
[ Jen ] I didn’ t know it had that many views, that’ s wonderful! I’ m glad you asked me about“ Ruins” because it’ s one of my favorite songs I’ ve ever written. You know, it’ s not the rocker on the EP so it doesn’ t get much attention. It was written right when I told the Coopers that I felt what God was stirring in me to be writing music, and I kind of asked them if they would take me under their wing and teach me how. Korey and I immediately just started writing together. I think we wrote twelve songs that year and“ Ruins” was one of them. It was something that God had been speaking to me about a lot, and someone had prayed over me a few years before, that God would ruin me for his Kingdom. I felt like it was a word that never left me, it’ s often something that comes up in my prayer times.
I got born-again when I was sixteen years old and I came to America. I was a Christian growing up, but you know it was very much so the Sunday morning church. I knew about Jesus but I obviously didn’ t understand the Gospel, and I didn’ t understand the real and living God actually wanted to know me. So, it wasn’ t until I was sixteen and I came to America that everything changed for me, and so I kind of just wanted to write about how much my life had changed. Now that I’ ve experienced and known His truth I can’ t ever go back to how my life was before. I kind of wanted to write a song
that sounds like a break-up love song, but is actually saying I’ ve been ruined by something so good, in the sense that now I’ ve tasted this, I’ m spoiled for anything less. It was meant to be kind of that sentiment.
We wrote it so long ago now and it was kind of overlooked a little. It was always so dear to me, it just meant so much to me. The funny thing is the vocal treatment on that, as you’ d mentioned, it’ s not something I’ d really experimented with, with my voice. We were in Europe on tour with Nickelback and we were demoing in the bus while the German driver was sleeping. So basically, I couldn’ t sing the song full voice because it would wake him up, so we thought we would just do the demo falsetto. It ended up being weirdly nice and I was like,“ Oh, I kind of like it like this, do you?” and Korey said,“ I kind of love it too!” so it ended up being how we kept the song. There’ s something kind of weirdly vulnerable about singing it that way that kind of gets the point across even better. It was a happy accident. People don’ t know that it was actually so we wouldn’ t wake up the driver!
When we were picking songs for the EP, I kind of threw some of these oldies back into the mix, some of these songs are still the dearests to my heart. Thankfully the whole team said they like“ Ruins” and it feels really awesome to have it all these years later finally make an appearance. And to have people actually respond to it, it’ s moving and it makes me feel really thankful. It’ s like a magical feeling honestly when something that’ s so dear to you ends up being dear to someone else too!
[ WM ] In the song story video for“ Not Dead Yet” you share about your battle with anxiety. As Christians, sometimes it can feel like we’ re
“ Iconic” // Ledger“ Ruins” // Ledger“ Not Dead Yet” Beyond the Video // Ledger
October 2018 WorshipMusician. com
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