|
 |
| |
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
ALOVE
speaks to Emma Pears, full-time musician,
songwriter and leader of The Rattling about
faith and music and gets some advice for budding
ALOVE songwriters.
Emma Pears will be performing at Longer
Later Louder on the 19th November.
Click
here for more details.
In
what ways would you say music has helped you
grow in your faith, if at all?
It has provided a means of communicating with
God, both saying stuff to him and listening
to what has to say to me. It also has built
my faith when God has given me a song for
a specific group of people. It’s great
to be used by God in that way and it builds
my faith to know he’s interested in
me and can use me.
God gives me all my songs, whether they are
specifically for the church or the industry,
whether Hymns, RnB, New Punk, Pop, Rock or
Jazz. He’s the ultimate songwriter and
creative one. I just have to listen to the
ideas he gives me.
What
influences you (both as a musician and a song
writer)?
People and relationships. Most of my songs,
in some form, can be stripped down to being
about relationship either with God, others,
the world, circumstance etc. People are a
never-ending source of creativity because
it was a creative God who made them!
What advice would
you give anyone who wants to start song writing?
Write, write and write some more…. I
was once told that the average songwriter
writes between 150-200 songs before they get
signed. I thought my first few songs were
great; I now realise they were far from it!
Also, don’t wait for a publisher to
validate your songs before using them. If
you’re writing for congregations and
people want to use your songs, then that’s
great. Don’t wait for publishers to
catch on. Use your songs at local level and
let God do the rest. It’s biblical for
congregations to have their songwriters amongst
them, so if that’s you, you’d
better do it!
What challenges have you faced since starting
as a full time songwriter?
God has been very gracious to me and has opened
some amazing doors. My manager is fantastic
and I’m so excited to be working with
him. The ‘Christian music scene’
and the ‘secular music scene’
work very differently from one another in
many ways. I’m still trying to figure
it out myself really. All my songs are given
by God and are for his glory. There’s
no difference to me. There is, though, a difference
in market and my congregational songs are
unlikely to ever be sung on ‘Later with
Jools Holland’ or ‘Top of the
Pops’! Equally, my Pop or Soul stuff
is unlikely to be sung by thousands at Spring
Harvest. I’m simply taking it one day
at a time at the moment and trying to make
the right decisions at the right time, being
honest with all those involved and myself.
Again, listening to God is the key.
How have you felt
supported since you became a full time songwriter?
I have been very supported by Nik my husband,
family and friends. The reality is though,
that people can’t know the challenges
you face when you are trying to ‘make
it’ in the ‘secular’ music
scene, unless they’ve actually done
it themselves. When I first started out I
was mentored by a very successful writer/producer
from Universal Music and he was very helpful
and encouraging. I am so grateful to him for
pushing me to write better songs and for all
the wisdom and support he gave me.
Ultimately I have to be very self-motivated,
be tough to take the knocks and have a lot
of self-belief. The person I go to for all
of that is God! “I can do everything
through him who gives me strength” (Phil:
4v13) has been a very important verse to me.
I believe I am walking the path God has laid
out for me and I will continue to trust him
to give me what I need, when I need it. He
has shown himself faithful.
What
is ‘The Rattling’ (i.e. how did
it come about, what do you do)?
The Rattling is simply a team of people who
are working within their gifting to help others
in their relationship with God. Some of the
members of the team have been working together
for over 7 years, and others have joined more
recently. The team was formed, formally in
Oct 2004 when we suddenly sat up and realised
that God had shaped a ministry over the past
6 years and Nik and I were in the driving
seat! God built the ministry over a long time
without us hardly even realising!
The name ‘The Rattling’ comes
from Ezekiel 37 where the prophet Ezekiel
is faced with a valley of dry bones. God then
puts the bones back together with flesh and
breathes life into them. The rattling sound
that is mentioned in the passage is probably
the sound of the bones coming together, although
some scholars believe that it may have been
the sound of God himself.
The Rattling is simply making itself available
for God to use in the process of breathing
new life into the church and its communities.
How can we get
in touch with ‘The Rattling’?
Visit our website at
www.therattling.com
Please sign up to our newsletter so we can
keep you informed of what’s going on.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Youthwork -
The Partnership ...
ALOVE,
Youthwork Magazine, Youth For Christ, Spring Harvest and
Oasis are working together to equip and resource the Church
for effective youth work and ministry. |
 |
|
|
|
|
