Hollyn – True

CCM: A line that sticks out on “In Awe” is, You don’t need me at all, but you couldn’t love me more. New listeners may have not expected to hear a twenty year-old making music about the self-sufficiency of God. What led you to write that?
Hollyn: I wrote “In Awe” in Portland, Oregon with my friend Dave Lubben, and he also produced this track. I literally went into the vocal booth, and I was in a place where I needed to just sing, and sing from my soul. I didn’t really know what was going to come out, but I knew that I had to sing something, and so I just went in the booth and sang.

Honestly, that’s how we wrote the song. I didn’t pick up a pen. I just went in and sang, and that’s what we got. I really felt like, in that moment, “Why do You even need me to do the work that You could do by Yourself?” I am so unworthy to get on stage and sing these songs, or to even write these songs and live the life that I’m living. But He’s called me to do this, and He don’t need me to do this, but He loves me so much that He’s allowed me to.

Each one of us, no matter what our occupation or our job is, we get to serve a God that loves us so much—that He doesn’t even need us—He just created us because He wanted to, and He loves us that much. If you think about that for too long, it boggles your mind. But I’m so grateful for that. That’s definitely one of my favorite lines in the whole album. I love that song so much. I cry every time I hear it.

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CCM: Where in the timeline of creating One-Way Conversations and wrestling with your direction does “In Awe” come into play?
Hollyn: That was long before I went on that tour on the west coast and wrote “Can’t Live Without.” I wrote “In Awe” in March of 2016, almost a year ago, and I was in a place of…well, kind-of the same place. I think I was in that place for longer than I tell myself and allow myself to believe!

Everyone expects something to come with a Christian album, or if it’s pop, they expect it to sound a certain way. And so I thought, “Man…I want to break down a wall, turn a page and do something different with the music that I create. If it makes a difference, great. I want to do something that’s new and fresh. I didn’t want it to sound cheesy. I didn’t want it to sound fabricated or false.

And I remember going in that booth and writing that and I thought, “Oh my gosh, it sounds so raw and so…how I feel! It sounds cool,” and it’s a song that I feel like is going to make a difference, and it’s going to speak for a lot of people and how they feel. I said, “I have to put it on there. That is a God-breathed song.” That’s how we got it, and I’m so thankful that the Lord allowed me to write it. It’s helped me through a lot.