TAYA

Hillsong United’s TAYA makes her solo debut with a self-titled collection of songs rooted in Scripture and unbound by genre. Across 14 tracks, she shares snippets of her faith-journey via honest, often inspirational songs, many of which pull lyrics directly from Scripture. Her soulful, dynamic voice is on full display across the album, too, with sonic influences touching on pop, soul, gospel and R&B. “My hope is that with 14 different songs—and I’m a bit of a mixed bag, so it truly is like a TAYA record—you’re getting it all,” she tells Apple Music. “I pray that there would be a song that would resonate with each person, whether they need a little bit of joy or a reminder that this is a life of faith that we're called to.”

Below, TAYA walks Apple Music through several of the album’s key tracks.

“In This Place”
“It is a great precursor to what the record will hold. I was still finding my feet, songwriting-wise. It was written from the perspective of Jacob, who’s a naughty character in the Bible. Let’s be honest: He was running away. He made a few decisions that cost him his relationship with his family and his brother. And he was running away. Should have been facing it, but he ran away from his brother, and he found himself in the desert, which is an arid place. And yet, it was that moment that he went to bed, with a rock as his pillow, and he had a dream. He had his vision of angels ascending and descending on a staircase. And then he wakes up, and he has this revelation of, ‘Surely you were in this place, and I didn’t even know it.’”

“For All My Life”
“It was the last song that we wrote for this record, which is classic Jesus, you know—11th hour, 57th minute. I hadn’t written for seven years, so I was just trying to finish songs. I didn’t know how to write a single or anything like that. And so, I was with Hank Bentley, who is an amazing producer and songwriter in his own right, and we’re at his home studio. I was with Jon Guerra, and we had just been talking about the faithfulness of God in my own life, my story up until that moment. I think when we’re open-handed and we say ‘yes’ to Jesus, he’s like, ‘I can use that. You’ve put no constraints on your life. I will take it completely.’”

“Getaway”
“That vocal was actually the demo. I think maybe that’s why it just seemed to be the most honest and connected the most. I didn't even try to sing another vocal because I’m hearing it and I’m like, ‘That’s it. It’s honest.’ And perhaps it’s because I didn’t have the pressure of trying like, ‘This vocal, you've got to get it.’”

“Not Ashamed”
“I wrote the song with Ben Hastings, who is one of my United brothers. He's an amazing songwriter within his own right. And it was also with Jon Guerra, as well. And they brought the idea of just that initial, ‘I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ’ and stating our beliefs in a song. But what I couldn’t get out of my head is one of my friends works for this amazing not-for-profit organization called Open Doors, which is helping to resource the persecuted church across the world. Here in the West, I’m not dying for my faith. I haven’t ever been held up at gunpoint. For the most part, it’s kind of a comfortable Christianity that we live in. And I couldn’t get out of my mind, when we were writing this song, the persecuted church, where for them to say, ‘I’m not ashamed,’ it is costly. And it could literally very well cost them their lives.”

“Sorry to Grieve You God”
“I love that this would be the final track because, as we journey through with God, our confession changes because we’re coming into alignment with him, hopefully. And with more close proximity and intimacy, hopefully we become more like him. So, it goes from ‘Sorry to grieve you God’ in that moment, then it goes to ‘I just want to praise you, God,’ ‘I just want to thank you, God.’ And then the last one is ‘I just want to please you God’ because I just want to. If I please God, if I’m looking to Him and just caring about His opinion and what He thinks, then everything else will come into alignment.”