3 Songwriting Questions for Natalie Grant: “Write Your Heart”

Natalie Grant has been blazing a path in Christian music for more than 20 years. Her music dreams began forming when she was a child growing up in Seattle, frequently singing with her siblings in church. Those dreams were solidified when she joined a local singing troupe, which ultimately led her to Nashville. She’s since released 11 studio albums, won a half-dozen Dove Awards, and sent numerous singles up the Christian charts, including “Hurricane,” “What Are You Waiting For,” and “In Better Hands.” Below, Grant answers three questions that provide insight into her songwriting.

 Best Songwriting Advice I Ever Received: 

“When I first got started, I actually wasn’t a songwriter. I sang other people’s songs. I remember I was so intimidated by writing. I thought, ‘I’m not gonna be good enough at it, what if it’s stupid,’ and somebody said, ‘Just write your heart.’ And I think that advice of whatever it is, it’s not gonna be stupid if it’s your story. If it’s true to who you are, it’s true to what you’re walking through, it’s true to something you’ve experienced, it’s true to something you feel, then it’s not because it’s your experience. So write your heart is I think the best advice I ever received.”

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A Song I Wish I Had Written:

“A song I wish I had written is a hymn called ‘It Is Well with My Soul.’ I think that’s one of the greatest songs ever written. It was written based off of the writer’s own tragedy—he lost his family. Isn’t it amazing how you wish you would’ve written a song, but we don’t want to have to actually go through what that person went through to have to write it, which is why he was probably able to write it with such authenticity.” 

Lyrics of a Song of Mine I Wish I Could Change: 

“Goes way back to the very beginning [laughs]. It was a song called ‘Keep on Shining’ and it’s just so cheesy. It’s like the cheesiest song ever and I wish I could go back. There was this spoken thing at the front of it that went ‘keep on shining.’ I wish that I could erase that from the world wide webs [laughs].” 

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