Contemporary Christian artist Caitie Hurst’s latest song “Recover,” combines the depth of personal narratives and worshipful praise into a powerful song, featuring moving melodies and soundscape building instrumentation.
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Hurst told American Songwriter that with this release, and the remainder of her forthcoming EP in October 2020, she hopes to dive deeper into an arena of Christian music that gives everyone a song to sing to God as well as meet them in their own, individual experiences.
The Centricity signed artist dove into her songwriting process, who she hopes to reach through her music, and stylistic inspirations she draws from as she facilitates instrumentation and production.
Your songs breathe some fresh air into the contemporary Christian music industry. Who do you see as your specific audience within this space, and how do you feel your songs reach them?
I think for the past couple years, my audience has been primarily girls in their teens, and their moms. But with my last few releases, my goal is to broaden my audience to reach people of all ages. I’m trying to move from just fun pop music that appeals to little girls, to worshipful music that gives people of all ages a song to sing no matter where they’re at in their own lives.
This latest release, “Recover,” nods toward real doubts in the faith, and yet a bold claim about God. What was your specific inspiration behind this song?
I loved this song because we initially started writing it with a specific story in mind – of someone who’d been admitted into rehab again, someone one of the other writers in the room knew. And we started talking about how we wanted to give people a song to sing that assured us that God could restore anything, like years of a life that had been spent in and out of rehab, on and off drugs and alcohol and everything in between. Or, a song for someone to sing when they’ve messed up in a relationship, had gone too far, and felt that they could never get rid of the shame they carried.
Sometimes it’s like, when we mess up, or when we feel like we’ve wasted years of our life struggling with the same things, or when we’re stuck in a season of depression that feels like it’s never going to end and it’s hard to believe that God can recover any of that. But He, and only He, can. He works all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes—somehow, some way—that we don’t fully understand. In writing this, we kept coming back to a passage of prophecy to Judah in Joel 2 that talks about how God will restore “the years that the locusts have stolen”, and it would take a while to break this down so I won’t, but our main point we wanted to drive home with this song was that God can recover anything. We see that in His character all throughout the Bible. Any person, any situation, any years spent in depression, years spent running from God, time spent in disobedience, addictions, anything, God restores. It’s something we can’t even fully understand how or when He does it, but He promises that He works things together for good, and for His glory. So I wanted this song to encourage anyone who felt hopeless or full of shame that God is a God who restores, He sees and He cares, and He has enough grace to cover every single thing we’ve ever done
How does your sonic vision and bent in production and lyrical style communicate your goal as an artist?
I think my main goal has always been to write lyrics that are relatable to people. Which, I do that by taking one person’s story, maybe my own, or maybe someone else’s, and putting that into a song. I’ve found that when you tell one person’s story, it usually relates to a lot of others. That’s always been my goal—not to just make music for myself, but music that encourages other people and strengthens their own faith and belief in God. My goal has always been to pair relatable lyrics with production style that I would listen to on my own. I don’t always listen to Christian radio, I listen to a lot of pop, alternative, and 80’s music. So I try to always accomplish the goal of the song being something that I would actually like to listen to!
What do you hope listeners walk away thinking and feeling after they listen to not only this latest song but all your music?
I want listeners walking away not just thinking “wow this is a well written song” or “great production”, which i do hope those goals are accomplished in my music and that is so very important to me, but my main hope is that listeners walk away with a deeper understanding of God’s love for them.
Whether they’ve been walking with God for a while, just started following Him, or don’t know Him at all, I want my songs to point to what a life lived walking with Jesus can look like. It’s lots of times full of questions, doubts, hardships, joys, tears, highs, and lows, but ultimately it is always full of hope. I want my music to drive home the point that God loves you no matter what and He always offers his hope and his grace freely to everyone—that’s the goal.
Where do you see your artistry going in the coming months? Is there more new music on the horizon for you?
Yes! I have an EP coming out late October. I’m stoked! I’ve grown up as a worship leader, and have realized that’s what I love doing, so the music I release in the future will be more worshipful rather than Christian pop.
Is there anything else you’d like to add in relation to this latest release, and your niche as an artist?
Just that I’m grateful to be getting to release music, and I hope that in all of the uncertainty that this year has brought to all of us, that the songs I put out can bring a little bit of hope to your day whenever you hear them!
