After spending significant time in the pop music realm, Jordan Smith decided to take what he calls the natural next step with his songwriting career. The singer’s first release with Provident Label Group/Song Music, “Great You Are,” makes a careful yet confident move into contemporary Christian music.
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Smith told American Songwriter, transitioning to releasing faith-based music has always been his dream—his long-term goal—but the years he spent as a writer in pop circles following his time on NBC’s The Voice were formative to his platform and development as an artist.
“I learned so much about songwriting and about creativity and about music creation and production during those years of writing pop music with such huge writers and producers,” Smith explains. “I think it was all valuable to get me to the point that I am today where I can release this new music.
“After this whole journey of writing these songs, of uplifting people and encouraging people, and growing my platform, I looked around, I took a step back and I realized now is the time that I’m going to actually get to follow that dream and follow my heart,” Smith says, explaining his mindset with the genre transition.
Now is the time to take this moment and be true to himself, Smith continues, focusing back on what his heart really wants: to be a worship leader and make music for the church.
“It was the obvious next step for me,” Smith says. “It’s always been in the plan that one day I’d be able to do that.”
“Great You Are” is a multi-faceted track, according to Smith. Fitting congregational settings, Christian radio and personal reflection or casual listening, Smith notes the single feels like the perfect statement of who he is as a creator.
“It was important for people to hear me as an artist say ‘every failure, every success, every heartbreak, every blessing, I’m giving it back to God,’” Smith notes. “I’m not going to be ashamed to let people know that God has my everything. I’m laying it all down and just trying to be a mirror of His goodness and faithfulness and greatness to the world.”
This claim, given unabashedly, Smith says is a big part of what brings him fulfillment in his musical creation. Watching his listeners, who have supported him ever since The Voice, now jump into this next phase of his artistry and fully support this latest track and the songs to come is a major encouragement, Smith explains.
“This is my purpose. I was created for people to experience God when I sing. I was created for people to hear my songs and feel something, feel encouraged, feel uplifted, feel understood,” Smith says. “I want other people to connect with it and to know that it comes from a place of authenticity and that it’s genuine.
“This is just my heart, it’s part of my testimony and it’s part of my story. At times I’ve been really blessed and I’ve been able to sing songs on the mountaintop, but then I’ve had really low moments and those are my valleys and I’ve written songs that speak to those moments as well,” Smith continues. “I just want people to be able to take the next step on this journey with me and to know that it’s authentic and it’s from my heart and that the Lord has given me these songs. Maybe they’re [the songs] just for me, but I think they’re going to be a lot of help to a lot of people.”
