Andy Baker of Homegrown Worship Shares His Vision of Encouraging & Developing New Songwriters

Homegrown Worship exists to help churches to grow their own worship songs. Having seen incredible fruit from local churches producing their own songs, they are eager to see fresh expressions of worship spring up in a wide range of styles, locations and languages. Each and every week, they release brand new worship songs via download and streaming sites. There will be chords and words available as well as a blog unpacking the story and inspiration behind the songs... plenty to feast upon!

As they share songs with church communities around the globe, theywill be inviting people to share their songs with us as they look to record the cream of the crop in their Homegrown sessions. This will build relationships that enable them to establish music production communities around the world. We are honored to be able to speak to Andy Baker for this exclusive interview.

Q: Andy, thanks for doing this interview with us.  What is Homegrown Worship about?

The heart of Homegrown Worship is to encourage people to grow in their personal devotion and creative expressions of worship. We'd like to see thousands of new worship songs being written and shared in the coming years in wider range of style and genres. 

Q:  Who current makes up Homegrown Worship?

Homegrown Worship isn't just a musical group, its a movement. Homegrown Worship is a community that people can get involved with if they're eager to writer, record and share new songs of worship. All of the HomegrownWorship releases so far have been written by me on my ukulele in my living room as part of my daily devotion times. We'll be starting to feature other writers and voices for the Homegrown releases in 2019 and will also be launching the first Handpicked playlist working alongside a dozen writers, artists and churches to share their songs in January. 

Q:  How and when did Homegrown Worship start?

At the start of this year, I began a new morning routine which usually takes up no more than 15 minutes. I start the day off my journaling to organise my head and then scribble down a list of things I'm grateful for to maintain a healthy heart. I then open my bible to chew over a few verses and then pick up my ukulele. I respond to what I'm reading, hearing from God and feeling and then I capture a voice memo. This daily devotional routine has lead to nearly 100 songs being written this year.

Q:  What makes the songs you put out different from those other worship bands are putting out?

Every song is unique. Our heart is to encourage others to write and to cover a wide range of expressions through our releases. Nobody else I'm aware of is sharing a produced recording each week. Whilst I see the value is trying to craft the perfect worship song, I'm less concerned about this and more intent of developing a strong culture of devotion and sharing what I feel God has put on my heart. 

Q:  On your website, you invite people to submit songs.  Who and what kind of worship songs are you looking for?

We're looking for songwriters who we can encourage. All sounds and styles are welcome... we love hearing things that are authentic. 

Q:  I believe it's your goal to put out one song each week.  Do you think you will ever release a full length album or is it just to release individual songs?

We have produced a couple of CD's already which are available to buy from rocketfuelhq.com/homegrownworship. The future is definitely focussed on songs and playlists...the albums days are somewhat numbered. All of our playlists will be found easily online and we are really excited to launch several new playlists in 2019 including the first Handpicked playlist 

Q: How can our readers subscribe to the new songs?  

We'd love to share our releases with everyone reading this. Just head to homegrownworship.com and sign up. It's free of charge and we will send out links to the songs to stream, lyric videos, chord and lyric sheets and a blog which tells the story behind the song. Our hope is that everyone on the mailing list is inspired to deepen and share their faith using the creative talents God has blessed them with

 

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