Kellie & Kristen Equip us to Fight the Enemy with New Worship Songs

Kellie & Kristen, a twin sister worship duo based in Nashville, TN, have just released their brand new album 'In The Name'.  Kellie and Kristen Fuselier are twin sisters with a singular purpose - to see the glory of God both exalted and delighted in by people from every nation. 

Music has been a constant for the girls throughout their lives, Kellie singing from the time she was just three years old and Kristen picking up her first instrument at age eight. The pair have ministered through music in some capacity for more than ten years. They each felt God whisper the call as teenagers. 

While being rooted and grounded in the local church is of utmost importance to the sisters, the time to reach out to the universal church has come.  In January 2016, the team released their first EP entitled We Receive which hit #43 on the Christian & Gospel iTunes chart during its debut weekend. We Receive was recorded by up and coming producer Sean Hill (Uphill Studios, Dacula, GA). It is a compilation that speaks of the glories of Jesus and the joy found in drawing near to him.

Q:  Thank you ladies for doing this interview with us.  Let's start with yourselves, who are Kellie and Kristen?

Absolutely! Thanks for having us! We are twin sisters who have been leading worship together since we were 16 years old. Kellie (curly hair) sings lead while Kristen leads from either keys or acoustic guitar. We are originally from Louisiana but have been living in Nashville, Tennessee, for the last 2 years.

Q:   How did you first discover your calling to sing and lead worship?     

Music has always been a major part of both of our lives. However, we didn't feel called into it until we were about 20 years old. We had been in our youth praise band for about 4 years at that point when we decided to go to a night of worship a couple hours away from home. During that event, both Kristen and myself felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit to look up and notice what the worship leader was doing in that moment of the night. As we looked, we both felt him say, "This is what I want you to do."  It's crazy because we weren't even sitting by each other! We got to talking later that night and were shocked.  We never looked back or questioned if this was the right path for us after that night in February 2009! 

Q:   Are you currently leading worship in a church setting now?  Talk to us more about your ministry.     

We are involved at our home church, Church of the City, in Franklin. We absolutely love being a part of the local body and feel it is vital to our personal walks with God. Being connected to a source fuels what we do in our ministry outside of church where we can lead from an overflow.      

We refer to our ministry as being "musical missionaries." Our main goal is that wherever we travel to, we leave listeners and worshipers without excuse of hearing the gospel. Every song we write or choose to sing is on purpose to display the story of Jesus and what he has done for us. We love connecting with people before and after because we believe stronger ministry happens off the stage; onstage worship leading enhances what's being done off of it. It's beautiful when you are able to see the bigger picture of what God does in individuals' lives!

Q:   Besides your own songs, what other songs do you normally include in your worship song set?   

It changes event to event. We usually include some hymns as well as songs that have been relevant in the last 5 or so years. Currently we have been doing "Living Hope" by Phil Wickham, "Raise a Hallelujah" by Bethel Music, "How Great Is Your Love" by Passion, and "New Wine" by Hillsong - just to name a few.

Q:   Let's talk about your new album "In the Name."  How did this album come about?     

When we moved to Nashville we knew God wanted us to step into a writing season. The only problem was we didn't know what to write about. So we started with the season we'd been finding ourselves in for years: waiting. We wrote a lot about waiting during our first year in Nashville. But then something shifted and we both became very restless and frustrated with all the waiting. I remember Kellie sitting in the writer's room with Ben Calhoun and Daniel Olsson when she randomly said, "You know what? I'm tired of the devil stealing my joy when God has promised peace and a future. I want to punch him." From there, the focus starting turning from "woe is me" to "I believe God is always for me."

From that point on, we found ourselves writing thematically about calling out shame, doubt, and fear. As a whole, "In The Name" is a story about declaring God's faithful goodness in and out of season. It's about declaring war on the things that pull our attention from God and declaring victory in the face of schemes and lies. Our prayer for the album is that it would give listeners fighting words against the schemes of the devil in their lives and, in turn, cause them to worship God for who He is.

Q:  "Spirit of God" is fast becoming a favorite of many.  How did this song come about?     

That was actually the very first song we wrote when we moved to Nashville. Our good friend Chris Clayton invited us in on a songwriting session he was having with Chase Buchanan. Chase brought in this beautiful melody that pricked every single one of our hearts. We ran with that melody.

Eventually we just began praying for the Spirit to simply move. We believe that God does abundantly more, so why don't we ask him for it? When we recorded it as a single, Jacob Sooter and Max Corwin jumped on it and helped us add to the bridge of the song which became some of our favorite lyrics: Break what we couldn't break with only your name; Heal what no one could heal, your power revealed. The song has gotten such a great response when we've traveled with it. People seem to grasp onto it by the second line and are all in by the second chorus. It's amazing to see a room full of people simply ask God to do what they know only He can do. That's always among our favorite moments.

Q:  What are some of the highlights for you in making this record?     

I don't know if this is a highlight necessarily, but I definitely think it's interesting. So we wrote most of these songs in emotionally good places, even though they were about declaring victory and such. But after we landed on the final song list for the album, both of us found ourselves walking through individual seasons of emotional turmoil. Kristen began getting overwhelmed by anxiety attacks and I fell into a really deep depression, all while recording and planning and praying for the ministry of this record. Through those attacks, we both actually ended up needing every single one of these songs to get us through. We can sit and pinpoint for you what was happening when we each turned to this song or that song to remind ourselves of the truths of Jesus. It was really amazing when we were on the other side of those seasons and were able to experience firsthand how this record could impact others potentially walking through the same things. They were weapons for us, and that was one thing we prayed it would be for others.    

 Another highlight was just writing with incredibly talented writers such as Krissy Nordhoff (Better), Ben Calhoun (In The Name), and Cody Carnes (Details Of Grace), to name a few. They were so gracious in chasing down our ideas and visions for what we needed to say. The three songs we wrote with each of them are crucial moments on the record that helped shape its direction.    

We also really loved working with our producer, Sean Hill. He and his team do stellar work with everything they do, and it was an honor to have Sean flex his creative muscles to produce what we have been searching for for 3 years. We are so proud of this record and all it stands for and everyone it represents!

Q:   What are your hopes for this record?  How do you wish this album would impact the church and beyond?     

Our main prayer for the record is that it would give tired believers something to fight against the enemy with, that it would be a tool used in the opening of unbelievers' eyes to the gospel of Jesus, and that it would bring hope to anyone who is in need of the reminder that victory is already ours in the finished work of Jesus.

Too many of us sit in a defeated headspace when we should be living confidently despite our circumstances, knowing Jesus is better than all that comes against us! Wouldn't it be amazing to see this generation rise up as an army in the name of Jesus to come against what Satan is trying to steal from us - our joy and hope in God's actual goodness? What would that look like? We don't know about you, but we believe we would see God's power on earth in a way no one has seen it in our lifetime. We hope this record helps to begin stirring up deeper faith, deeper conviction, and a more secure identity as Christ followers for every person whose ears it meets. And we pray they valiantly use it as a weapon as they declare their victory in the name of Jesus.

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