Singer-songwriter duo, Jesse and Deborah Du are a part of a band called “Story Worship.” The duo released a song each month for a whole year, which lead to their first album, Year One. Story’s music was featured on The Good Christian Music Blog and a Switzerland radio station, Life Channel. Their album, Year One, features eleven songs, each of which is followed with a devotional explaining the meaning behind the song. Unlike traditional albums, Story released all their music for free. I had the chance to sit down with Jesse and Deborah to talk about the challenges of writing their first album, where they find their inspiration, and how they faced different challenges through the process. Read on to see how God worked through the duo.
What’s the meaning behind the band name, Story? Jesse: I’ve been writing songs for a long time, but I wasn’t always writing for the church. I was writing for myself, writing about girls, and things like that. But there’s one time when I had a dream and in the dream there was a huge crowd of people and they were all singing worship together. I was in the crowd and they were leading one of my songs that I wrote and the band name that was on the screen said “Story.” It was then where I woke up and said to Deborah, “Dude, Deborah, I had this weird dream.” I told her that the band name was Story; she said it was a very cool name and I realized that [it’s] actually a really awesome name. From there on we thought about making it a platform to tell our story and the greater story of God.
What inspired you to make music together? Deborah: We both write and make music so it seemed like a very natural thing for us to do. We were writing music about the same, and for the same group of people, which is our church family. So I think we are always inspired by our relationship with each other, with God, and with the people that we go to church with.
When you were writing Year One, you had a deadline to produce a song every month, how did it feel? J: Rough. It was a grind every weekend. Since we both worked full time, every weekend was dedicated to writing music or recording music, [or] filming. But at the same time it was very rewarding because with an expectation to release something every month, I really sought after God and sought after inspiration and it’s oftentimes in the seeking that you find that.
What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how? D: I think our biggest challenge is just finding the time and the resources to dedicate enough to the music. Like Jesse said before, we both work full time, we have a lot of other priorities in our lives so this isn’t our main hustle and this isn’t really what we focus all of our time and energy on. We also don’t really have producers, a really consistent band, or people that we play with. So I think we’re still trying to figure out where this band fits into all the different priorities in our lives and how much energy and resources to pour into it.
J: I would also say, one really difficult struggle for us is the balance between self-promotion and believing in your heart because I hate the feeling of promoting myself. I feel like it taints every relationship that I try to build or I use it as a plug to share my music. But at the same time I know that the people that have listened to the music have really enjoyed it, or they say that God’s really spoken to them through the songs. So I don’t really know where it fits because being a Christian you have to show humility, you have to express a sense of “I’m only doing what God tells me to do. I’m not doing this to build my own kingdom or my own empire.” So that struggle was almost like a paradox. It’s difficult for me to navigate.
What do you guys like to do outside of music that contributes to your musicality; in essence, a hobby that you’ve turn to in order to rejuvenate your creativity? D: I think writing in general. I’ve always liked to write. I like to write poetry and reflective blog posts. A lot of our songs come from times of prayer or times of struggling with things, and so I find that my writing helps me get the initial feelings onto paper. Sometimes, I’ll just write a line or two and that can actually be a central point where a song can come up.
J: I like hikes. Being out in nature makes me inspired to get to know the God who created nature.
Out of all the songs in the album, do you guys have a personal favorite? Why? D: I have a personal favorite. Well I have two. So, my first favorite is All of My Love. That one, Jesse wrote independently and recorded it. I didn’t have much to do with that song itself. Everything about that song brings me to a place where I feel like God is speaking to me. His love is very—it’s almost hard to explain—it brings me to this place of feeling like I’m in a room with God alone and He’s just telling me “I love you and all of this love is for you.” My second favorite is Anchorbecause that was the first song we wrote together, so I guess, sentimentally, there’s that. We wrote it during Hurricane Sandy, so it’s like a historical event where we were all just trapped in our house and it’s kind of like using an actual storm to talk about the storms of life.
J: My personal favorite is I Know You’re Good because I think that’s the only song in the album that came out of necessity. One of the members of the church got into a skiing accident and she was almost brain dead. A lot of us—our church—during these five days when she was in the hospital, got together and were praying for her. We hoped for her to get better and we were on our knees and crying and the song came out of that time. There’s a line in the song that goes, “It’s not if you are able. It’s only if you will. But even if you don’t, God I will trust you still.” Meaning, through the good times and the bad times, whatever happens, it’s not that God is not powerful enough to change the situation, but it’s only if He wills it to happen. The girl ended up passing away. But out of it birthed this song of, “Even though I don’t believe it, I know I need to sing. I know you’re good. You have to be a good God.”
What is your songwriting process like? J: Oftentimes what happens is, I’m looking for a song to sing for church based on a certain topic or a certain feeling, and I can’t find one. So I decide I should probably write one myself. So it starts with a theme, a feel, and a vibe. From that, we experiment with chords and melodies, things like that. But, the goal is always set to create a vibe with a specific theme and then from there let the pieces fall into place. I mean, it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes it takes months to write. Other songs like All of My Love was written in like 30 minutes.
How do you experience God through your songs? D: I think that sometimes, there are elements of spirituality and faith that can be very abstract. It’s like you want to understand it but there’s a disconnect sometimes about the physical between what I can see and feel right now and what’s around me and sort of the spiritual aspect of my life. So I think the songs are like a connection because music is very spiritual but it’s also very physical. You hear it. You feel it. Experience it. So for me, it’s almost like it helps me to anchor what I know in my head about God and it reaffirms certain truths and helps me to bring those truths into my current situations.
How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together? D: I think at least for me, personally, I’ve grown a lot. I’ve become a little bit more willing to take risks, to make suggestions, and to take criticism. I used to be very private about my songs and just like “Oh no, they don’t sound good.” So I’ve been a little bit braver and more open to realizing that “Oh yeah, that doesn’t sound good, forget it.” I think when Jesse and I first started doing music it was him showing me his stuff and I’m like, “Oh that’s amazing,” and me showing him my stuff and he’s like, “Oh that’s cool.” Then, that would evolve into “Hey I’m thinking about this, what do you think?” and we’re just bouncing things off of one another. Just more collaborative, I guess.
J: I’ve been trying to challenge the Christian music community. The musical stylings of contemporary Christianity really goes back to artists like U2 and Bono, and there’s a wave of Christian music that’s simple to execute and put all the pieces together this rubric and all of a sudden you have this worship song. But, it’s such a thin slice of creativity in the broad scope of music that’s available. When you’re speaking of different topics or when your songs about this whole realm of emotional truths, sometimes you don’t need the cookie cutter. Sometimes you need to expand beyond that. So we’ve been trying to sort of gear off from a well worn path of Christian music.
Are there any Christian artists that inspires you? J: I think one of my biggest influences in Christian music was Phil Wickham. He expressed a passion for singing and guitar playing. He was able to take me on a emotional roller coaster with the way that he played guitar and the way that he sang. So I really like his abilities to convey a whole spectrum of emotion.
D: I think musically we don’t really have a very distinct sound. Where like, “Oh yeah, you guys sound like this band.” I think that, because each song is different, we try to create a different vibe for each song. I really look up to Amanda Cook and Kari Jobe. I think they’re both singers and songwriters that are able to convey a very deep sense of emotion. The emotion is not like depressing, but more of a feeling of having hope even in the darkest of times. That emotion comes out when they sing the songs that they sing. I’ve always wanted to not just sing about sad things because it’s easy, but be able to look at the sad things and sing hope at them.
Is there going to be a Year Two? Is there another album in the works? J: Year two has been a lot more difficult. It’s going to be a shorter album. After doing a whole year of releasing music, it was harder to maintain that pace. But, we really love the songs that came out of the Year Two and we’re really excited to share it.
Do you think you’re going to release the songs the way that you did with your first album? J: No, we’re just going to compile all the songs that we wrote during the second year and just share it in bulk, like a traditional album release.
Story Worship plans on releasing their second album, Year Two, later on this year.