Kacey Walkingstick will be the first to tell you she's not a Christian rock star, or even an "up and coming" worship leader. The Oklahoma-based married, mother of almost two sees herself more as a creator than a performer. 

Whether she's writing her own music, collaborating in various side projects, or serving her church as one of its worship leaders, Walkingstick's heart beats for providing the church with blatant, unabashed, scripturally inspired songs of praise to her King. 

Walkingstick's approach to songwriting carries a simplicity that comes with childlike faith, although her actual musical instrumentation on her latest project, The Depths, is inversely sophisticated. 

I took some time to talk with this "non-artist" artist recently to find out about her creative, almost apostolic calling to write songs for the Church, and to get to know Kacey the person.

I'm excited to hear what's been happening with you.  But first of all, tell people about yourself and where you're from and what your life is like.

Well, I'm eight months pregnant, so I'm very tired right now, but I'm making it.  I'm married.  This is my second child on the way.  After releasing The Depths, I've been working on a few other projects.  One for The Verses Project.  I don't know if you've heard of that or not.

What is that?

Just where you take scripture straight from the NSAB version and then you just make a song out of it, so it has to stick exactly to the actual words. It's kind of a memorization tool for people, and I'm working with Dustin Ragland on that trying to get it all finished up, so that'll be out in December. I'm pretty excited for that one.

You're in Oklahoma City. How long have you lived there? What's the scene for Christian music like there?

I've lived here my whole life.  Of course the big name here is Charlie Hall.  There are a lot of great worship leaders around here at some big churches.  Actually I go to a much smaller church, East Point Church, so what I'm kind of used to is not really the big, the giant mega churches, but kind of smaller.
 
And you're a worship leader at your church?

Yes.  We actually tag team.  We have four worship leaders that we rotate through and I'm one of them.

How would you say that aspect of your life and that service really has shaped or helped or one way or the other affected your writing as an artist?

This makes me think more about what Christians in general need from a worship song, looking at it from their perspective of how I can connect with God, and what ideas can really draw me near to Him. I think it's really just changed my perspective a little bit in that area.

Piano, of course, is your primary instrument--piano and voice--so for people who haven't heard you, kind of describe your sound a little bit and just sort of what you do musically as a solo artist.

On the singer/songwriter side, a lot of it is a little softer piano rock, but then I have some more upbeat ones that are a little more rocking. I'm trying to think of someone to compare it to.

Well, who are some artists that inspire you, that you enjoy as a listener?

I really like Loud Harp right now and Page CXVI, Meredith Andrews, maybe kind of along those lines.  I'm probably not as laid back as the first two.  A little more upbeat than that and more poppy.  

Do you have any sort of mainstream influences? Because when I heard you, I heard some things that reminded me of some of those.

I love Ben Folds. I love Lucius right now.  Beach House I'm really into.  As far as piano influences, of course Elton John, the great Billy Joel.
 
It's always a moving target when it's with God, but as you see it, what would you say your calling is as far as being a musician and an artist and whatnot?  What's the mission?

I think the mission is to write songs that are going to really point people to God, really draw them into His word.  I'm influenced a lot by scripture, so I'm always either directly quoting scripture or referencing it in some way.  I think the goal is to let people hear God's word through music and then the Holy Spirit works through that.

You mentioned The Verses Project.  You've got that coming up in December.  As far as your own solo type stuff, what's next for you?

I'm in the process of writing another worship album and of course that's going to be on hold for a little while until after I have this baby, but I've already got several songs lined up for that. As far as getting it out there, I don't really plan on playing a ton of shows, maybe a few here and there just around Oklahoma City, but the big push online probably to get it out.  I just don't really know the timeline yet.

What are some of the things that you're writing about now, about some of the things that are inspiring you?

One I'm working on right now is the story of Hannah and Samuel, so I'm pretty much covering that right now just because that speaks to me, having children. I've had struggles in that area and just how the Lord has provided and pretty much trust in Him and not so much in ourselves.  We can't create a child ourselves.  It's all Him.  So really just trusting in His timing and His provisions.  That's one song I'm working on.

If you had an overarching theme to your songs and your music, what would you say that would be?

The overarching theme for this album, The Depths, is of course the depth of God's love.  He never leaves us no matter if we're lacking faith or if we're wandering in our faith or if we're doubting.  He never leaves us.  His love is always there, so I think it's really just remembering His love and how He provides for us even when we're not coming up to where we should be.
 
How do you go about writing a song?  What's the process there?  You just have a piano sitting around?  Does lightning strike when you sit down?  How does it work for you?

Generally I'll come up with the music first.  I'll have kind of a progression that I'm playing around with. Sometimes I'll have just a melody pop into my head and I'll have to sit down at the piano and figure that out and then I'll start praying and reading the word and usually lyric ideas will come from that and then put it all together.  It's usually music first.

So the music paints a certain mood for you?

Yeah.

Is there anything particular you wanted to tell people about your music?

I really want people to know that my whole album is free.  At KaceyWalkingstick.com you can download the whole album for free.  You can download all the chord charts,  and I would love for people to be playing them at their church and using them for worship.

That's something I've really noticed about you is that you're different from a typical artist in that this is really about you trying to get songs out to the church rather than getting your songs, you in the spotlight, and I think that's really cool.

We always like to ask how people can be praying for you and your family.  There's one obvious thing I'm sure.

Just pray for us as our family is growing, that we would stay connected to God and stay in His word through all the craziness of having a baby and also at the same time still make time for my writing because that can really suffer during the first few months, but I would like to not take such a long break, be able to get back into the swing of that, but still give my family the attention they need and deserve.