"Away from all the noise, I finally hear Your voice; draw me away," sings worship leader/singer-songwriter Anastasya Laverdiere of Saskatchewan. The independent artist from Canada's midsection comes armed with a number of musical styles; a pure, almost childlike voice in the vein of Kari Jobe; and a deep desire to help fuel a movement of intimate worship across the earth.

As she releases her first widely accessible project, Draw Me Away, Laverdiere is poised to empower the Church with new songs about God's greatness and our need to seek Him in the midst of life's noise. Laverdiere and I talked about her musical origins, her personal mission and her eye on the future.

You've been making music a long time, but people are just starting to get to know you. Tell us how you got started and how you came into this calling the Lord's given you as far as music goes.

I guess I've got a lot of the same story as lots of people where I grew up in church and got opportunities to play and do worship music in different ways. I'd say probably more than a few years now have I really written worship songs that had come out of God really setting me free and learning in the midst of some hard times.

I started that way. That's where all the songs come from. Then we started going to a really great church where we got the chance to release those songs. They really encouraged their worship leaders to release new songs into the congregation--songs that God was giving to them, so we were able to do that.

That's grown into where it is now. Really the album itself  started as a desire to make the songs accessible for other worship leaders to use them into their churches or whatnot, and the only way to give them the chance was to do that. So that's really where it started. Then the vision's grown from there.
 
You mentioned in your bio that God really got a hold of your life. There was a critical point in terms of your development as a believer and as a worshiper. I was looking through your blog and stuff and you talked about a grace encounter with Jesus at church Bible camp. What happened there, if you want to talk about it? How did Jesus get a hold of you and what has that meant to you?

When I was about about 21, somewhere around there, I had walked away from God through a series of things and mostly ended up finding myself really far from Him and involved in some really unhealthy relationships. I came to a point in my life where I actually got quite physically sick.

Sometimes we come to the end of ourselves in life. God's always been there, but that's when we become aware of Him more. I was at the complete end of my own strength or ability. That's when I would say I encountered Him through finally crying out to Him.

There was a lot of bitterness with things that had happened through my teen years, and I had to just let that go. I think I felt like I never really knew, in a way, that I could come to God like that because He was this great big God that was kind of distant, or you didn't mess with Him. That's what I was taught. He is God of the universe, but I never had that close relationship with Him. 

My understanding was that I had become a Christian; I brought to Him all my sin and He forgave me and that was great and so I was going to stay out of hell and that was good. Then at this point in my life it was like I broke down and let Him have everything and I actually do remember yelling at Him for things, releasing all of that to Him and then feeling His overwhelming grace and acceptance of me and love come back through His word and through prayer and through song.

That would have been one of the first times I can remember in my life just realizing He is relational and from there He's taken me on this journey of really learning who He is as the person, as the being of God, and what I mean to Him and experiencing His incredible grace and love. That has actually produced in me more of a devotion to Him because now it's all relational.

That's incredible. Would you say that your songwriting reflects that nowadays?

It definitely does, because honestly a lot of these songs, where they've come from is a personal time of worship. You get lots of different songs and then there are a few that I feel like God is saying, "This is for more than just you and Me," but there are still some that come up that are just for Him and I think we need to be able to do that. It's a relational conversation sometimes. I've had songs where I'm in a really rough spot in life where something didn't work out the way I thought it would and it's a declarative song. It's declaring the Word of God over that situation.

David did that so much in his songs through the Bible. He would declare the truth. He'd declare who God is. He'd declare that God's not going to fail him. He's going to pull him out. He's going to come through. Sometimes those songs are a prayer or a declaration. I really strive to have that honesty in there.
 
Draw Me Away is the new project. Talk about that name and that theme. You have a title track named that as well. Why did you go with that name and that overarching theme for the record?

Draw Me Away wasn't actually the first choice. I was going to go with "Only Believe" because I thought of faith and then the song "Draw Me Away" totally came out of what I was just talking about, where everything was so busy and crazy and I felt like I had not focused in on God for so long that I came to the piano and the words came out: "In this hiding place / I come to seek Your face / Draw me away." It came out of Song of Solomon 1:4 where the writer just says "bring me away to you," and I just felt like that's what was needed at that time in my life.

I didn't feel like I had time, but I had to make time. So I sat down and I was like, "God, draw me away," and the rest of the words to that song started to come.

I think for the album, it really represented the whole theme of just wanting to be really honest with God and wanting to look for those moments or actually create those moments where we draw into Him and get ourselves close to Him. It's all about drawing close to Jesus. The chorus is: "Jesus, I need you all the time." It's that recognition that I do need Him. This really felt like it really represented what we're trying to say here within the whole album.

Like you've mentioned, you've been able to really get your feet wet and express yourself in worship in a church setting. Are you involved in a church now?

Yeah. We serve Victory Family Church here in Saskatchewan. 

Are you one of the worship leaders? 

Yeah, worship leader. We've got a couple of worship leaders here. I get to play backup and sing backup every once in a while, which is lots of fun too, but I do worship leading and then my husband and I actually work with the youth as well. We have been given the head of the youth worship team and developing them. That's been fun too.

That's where the passion is. That's great. You're up in Canada. Do you get to do worship nights or concerts around there? Are you doing much touring or is that something that you're getting into?

That is something we are starting to get into. We have different conferences that we get a chance to be a part of. We just did a show here down in a lyric theater here, so we did that for the album as a CD release night with another couple of writers. That was a lot of fun.

Now I've got some conferences coming up in the summer here that we'll be traveling to. It's really something that we're starting to discover.

What's your husband's role in the music angle of things?

Joel drums for me, but he was also really involved in the producing side of things for the album. He has a really good ear for hearing some parts of the music. I think he's discovering different gifts that he has that he didn't know he had through this whole journey and this project with the music, but he does drum as well. So we're that kind of a team. I play keys and sing and he drums. 
 
Obviously as someone starting out and very involved in your church, you aren't doing music full time right now. What is your secret identity? What is your Monday through Friday? 

It's interesting right now. I am a care aid for homecare.  You basically go into people's homes and help them with medical needs.

First level nursing. That is what I do part time and now, like you said, just starting to make the transition into more and more stuff with the music.

What are you sensing is your calling as best as you can tell?

Both of us, my husband and I, have always felt a calling to full time ministry in some capacity and I think God has laid on my heart visions and dreams for certain things within that. Definitely this album is the first of more to come. Writing and releasing these songs is definitely a big part of what God is going to be doing with us through the next how ever long he has planned, but our hearts are definitely full time ministry with it too.

I've said before the intention is not to simply sing songs and go around and sing songs because I really feel like there's so much more that God can do through songs. I really believe that He wants to and you see worship growing and expanding. 

We're really just trying to follow Him, trying to listen for His voice and His call and His leading, but it is to transition into more full time ministry. We have some ideas for the fall as far as training in that for us, but going after the bigger calling. Going after the move of God on the Earth. Going after having Him impact the Earth through the songs and whatever else He does with us. It's all a package and He's working it out. He's working out the details right now.

I love that. Worship is breaking out across the Earth. You get to be a part of that. Who influences you? Who inspires you in terms of whether it's worship music or Christian music or any kind of music in general? What are your influences?

I'm actually starting to get connected to some writers that I didn't know of from Jesus Culture and Bethel. I have to say Darlene Zschech, too. She really inspires me.

The reason why she is so much more than even just the worship leader. She really has that pastor's heart and she's been a part of something in Hillsong and now in her church that is--I think is so powerful because it's developing other people and bringing them up in their callings and releasing them out.

As far as musically or music influences, I like everything from Israel Houghton and Planetshakers with the loud, crazy praise that's really declared. I think there's a need for that. I always feel like we the church cannot lose that declaring aspect of what we do and especially in Canada here. Been praying for a long time because we're really nice and we're really polite, but the save aspect of the church sometimes is called to stand up and be strong and who God is and who she is and declare that over, declare that out into the Earth. So I really like that kind of music. 

Then there's Bethel Church and Jesus Culture and some of the artists that come out of there. THey bring that intimacy and that love of God and God-centered lyrics. That really inspires me too because it's like you have to go to a pretty deep place with God to come up with lyrics like that. I love that.
 
Tell us sort of what to expect on the album. Obviously piano is your primary instrument that you like to lead from, but what can people expect melodically and musically?

It's got a bunch of different songs on it. We were a little bit concerned at one point that we had really unique songs from one another, but when you listen to them all together it seems like they run together. It gets stronger as it goes, so by the end it's got a pretty good beat to it.

You've got the big four on the floor almost Celtic sounding songs, too.

There is. "God the Same" and "He's Alive" are more the songs of that declarative nature. There are some strings in "He's Alive." "God the Same" has more of that electric sound. I don't think we would push it all the way to being a rock sound, but it's got the electric guitar in there. So those are your more upbeat, declarative stuff.

Then we've got "You Are the Life" at the end, which is a really fun song. That's the whole heart and spirit of it. It was just joy. We had a mandolin come in for that. It's got a little bit of everything I think in here.

How can people be praying for you and your family as you're entering this season?

I would say we need wisdom and discernment to really make sure we stay with God and we stay on the path that He wants for us. Wisdom and discernment and then open doors, the right doors, to open up that we can walk through and find all that God's got going on here, what He's dreaming about. I want to accomplish what He sees when He decided to call us to do this.