Will Retherford is breathing a refreshing breath of singer/songwriter sensibility and folk vibe into his worship tunes. The artist creates songs that catalyzes conversations, the call and response between God and His people. Retherford does more than just sing about themes though— his commitment to provide funding for an Indian orphanage out of his record sales is an initiative that lends purpose and urgency to his music making. NewReleaseTuesday's Bill Lurwick had the opportunity to talk with the artist about his mission, his songwriting, and how his recent album Walk unfolded.

Will, I think you’re a little bit different. A lot of artists start out wanting to support their family. You are actually working on supporting an AIDS home for kids in India with your projects, right?

Yes.

That’s pretty cool. Talk about that and how your journey took you to this place you’re at.

When I was a freshman in college at ORU, we went on a mission trip to India. We spent six weeks there. We had the opportunity to spend some time in a HIV AIDS home for orphans who were all born into AIDS, and they all have a very bright future ahead of them.

They don’t get a lot of love. They don’t get a lot of touch. They don’t get a lot of attention. We had the opportunity to spend about three days out of the week for six weeks with them, just loving on them and spending time with them, telling them Bible stories, singing songs. Just showing them we cared about them.

It was probably one of the most heartbreaking yet inspiring moments in my life, seeing Jesus work through to touch a horrible situation, seeing His hand and His love in front of all of those children.

I had the idea, me and my team that I’m still good friends with today. We still have our hearts set. We haven’t forgotten about them. It was my idea with Awake— I started a little mini campaign called Hope for Hyderabad.

If someone buys the album, Awake, about 25% goes toward the orphanage. There’s an account set up for them, and usually I get in contact with the owner and she sends me a list of the current needs.

So whenever I try to do shows I’m saying, “The current needs now are school supplies for the children.” It’s a certain amount that we’re raising. I haven’t gotten down to all of the details with the new album yet, but I’m planning on giving a percentage as well and keeping this trend going as long as I keep making records.

Maybe even down the road I might start a nonprofit where artists can donate a song or their album, a percentage portion of that to some kind of cause, something that’s more than just to their bank account, to their home, but given to somebody who needs it.
 
That’s the idea and the decision behind giving to the orphanage in India.

The title of the project is Walk. Talk about the song called “Walk” on the project.

Pretty much “Walk” sums up the whole idea of the project. I wrote that song with a good friend of mine, Symon Hajjar. The idea of “Walk” is the second step after we awake. I believe a lot of Christians and even non-Christians are spiritually sleeping. We’re not doing what God’s called us to do, we're settling for the everyday life. We need to be awoken.

After we awake, the next step is to walk and start walking in the calling that God’s called us to do. Start walking toward our Savior, not away from our Savior.
 
The idea of “Walk” is pretty much summed up in first couple of lyrics. Wake up. Wake up. Don’t let the day pass you by. Put on your shoes. You have nothing to lose but time. At the end of the song it goes “walk, walk into the light of God.”

That’s the idea of the project. I wrote all of the songs around that idea of walking and running towards our Savior, the journey that we go on as we make the decision to walk. On that journey we need to be reminded to run to the cross, reminded that Christ is there to rescue us in our times of pain. 

We need to be reminded to stay on that narrow path and to keep walking. At the end of the album, it shows running to our savior at the end of the road like the prodigal son.

Will, one reviewer says that Walk is a new contribution to some modern day psalms. Great way to express some theological concepts in new ways. What do you think of that?

That made me feel really happy when I read that. One of my songs, “Rescue Us,” was pretty much straight from the psalms. I had this idea that David in the psalms, for a big portion, is crying out to God asking for His help whenever he feels like God abandoned him. 

He feels like “where is Jesus? Why am I in this pain? Why am I in this suffering calling out for rescue?” He feels like Jesus never comes.  I got those lyrics from psalms and it’s a simple cry to our Lord to rescue us. At the end of the song it resolves, saying “but you have rescued us.”

That was just encouraging to see that someone was able to pick that up without me having to say that. It was just in the song, and someone was able to get the idea that it’s a modern day Psalm

I think the song “Seasons” could be one that congregations pick up. Would you agree?

Yeah. Surprisingly, I didn’t know on the iTunes charts it says that’s the most popular download at the moment. It’s funny. I wrote that with my fiancée. At first it doesn’t come off as a congregation song. It sounds like a nice little folk. It’s a little singer/songwriter song.

But then later in the song, it kind of surprises you and goes into this big congregational anthem theme. “Your love is greater. Your love is stronger.” That’s my heart. My heart is for congregations to be able to pick up these songs and connect with Christ with a different approach, a different perspective to their worship.

One reviewer also said that the song “Let it Come” reminds them of a Gungor song. That’s a great compliment.

Gungor has definitely been an inspiration to some of my music. Mike and Lisa and the rest of the band, David and John, were a part of the first record. They helped play on it and Lisa sings on it. I developed a good relationship with them.

David and John and the producer helped me on this record as well. So it’s just been good to build relationships with them and learn under them and be able to have them inspire you. I really feel Gungor has opened up a door to allow artists and worship leaders to make music that’s not your every day songs. They opened the door to something new, a new approach, a new perspective.

It’s good to be able to say you successfully achieved that goal you were going for to make a different sound.

We're excited about this, Will. Walk is a great singer/songwriter collection. Thanks for bringing this to us.

Thank you. I really appreciate the time to talk and to share.