EP 5 Where and How to Draw from to Write Songs - Tori Harper

After a decade of gathering women together for prayer, we are inspired to bring our words of encouragement to you. This is iRefresh. Hi, this is Ira Fresh, and we want to welcome you to another episode where we want to encourage ordinary women to do extraordinary things through the power of prayer and encouragement. And I'm so excited today. We have Tori Harper with us. Welcome. Thank you. We, I thought it'd be kind of fun that we would start out by doing some questions that would just kind of let new people who've not discovered you or just beginning. It's like, Oh my goodness, who is this amazing, talented young woman? So if you don't mind. We're going to ask a few just pop questions. All right. Sounds fun. Okay. Here we go. All right. What's your favorite kind of meal? Oh, that's tough because I really like food. But I typically really like to eat like chicken and like really American style food. So burgers, chicken, fried chicken, real southern food. You can't lose out. That kind of thing. Hot dogs. I don't know why hot dogs is random, but... She's an all-American girl. For sure. Okay. Nothing that's good for me. Oh, okay. Whoops. Well, okay. Hulu or Netflix? Oh, definitely Netflix. Alright. What's your favorite kind of music? Definitely, like, I listen to a lot of worship music. Like, it's pretty much all I listen to. But I really like kind of that chill, electronic kind of music. It's something that I like to relax to and put on in the background, but also listen to. Okay. Awesome. Okay. If you binge watch, or would you rather go out, to see a movie with friends? Which one? See, this is a tough one for me because I love people, but I also love that like me time. So I think it would depend on if I had already been out with friends. If I had already been out with friends, I'd probably go binge watch. But if I hadn't, then I would definitely go out and see a movie with friends. Okay. All right. Text or FaceTime? FaceTime. All right. What's your favorite musician? Brooke Frazier. All right. Okay, who would you like to be on stage singing with? Lots of people, hard to choose, but I think it'd be really fun to be on stage with Jordan Felice. All right, and dress or pants? Dresses are pretty, but I am so comfy in pants, so pants win all the way. Or pants or leggings? Leggings. Leggings or jeggings. Oh, okay. The happy middle ground. For her age, not so much. Okay, Coke or Pepsi? Coke. All right. Okay, what's a funny memory you have? Oh, well, I was just, I've been on tour. Okay. And so there was this pink cake. And now I'm sure most of you would think strawberry. That's a strawberry cake. But my initial reaction was to ask what flavor cake that was. And so I then was made fun of for the next week. and everyone was asking me what flavor cake I was eating. But it was pretty funny. Well, at least it wasn't the most embarrassing forever. But, all right, your perfect place you'd love to travel to you haven't gone to yet. Oh, haven't gone to yet. Well, I've always wanted to go to Ireland. Yeah. I've always wanted to go. I haven't gone there either. There's this thing that happens every couple of years called the Heaven's Trail. And you can see this huge, like, galaxy of stars. And I've always wanted to go see it. That sounds amazing. Yeah. That's great. All right. All right. Now. I think what we'll do, that was a lot of fun, so hopefully get to know you a little bit. But now I'd love to hear a little bit of background. Like what started you in your journey to, why choose music or, I mean, especially if you have a guitar, we can't wait to listen to you, but what got you on that path? What, like, this is my passion. Yeah, so I've been around music for a long time. I grew up in Nashville, was born and raised there, saw a lot of music. When I was younger, I was in a lot of church musicals. I was in the choir. But I think the defining moment for me was when I was 11 years old, there was a local songwriter who decided to just bring a bunch of kids and put them in her basement and show us how to write songs. And I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. Like something my dad told me, was that writing a song is like inventing something. And I was always trying to come up with new things, always trying to come up with new inventions, and I thought that was so cool. And that's what started it. But I would say I got passionate about it in high school because I saw how music could change people's lives. I saw the effect it was having. I saw the effect it was having. on not only my friends, but on myself. And I realized that it was more than just something fun. It was more than just a hobby, but something that I could use to change people's lives. And that's really what started the passion for me. So you said you saw that change. Was that something from what you wrote? Or is it when you had music playing and you saw the effects it had? A little bit of both. I went to a homeschool tutorial And I got to lead worship with some friends of mine. And, um, it was really interesting seeing how, um, us leading worship for our peers was having an effect on them. Um, and also, um, I did end up writing some songs for some friends of mine in high school. Um, and I realized that the things that I've been through, um, could help somebody else. And, um, I think that definitely pushed me to do music more. What a great opportunity. Yeah. So you've had this pathway for very young, it sounds like, and if you found, like, when you've been on tour, like, what are some things that you've had where maybe there were God moments or something that's just really encouraged you, like, this is it. This is the most exciting part of being a musician. Yeah, well, honestly, I've seen God in everything, and I definitely couldn't be doing what I'm doing if God wasn't in it. But going back to one of those songs that I wrote in high school... You know, I had written a song for my friend and no one really liked it, which was a little bit discouraging. Oops. But I kind of put it on the shelf for a while. let it go. And then a couple of years later, um, I just happened to put it up on Facebook one day, um, just for fun and, uh, an amazing producer found it. And it was such a God thing because he woke up in the middle of the night. Um, and, and I had no connection and, um, he wanted to produce it. And that was a really big sign, um, for me. And then just, there's been a lot of God moments on the road. And what's the title of the song you're referring to? Oh, yeah. So the song is After Dark. And it's one of my favorites. It's not one of the more peppy songs, but it's a really personal song for me. It's a beautiful song. Thank you. And, okay, and let's tell people even now, like, where would you go and listen to the song? Where can you find it? Oh, yeah. So it's pretty much available everywhere. It's on Spotify. It's on iTunes. It's on YouTube. Anywhere you want to go listen to it, it's there. It's on Amazon Music. So, yeah. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. And it's quite a... She's got a great collage of music already. Like, I've been listening to a lot on Spotify. So I really encourage you to even go to her website, which is... But it's ToriHarper.com. All right. All right, so now, what inspires you to write a song? You said you like to create, so what's the inspiration behind when you think, oh, I need to write this? Yeah, well, I'm very particular about my songs. I'm very cautious about my songs because I want to speak only from experience. I don't want to sing out anything that I haven't been through or that I don't 100% believe. It's just really important to me. I never want to write a hypothetical situation. I never want to. just write a song to come up with something. It has to be something I'm feeling, and it has to be honest, and it has to be what I'm going through. Otherwise, I just get rid of the song because I have to be myself on stage. Otherwise, I feel like I'm lying to the audience. And I want to be real. And I want to be real about there's joy, but there's also hardship. And you can find joy in the hardship. But I don't want to ignore the hard things that we go through because they're real. And to ignore that would just be... Kind of silly. Right. So when you go on stage now, is it, so you do the songs you've written, and then you do worship before, integrate the worship songs with your songs. How do you, what's a typical, like a concert that you would do? It depends on the kind of show that I'm doing right now. I'm on tour and all the songs I'm doing are completely original. Okay. But I do like to incorporate worship where I can. Because I think it's important to surrender the night to God and to put it before Him first. Because it's not about me at the end of the day. It's about people getting set free. It's about people encountering Jesus. It's about people... encountering the Holy Spirit. So worship is very important to me. So tell me, what's that like right before you go out on stage? What do you do to prepare yourself before you enter in? Do you get nervous? And like, how do you calm yourself to get in that place? So when you go on, that you can be natural in yourself. It's so interesting that you bring that up because me and my manager, Annie, have both felt so strongly recently that it is very important for us to tithe our time with the Lord and be really intentional about setting aside time to spend with God and to pray and to worship before we go out on the stage. Because if you're not full, you can't pour out. And so that's really important. And I do still get nervous sometimes, but I've found what really calms me down is just remembering, A, that it's not about me, and B, that the message of the song is so much more important. And I don't know who's in the audience that may need to hear what God has said to me, And that kind of just overrides any fear that I have. I think it's so great because I know with iRefresh, too, our heart is to have worship. Because I know the theme of iRefresh is in Acts 3.19. It says in the presence of the Lord, there's refreshment. Yeah. And we find that when we are worshiping God... I mean, whatever we are walking into, like I know when I get ready to teach, it is like sometimes my nerves, I'm like, okay, Lord, if it's all about you, it's totally what you said. It's all about you. And it's amazing how when we pray and we have that attitude of worship, how he can calm us and we can get in that zone with him. And you're right. It's amazing what God wants to do through the power of prayer and through music. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm grateful because it's so much what, um, I love what you have been doing as I've been listening to your music and hearing, you know, some of your songs, you're like, you could tell like those lyrics, like what was it that you were walking through? I mean, you're telling a story and sometimes you're like, you want to hear like, what is the backstory? Do you want to tell us maybe even one of your songs, like name it. And like, what was the backstory? What made you write something? Yeah, well, I mean, I feel like a lot of my songs come from just different aspects of things that I went through. A lot of the time it focuses around one thing that happened, but a whole bunch of songs come out of that. But I will say... I had this really defining moment a couple years ago. I was just feeling really broken and lost. And I had kind of not completely walked away from the Lord, but I decided I just wanted to do life my own way. And I just wanted to do life my own way. I was so selfish and, um, as you can imagine, my friends weren't super happy about that. Um, and- Did they call you on it? Uh, a little and eventually they just kind of walked away and- Wow. Um, I was, I was angry at God, um, and I blamed him, um, even though it was my fault, um, But I blamed him, and I remember there was this one day I just got so mad, and I yelled at God, and I was like, do you see me right now? Do you care about what I'm going through? Does this matter to you? And I made up my mind and my heart that I was only going to go to church one more time because I couldn't handle pretending to be okay and pretending that everything was okay in my life. And on that last day of church, or what I thought was my last day, the person standing next to me in worship turned to me and looked me in the eye and said, I just really feel like God wants you to know that he sees you. And, and I wasn't expecting an answer from God. Um, I just yelled at him, but he cared so much that, um, not only did he see me, he wanted me to know that he saw me and all the walls I had built up just came down in an instant. Cause like, even though I had pushed him away and been angry at him and blamed him for everything, he still wanted me. And I, I just, it, it still blows my mind. And that's where a lot of my songs come from. I love, you know, it's amazing what God does to get our attention and to reaffirm, like, I am present. I have been present. Yeah. I just, you were distracted. Yeah. And sometimes it's just, but yet he will bring anybody into our pathway to remind us of his great love. And I'm sure a lot of the people that are listening can just know that they've gone to that place where they feel broken or alone. Or maybe they don't feel like God is listening to them. Yeah. And, you know, that's one thing I would say to encourage us is listen to the lyrics. Sometimes I'm just listening to the tunes and you can get caught up in the tunes, but the lyrics, the power of what God's been doing in your heart throughout the different songs I was listening to really speaks volumes of where God has been taking you to the deep places, going to where you've been. Yeah. And feeling, I mean, God feels with us, and he wants to let us know, I'm with you. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm grateful to hear, even as young as you are, is what the maturity of what God has already been taking you through. And I know he's got so many great things ahead. I think it would be great if there's maybe a song that you could even sing for us that means a lot to you. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I'll play one next. Awesome. I've been living with my hands tightly locked Around things I'd rather not let go I've been searching for a reason to hold on But I'm finding they're all gone No trace Oh, the flowers die and go And the seasons come and go And I might just hear a note from the Lord Open my heart in His hands And I know he's got a plan. And he's not finished yet with my heart. It's just the start. Open up my grasp so that I can just move past how I feel. I'd like to live at peace and be just as enthralled with your yes and not at all. And the seasons come and go And I might just hear a note From the Lord Open my heart in His hands And I know He's got a plan And He's not finished yet Just the start, the start, the start. Oh, and I'll trust what you have said. And the seasons come and go And I might just hear a note from the Lord Hold my heart in His hands And I know He's got a plan And He's not finished yet It's just the start. Beautiful. Yay. I love it. Thanks. Wonderful music. Hey, there is so many great things that you can take away from. It's not just a song. It's a thing I love about what Tori's doing. It is definitely heartfelt. It's experiences that you have walked through. And I really appreciate that you're, I mean, that's being vulnerable, you know, when you are willing to share what God's been doing in your heart, even in the broken places. So I love what you've done with the music and letting God be glorified in your life. So is there one other thing, like a highlight of what you would love for our audience to know about you? Oh, about me? Man, I guess I just hope, that my music is able to inspire people and remind people that God is faithful and he doesn't give up on you. Like, I think that's my main thing. It's like God doesn't give up on you. Even when you almost expect him to, he never gives up on you. He's championing you on. He's always waiting and loving you. And I think that's the most important thing that I want to leave people with. What a great message. Yeah. I'm really good. Thank you so much. So remembering is we want to go to Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, download, buy her music, and she's going to have some, actually some more music coming out. Wonderful videos, but great music. I got to hear a little excerpt and I am so excited for you to hear it. So be sure to follow her on her different social media as well. So find Tori Harper. And you will love following her journey and where God's been leading her. And especially if there's concerts, go to her website so you can find out where she's going to be touring. And we look forward to hearing what else God's going to be doing in her life. Matter of fact, with you at iRefresh, we're so grateful that you have joined us. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you can hear more amazing stories like Tori's. about extraordinary stories that God has given people to be able to express with us. And be sure to like us on Facebook. We would love to hear from you about the journeys you've been going through to overcome adversities. Until next time, go change your world.