A Rejuvenated Rachael Lampa After a five-year hiatus, one of the most powerful voices in Christian music is back with her latest project, All We Need. She talks to NRT's Bill Lurwick about the lessons she's learned.
Rachael Lampa: "Sometimes changes in life feel like we’re discovering America. We’re discovering this new world that we didn’t think that we’d ever come across in life."
In 2006, pop/R&B singer Rachael Lampa practically disappeared from public eye at the peak of her career, leaving fans scratching their heads. But as the personable artist who’s now in her twenties so eloquently admits, the time away was just to recharge her understandably overworked batteries and plot her next creative step, the recently released project, All We Need.
“This record is really just a reflection of my life and where I’ve been since you last heard from me,” Lampa lets out with a laugh. “Lyrically, there’s a thread of simplifying life instead of cluttering it. I’m one of those people who used to try pleasing too many people, only being able to give everyone 10 percent instead of 100 percent. Now my goal is to be an amazing friend to a few people instead of a lesser friend to a lot of people.”
The Voice of NRT, Bill Lurwick, recently spoke with Lampa about the new project and her reemergence.
Rachael Lampa is a name that’s familiar with everyone in the Christian music universe. Real quickly, in like a minute or less, fill everybody in on what’s been going on in your life in the last couple of years.
Well, basically I just kind of needed to take a breath--a little break from making records and figure out who I was outside of making records because it’s all I really knew since I was 14. I continued to write and when I started to feel a common theme in the songs, I decided it was time to make a record and we came out with All We Need. We took just a few months, really, to make this record, so it was pretty cool, a fast process.
You’re married now as well, correct?
Yes, I am. That was part of the deep breath. I think I slowed down my life enough to even let that happen, so I’m really grateful for that.
Now things are really exciting for you personally right now as well. You’re getting ready to appear on a television show with NBC too, right?
Yes--totally random. Whenever I talk about it, I almost don’t think that it’s real because it literally happened four months ago. I was asked to sing with some friends out in Nashville--other local artists and solo artists and lead singers of bands. A bunch of people who’d never sung a cappella before. We all came together and tried it, and about a month later we were in L.A. filming “The Sing Off.”
We were sort of thrown together by our friend Jeremy Lister. He won second place last year on “The Sing Off,” and he thought it would be fun to throw together his friends and throw them out to the wolves in L.A. We had a blast. It was just great time.
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The first single from All We Need, “Remedy,” is doing really, really well at radio. Talk about the song.
It’s so great that “Remedy” is the first single because I’ve walked away from my little hiatus with an understanding that life is a lot more simple than I was making it. I think “Remedy” kind of captures that childlikeness of realizing, “Hey. I’ve found the answer and I’ve found the key to life and the cure to my pain.” I love “Remedy.” I love the simplicity of it.
Talk about the song “No Escape,” if you could. There’s a little bit of a swing vibe going on there.
Yeah. Well, I recently became a huge fan of Adele, and I think people can tell with that song. That was one of the last songs we wrote for the record, and I had listened to so much of that kind of music. I wrote it with a guy named Dan, and we sort of were talking about how beautiful it is that God just continues to step in front of us every time we try to run away.
He just continues to be undeniable. That was another one of the big lessons that I learned in my hiatus.
I was amazed at the reference to the discovery of America you used in the song “Unchartered Territory.”
I rarely sing songs that I didn’t write, but this song came along and I started bawling my eyes out when I heard it, and I couldn’t deny it. It’s a song about new things and new territories and sometimes certain changes in our lives that we don’t ask for.
In the song there’s a line that says, “Columbus 1492,” and I was like, “Am I going to sing that? Am I really going to sing that?” Sometimes changes in life feel like we’re discovering America. We’re discovering this new world that we didn’t think that we’d ever come across in life. I just love that song. We just threw in a reference to Christopher Columbus.
Rachael Lampa, we wish you the best. We’re so excited that you’re back in the fold and making the music again.
Awesome. Thank you so much. I’m excited.
Posted December 13, 2011 | Bill Lurwick, the voice of NewReleaseTuesday.com's weekly New Christian Music Podcast, has been in radio since 1989 and is currently heard on KJIL in Dodge City, KS.
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