You may recognize the worship standard "He Knows My Name" or his Latin infused "Mourning Into Dancing." But truth is, not a lot of people are familiar with Tommy Walker, the songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter behind those classics. A veteran of live worship music, he has written more than 100 songs that are currently being sung around the world and several albums acclaimed by worship-music enthusiasts. His latest project, I Have a Hope, is also his first nationally released studio album, yet Walker manages to sound like he's still leading a congregation in worship. Christian Music Today chatted with the worship leader about what it was like to record in the studio, where his soulful influences come from, and the Catch-22 that makes the greatest strength of modern worship its weakness.

You're a veteran of live worship music and most all of your albums have reflected that. Why the decision to record an album in the studio?

Tommy Walker: It was just the opportunity to do something different. I've been doing this for so many years and I've done so many live things before. It was like, "Please, let me do something different!" If people were to ask me if I'm a worship leader or a Christian artist, I would definitely be 80 percent worship leader. When I was in the studio with [producer] Ed Cash and singing those songs, I'm just leading worship. It's who I am. Why should I try to put on other hats? Engaging people is so embedded in my adlibs, I hope I didn't come across strange on the album.

Not at all. Seems like other artists have tried to lead worship from the studio before, but it typically comes across as fake. You somehow manage to sound like you're really leading your band and backup singers in worship alongside you, and it draws the listener in.

Walker: The key thing is—and I know this sounds trite—it's to let everyone know that you're worshipping. Sometimes the biggest enemy to the studio is that it feels like we're focused on singing the song correctly [and recording it perfectly]. With technology, we all know that we can make everything perfect. Big deal—now everyone's perfect. So we have to really dig deep—dig from the depths while we're singing from the studio and tell yourself, Tommy, what are saying? What are you singing? Think about it. Worship God right now. Go there. That's what I did and hopefully that came across.

We think so. It almost sounds like you and your whole crew is in the booth having church!

Walker: I really have to give props to Ed. I basically sang every song like 12 times and he just pieced it together. I just tried to be free with it, which is really cool because I feel this total freedom to do whatever I want because he's going to have enough possibilities and artistic sense to put it together. The thing about Ed is that he's this total genius of a producer, but he's also a worshipper. There were times where we'd just stop the tape during playback and wept together because God was touching us both so deeply.

Any particular song that you remember that happening with?

Walker: Two that I remember were really hard for me to get through were "Hallelujah We Will Sing" and "Do It Lord." When I was singing "Do It Lord"—it's basically a prophetic prayer—I felt like the Lord was reminding me, "Tommy, every time this CD is played anywhere around the world, this prayer is going to go out that the orphans will fulfill their time in their lives, that millions will come to salvation, that the nameless will be remembered, that God's kingdom will come, that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

So thanks to technology, that prayer is going to be repeated every time someone listens to it. Who knows? By God's favor and grace, it may be prayed all over the world. It gave me such a passion to sing that song. It felt like such an honor to be the one to sing that prayer. When I kept thinking about that, I kept breaking up.

Your worship style is more soulful than the typical modern worship sound that many artists gravitate to nowadays. Where does that come from?

Walker: It's partly just growing up listening to everything, including R&B, Motown, and Stevie Wonder. I'm also very influenced by Andraé Crouch—he was the first modern worship leader in my opinion. And then my home congregation in Los Angeles is a multicultural church. So you have all of that working together, and then Justo Almario—he's a sax player with my worship band. He's Mr. Latin Jazz of the whole universe, and he's taught me rhythms from Colombia as well as all this Latin stuff. So I guess I'm just representing my church, which is [comprised of] more than just suburban white people.

I honestly couldn't tell you how much of my songwriting is me and how much of it is my church, because I've been on staff in that community for 18 years now. I'm a church guy and I'm representing my church, so that's what you hear in my music. I don't represent the industry or anything—I represent my church.

It seems strange that you've been a worship leader for so long and your songs are sung around the world, and yet you've remained relatively unknown throughout the modern worship explosion of the last 10 years. How come your career hasn't taken off more?

Walker: I can't answer that wholly, but part of it is on my end. I've made some big mistakes when my songs were first being recorded. I was brought up to think that the industry was the enemy—that it was a whole bunch of mafia guys and you need to be afraid and stay away from them. So I made decisions where I said no to offers early on. Record labels and publishers would negotiate deals with me and I was always like, "You're trying to steal from me." So I really shut myself out in that way.

But my greatest success would be that you sing my songs [in church], not that I sing my songs. I'm fine with that. There's going to come a day when God's going to ask me what I did with what he gave me, and I'm trying to be faithful with that. When different record companies, TV shows or whatever come to me with opportunities, I'm going to respond by asking, "God, at the end of the day, does it bring you more glory? Does it further your kingdom? Is this part of what you want me to play in the whole role of what you're doing on the earth?"

What are your thoughts with the worship music of today?

Walker: Like popular music, modern worship has become so defined that we all start getting really tired of it. But then somebody shows up sounding like The Police or something else way outside of the box, and people go, "Wow, oh man!" I just have a need to be more broad [with my music] like that.

The level of musicianship of your albums is very accomplished. How do you reconcile that with the simplicity of some modern worship?

Tommy Walker: The really beautiful thing about the style of the modern worship movement is that it is so accessible. It's so easy to play and it's easy to make it sound good. That is such a great thing … but the only sad part is, if you're 15 and you're learning how to play guitar and you only learn how to play that simple, accessible music. There's a whole world of musical expressions out there that help us express the beauty and the wonder of God, and those are being left out. That's a bit of a disappointment to me, [not just as an artist but as a worship leader].

And yet your music merges the complex with the simple. Those who become familiar with your stuff fall in love with it.

Walker: If a small tiny part of my role in the grand scheme of [worship music] is to be the little voice in the corner saying that we can be something more, then so be it. But does that mean God is using it more or less? The truth is, there's room for all of us in worship music.

Does your church encourage stepping up your game musically, learning those difficult parts and all of that?

Walker: My church [band] comes from where I'm coming from. It's no wonder I'm writing this kind of stuff because I want to hear them play it! The interesting thing is that now the high school kids are coming up as new musicians in our worship band, but it's hard for them to play it. They like it all, but they're not experienced enough to play it. So we're having to train them, and that's a lot harder to pull it off.

So I'm at this crossroads now where I'm wondering whether I should simplify the music more so that they can be a part of it, because they must have a place? It's always that Catch-22 of doing accessible music so that everyone can be a part of it. But should I be that guy, or should I be the guy that's pushing the envelope and saying, "You're going to have to try a little harder to do this one."

Would you say that's the difference between you and someone like Chris Tomlin, whose songs catch on more easily?

Walker: Well, just to plug Chris Tomlin, it's not easy to write an incredible song that's also simple. He is so good at what he does, and I totally give him props for that. As to whether the song is simple or difficult to play, who gives a rip if it's hard to play when no one wants to hear it anyway? A great songwriter knows how to write a melody that makes you want to push the repeat button. That's the definition of a great song.

We've got I Have a Hope on repeat.

Walker: Thank you, I'm glad you like it. I know it's grooving and all that, but I'm also trying not to make it too hard. I think I've gotten simpler over time with my music, if anything. I don't really consider [the song] "I Have a Hope" hard, but I don't want to scare off [worshippers] with music.

Our review of I Have a Hope can be found here, and you can listen to song clips or purchase it at Christianbook.com. Keep tabs on Tommy Walker's worship ministry at his official site.

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