Ep 188: Natalie Layne: God Told Me to Go Write Songs About Joy

Natalie Layne grew up in Colorado watching her parents lead worship together, her mom singing and her dad on bass, while she ran around the rehearsals singing along. Her parents never pushed piano on her. They put a little keyboard in the playroom with her toys, said nothing, and let her discover it. She decided it was the coolest toy in the house, and started lessons at three. Her grandmother, who ran a piano studio for thirty years, was her first teacher and taught her to read music, to play by ear, and to write songs.

By twelve, her church was asking her to lead worship, and she spent high school leading several times a week under worship pastors including Cory Asbury, John Egan and Jared Anderson. Kurtis asks what made that mentorship work, and her answer is one worship leaders will want to hear. We tend to think discipling someone means handing them a ten-step plan and all our best nuggets. What actually shaped her was simpler: they invited her into what they were already doing. Come to the writing camp. Come sing BGVs. Sit in on this meeting. It's not as hard as we think, she says. It's just the invite.

Her grandmother also gave her the first songwriting method she ever used. At ten or eleven, she was told to come back next week with a song, protested that she didn't know how, and was told to take the words of Scripture and put chords underneath them. The Psalms were meant to be songs anyway. She still writes that way, because those words don't return void. She's also firm that writer's block isn't real: you may not be able to write something good today, but you can always write something bad, and the point is to show up. When the piano runs dry she switches to guitar just to change the palette.

Her sound came from the car stereo. Her mom played Christian radio; her dad, a bass player, played gospel, jazz, blues and Earth, Wind & Fire. She remembers wondering young why Christian music didn't have all those styles, and deciding that a God who contains multitudes should have all the music, and the best of it.

The road to a label was not a straight one. Nashville told her it was a ten-year town, or maybe five. It took five years, almost to the day. She stayed at Belmont long enough to finish a master's in piano, and in her final year won the school's Christian showcase, where labels quietly scout. Several reached out in 2019. Then March 2020 hit and every conversation stopped, and she spent a confusing season asking why God seemed to fling doors open only to shut them.

What she did with the waiting is the practical heart of the episode. She spent two years in practice rooms, started sharing verses and choruses on a new app called TikTok while she was still writing them, and let people weigh in. It turned into a giant online co-write. People started asking her to come play shows, and she built a real career with a manager and no label, reaching her one definition of success: doing music for a living. When she did sign with Centricity, about four years after that first conversation, it was to add radio and marketing to something already moving. That's also how "Grateful For" happened. She wrote it with Mitch Wong, who told her the chords she was playing sounded like gratitude. Her team thought it was fine. The internet disagreed, and it became a small thankfulness movement.

Kurtis names joy as the thread through her music, and Natalie explains where it came from. Right when she signed, she felt the Lord tell her to go write a whole bunch of songs about joy. It was the first direction that specific she'd ever felt, and she connects it to the moment, with everyone carrying heartbreak after the last few years. But she's careful about what joy is. We say choose joy, and that's true, but we slide into thinking we have to manufacture it or put on a smile. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, not of our own striving. If she wants more joy, she needs more of the Spirit. That's why the songs aren't only about joy when life is easy, but about how to have it when it's hard.

The new EP, Still Running To You, pulls in more of her childhood influences, horns included, because God deserves all the instruments. She produced for the first time, explaining it as the movie director of the record, and insisted on tracking it live, nine players in one room, which she says is rare in Nashville now that most parts get sent back and forth from home studios. Asked about AI, she's measured. She doesn't think it's all evil, but she loves real music, and thinks AI is only going to make real music and live shows more precious. People have already left comments asking whether her new songs are AI. They aren't.

She closes with the difference between opening for someone and headlining her own night, her band of friends she grew up with at church, three trips to Bonnaroo, and the National Hot Dog Festival, where most of the crowd was holding a hot dog or an ear of corn and still heard about Jesus. At festivals, she says, people come for the groove and end up getting Jesus in the lyric.

"Joy is not a fruit of myself or my own striving." - Natalie Layne

ABOUT NATALIE LAYNE

Natalie Layne is a singer-songwriter, pianist, worship leader and producer from Colorado, now based in Nashville. A classically trained musician who holds a master's in piano from Belmont University, she blends the '90s Christian music she grew up on with gospel, jazz, funk and R&B. Her debut album, All Joy, produced the half-billion-impression hit "Grateful For" and a Top 10 title track that earned a K-LOVE Fan Award nomination, and Pandora named her an Artist to Watch. She has played Bonnaroo three times and toured with Chris Tomlin, Jeremy Camp, We The Kingdom, Danny Gokey, Brandon Heath and Tenth Avenue North. Her five-song EP Still Running To You, which she co-produced and recorded live with a full band, released September 9, 2026 on Centricity Music, ahead of a sophomore album due in 2027.

IN THIS EPISODE

The keyboard her parents hid in the toy room and let her discover
A grandmother who ran a piano studio for thirty years and taught her to write songs
Leading worship at twelve under Cory Asbury, John Egan and Jared Anderson
Why mentoring is mostly just the invite
Writing songs straight from Scripture, and why writer's block isn't real
Why a God that big should have all the music
Winning the Belmont showcase, then watching every label conversation stop in March 2020
Turning TikTok into a giant online co-write and building a career without a label
The chords that sounded like gratitude
Why joy is a fruit of the Spirit, not something you manufacture
Nine players in one room, and producing her first record
AI, real music, and fans asking whether her songs are real
Bonnaroo, the National Hot Dog Festival, and Jesus in the lyric

LINKS

Natalie Layne (official site and tour dates): https://www.natalielayne.com
Still Running To You: https://natalielaynemusic.lnk.to/stillrunning
Centricity Music: https://centricitymusic.com/artists/natalie-layne/
Kurtis Parks: https://www.kurtisparks.com
Worship Leader: https://worshipleader.com

SPONSOR

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