Wayne Hindson caught up with Caitie Hurst, upcoming Christian Pop artist who after years of only singing into her pillow, is now sharing her incredible voice with the world!
Wayne: In 60 seconds can you give us the Caitie Hurst story!
Caitie: So I’m 24 I started singing when I was in high school and I was super shy. I would not sing in front of anybody but my student worship pastor and one of my mentors I basically made me get on stage, like they pushed me and said ‘Hey you’re leading worship this Wednesday night for a student ministry’. I didn’t want to but I did and that’s kind of what got me started singing. So after that, I started singing in church every Wednesday and started writing songs and that’s kind of where God gave me my love for music and here we are! Fast forward 10 Years later, a year ago I got a record deal with an awesome record label, I started to make music and just started to tour in the last couple of months. So I’m brand new!
Wayne: Let’s go back to you as a kid growing up. My understanding is that your Dad was part of a touring christian group?
Caitie: Yes sir! He was in the band called Solomon’s Wish. They toured a lot and had a couple of radio hits. I remember being on tour with them as a kid and most of the time we were just in a van. Now I’m touring in a van, so I’m used to it but it’s funny how it comes full circle. They took me and my brother out of school and we homeschooled and we kinda just went on the road with them for a couple of years!
Wayne: So reflecting back do you see that kind of influence, has it kind of moved you into music as well?
Caitie: For sure, you know I was really young in first and second grade when I was on the road with [my parents] all the time, so it was really only for two years. So I have very few faint memories but I just remember as a kid thinking to myself ‘I would love to do this! I would love to be a singer!’
Wayne: Well let’s fast forward to your teenage years.
You want to move into singing so I guess Mum or Dad signs you up for singing lessons, you’re heading into that first time with your singing teacher, they ask you to sing a song… …and I believe you didn’t do anything!
Caitie: Yeah so it was hilarious actually, the girl who gave me my first voice lesson ended up being my mentor all throughout high school so we laugh about it now. But literally, I was so scared to sing in front of her or anybody really that she had her guitar and she was like, ‘Hey I want you to sing something so that I can kind of assess what you sound like’. So she started playing ‘Hosanna’ and I asked her if I could hum instead of singing so I literally hummed the entire song of Hosanna and that was my first voice lesson!
Wayne: So I wonder out of that journey of struggling with stepping into the call that God had for you and overcoming a bit of stage fright is that kind of the heart behind one of the first songs we knew here in Australia with ‘How Can I Be Silent?
Caitie: Yes, totally! I wrote that song about my story pretty much. You know, as a kid I didn’t really care about what anybody thought of me. When I was on tour with my Dad I would sing for people, I would sing in the kids’ Choir at Church, but once I got to the sixth grade I just started caring so much about how other people saw me so that’s where my stage fright came from.
I was super insecure, I was really ruled by the opinions of other people so that’s why I didn’t want to sing in front of anybody because I was like, ‘If I mess up, I’m too scared that anybody will see that’ so that’s why it took so long with my mentor Haley and my student worship pastor. They were just like ‘Here. We’re scheduling you. You’re going to sing this Wednesday’. I was terrified because I was singing in front of a bunch of my friends and I was like ‘I’m going to see them at school the next day, and what if I mess up’. So through that, God took me on a very pivotal journey of just teaching me, number one; what it meant to be a worship leader which has
“So through that, God took me on a very pivotal journey of just teaching me, number one; what it meant to be a worship leader which has nothing to do with what other people think about how good about how good I sound. Number two; just finding my identity in Christ and not in what other people see me as and not what other people view me as.” – Caitie Hurst
nothing to do with what other people think about how good about how good I sound. Number two; just finding my identity in Christ and not in what other people see me as and not what other people view me as. So that was pretty much all of my high school years, God teaching me that. So that’s where ‘How Can I Be Silent’ came from.
Wayne: I’ve heard a story and I need you to kind of put legs on for me if you can, but I believe that there was a time you were leading worship and you had a fairly serious incident take place.
Caitie: I did yeah, it was last summer and I was leading worship at my Church’s Youth Camp and I just cracked it. You know, I was having so much fun, everyone was having so much fun, it’s the last day of camp, we were going 100 miles an hour and I was mid song and I jumped and I don’t really know what happened. I think I pivited my foot somehow but I just heard this big pop in my left knee and I knew immediately what had happened. I was like ‘I just tore my ACL, I just tore it leading worship on stage!’ Everything happened so fast and I was having so much fun that I didn’t want to stop singing so I was just jumping on one leg singing And I finished out the song, walked off stage and sure enough I couldn’t put any weight on that leg. I had to have surgery and you know, 4 months of recovery and physical therapy!
It was hilarious because everybody who asked ‘What did you do?’ I just said ‘I was just worshipping’ I literally tore my ACL worshiping!
Wayne: I think I must be doing worshipping all wrong I’ve never torn my ACL I’ve never done my hammy, I’ve never had any injury during worship so I’m going to have to reassess how I do worship on Sunday!
Caitie: Hey if people say that worshipping can’t be fun then they are so wrong because I just have so much fun, but maybe I have a little too much fun!
Wayne: Now Caitie let’s talk about your new single it’s called ‘Lights’ and I wonder if you could kind of just tell us the heart behind this particular song.
Caitie: Totally, I love this song one; because it’s super fun but two; mostly because it’s a different way of talking about Salvation. You know this song is talking about how before Christ we were walking in total darkness and after Christ he is the one who shines light into our heart and allows us to see life in a whole new way just walking with him in the light. It comes from second Corinthians 4 in verse 6 it says ‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.’ So this song is basically about God shining light into our heart and how that just changes everything.
Thank you Caitie for sharing your story! We look forward to hearing more music from you in the future!