TAYA Sets Future Foundation with ‘The Reminder’
By: Laura Bennett
The last two years have been some of most significant for Australian singer and Hillsong alumni TAYA, as she officially leaves the church, releases her second solo album, has a baby, relocates to the US and prepares for her first headline tour.
Add to that a skin cancer diagnosis and living out of suitcases for 5 months with baby Bo in tow, and understandably TAYA wanted to come back to basics with The Reminder – a conscious reflection on the unchanging faithfulness of God.
“We are walking out of this season with the testament of God’s faithfulness,” TAYA said.
“Even if we’re doubtful, or we fear, [I’m] just so grateful that He doesn’t change.”
While learning to be a mum on the road – Bo’s now been to 16 countries “and has no idea” – TAYA was touring her previous album, writing the current one and working out what life post-Hillsong would look like with husband Ben.
“We met in that church,” TAYA said.
“We thought we’d be there for life [but] sensed our time there was ending.”
For 15 years TAYA was a leading figure in UNITED and Young & Free, renowned for Oceans, Wake and Not Today contributing to some 800million career streams for the bands.
“In God’s kindness,” TAYA said.
“The things from [those] years have now become the floorboards we get to step on to launch this new thing.”
The title track of The Reminder is as much for listeners as for TAYA herself, calling her soul to remember in the valleys that God sees her, that her future’s secure and her history with God is proof of His goodness.
“This record is testimony set to melody,” TAYA said.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get away from that because I think it’s really powerful when people sing with a conviction.
“It’s usually because there’s been something that they’ve walked through – it’s a hard-fought revelation of who God is.”
TAYA’s goal for the next season is just “to be doing what [God’s] asking of me to do”.
“There’s a simplifying happening in my own heart,” TAYA said.
“I’ve seen it in quite a few different friends around me: there’s a stripping away of what we thought mattered, or that perhaps other people were placing upon us.”
Some of the sweetness TAYA sees on this side echoes former Hillsong songwriter Ben Fielding, who sees fruit coming from seeds that were scattered in recent years.
“It was quite violent and it felt quite distressing,” TAYA said.
“But what’s been beautiful about this season is that when you’ve been in the trenches with people [you] can’t replicate that.
“We know we were all in it together.
“[Now] I think people have been allowed, or enabled, to go into places that perhaps never would’ve happened if we’d all stayed together in that same way.”
The Reminder serves as a way-marker, celebrating what’s been but pointing us forward to the good God’s going to do next.
“I don’t have any idea what the future holds,” TAYA said.
“But I know that I get to rest in him completely.”
TAYA’s album The Reminder is out now.
Article supplied with thanks to Hope Media.
Feature image: Album cover art supplied and used with permission
About the Author: Laura Bennett is a media professional, broadcaster and writer from Sydney, Australia.
