Tony Cummings spoke to Big Church Day Out worshipper LUCY GRIMBLE

Lucy: I started to lead worship over 10 years ago now. I guess by that point I'd been leading worship for about six years and I've been writing for 15 years or so. So by the time I released 'Come And Breathe' I'd built up quite a history of leading singing and songwriting.

Tony: Now, for a long time you've had a pretty close connection with the David's Tent guys and the Big Church Day Out folk. How did that relationship start?

Lucy: I first met the David's Tent group in 2011. I was doing a 24-hour worship event through my church and I met the UK director of Burn, which is another sort of 24-7 worship model, this non-stop worship kind of model. So, I met the then director of the UK Burn who went on to be the director of David's Tent, a lady called Tiffany. She invited me to come along to Burn, and that's how I got connected with them. I started to do the Burn in London and then from there it coincided with the launch of David's Tent. I got invited to go and lead at the first David's Tent and it's sort of just grown from there. Similarly, with Big Church Day Out I think I met Tim Jupp, who's the guy that heads up Big Church Day Out, at a worship event, and just sort of started a relationship and it's grown from there really.

Tony: And of course, it was a spin-off of the Big Church Day Out guys which are effectively your music publishers now, is that right?

Lucy: That's right, Arkyard. They're an awesome organisation, really pioneering and championing UK artists and UK worship. They've just been such incredible supporters of me and lots of other emerging UK voices. I think I was maybe the second person to sign up with Arkyard.

Tony: You had a pile of singles, I seem to remember that you had two different mixes of the song "Seeker". Tell me about that song.

Lucy: "Seeker" was almost an experiment, I guess. Sometimes you make music out of relationship, it's not so much a really well thought through, really planned thing, it's just you happen upon a relationship and it feels really good to experiment and try something new. So, "Seeker" was a collaboration with a deejay friend of mine called DJ Clottey. I had this melody going round in my head and these words and then we just tried it out. He produced it, he did all the mix and the beat and I sang on it and did the sort of melody and lyrics part.

Tony: You recorded the 'Created To Worship' album live with a band, didn't you?

Lucy: Yeah. I've got four guys in my band who I've been playing with for years, I mean two of them I've been playing with for 10 years. Charlie Thornton is my musical director and he's my bass player as well. Richard di Castiglione, with the wonderful name, plays guitar, and a guy called David Powell plays keys and then Ayotunde Afolabi plays drums. We are very, very close, they are like family to me and they are all either semi-professional or professional and that's been an incredible journey to watch. I think all of us started with music and worship being this real passion, but something that we would do evenings and weekends around a full-time job. It's just been so amazing to sort of watch all of the guys in my band take more and more steps into doing worship and into doing music.

Tony: Now when you do performances or ministry times in festivals and things presumably they're with the full band, but can you sustain that in individual performances in churches?

Lucy: It's a bit of both really, it's a bit of a mix and match kind of thing. I mean I think it's really important to bring the right team for the event. So, you know we're going to be playing on the main stage at Big Church Day Out this summer, that really requires a big sound. So, we'll go kind of bells and whistles with that. But sometimes it's sort of a smaller church which invites me to lead say at a conference or at a prayer event or that kind of thing and in that case, me going along and leading on key suits it. You know a more stripped back approach is what's right, but I think it's just taking that judgment call really on what works best and what's going to help people engage in the best way. I obviously love it when I can take my band and it's so much fun, but equally I can just go along on my own.

Tony: On the 'Created To Worship' album is there a song which you are still singing and you can imagine you're probably likely to still be singing in two, three even five years' time?

Lucy: That's a good question. There's a song called "Overcomer" which I feel carries a lot in terms of its message and whenever we sing it something just erupts. It's such a hope-filled song and it's based on the Scripture "In this life you'll face trials but take heart because I've overcome the world." So that thing of as believers we are overcomers because Jesus has put his spirit inside of us and he is the overcomer. I definitely feel that that's a bit of an anthem for us and we'll just be singing it for a long time.

Tony: Tell me about your hopes and plans for the future.

Lucy: I feel like I'm just full of projects at the moment, which I'm just so keen to progress and to get out there. It's funny, you kind of go through seasons, well I find I go through seasons, where there's some seasons that I just want to be really quiet and listen and then there's other seasons where I feel like I just have to produce, produce, produce. I feel like I'm in that kind of season right now. So, after "Great Redeemer" I've got a couple more singles that I'm wanting to put out, I've got a solo album that I'm working on and then next year I'd love to be working on our next live album as a band. I think the overall hope and desire is just to continue making great music that really helps people to engage with faith. Yeah, I think that's probably the overarching desire.