Doors are opening for Orpington-based singer/songwriter LISA TWYDELL. Tamsin Jones reports.

ORPINGTON LASS: Lisa Twydell

Lisa Twydell, a singer from Orpington, Kent has made a considerable impact on the UK Christian music scene since emerging in 2004. Her debut album 'Don't Wanna Waste Any Time' received a rave review in Cross Rhythms with Tony Cummings describing it as "honest, passionate, fresh and gritty with plenty of blinding rock guitars interspersed with acoustic moments." and a track from it, the hooky "Maybe" made the Cross Rhythms playlist. Also, Lisa performed impressively at Devon's Cross Fire event and she's appeared on God TV. Not bad for a part-time musician who works in neuropsychology.

Most people will agree with Lisa's 'Don't Wanna Waste Any Time' album title. "I just think that once you realise what life's priorities are, you suddenly think how much time you've probably wasted in the past," she commented. When asked about her turntable hit "Maybe" Lisa explained, "It's about the things that you often think even once you've become a Christian, but you feel ashamed to say. Sometimes in life you think, 'I'd quite like that,' but God might tell us to wait, or he might not say yes. Sometimes there's that naughty thought in your head that says 'Well, maybe I'll just plan my own life so then I'll get just what I want when I want it.' It made me realise that God's actually been in front of me all along, waiting to give me my heart's desire, so all I've got to do is just turn to him. The song is ultimately about temptation, about the fact that no matter how you are tempted, once you are a Christian, the devil can't take that away from you. You are saved, you stay changed inside even if you are tempted, and you just need to look to God and submit to his will for your life, rather than your own."

It's refreshing and reassuring to talk to an artist who clearly doesn't live with her head in the clouds claiming to have all the answers. "I'm not a particularly remarkable or exciting Christian and I think that whilst that doesn't make great entertainment, at least there are a lot of people out there who are 9 to 5 ordinary people like me. Hopefully it's a bit of a relief for them to know that there is someone else like that, that the Christian life is taking each conversation as it comes and making each decision as it arrives. It's about treading in the right path one step at a time. It isn't all fireworks and it isn't all exciting revelations. They do happen of course, but they have to be set in to the context of your everyday life, how you live, and the development of your character every time. I know that that is what I feel God is preparing me for and he will continue to do so."

Lisa wasn't brought up in a Christian household. Her brother became a Christian about 18 months ago, but it was her grandmother who helped her spiritually. "Since I became a Christian I look back and realise how incredible her life is. She lives a very simple life where she just lives by the Bible and she's never wandered away. She's just got a very clear sense of the right or wrong thing to do in certain situations and she's doggedly stuck to it her whole life."

Lisa attends Orpington Baptist Church in Kent, a family fellowship who are really supportive of her work and music. "They've prayed, they've offered help in practical ways, all kinds of ways." Pretty good for a person who was once told they didn't have a musical bone in their body! I asked Lisa about her songwriting process. "I don't sit down and manufacture a song. A song will hit me, really. It'll arrive in my head and it will be complete, with all of its backing, words, and music, as if I've heard it already. Then I have to translate that to my sound guy who I do recording with and that takes time! I have to tell him how the bass line goes and I have to sing it. 'Then the drums come in here and they go like this.' and that's how we piece it together."

Her musical influences include a diverse range of artists, such as Avril Lavigne and Coldplay. "I even went to a Take That concert so there you go," laughed Lisa. However the singer has now settled into a guitar-based pop gospel sound. Speaking of variety, Lisa has even tried a bit of deejaying. "I was into a lot of funky house and trance. Every time I'd make a mistake I'd think 'should we just sample it as a remix?!'"

Like many Christian artists Lisa finds that her compositions minister to herself. "I wrote a song recently - it's not on the album - called 'Beautiful Tears' and it's gone off to various church authorities so it might be doing the rounds shortly. I was basically aiming it primarily at myself. I came away from a prayer meeting feeling angry on behalf of God and with the need to look deeply at myself. We need to ask ourselves the question 'How much do we care about people becoming Christians?' How much more is it about than going to church on a Sunday, doing the right thing and saying the right things, attempting to stay awake during the sermon, having a nice life where we meet nice people? How much do we get irritated by difficult things that creep in and threaten to disrupt our lives? 'Beautiful Tears' talks about God crying beautiful tears for the world which seems to be very dry of love and very dry of compassion and having a real hunger for people to know him. The song shook me and I found it very difficult to take because I knew that I was guilty of the things the song deals with. I've found it very difficult to sing because I know that it will offend a lot of people because it does become quite angry. But then again, I become quite angry when I sing it because I feel quite strongly about it. I felt that it was from God and I needed to share it, whatever the fallout maybe."

Clearly, Lisa is a singer of strong convictions. No doubt we will be hearing much more from her in the future.