Seeing God in Everyone Through the Power of Music: Wayne Burton's Story - Latter-Day Lights

What happens when we use our God-given talents to help others draw closer to Christ?

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott and Darla sit down with Praiseworthy award-winning songwriter, doctor, and lifelong musician Wayne Burton, who shares how his love for music grew into a decades-long ministry of faith.

From writing his first spiritual songs while serving a mission, to creating music inspired by General Conference messages and sharing youth songs in 26 different languages, Wayne reflects on the experiences that taught him to recognize God’s hand in his creative journey.

 Wayne also shares the inspiration behind his song “God of All,” the powerful reminder that every person we encounter is a child of God, as well as his current project, “Provide a Way”—a musical created with Blake Gillette that brings stories from the Book of Mormon to the stage.

Through songwriting, collaboration, and years of sharing his testimony through music, Wayne offers an uplifting perspective on using our individual gifts to serve others, see them through Heavenly Father’s eyes, and ultimately bring them closer to the Savior.

*** Please hit SUBSCRIBE to get our latest episodes, and hit the SHARE button to help us share Wayne's story and light with others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/oRaWztEUSW8

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To LEARN MORE about Wayne’s music, visit: https://wayneburton.com/

To LEARN MORE about Wayne’s Book of Mormon Musical, “Provide a Way,” visit: https://provideawaymusical.com/

To LISTEN to Wayne’s music on Spotify, visit: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0sgU2jikLLV3Un04cUfJ4B?si=u8Rp3o-bQdOrJFWYHF8msA

To LISTEN to “God of All” by Wayne Burton and Hanna Eyre, visit: https://open.spotify.com/track/2a2dAgl0ffVdAW4bwZhk0K

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To READ Scott’s new book “Faith to Stay” for free, visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

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Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latterdaylights

Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Transcript

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“Faith to Stay” by Scott Brandley

Scott Brandley 0:00

Hey there, as a Latter Day Lights listener, I want to give you a very special gift today. My brand new book, Faith to Stay. This book is filled with inspiring stories, powerful discoveries, and even fresh insights to help strengthen your faith during the storms of life. So if you're looking to be inspired, uplifted, and spiritually recharged, just visit faithtostay.com. Now, let's get back to the show. Hey everyone,

Intro

Scott Brandley 0:30

I'm Scott Brandley.

Darla Brandley 0:32

And I'm Darla Brandley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite hope, and inspire others.

Scott Brandley 0:40

On today's episode, we're going to learn how one man relearned that Heavenly Father is the God of every single person, and that as we start to see things through his eyes, we will grow in love for others and ourselves. Welcome to Latter Day Lights.

Welcoming Wayne Burton to the show

Scott Brandley 1:15

Welcome, Wayne.

Wayne Burton 1:17

Hello, glad to be with you.

Scott Brandley 1:19

Yeah, we're so glad you're here with us. So one of the reasons we brought Wayne on is because he's one of the winners of the Praiseworthy Awards for the LDS PMA in the music category. And so we thought we'd bring him on to share some of his stories and experiences into how he got into music and what he's doing nowadays. So we're really excited. So before we jump into that, Wayne, why don't you tell us a

Wayne in a nutshell

Scott Brandley 1:45

little bit about yourself?

Wayne Burton 1:47

Sure. My profile right now, I'm a father of five. I've got uh one kid left in the house who has not yet graduated, but the others are adults. Uh two of them are married, not a grandfather yet. And uh I'm a family doctor by day, and I'm a musician and uh church composer in most of the other hours that are available. I've been doing both uh tracks for a long time, and uh I'm a Canadian. It sounds like we have that in common. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Brandley 2:18

So Darla and I actually grew up. Well, all three of us grew up like within an hour from each other in Alberta, Canada, which is crazy.

Wayne Burton 2:26

Yeah.

Scott Brandley 2:27

So you live in Lethbridge now, right?

Darla Brandley 2:29

Yeah, with a beautiful temple being built there, so exciting.

Wayne Burton 2:33

Yes, yeah, it's coming along really well. They're on like the third floor or something now, and uh it's exciting to see that happening. Was a real surprise when they announced it, but we're excited that it's coming and we're ready to embrace it and use it.

Darla Brandley 2:47

Yeah, my nephew is actually helping to build it. It's very exciting. I'm thrilled.

Wayne Burton 2:52

It's pretty cool for sure.

Scott Brandley 2:55

So you're living in Lethbridge, Darla grew up in Barnwell, which is about a half an hour east. East. Yeah, and then I grew up in Vauxhall, which is a half an hour north of Barnwell. So it's like a backwards letter L.

Wayne Burton 3:09

Yep.

Scott Brandley 3:10

Basically, right? In the middle of nowhere, but that's all right.

Wayne Burton 3:14

And for those who don't know quite where that is, if you were in Utah and you took the I-15 north and you stayed on that highway, that same road would come through Lethbridge where I live.

Darla Brandley 3:24

Yep.

Wayne Burton 3:24

On the Canadian side of the border.

Darla Brandley 3:26

Yeah.

Scott Brandley 3:27

Yeah. Good old memories.

Darla Brandley 3:29

Just an hour. It's only like an hour over the border. It's close.

Scott Brandley 3:33

Yeah. Yeah. Well, awesome. So let's jump right in. Let's get it into your story. Why don't you tell us where your

Wayne’s growing interest in music, composing, and writing religious songs

Scott Brandley 3:40

story begins, my friend?

Wayne Burton 3:42

Yeah, well, I guess as far as my story as a musician and a contributor to church music, my story starts pretty early. I'm told by my mother that at age of three, I was picking out melodies on the piano. And uh so if that holds true, it was pretty early that I was uh finding my place and my interest in music, in melodies, and kind of grew from there. And so growing up, I was a member of the church. I was baptized at the age of eight and in an active family, and so I certainly loved my heavenly father, and I tried to do what was right, and eventually some of that expression of the love came through music. When I was a young teenager, I started writing some songs, and uh they were focused on girls pretty much love songs, and uh thought I knew what love was back then. So, writing these songs, I was still pretty shy, and I just, you know, I wanted to write these messages and these songs that sounded so committed and so deep, it was a little too much for my parents. And so I would wait until they would go for their nightly walk, which was about a mile one way and a mile back, and I would jump on the piano and sing these songs and work on them and stuff, and kind of had this little window of privacy to start to experiment with my talents. And uh, so that was originally kind of where my music started was through kind of pop love ballads type of thing. And it actually wasn't until I was preparing to serve a mission that I was uh starting to be inclined to writing uh spiritual songs. A friend of mine was leaving on his mission a little bit ahead of me, and so I decided to write a song for his mission farewell. And that was my first church song. And I just found the experience was different, was kind of on a different level than just writing love songs and kind of uh other topics and things like that. And so it really caught my attention, my creative attention and my spiritual attention. And so as I left on my mission, I served in Salt Lake City. That was another opportunity for me to use that talent. When I got my mission call, I opened it up and I thought, well, the mission call's coming from Salt Lake City. Am I reading this wrong? Like I thought I was going to Japan and uh kind of had this feeling like, yeah, that's what it's gonna say. And so I got it figured out, yes, I'm going to Salt Lake City. And it it was amazing. It was such a great, fulfilling experience. And as a missionary, you know, on P Days, I would find an opportunity to get to a member's home and maybe jump on their piano or go to the church and just continue to write new songs. And of course, these ones were ones for baptisms and ones about um Christmas and about different Christ-centered themes. And and really, I my mission is where I really started to kind of uh I guess blossom in working with the spirit to create music. And I returned from my mission and jumped back into school. I mentioned I'm a doctor, and so I was had a lot of years ahead of me. And of course, that took a lot of my focus and my time. But I continued to write music and I thought, you know, I'd like to do something with this. And my

Wayne records his first album

Wayne Burton 7:00

aunt actually was kind of hounding me, like, you need to do more with this. You got supporters, you got people who love your music, you need to do something with this. And so I decided to record my first album, and it was called Closer to Heaven. And and I I guess I've always been someone who thinks, okay, I'm gonna find a way to get this done. Maybe there's a standard way, but I'm not sure I'm that aware of it or don't have the resources. I'm just gonna find a way to do it. And so I recorded on a pretty tight budget. I'd never produced songs before, but I kind of took it and arranged the songs and did that. And so I'm proud of that first project because of really what it took from me to accomplish it. But certainly from that time forward, over the years, I've learned a lot and the music has really progressed and come to greater levels since then. But it it was my starting point, my debut album. I got into medical school at the University of Utah. So I was kind of excited to come back to where

Wayne applies to medical school and writes his second album

Wayne Burton 8:00

I served my mission. And I did, I guess, the foolish thing as an applicant for medical school. I applied to three schools. And I mean, you need to apply to dozens. And so it actually took me a couple of years to get in. I kind of picked the places where I wanted to be with my family. And so I said, you know, Calgary, Edmonton, or Utah. And uh eventually Utah accepted me and we moved our family there. And in my heart, I kind of was had a secret prayer that is if I can get into Utah and maybe even not the other schools, I'll have no choice but to go to Utah where it's more expensive, but I'll be there where I can have more opportunity to share my music and to do more things on the side than I would up here in Canada. So it was an ad sort of prayer in a number of different levels. And got there and went through medical school, but I also finished up my second album just as I was partway into med school. It's not a great thing to be trying to finish an album while you're in your first few months of medical school. It's a bad combination and as far as stresses go.

Scott Brandley 9:05

Like, how did you even find time to sleep at that point?

Wayne Burton 9:09

Yeah, it's tricky. We we had two little girls, and while we were at medical school, we had another baby, Parker. And so we had our hands full. But uh, there's such good support, like in the church. We lived in a little university village just on the edge of campus, and we had so many young families that were in the same situation. They're going to school, they got little babies. A lot of the moms were able to be home with the kids, and so they had kind of a little community around the park there in the center where they could just kind of gather and let the kids do their thing and close to school for me, and so it worked out really well, and it was a blessing for us, of course. And I continued to pursue the music wherever I could. And even when I was deciding, like, am I gonna be a doctor or am I gonna be a musician? I kind of uh thought about the schooling path and stuff, and I decided I'm just gonna do both. I'm gonna find a way to do both, and so that's the path we took. And I've continued to just uh build on things as I went along with my music. So that takes you through school. And when we finished, I got into a residency program through the University of Calgary, and it was actually a rural one based out of Lethbridge, and so we were able to go straight back home, move back in to our town, and be close to grandparents and other family, which was a real blessing for us.

Darla Brandley 10:28

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Wayne Burton 10:30

So that's chapter one.

Scott Brandley 10:34

Awesome. That's cool. You got to go back to Lethbridge. You have a lot of family in and around Lethbridge, then.

Wayne Burton 10:40

Yeah, most of my family, other than my one brother, live fairly close to here. And my parents, and so it was our plan all along was to end up back home. We yeah, we've put that pretty high on the priority list for our goals as a family, and so it's been nice. And even as a family doctor, there's a lot of opportunity to kind of work where you want because there's high demand, and you can set up a hang your shingle and kind of work wherever you want. So I work about five minutes from home, and I've got my recording studio in my house, and I just kind of keep on balancing the things I've been doing for a long time. That's awesome.

Scott Brandley 11:18

That is so awesome. So, where'd

Wayne’s current music projects

Scott Brandley 11:20

you go from there? Move back.

Wayne Burton 11:22

Well, we got back, and uh, as far as the music pathway, I've now recorded 10 Wayne Burton albums and three albums that are part of a series called By the Voice of My Servants. And Tyler Castleton, some of your viewers might know him, certainly they'd know his work. Really accomplished songwriter and producer of this music. Uh, he and I just found that there was so much uh enthusiasm with general conference messages. And with the age of social media, you know, and memes and things like that, like we would just notice that every conference within minutes of something being said that was really like memorable in a talk, there would be a little quote coming out on Facebook or a little picture with a quote. And I think that the the brethren really try to have some take-home phrases and things that we can kind of latch on to that are gonna stay in our minds and go with us through our day and through our weeks as we try to live out the the messages of general conference. And so we began writing songs based on that, and three albums later, there's so much material. I mean, we could have 20 albums and we wouldn't have tapped the surface too much. But we got working on that kind of project as well. Along the way, at that time, I do write a lot of youth songs. And after I got back and got settled in with my family, I started writing a song each year for the youth theme of the church. This wasn't an official one that I was assigned by the church to do, but just inspired by the theme and turned out to be one that a lot of groups use in different places. And so started doing that each year when the theme would come out, get going on songwriting and release a song. And I guess always with my ambitions, I thought there's so many members of the church around the world that are not English speaking and probably have a pretty limited amount of music available to them, uh, certainly outside of the hymns, that they can use just in their everyday uh lives and kind of boost them up with music. And so I thought I'm gonna release these songs in other languages as well, which is kind of a whole new undertaking.

Darla Brandley 13:34

That's amazing.

Wayne Burton 13:36

Over the years, I've released these youth songs in 26 different languages, and each year about eight to ten different languages. I've started kind of rotating and adding new ones each year, and so it's been quite a neat experience to do that and to get to know saints and singers and musical people all over the world, and it's been a real thing that I've really cherished and hope to continue to do. I did that each year, and then along with that, just with my love for writing songs that would resonate with the youth,

Getting into the EFY albums

Wayne Burton 14:10

um, tried to get into the EFY circles, especially for youth, those albums that the church put out. And they uh you know for a little while it felt like a little bit of a tight circle, hard to kind of get my foot in the door. But eventually I had a song that ended up in 2010 on an album of EFY, and that's called Duty to God. And uh that was pretty cool. And since that time, I've had 10 songs that were on six different albums of EFY. The church has kind of replaced that program with other things now, but it's been fun writing songs for the youth for sure.

Scott Brandley 14:43

Yeah. What was that like getting your first song into the EFY album?

Wayne Burton 14:48

You know, it was really exciting. Like if I just look at over 25 years of writing church music, you know, what are the kind of the big pinnacles as far as uh maybe accomplishments of what a songwriter would want to do? Um, in my mind, that was one of them, kind of breaking through that. And I guess I'll tell a little story. I found out that the song was going to be on the album and just so excited about that. And then I got this message from this other individual that said, wait a minute, you can't do that. I wrote that song with you. And I'm like, No, you didn't. And and it was just kind of a bit of a surprise. And the person kind of pursued it, saying that we'd written it together and actually contacted EFY to say, you can't publish this without crediting me and all this stuff. And I just thought, finally, my one chance, and they're gonna drop it because they're gonna think, well, I don't know what this is about, but we don't want baggage with this song, we're just gonna move on. Fortunately, they stuck to their guns and went ahead and released it, and we kind of sorted that stuff out and it wasn't correct, but it really kind of felt like I was gonna be derailed with my first chance to get on the FY. So I I kind of made it over that hurdle. And since then, quite a few songs got on. One album had four songs on it that I'd written. And uh, it's fun because some of those songs are ones that people really come back and reach out to me about. Like one song is called A Missionary's Prayer. I wrote it with Tyler Castleton, and it's a ballad that's just about the expression that a missionary would have as they embark on this huge commitment and sacrifice, and how they are hopeful that they'll be watched over, that they'll be guided, that they'll follow in the right steps that the savior would do as they represent him, and that they'll come back at the end and be protected and be returned to their families. And uh I'm getting a little bit emotional because the message is special to me. But I also had

About Wayne’s nephew

Wayne Burton 16:50

an experience with my own nephew who I'll share with you about over a decade ago. He uh was serving his mission in Guatemala, and he was just a couple months away from finishing his mission when uh an accident happened in the mountains of Guatemala, and a lot of missionaries were injured, and he ended up being seriously injured and event passed away within a few days. And I think about the missionaries that go out and their families just trust like the Lord's got this, we're gonna send this boy or the girl out to who knows where, and they're gonna be watched over. And that song, The Missionary's Prayer, really kind of captures that, but I've grown to understand that there's more meaning to that than just simply they'll necessarily be returned to us physically if the Lord has another plan. The Lord's watching over them no matter what, and we know that uh the Lord has all kinds of big plans for young missionaries and and eternal plans, things that breach the veil. And missionary themes have been really important to me, and just to reinforce that God is watching over them and over us, and we need to just always be open to new understandings of what the Lord has in mind, and not just kind of one way, but any way that the Lord wants to bless us and to use us. So that's been a special experience, just reaching out to missionaries and families and sharing that with them. That's awesome.

Darla Brandley 18:28

Right here.

Where Wayne gets inspiration - “Everyone around me is a child of God”

Scott Brandley 18:30

So, how do you get inspiration to write a song?

Wayne Burton 18:34

I think as a songwriter, I feel like I'm pretty busy with music, so there's a lot of material I'm trying to write. There's different ways that that comes. And so sometimes the songs are a little more project-driven. Like there's a request for a certain type of song, and I'll just kind of start and think about what are the most important things to say in this song. And musically, things have always come easier for me. I could just grab the keyboard behind me and give you a new melody kind of on the spot. Uh, lyrically, it's been more work and more of a growing experience over the years. But you know, sometimes there's a certain thing, and certainly with the conference albums, like Elder Kieran said, the Lord is in relentless pursuit of you. When I heard that, I thought I need to write a song about that. And uh sometimes I've got that starting little gem to kind of work off of, and you know, it helps to have a little starting point. Uh, I wrote that one with the Truman Brothers, if you're familiar with them, Desert Book Artists. And sometimes there is that little starting point that maybe is a little easier to kind of get rolling on. But other times the spirit tells me there's something I need to express. And I know that these are things that I need to learn and I need to reinforce for myself. So it's a shared experience. Hopefully, it's something that fortifies and uplifts the others that receive it. But it there's a little bit of selfish stuff there because I know that's what the Lord wants me to really get grounded in. One example is there was a Sunday afternoon. I was sitting there um not doing a whole lot. I wasn't deep in the scriptures and stumbled across a verse that jumped out at me. I wasn't sitting at the piano just trying different things. I was really uh not doing anything musical or creative. And this feeling came to me really powerfully and just hit me. And it's kind of the you get those light bulb moments, and Elder Bednar spoke about that with kind of how inspiration comes. And it was one of those sudden ones, and yet it makes me feel like, man, like didn't I get that already? Like it's so basic. But the message was that everyone around me is a child of God. And as I kind of processed it, I it just came to me that he is so aware of each person and of me, but of the person that I met at the grocery store, the person that maybe cut me off in traffic, you know, whoever it is, the person that's in another country that maybe in some tribe in the mountains that's never even heard of Jesus Christ. Every person is a child of God, and and he is just eager and waiting and involved in ways to jump in and to bless them, to protect them, to help them heal. And so I just felt like I need to express that. And how do I do that? I do that through songs. And so I wrote a song called God of All. And it really, to me, has been one of the most special experiences as a songwriter, and one that I love to share when I'm doing firesides and sharing music because I just feel like it's so close to me that it's something that I want to share with other people. And I think I've learned that I've been too judgmental of other people. I've been not as charitable, not as loving in different ways. I mean, that's one thing that I learned that I could do better, and that as I do that, I'm gonna feel even more. That I'm a child of God. And so it's been a special experience. And I love sharing that song because it came that way so much through my heart and through my spirit.

Darla Brandley 22:10

Yeah. I love that. That is so awesome. And I agree. That's a fault I think we all kind of as humans have is the judgmental. And I think that's something we all struggle with. You know. So I agree. I think it's something we need to work on all the time and relearn every time that God is everyone's.

Wayne Burton 22:29

Yeah, he finds ways to remind us in hopefully gentle ways, sometimes uh more abrupt ways, but he wants us to know that and to certainly to learn through experiences. And for me, a lot of times it is through the music that I channel.

Darla Brandley 22:43

Yeah.

Scott Brandley 22:43

Yeah. That's awesome.

Wayne’s collaboration process + favorite collaborators

Scott Brandley 22:45

I listened to some of your music and I love some of the collaborations that you've done. Talk to us a little bit about how you do collaborations and how that works.

Wayne Burton 22:55

Yeah, I certainly would say that that's been a thing for me, has been collaborating. And when I started writing music, I wanted to express my testimony. I wanted to use my talent. And I love writing melodies, writing lyrics, but I never saw myself as a singer, really. I saw myself as a songwriter, but I wanted to get my music out. So some of it in the early albums was more of uh, I need some singers for this. So I started collaborating with people. And I think as I developed my talents as a singer, I kind of grew into the artist role, but then I still always loved working with other artists. So yeah, I've done that a lot over the years. Um, you do this enough years and you get to know a lot of people, and it's been a blessing to work with so many different artists. I've got voices that I just love, and I think, man, how can I call them up and ask them a third time to do a third song? But I just need to hear them sing my songs again, you know. I've worked with the Bonners, Yahosh Bonner's recorded with me a few times. And one singer I've used a lot is Hannah Eyer. She was on the voice, and she's just so amazing. And she's in a rock band at BYU, and they rock out, and then she comes in the studio and records my songs and it sounds like an angel. And the one time we were recording, I knew she was doing a little concert the night before, and I was down in Utah to record her, and I'm like, Hannah, don't blow your voice, uh, you know, rocking out because I need you tomorrow morning, kind of thing. It's been awesome. You know, I worked with the Truman Brothers on this song Relentless Pursuit of You. And I think they're going to be releasing it on a new album coming out as well, and it's on my album as well. As a songwriter, uh, collaborating is an awesome thing. I wrote country music for quite a few years, and I would travel to Nashville. Coming from Canada and with busy life as a physician, I couldn't devote too much time, but I would go down there twice a year and spend a week down there just writing with other writers. And in Nashville, that's what they do. Like everybody co-writes, and it's like a blind date. The publisher says, Hey, we've got so-and-so, they'll meet you in songwriting room number five at 10 o'clock. And you walk in, you get to know each other for about 10 minutes, and then you start writing a song. And of course, as time went on, got to know more people, we would certainly be back writing with some of our favorites and stuff. But it's a way that you bring out compatible talents. And as songwriters, sometimes one person's got the melody and someone else has the lyric idea, and vice versa. With singers, like in my church music, they just bring out so much in my songs. The second album I did about uh general conference themes is called Hear Him by the Voice of My Servants, Volume 2. And that message that uh President Nelson kept re-emphasizing, Hear Him. The singer Yafet Bustos, he's from BYU. Uh, he was in Vocal Point. And I just I don't think the song could have been done any other way than to have his voice on there. And uh so it's been a lot of fun. And I mean, singers in in our church genre, they have to be doing it for the love. It is not a big market. Um we love to have people download, stream our songs. We love to have them recognize the work and what we put into it, but I think we're all there first for the love, and you feel that with the other artists, and so you get together and you collaborate, and it feels good that we're doing something for this cause. And so, yeah, it's a great blessing. And most of the time with my youth songs every year, I have a new singer because I like to use youth, and so there's always new singers coming on to those projects as well. And uh yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Maybe I'll mention um this song that recently was acknowledged with the LDS PMA award uh Look Unto Christ. That one I worked with Brittany Bennett, and I'd worked with different singers each year with my youth songs, tried to kind of change it up. Um, the year before I'd used a girl in Denmark, uh, she'd been my Danish singer, and I thought, she's so good. Like, and you know, she can speak English. I want her to do the main song, the English one. So we changed it up, and then the next year, when this one came along, I was just kind of searching different singers, thinking like, who haven't I discovered yet? And that kind of thing. And I came across Brittany Bennett, and she's an amazing young singer, and it turns out she's from Southern Alberta, believe it or not. And I guess the talent is here, right? So she lived in Cardston at the time, 45 minutes away. And I just connected that wow, I I I want her to sing, and she can come to my house and record. And it just it was kind of neat to work with somebody homegrown in southern Alberta, because usually they're some far-off place or in Utah or whatever. And uh, she did such a great job. She's been involved with a number of other youth songs that the church has released in the last couple of years, and she's just getting ready to leave on a mission. And uh, even doing that, she says, Hey, I'm sure my mission president will let me do this uh because it's still missionary work. So call me if you need me. So it's been awesome.

Scott Brandley 28:10

That's awesome.

Darla Brandley 28:10

Oh, I love that. That is so cool.

Scott Brandley 28:12

We both know Bennett's in McGrath, so that's probably there could be a relationship there.

Darla Brandley 28:18

Congratulations.

Wayne Burton 28:19

Yeah, her dad is works with institute seminaries and stuff, and yeah, so there's just great talent everywhere. I wish I could use everybody, but I hope that people that have a talent and they want to share it, especially if they want to share it in a way that glorifies the Lord, I think that they should just find a way to do it. Um, you don't have to wait for a record deal, you don't have to have a lot of money to do it. I think you just have to commit yourself and put it out there. And somebody's gonna be touched. Whether you have a few listeners or a lot, there's gonna be somebody that's touched

On getting artists to collaborate

Wayne Burton 28:55

and bring brought closer to the savior. Yeah, so true.

Scott Brandley 28:58

When you try to connect with singers or other people in the industry, how welcoming are they? Are are people pretty open to do things together?

Wayne Burton 29:08

Like uh kind of hard to say because I mean I've been doing this a long time and I've got a certain thing going with my music. So I I don't know if just anybody reached out. They're not gonna necessarily say, Yeah, you bet, let me sing your song. I think they all are discretionary about what their goals are, what their their product is, I guess. That kind of their brand. Um and fairness, I mean they put a lot of work into it and they need to kind of be wise, kind of in their use of their brand and stuff too. I think they're all very open and would love to hear from people and would consider things. So I don't think you'd get any kind of a total uh ghosting or hard rejection, but you'd have a new friend because they're all so friendly. But you know, I, for instance, like I've worked with a lot of different artists, but you know, I have been a huge Kenneth Cope fan for most of my life, and we've actually become good friends and done concerts together and stuff, and yet I tried for years to get him to sing one of my songs on my album. And good friend, Kenneth, what do you think? And he was at the time with different record labels and stuff. He's just like, no, sorry, it's not the time or whatever. And I kept persistent about it, and eventually he ended up on my Christmas album singing one of my songs, and just uh important moment to me to have Kenneth on my album with me. And then uh just recently on my newest conference album, he did another song with me. And so persistence gets you there too. And just because someone's even become your friend, you know, they each person has to kind of consider what their directions and goals are. And if you keep at it though, cool things happen for sure.

Scott Brandley 30:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's a good suggestion, just become friends with people and then kind of build a relationship, right?

Wayne Burton 30:53

Yeah, and I think any producer will be happy to work with people, and um, sometimes they bring their songs in a very unfinished format, and sometimes they're very far along, but you know, they're great at getting you across the finish line. It's a great community of artists and creators.

Wayne’s advice for aspiring musicians

Darla Brandley 31:10

Awesome.

Scott Brandley 31:11

Yeah, so two questions. As you look back on your career, do you have any advice for people up and coming that could maybe help them to shorten their learning curve? And then what do you have in store in the future?

Wayne Burton 31:24

Yeah, well, for up and comers, I do think you need to be willing to put yourself out there. Um, certainly there is nowadays with streaming and with technology, there's a lot more opportunity to just self-produce or get your music out through by your own means. Um, there aren't a whole lot of record labels in the church circles anymore. And so there's an opportunity to do that, but there's also so many opportunities for some tutoring and some learning from examples. And the LDS PMA has a great thing going every fall with courses and workshops and things like that, and things throughout the year as well. A lot of the different songwriters, like Tyler, will do songwriting workshops and things like that as well. So just really try to hone your craft. And you know, some of the things I learned in Nashville certainly apply here. They're getting in with the different organizations, getting collaborating with other people, and really being open to constructive criticism. I get a lot of people message me and say, I've written some lyrics. Do you think you'd write music and make a song with me? And I again have to be pretty careful, like for family time and everything else, to just not do everything that gets presented to me. Um, but I'm always happy to give a little bit of feedback to people. I know a lot of the other artists are as well. And I find that it's hard to, I guess, sometimes to be completely frank about the building blocks of a song and how it's put together and to really be nice and complimentary. Sometimes those don't feel compatible depending on what created it. But I think with good intentions, if any of us are um willing to give feedback, and I think most of us are, we're happy to give that and to make suggestions, to give some tips. And the people that will kind of um latch onto that and build from there, I think those are the people that uh move along a little quicker, learning their craft and picking up on lessons from people that have been doing a long time. So that's some tips there, and and again, uh I don't mind if people approach me, I'm happy to give some feedback as well. As far as what's come up for me,

Wayne’s plans for the future - “Provide A Way” Musical

Wayne Burton 33:30

um, maybe just like two things. One is that right now, um, as we speak, a Book of Mormon musical has been released in theaters, which I created with Blake Gillette. Um, and so actually, if people check their local theaters, uh, it's called He'll Provide Away. And it's a musical that goes through the stories of the Book of Mormon. And I'm excited about that. If people catch it in the theaters before it's gone, that's great. If they don't, provideawaymusical.com. We have a whole uh script and the songs. People can do the musical and their stakes or their wards and their YSA groups and just kind of recapture the fun of doing an actual musical again that emphasizes something as important as the Book of Mormon. And so people can watch for that because that's kind of an ongoing thing. But at the moment, it just launched in theaters this weekend, and so that's kind of been my big focus and Blake's as well. Um, the other thing that's coming up with these youth songs and all the different languages I've done, I've got to know a lot of people in other countries and I've done kind of fireside tours in other places. I was in Asia a few years ago. I was in Europe just this last spring in a number of countries. And this fall, I'm going to be in areas like New Zealand, Australia, uh, Indonesia, and either Philippines or Singapore. We're working that out. So just excited for your viewers that are across the pond. I'm coming your way, and it's gonna be fun. I love doing the ones with the different languages because we get the local singers to sing some of those songs, and it's just so neat. When I was in Taiwan, we stayed at a lady named Role, she was the music chair in the stake. We stayed at her apartment, all five of us sleeping in her little apartment on every floor space we could find, and it was awesome. We made new friends and rubbed shoulders with such amazing, faithful saints. So we're gonna do that again this fall in kind of the Pacifica Southeast Asia area. And so looking forward to it and watch for updates.

Darla Brandley 35:35

That's amazing. That sounds so cool.

Wayne Burton 35:37

It's gonna be great.

Scott Brandley 35:38

Yeah. Well, this has been so fun, Wayne. Thanks for coming and hanging out with us as we kind of wrap things

Final thoughts - Wayne’s testimony

Scott Brandley 35:45

up. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share with those that are listening?

Wayne Burton 35:50

Well, I guess just my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ lives. And I think that as we embrace him, as we embrace the spirit talking in our lives through the things that we do, we can be so close to him, we can be so richly blessed. And every person has a different story, every person has a different trial and circumstance. And sometimes it looks bleak or it looks like an insurmountable kind of thing in our lives. But as we focus on the savior, it can be a really rich experience to have him walk us through. And you know, the new theme this year is called Walk with Me for the youth. And when we know that he's at our side, we can do all things. And when we trust his plan, which could look different than we think, it is gonna work that way as we look back. And I just I know that that's true. That's very true. Awesome.

Darla Brandley 36:43

Yes, thank you.

Wayne Burton 36:44

Thank you.

Outro

Scott Brandley 36:45

Yeah, thanks for putting the time and the effort into helping the youth and inspiring members of the church. I mean, that's an incredible sacrifice, but also very rewarding, right? When you get to have those wins, it just makes it all worth it.

Wayne Burton 36:59

Yeah, it's very meaningful.

Scott Brandley 37:01

Well, thanks again, Wayne, for being on. And thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode of Latterday Lights. Go ahead and hit that share button. Let's share the light that Wayne has shared with us with others so that we can inspire as many people as we can with this episode. And if you have a story that you'd like to share, go to latterdaylights.com or email us at latterdaylights at gmail.com and we'll have you on the show as well. So thanks again, Wayne, for coming on. Thank you. And thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll see you next week with another episode of Latterday Lights. Till then, take care.

Wayne Burton 37:37

Bye-bye.