From College Friends to Worship Leaders with Jenna & Zoë

Join Carson Bruce for a heart-to-heart with Jenna and Zoë, a talented worship duo from Nashville with a powerful story to tell. They open up about how they met in college, their journey into worship music, and what it’s been like to battle anxiety and stage fright while staying faithful to their calling. From songwriting to leading worship, they share genuine moments, honest struggles, and what true intimacy with the Lord means to them. Plus, don’t miss their live worship session and the story behind their deeply personal song, What I Didn’t Know Then.

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Welcome to the Worship Keys YouTube channel. My name is Carson Bruce, so glad you're here. We talk all things music theory, gear, industry and ministry for your worship keys playing. If this episode is beneficial for you or you have any questions as you continue to watch, feel free to comment below and I'd love to hear any feedback that you have along the way. So let's get into today's episode. I am with two incredible people, Jenna and Zoë, worship duo based outta Nashville. Guys, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us. We're happy to here. We're so happy to be here. I, I mean, I'm thrilled that you guys are here. We're actually in Ryan Pruitts studio in Nashville. Incredible. And it's a beautiful studio. Was gorgeous. I was just like surrounded by like all the key stuff. Yeah. So guys, I'm like super excited to talk about music and your life and for, okay, for one thing. So we are in Nashville, Tennessee. None of us. None of us there are from even Tennessee in general. I'm from Alabama. You can probably tell from my way I talk but. Let's see. Jenna, you're from Texas, right? I'm from Texas, Houston, Texas. Wow. So this is Jenna, guys. This is Zoë, you're from? Yes. Connecticut. Connecticut. Wow. Connecticut. So tell us, how did you guys meet? We met in college. We went to Belmont here in Nashville. Um, we both led worship growing up at our churches in Texas and in Connecticut. Our love for the Lord and our love for music came together and we felt called to go to Belmont separately. We didn't know each other yet, of course, but then we met actually first day of freshman year. Wow. Same major. We ended up in the same sorority and, first class, first day of freshman year we met and then about a year into college, we started singing together. That's amazing. Yeah. So awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. So you guys studied voice. Voice, that's voice majors. Yep. Both of us. Belmont, can you, can you share a little bit about your, your college dates together? Of course. What was course some, some of the highlights there? Oh yeah. So about a year into college, I had a friend ask if I would open for his, like a Christian rock band. It was like, you know, one of the Belmont bands and Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, will you open for me? And I was like, not by myself. Oh, I was way too scared. So I asked Zoë and we sang together and. Just been, a few weeks practicing covers and harmonizing and like building a set. And it was really cool how, natural and fun and organic it felt to sing together and to plan together. And we liked the same worship leaders and liked the same style of worship and removed by the same songs. And yes, practicing for that show it, we, it just kept going and it just bled into what we do today. There was never a moment we were like, Hey, this is like my pitch and I feel like we should try doing this together. We just never stopped. We just kept meeting in practice rooms and, you know, harmonizing together and we started writing songs together and we would go to church together and yeah, it just. It felt very, very organic. And at our very first show, we had this woman come up to us and she was like, are you guys sisters? We were like, we're not sisters. And she was like, well, I just want you to know, I believe this is an ordained partnership and it's just really stuck with us forever. And maybe she's out there watching right now, but we think about what she said to us all the time because it felt like a prophetic word, for sure. I, I mean, the thing we always say is it just suddenly started to make more sense together than it did apart. Mm-hmm. I feel like that's how, you know, I. That you can be partners with somebody in business. 'cause it really is like, we're growing a business together and we had to make a lot of decisions. We've had to make a lot of decisions about our career alongside of each other. And so, yeah, it just gave us, we had so much peace when we were thinking about doing music together and thinking about worshiping together and saying yes to different opportunities. We were just always in step with each other and we had so much peace. And so it just made a lot of sense. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And we're so grateful that the, this is the way the Lord had it. 'cause it's so fun, you know? Mm-hmm. I, I, that's the other thing is, yeah, of course it makes sense and we agree and all that kinda stuff, but. It's also just really fun to do it with your friend. Yeah, right. Hundred hundred. Do all that stuff together and that's a blessing. So I love that. Yeah, I love that. we're about to have a little worship session in here. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. And guys, just stay along for the ride and just worship where you are, whether you're in your car or living room or whatever. But I hope this blesses you. You're the only thing you, the only reason for my, and when I'm lonely, you, the friend who draws in close, God, you know me, you peace comes and you. My Jesus, my Savior, my can't. You're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you gave me power. So when I speak Jesus, there darkness in. Will you die? You saved. You're, you're, you're, it's, it's who you've, you're, you're, you're, you're, it's in your nature. It's who and who you'll be. So won't you come fill my. And you come fill my and cover me in love, father, my Jesus, my. Is where I lay it down. This is my surrender, this my surrender. Down every, this is my surrender. I you to do whatever you wanna do. Whatever you. I'll make room for you to do whatever you wanna come do. Whatever you wanna. Jesus. You want to shake up the ground for all my tradition? Break down the walls for all my religion. You. Shake up the ground. All my tradition, break down the walls for my religion. He, he better shake the ground all my tradition, break down the all my, he better shake up all my tradit down the all my you. You do you. How long have we been waiting? Desperate for your touch. The burning in our is longing for you. Breath. I feel the winds are changing. Oh, I can't. So come and have your way. We never are. We want you. We thank you for. Us. We need you. We want you on your children. Can we just wanna be in your presence? We just wanna be in your presence. We just wanna be in your presence. Come on. Can we just wanna be in your presence? We just wanna be in your presence. We just wanna be in your presence on your children. Help us. We. We start to wonder to call upon. We you, we want you spirit on your children. We just wanna be in your presence. We just wanna be in. Just wanna be in your presence on your children. Again, we just wanna be in your presence. We just wanna be in your presence. We just wanna be in your presence on your children. Because Worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve the Is your name. You deserve the name. Name. Deserve your name. Your name is. Now in the heavens as your glory fill this place. You alone our you the be now in the heavens as your glory. Fill this place. The king. Jesus, you deserve the, your name you. The. This is the moment. Win meets fire. Come on in. Our hearts are burning for this is the moment meets come on in. Our hearts burning for God is consuming God a whatever. Whatever you God is. Whatever you touch. Touch will come on in. Come our hearts, your love you want right now. We wait. Come down. We don't. God it in. We know that we'll see. Hungry Nature. We know that. We don't wanna leave the same down spirit things. The We don't the, no, we, the. Jesus. Lord, if I had known how hard this road would get, I might have walked away and given up. Instead, I couldn't fathom all the ways you'd carry through all those when I didn't seen the tide. I desperate my is coming if not soon, a way I, I. On the other side. I see. How could I have a question? Your goodness. From where I, I didn't know during the time when I was desperate down on I trust you. I, I, what I know now who never leaves my side. I now, I always make it. Need moment. This life taught Tide when I desperate not I even walk this. It took me losing everything. But I I saw you guys first on a clip on Instagram playing and singing and lead worship, and you guys lead worship all the time. But tell us, so with all the genres that are out there, I mean, you could have done pop. Mm-hmm. You could have done other genres. Why worship? Why worship? Yeah. That's a great question. I feel like for me, music as a career never really made sense until I thought about it in the context of Christian music. So I always, I grew up, I loved to sing. I did the musicals, you know, like music was always in my bones, as I'm sure so many people can relate to that. But I never really had major dreams of doing secular music. I, that was just never really a path that even. Sounded enticing to me. For whatever reason, I think that's probably just the protection of the Lord. Like he knew he was gonna gimme this passion and it was gonna take me a bit to find it. But, um, once I did everything just kind of clicked. So when I started leading worship in high school at my church in Connecticut, we were doing all of the old, you know, Hills Song and Bethel and Jesus culture and Yes. You know, all that good worship music from that time. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden my eyes were just open to. The world that is Christian music, the world that is CCMC, CLI. All of that stuff, it just opened my eyes and I realized, oh, people are writing these songs for a living. People are singing these songs for a living, right? People are actually going on tour, uh, you know, living in Connecticut. Not a lot of tours come up there. And now kind of being in the touring world a little bit, I can see why it's like, oh my gosh, to get a bus all the way up to Connecticut is just like, it's such a trek. You can't do that in a weekend. So it makes sense now. But yeah, so I just, not a lot of concerts were coming through, and we're not in the Bible belt, so for a lot of different reasons. Church and being on my worship team at church opened my eyes, made a lot of sense to me. And all of a sudden it's like my passion for the Lord, my passion for music were just fused together. And it, it all made sense to me moving forward. And I was like, I could see myself doing that. So I don't even necessarily know that it was a choice, music versus another kind of music. It just always, if it was if gonna be music, it was gonna be worship. I love that. I love that. So you started leading worship in high school? Yes. Same with Jenna. Same with me. Same with you. With me. Yeah. Let's hear about that. Yeah. I loved singing and I always felt like it was a gift that God had given me music and singing, but I was not able to perform for anyone. I was way too scared. Mm-hmm. And the pressure of like getting up there and like being like, look at what I can do, just never felt right. And. I'm a little shy sometimes, and it just, it was something I wanted really, I, I would never have, I mean, when I've met you, I'm like, you just, what? When I feel comfortable, I open up, but until I'm comfortable, I am shy. And then it's like, then I break loose and I, I'm all in. So Yeah. You have broken loose. I'm all in. You have broken loose right now. I'm all in. But when I, especially when I was younger, just, yeah. The thought of performing for people was it was too much. Mm-hmm. But I always wanted to sing and I remember like being little and like watching American Idol and being like, I wish I could do that, but I just, I don't think I could ever do that. Mm-hmm. And then I, God closed a bunch of doors in my life and in high school I ended up knowing what I was supposed to do and I auditioned for this like, high school worship group at the church that I was going to and from right then when I started singing at church, I was like, oh, I can do this like it's music and it, it's about the lord. It's not about me. And my whole purpose is to point people's focus elsewhere. Mm-hmm. And that really felt like, it just felt right, you know, free. It just fit. It was so freeing and, um. Yeah, it just, as soon as I started leading worship, I was like, this is it. This is what God has for me. And, um. You know, then I had all these worship leaders that I loved. Like I loved Meredith Andrews and Yes, yes, there was, I just, I had a really hard time, um, with mental health in high school. And high school was just a really tough four years for me. And worship music was kind of like my saving grace, you know, like, oh wow. I would like be in the car and listen to Meredith Andrews music and she has this song, not for a moment. And I would just like loop it and be like, I'm okay and God is with me and he's going to always be with me. Yeah. And as much as I loved leading worship, I also found this piece of God's heart and listening to worship music. And it just feels like this is the part of God's heart that I carry is worship leading and worship music. And it's where I feel him. And then to meet Zoë in college. And it's like, you love the same people I love. Yeah. And we would listen to, you know, Stephanie Retinger and Amanda Cook and just be like, yes. Like you get it. You love this. And yeah, it's just really cool. God, just, he really orchestrated it all. Yeah. Wow. I love that. And speaking of mental, mental health, I mean, that's a, that's a big thing. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's a big thing, especially for high school students, middle school students. Talk about your struggle with like maybe like a stage fright of being shy and then also mental health and totally. Anything like, anything like that. And then also just, was there ever just like a point or was it a gradual thing that God just kind of your shell more or, or totally. You know, you overcome a lot of these things. Just tell us a little more Yeah. More about that. I think, you know, it's a lot of things over time. I was, I had really bad anxiety as a kid and it was horrible in high school. And I think even just right now I'm kind of putting together, like the tool that I learned that helped me with my mental health was to speak the name of Jesus out loud. Mm-hmm. And the power in the name of Jesus. And like, declaring with my mouth who he was. And you know, our wor there's the power of life and death in the tongue. So, to just speak the name of Jesus out loud and believe that the enemy has to flee when you do so like it, it started to change my life. That kind of goes hand in hand with worship leading, right? It's like believing that what I'm saying and what I'm singing and speaking like has the power to shift the room. Right. Come on. And I think that God was teaching me like the power of, if I use my words to glorify him, what that could do in high school. And I don't even think I really put that together until in this moment of like, you know, in my room at night when I was afraid. And then on stage on Sunday morning. Both times he was like, don't be afraid. And like. Speak out loud who I am and you'll see what I can do. So that's so good. That's, it's really cool. That's amazing. That's encouraging to someone listening right now. Yeah. Maybe you're battling, battling with, anxiety or whatever that might look like, in your situation. And, that's amazing that God's brought you from that. It's amazing how worship music can be so powerful. For sure. And I love Stephanie GR singer. Me too. Bethel and Elevation and so good. Just the flow and just the atmosphere. It's just incredible. But I want you guys to talk a little bit about flowing in worship, which if you're watching on YouTube, , I'll go ahead and apologize because I, today I am in this swivels chair and for some reason I cannot stop swiveling. I don't know, I've never swiveled, but just when you're in one of these. It's like the one of those drums you have to Yeah. You just have to swivel 'em all have to like, I need to just stay. Um, if I were there, I would do it too. It's outside of your control, squirrel, you know, but, uh, so, so sorry. But anyway, I wanna talk a little bit about y'all's worship leading perspective a little bit. And of course kind of go into worship leading as well, worship, leading and songwriting together. Because I've, speaking of songs, putting on loop, I've just been looping y'all's songs all the time. Mm-hmm. Especially the one I don't, don't wanna lead the same. Yeah. I just love that song. Um, so much. By the way, do y'all lead here in Nashville at a church in particular or? No, we were at a church for a couple of years. Okay. But we, um, we left that church two years ago. Okay. Okay. Um, and. It doesn't exist anymore, so. Okay. Okay. You can't find it. Okay. Okay. Story for another time. I don't lead anywhere right now. My husband and I just, just attend and that's just like really great for us right now. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And I just started to go Church of the City downtown a few months ago. Awesome. And I just joined the worship team. Oh. So I will be leading there. Yeah. That's great. I'm excited. Can't wait. I'm really excited. That is so great. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your, like, worship philosophy. How do y'all prep for, a worship set? How do you sense the Holy Spirit? I mean, that's the big thing. I think a lot of times we've talked about logistics of planning a set and being so to the book and by the script of boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, doing everything. But what's y'all's mindset of the float mentality? How do you even begin to go there and be equipped to go there and take a room from one stagnant place into the spirit actually breaking out and they people are being delivered and you see a, a mighty wind in the room. So the main things that we do are camps, conferences, retreats, and Sunday mornings. We don't lead anywhere here in Nashville regularly together on Sunday mornings. Although we're obviously anchored in the local church, but that is just not like the season that the Lord has us in. So we kind of made up this term we're like, we're freelance worship leaders. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll go wherever the Lord asks us to go and lead worship together. And we have a, uh, relationship with my home church still up in Connecticut. And so we'll go up there. A ton of times a year. We just love that church. We love everything that the Lord's doing there. , they have three different campuses and so we do get to be a part of some Sunday morning local church things. But a lot of the camps and conferences that we do, we do kind of encounter that moment of like, okay, the room is here and how do we take this room somewhere with the Lord? Like, how do we point them in the direction that they of the Lord? How do we take the focus off of us and onto him? It's definitely come with a lot of practice For a really long time when we were in college and right outta college, we weren't leading anywhere regularly. And we would always say that we were worship leaders, but we weren't really leading worship anywhere. Hmm. And obviously we grew up leading worship in the church, but then moving to Nashville and going to college, we just didn't really get plugged in on a worship team. So there was this disconnect of feeling like we wanted to write songs for the church, we wanted to grow in our worship leading, and we wanted to be worship leaders, but we weren't actually leading worship anywhere. And so that's where this church really came in and was an answer to a lot of those prayers. There were a lot of really hard times at that church, and it didn't end well, but God is still good and our hearts are soft and we still love the local church, but the positive parts about that experience still stand. I mean, we really learned how to grow as worship leaders talk with a band, and that's where we kind of flex this muscle of being in front of a congregation every Sunday, and what is it like when the room isn't responding? And it took me a really long time to be able to be comfortable in a room where I didn't physically see people responding, but I knew in my heart and I felt the Holy Spirit moving, even though people maybe weren't hands raised or like kneeling down on the floor or crying or whatever. Because those aren't necessarily always indicators of whether or not the spirit is moving. My take on it is always that it's just practice. You need to be in the local church and you need to be leading worship. If you wanna be a worship leader, you have to lead worship. Mm-hmm. And I think that changed everything for us. Totally. Mm-hmm. I mean, we. We will joke sometimes, like we wanted to write songs for the local church. We were writing songs like the Capital C Church, like the Global Church. And that's amazing. Like there's, you know, writing with the broader church in mind and believers in general is beautiful and writing for the local church is beautiful. But I really think it was essentially, especially for us to be like, okay, if we wanna write songs for the church, we need to know the church and be in the church. And you know, we went to church every Sunday and we were super involved, but until we were on staff at this church, we weren't leading at a church together writing songs for that group of people. Like knowing what that family was going through and knowing their miracle and knowing their struggle and being like, I'm writing this song. Knowing that these families that I do life with are going to sing it and, you know, like declare these truths over their circumstances. It really changed a lot for us. So that that experience and getting to that place helped us begin to wrap our minds around like, okay, how do you pick the songs and like, see what people are going through and think about what that group of people in that situation could need to sing over themselves or need to hear about God. And then there's, you know, practical things like if we're doing a youth weekend or a youth camp, we might pick different songs. And if we're doing a women's conference, you know, totally. 'cause different songs are catered to different people and the messaging maybe matches the theme of this event. Or we'll go after the sermon. Well, or maybe like, you know, a higher BPM kind of like hype jump around song is gonna be perfect for these high schoolers or college kids who are, are so eager to like find the joy of the Lord and worship. But maybe a little bit more melancholy for a group of women who maybe have shown, like shown up that they're tired. You know? Right. They have hard weeks with families and their jobs and mm-hmm. They're carrying more. Right. And they need a time of worship where we're not asking them to get up and jump, and sometimes we do, but you know, I'm just thinking through the different kinds of. Sets that we're gonna build. And so we do take that into consideration. Yeah. That helps us build our set. And then we also like to create moments, you know, like mm-hmm. Yeah. Part of that is introducing new music, whether it be our songs or songs are really moved by like believing that the church is capable of more than just the same four songs they've heard their whole lives. Right, right, right. And knowing that there are powerful messages in these songs that we want them to hear we've seen other people do this and, um, we're really good friends with. The band Kane awesome. And Logan was talking to us about this one time and he was like, if you take a song that everybody knows and you do maybe like verse chorus of that song, and it's the same kind of style BPM feel as a song you want them to learn if you start with something that people know, and then in the middle of the song kind of like mashup style, transition into the other song, it helps guide people there. So then they're getting the truth and like the moment of this song that you think is great for this session. Mm-hmm. But you've, you know, set them up well to where they don't feel like, oh great. It's another song. I don't know. Yeah. Right. So we try to do things like that or you know, if there's like a bridge of a song that we love, but we feel like the song is a bit tired, just use that bridge as the tag. That's great. You know's good. Like taking chunks of songs that serve the situation well is always fun for us. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Yeah. So y'all just, I mean, y'all are kind of copy paste certain things outta different songs and just put 'em wherever. Oh yeah. Totally. How do y'all approach the flow moments and know kinda when, especially when you're a duo group, when it's like a solo leader mm-hmm. It's like they're the leader and everyone's kinda looking at the leader. Then sometimes it can be a little easier, but when there's two of you guys and you're kind of tag teaming it. Yeah. How do y'all do the duo thing and also know when there's like a moment Yeah. Or when to flow in something else that's not kind of planned Sometimes we just know. Yeah. Oh yeah. Just the Holy Spirit, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's not, it's probably not very helpful. I mean, I'll probably try to share a couple practical things, but the real answer is that we've been doing it together for so long that. We just almost kind of are like reading each other's minds in a strange way. Like twin telepathy in a way. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I also think that that's the Holy Spirit and like the way that he's gifted us to be, you know, al almost in a certain sense when we're up there, kind of like one mind, you know, it's like, okay, I know we're not actually, but it's like, I kind of can tell where she's gonna go based on how she's singing or like how intense her voice is, or how pulled back her voice is or whatever, right? Because I've sang with her for thousands of hours, so I can kind of get a gauge on that kind of stuff. Usually when we're rehearsing on the practical side of things, usually when we're rehearsing a set, if it's just the two of us, even if we're gonna take it to a full band, we'll probably run some things, just the two of us beforehand. I feel like we can always identify where a flow moment might happen, but then that's kind of as far as we go. So it's like, you know, we're singing this song and towards the end. One of us, or both of us kind of feel like we could keep going Here. We, this is feeling really good. This just is, I, I could sit here for a while. Mm-hmm. We then don't like manufacture it or. Like make any specific plans more than that, but we just kind of, maybe we'll put like a little asterisk and be like mm-hmm. We might flow here. Yeah. So if we're communicating to a band, we would say, Hey, here is our sets and here are the two places we've identified that there may be a flow happening, there might not. Mm-hmm. And in that case, obviously I'll turn around and we'll be like, let's keep going. But then we, as best as we can, we've already given a sort of a heads up of Be ready 'cause we might flow. Mm-hmm. Um, but no promises. Mm-hmm. Because in the moment the room could just not feel like. They're loving that song, and we might just wanna move forward on that. Um, but, uh, yeah, so that's a little bit of a practical thing that we do sometimes that's helpful. Even like prepping for today, we are running our set and there's a moment after one of the songs that even just in practice, we were kind of just like, you know, worshiping and flowing. We're like, okay, I'm gonna text Brenna who's gonna be playing with us later, that we might flow in this moment. And just, just kind of be, be ready for that. Because as you're practicing you can feel like, oh yeah, something might happen here. You know, and it might not, right? But. As we run through our set, we usually have an idea of if something might go really well there. And also, like I talked about earlier, sort of like the mashup type thing. Mm-hmm. Where we'll go, we love to go into rest on us and then out of the bridge of rest on us, start with the bridge of holy forever. It's really cool. Cool. I love that. And so we'll do things like that sometimes. And when you've already introduced the song switching up, sometimes coming out of that, the congregation is ready to hear something new and catch on. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. But in the same way that you would communicate to a full band, we just try to communicate to each other of like, you know. I can, you know, let's sing that again or mm-hmm. Let's take that chorus one more time. Or even singing the first words if it's totally forever. Like, your name. Your name, and then we know, and I'm like, okay, come on Zoë. You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. I'm like, oh, I got you. Got you. You know, or I'll throw up a little c you know, good course. Yeah. Bridge verse, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I got the hand signals. Totally. Yeah. That's awesome. Definitely communication is key. Yeah. Well, I do want to talk a little bit about the keys world, obviously called the worship keys. Worship first, keys second. Thank you. And I know Zoë, you're always on the keyboard, at least when I'm seeing you guys, out and about doing your thing. Talk to us a little bit about you learning the piano. So I took eight years of piano lessons when I was a kid. Okay. And then when I got into high school, I wanted to take guitar. And my dad specifically told me that you would, that I would regret. Stopping piano lessons. He was like, you can do both. And I was like, I don't wanna do both. I wanna play guitar. Okay. And he specifically told me I was gonna regret that, and he indeed was correct. But whatever the journey is, the journey, I don't know if I would be where I am now if it weren't for that. So I took four years of guitar then in high school, and I always loved to sing. I, I didn't ever, play keys and sing. It was always, I was taking classical lessons, so. Got you. Do not ask me to play anything. Yeah. Beethoven, every year. I've been so long, so, so, so many years. I'm such a more contemporary player now. I couldn't, yeah, my, my teacher would be certain to stress. Right now you're, no, do not, don't. Why did bring it up? Why did I bring it up? Hey, we got some sheet music over here. We want you to sight read here in a second. Totally. The camera's lost the battery. I don't know. I can't, okay. I'm making it up. No, I'm, no, I'm just kidding. Um, dead air. No. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I, I took those lessons. Then I took, guitar lessons in high school. That's when I kind of started writing. So that opened up the writing world for me, was being on the guitar. So then I, I would take that to the keys sometimes, but I didn't really know what I was doing because I had only ever really had classical lessons. So I didn't know, you know, the Nashville number chart. I didn't know kind of some more voicings that were more, worship. If you will. Right, right. And so then when I went to Belmont, you have to take piano lessons in college. So that was kind of an easy transition back into the piano world for me. I had to do it. And I had a teacher there who knew that I wanted to do worship and he helped me kind of explore some of the different, like voicings that are common in the worship space, in the worship world, and taught me Nashville numbers. And so that, that kind of shifted everything for me. 'cause I was like, oh wait, I do have this baseline knowledge, but now I actually have the tools to be able to use it in the context of music that I'm really excited about. Yeah, throughout Belmont, that was just kind of a process for me. I really started playing and singing. I would say that we, when Jen and I started doing music together, I would play and sing, you know, if we had rights or if we were desperate at a, at a gig, I would play. But it was, it took. A lot for me to do that. And I didn't like to do it. I felt it really compromised for so long. I felt like I either wanted to lead or I wanted to play. I didn't really wanna do them together 'cause I felt like I couldn't do them both. Well, I was giving 50% on each and then I was not leading how I wanted to lead and not playing how I wanted to play. Mm-hmm. Um, but what launched me into having to do that was actually, we went on staff at this church in January of 20, 20. Three months later, COVID happened. And. Nobody was really available to play keys. So there was one, one of my friends, Garrett was able to come sometimes, but for the most part, I was kind of backed into a corner where I was the person on staff, a global pandemic came out. We didn't have a building, so we were in a studio very similar to this, just kind of like live streaming out stuff. Mm-hmm. And a lot of times I didn't have another option, like I was the only instrumentalist who could play. And there were so many wonderful people who came alongside me in that season and totally played. But there were situations where I was forced into it and that changed everything. because I didn't have an out. And it was like, I ha I have to play. I'm on staff as the worship leader at this church. And there was something beautiful about about that because I, yeah, I, I couldn't say no. I was like, this is my job. I have to do this, I have to step up to the plate. But I remember in the early days of being on staff of that church, I would rehearse for six hours for a three song set. Wow. Like, I was so unsure. I had never really played with full band or click or whatever. It was always just Jenna and I kind of flowing and doing our own thing and just like a couple really simple chords. But this was obviously next level. So for me practicing with the quote unquote click, right? So the metronome, I had just like a metronome on my phone, and I would practice it at a way lower BPM than the song actually was. And I would sing along with it and I would creep it up to the normal BPM. And that was my like, practice mo. That's what I did for every single song. And I would just do it until I felt really comfortable. Yeah, I think really stepping outside of your comfort zone and not having a way out, that's what changed the game for me. Mm-hmm. And I'm really grateful for it. I don't know, I wouldn't be half the keys player I am today without that experience, so. I'm not even that incredible of a keys player, but it's just, I'm able to play for us. We can play for ourself. Any time. You played all our gigs. Yeah. I played at all our gigs. Yeah. I've gotten hired as a keys player before just, just to play keys. And I actually now, I love it because I feel like we get to dictate where we are going. I'm not relying on somebody else to say, hit that chorus again, or whatever. And because Jen and I are so in sync, I feel like you feel the same way. Mm-hmm. It's like if I'm playing, you know that whatever you're gonna sing, you're gonna follow, I'm gonna follow. That's good. You know? That's good. So you have that safety. Yes, totally. It feels like I'm playing. I know. Wherever I go, she's gonna be there too. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's so, so important and can even kind of feel it coming. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah, because like, y'all are a duo group, so it's not like you have a band that. Per se travels with you. Right. I mean, I know you have, we don't friends and people depends on the game, you know, we'll hire a band, but no one is in the band, you know? Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So if you can at least be the band leader. Totally. Totally. Um, that's super cool, and I think it's super encouraging for people that have had a similar story to you too, Zoë, on the Keys that maybe have been brought up on classical lessons. Wanted to use an instrument. Usually it's the guitar, you go to the acoustic guitar Yeah. Uh, to lead on. But then going back to keys, especially with the, the slower and ballad type songs. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's kind of where those big moments happen anyway. And to go on keys like that, it's really nice, really nice to have, and you can kind of dictate where you're going. Did you have anything else to say? I don't wanna cut you off too early. No, not at all. Okay. I just, yeah. I think if you're in a place where you're comfortable playing and comfortable singing and you are like, how do I just get to the place where I'm really, really comfortable and you are on a worship team, or you go to a church. I think just finding a worship leader who would take a chance on you and say, yeah, you know, you kind of have to be thrown out into the deep end a little bit. Mm-hmm. And someone who's comfortable with that and who can coach you up a little bit. It was invaluable. Yeah. I mean, I'd say it's the same for worship eating in general. Exactly. Yeah. Like I would not be here. Yeah. Today if my worship pastor when I was in high school was willing to let this scared girl who over sang and belted too much, get on stage and do her best, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But also that's encouraging to hear that you said like, oh, I didn't really know how to play all these songs, and I was literally practicing. I want people to hear that. I was like, practicing for six hours for a three songs set list. And sometimes that's, that is how it is. We've had a lot of really impressive guests, like similar to, to you guys, everyone's very impressive. Um, but some of these keys players, they're, they're like, yeah, I was three years old and just sat on the piano and started playing the old Rugged Cross. And my parents were like, whoa. You know, like they're coming up off the moon, day three and they're playing, you know, uh, it's craziness. So it's good to hear Oh yeah, your story too, that that's like, oh yeah. I wasn't just like a child prodigy at age seven. Yeah. Playing whatever. Um, you know, like, Hey. You develop it. Mm-hmm. You work on it. And then, you know, you're doing what you, you are doing now. But yeah. It's so invaluable. Youth bands. Yeah. When you're in Totally. When you're younger. Yeah. I mean, that's so important just to jump in and jump in. I mean, sometimes you just, you never will until you just Yep. You just start doing it. Yeah. Um, and if there's always someone else who's there, who is the keys player or who is the vocalist, then you'll just never have that opportunity. Yeah. So sometimes you have to go somewhere, be kicked into it and God will lead, lead you somewhere where you can, like the church that y'all were at, on staff at mm-hmm. Yeah. Was, was nice for you guys to have that opportunity to grow and, and develop. Absolutely. Tell us a little bit, who are your favorite, influences, which you actually kind of mentioned already. Stephanie Gret Singer and Yeah. Some others, but what are your, some of your favorite go-to worship songs? . One of mine's Amanda Cook. Mm-hmm. I love, honestly, like everything she's ever done, like her stuff with Bethel, her solo stuff. Like I, I love the way that she leads worship and her intimacy with the Lord. And I also love her like more like solo project stuff. Yeah. That is so honest and a lot of her stuff is like she's saying a lot. You know, she's not watering down her words. She's saying a lot about the Lord and a lot about herself. And she has this melancholy feel that I love. I love Amanda Cook and like always have loved her. And then a newer one. I love Tiffany Hudson. Yeah. Oh yeah. We, we love, we love her stuff. Same with her. We love her stuff with Elevation. We love her stuff. So good solo. Mm-hmm. These days I'm Loving The Wonderful Blood by Tiffany Hudson. It's just like insane loving it. And then some like older Amanda stuff like Shepherd and Kind and like her whole like Brave New World project and yeah, those are the two that come to mind for me right now. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Love that. What about you Zoë? For sure. I was a Stephanie g Gringer fan and similarly to Amanda Cook. I still love all of Stephanie's stuff, even. All of the new stuff that she has come out with. I love Carrie job. I loved her a lot when I was in high school. I just really thought that her voice was so captivating and her, the way that she led a room was always just really moving to me. Mm-hmm. I still think that, and her and Cody are just powerhouses. Yes. Yes. And I definitely look up to them a lot and think that their writing is fantastic. I love the, just like I feel like they don't compromise on their theology and they're always putting things in my mouth that I would love to sing to the Lord. Mm-hmm. And love to sing about the Lord. And so that's really encouraging to me. We loved Anna Golden's most recent project. Okay. The church. The church. Okay. You could listen to that. Really good. It's so fantastic. And there's a song on it called Manas that's like about, her pain and her experiences at church. And it came out like wow. Around the time that our church before had fallen apart. Mm-hmm. And it just felt like such a, like a healing balm because she loves the church. Her whole album is for the church. She's a worship leader. And that's how we felt. It was like our hearts were broken and we were really devastated and a lot of things that happened at that church mm-hmm. put us in this like season of our life where it felt as though life as we know what has come to a close. Like what is God gonna do next? It was just a really devastating time. But at the, like in the middle of that, we felt like so close to God and like he was so good and we loved the local church maybe even more than before. And so often the tools coming from people are like, I'm wounded by the church and I don't want anything to do with it. And I, there's so much grace for that and so much understanding as to how people, feel that way, you know, because life is hard and church is hard and people are hard, but I felt really fortunate that we felt this like love and, like tenderness towards the church. And it was really special to have that song to listen to on that album about how much she loved the church. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it was really healing, so you should listen to it. It's amazing. Anna Golden. Anna Golden. Okay. Okay. Yep. She's wonderful. Wow. Yeah, so good. Love that. Those are a couple of mine, so cool. Do you have a, favorite Carrie job song? In particular? Well, I think the first song that I led at church ever was Revelation song. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's just like, holds a really special place in my heart. Mm-hmm. But I would say that right now it's, it's first love. Yay. That's what I was gonna say. It's so good. It's, it's great. And it's a great wedding song too, and that bridge. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. And wanna stay forever like this, like this. Oh my gosh. It's so good. It's so good. I love it. I could just listen to it forever. Yeah, me too. I, I, yeah. I've Been Forever is another one of hers that I love. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's a staple. Yeah. It's that iconic as a staple. What about though your nature. Okay. I like that song a lot. It's probably not in my top, but I love it. It's on your top. It's creative. I mean, I don't think I know that one so Well. It's, I love what she did. I don't know who the songwriters are. You never know who I, who all wrote on it. You know, sometimes just like y'all's music, you know, you have other people writing with you guys. Yeah. But I don't know who, you know, two credit exactly for the lyrics. Maybe she, she is, she did all the lyrics. Who knows? Basically I love the lyrics because it starts with like the actual physical nature of hills and valleys and so cool things and that. Okay. Like, that's your nature. And then it starts talking about the, the nature of God. It's like his heart. Right? Its heart. Wow. I haven't heard this. I need to look it up. You need to look it up. This what? On the way home of hers? It's kind of blueish, right? Like the cover It has a little blue on it. Yeah. Yes. The blue. The blue one. Yeah, the blue. It's, and it's towards the end of the album. Yes. And there's one called like. All men on that album, I think. Mm-hmm. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know the one. I know the one, but I, I need to listen to that song. You need to listen to that. Yep. It's, it's powerful. I'm like, that's so cool. And it's, and yeah. Wish I could pull up some of the lyrics, but Yeah, it's great. Y'all have to go listen to that I love when songwriters, you need to dig into that one. Yeah. You kinda have multiple meanings too. Totally. To that. It's like, this is the nature of God, and this is his heart too, that it's, it's all perfect. I mean, that's how I feel about seasons by Benjamin William Hastings. So unbelievable. He's a solid, he's a beast. He's just insane. It's crazy. He's amazing. Love Brandon Lake too. Yep, yep. Obviously you'll probably, do y'all lead gratitude a good bit? Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. More probably than anyone wants, wants us to. Last summer, we almost had to like, put the song on a hike. Oh no. Like, amazing. But then, you know, every time it comes back on, I'm like, oh, yes, yes. So good. And then the end of course, changing the progression of So good. That's my favorite part. Yeah. The 4, 9, 5. Yes. Yeah. That's amazing. Well, cool. What are some things you would tell your younger self? The person that still was struggling very heavily with anxiety or maybe still still learning a lot of musical things with guitar and keys world, or, maybe you weren't quite the worship leader you are now. What would you tell your younger self. I think I have two things and both of them are still things that I'm working on, but it's, you know, it's different than when I was younger. But I think one of them is just to like, be brave and do it afraid and just go for it. You know? Like give yourself a try and bet on yourself. I was so afraid when I was younger I was anxious and I was insecure and, um, I didn't really know how to like, make the move of doing what I wanted to do. I felt like I needed to be invited into it. Mm-hmm. And just like the bravery and boldness to be like, I wanna lead worship and I wanna sing and I'm gonna go for it. I'm really grateful that God has pulled that out of me over the years because it's what we do and I love to do it. And I like to, you know, lead worship in new places and like on bigger platforms and things that are scary, but really fun and feel like a gift. So just, I would encourage myself to be brave 'cause it's always worth it. And also just to press in deeper, and get to know God's heart more. You know, intimacy with the Father is more than I thought it could be when I was younger. Mm-hmm. And when you're willing to be brave and you've pressed in and he is, you know, and his kindness revealed himself to you, and you know how kind and trustworthy he is, it's, it's amazing where you'll allow him to take you. Come on. And when you said this, the phrase intimacy with the Lord. Mm-hmm. And for those that are not familiar with, what does that mean? What does that look like? Can you expound upon that a little bit? Totally. Yeah. For, or at least for you. I would say for me, intimacy with the Lord is, well, I'll say it this way. A practice that I've put into place in finding more intimacy with the Lord is looking for evidence of God everywhere. I listen to this podcast that we love, where, Mia Fields is talking and it's kind of about like how she met her husband, but it's really not, it's really about like. Her intimacy with the Lord and like seeing details of him in her life. Mm-hmm. And this decision that if she feels like she is seeing the Lord working in her life anywhere, just deciding that it is. Mm-hmm. And having yourself, having your heart postured in such a way that it's like when I get to the end of my life, I would much rather God say, you looked for me in everything and that wasn't all me, but I loved your heart. Then get to the end of my life and him be like, I was everywhere. Like anytime you saw something in repetition and wondered if it was me, it was Wow. And anytime you had an interaction with someone that felt like it came out of nowhere, like I orchestrated that come on. And anytime an opportunity came your way or a door was closed, like I did that, you know? Mm-hmm. I don't wanna get to the end of my life and him tell me I was everywhere and you just weren't looking. Wow. You know? Wow. That's so, I think looking for evidence of God everywhere in your life. If you think it's him, like ask him if it was him and. You know, come with a heart that says, I think this was you, was it not? That couldn't have been you. Wow. You know? Yeah. And then that has really bred intimacy with God in my life because it's hard not to have intimacy with him when I've just decided he's everywhere. Right. Right. Come on now. Yes, Jenna. Yes. Preach it. So good. That's so good. Thanks. That is so good. Some things I would tell my younger self are probably just not to get too hung up on what you think it should look like. Mm. Um, because, yeah. I think, you know, when I moved to Nashville and thought about graduating college, I was like, we're gonna get a record deal. And that's what, that's what it's gonna look like. And I don't think that, I don't know if that's ever gonna be what it looks like for us. And we're totally at peace with that. That also would be amazing. And we're totally, you know, like someone signed them right now, we're open. maybe we're open. Maybe. Maybe. Exactly. Yeah. I think that there's such a career to be had in music, even if you don't have a record deal. And I think that that's true in all genres, but I definitely think it's true in worship music or Christian music. So I think just not getting so hung up on it has to look x, y, and Z way. It's good. Um, which you could, you could say that about anything, but specifically when it comes to music and then, don't give up on the guitar. Like, don't do the thing that you did with piano. Like, I, I stopped when I started picking piano back up, I stopped playing guitar and now I'm like, oh man, I really wanna bring back guitar. Mm-hmm. So at some point in my life, maybe it's in the next decade, I will be doing both also at the same time or Yeah. At the same time. One hand here, one hand. You guys are not gonna believe it when you see it coming. No, I think just, yeah. I, I feel like I, I kind of hyper fixated on, on one in different seasons of my life and I would love, I wish that I didn't, when I dug back into the Keys and like, felt, found my love again for keys. I wish that that didn't mean that I just stopped playing guitar. 'cause now I would just wouldn't really pick up a guitar and know what to do with it. I could play four chords, but mm-hmm. Which might be all I need to know, but Right, right, right. Or worship. But, , yeah, just like dig into both I think would be a piece of advice I would give my younger self. Mm-hmm. And, and yeah, just the encouragement that. Yeah. Even if it doesn't look like what you think it's gonna look like, it's gonna be great. Right. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I think that's super crucial. I think even more so now for 12, 15, 18 year olds it's so saturated in social media mm-hmm. Of what things can look like. Right. Yeah. And it's like, I don't know if we've over-glorified. Sometimes the production or the, the lighting or the, the, even just the tone of the voice, like that you, whether it's like this really scratchy, raspy voice or like this thing, I don't know. Sometimes we, we fixate on how it looks like or sounds like. And, um, yeah, I mean, I think that's so, so important. It has to be authentically you. Obviously develop your skill sets and whatnot. But as far as being like moved by the impulses, the Holy Spirit, like that comes through intimacy with the Lord. And it doesn't have to look like what y'all are gonna do. Yeah. Or what, yeah. Stephanie Gresing does it doesn't have to look like any one way. Mm-hmm. And I love and I love that. So there's different, so many different expressions of that. Yeah. So I love that. Okay. Let's talk about your music real quick. Yeah. There's this song that everyone loves. If you're following Jenna and Zoë, you guys already know what I'm talking about. But the song that I'm talking about, can you guys share a little bit about the writing process and the story behind it and tell us the title, tell us the heart of mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yep. It's called What I didn't know then, and we wrote it a year after we left, the church and just went through a hard time. Mm-hmm. The song, if you listen to it, you would've no idea. It's about that. That's perfectly intentional. It's kind of just birthed from that pain. Yeah. Not necessarily about the situation. Yeah. Got you. Yeah, just kind of derived from, just like a season of hardship and a season of suffering and not really understanding, God, why is it looking this way? But when you're on the other side and you look back, you can see all the things that you didn't know at the time. Mm-hmm. So yeah, we wrote it a year ago and, it's a super special song for us and for people who, , have connected with it on social media. Mm-hmm. We posted it, I don't know, at some point around like, uh, early February. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Posted it just so it was a little video that I put up my phone and it was a rehearsal that we were doing, like talk about the song and the video. Yeah. And 'cause I knew that that night I was gonna introduce it at this, like women's retreat thing. Yeah. And I was practicing what I was gonna say and Zoë was just had her phone propped up to try and get some content and then, you know, piecing together, like us talking a little bit about the song going into the first, first course of the song. I mean, the video just. Like blew up. Yeah. It's really been crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. It's been really crazy. It's been cool. 'cause you know, it's like not blowing up because we're cool or we, the, the video is awesome or the sound quality is amazing. Mm-hmm. Our voices sound wonderful. It's like it's, people are connecting with it because it's real true testimony. Yeah. Of looking back on the other side of the hardest season of your life. Mm-hmm. And you were asking yourself is God, is God who he says he is? Mm-hmm. Can he be good in all of this? Looking back and seeing, yes. He's exactly who he says he is. Mm-hmm. Yes, he is good. He's even better than we could have imagined. Mm-hmm. And somehow he worked it all. Yeah. He worked it all, you know. Yeah. And it's this thing that, you know, the Bible talks about, like God is close to the broken hearted and he weeps with those who weep and you know, he's in the valley with us and the Bible tells us that. But I think there's this, it means more than we think it does. Like it's not just Yes, he's with us there. It's, I almost feel as though he's closest there. Like, I heard in a sermon one time that, you know, God is in heaven and we will be with him and you know, the veil will be lifted and we will see him clearly. And all of that will happen when we're in eternity with the Lord. But before then, the closest that we see him is actually in the valley. Mm-hmm. It's such a beautiful thing because you go through the valley and you're in a time where you're like, I have nothing left. And God, you need to ideally grow some sort of garden out of these ashes. Wow. And I'm just gonna believe that you are going to, because I don't have another choice. Mm-hmm. And you have to be who you say you are, or I have nothing cool. And he is, you know, he's better. Yeah. So this song is kind of about that. Yeah. About that heart posture of, um, believing that God is gonna be that and being honest with him, like, I have nothing left. And then seeing on the other side, like. I think the, like the beginning of the chorus is like, what I didn't know then is you were working miracles yet to be seen, you know, like turning the tide when I was desperate, praying hard on my knees, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, and then one of my favorite lines is this, in the song is, and even now, relief is coming if not soon, then up ahead. 'cause not everyone's relief is on this side of heaven. Mm. You know, and also not everyone's relief is in the next 10 years, you know, maybe it's down the road on this side of heaven, or maybe you, we, it it's your full healing in heaven. Yes. Yes. But, , yeah, just this, this testimony that God is. Better than you think he is. Come on. And in the suffering is actually where you learn that. So yeah. I love that. And isn't it y'all song more, it's like even in my unbelief. Yeah. You're more, and I love that line. You're more than I could ever need. Yeah. Even in my unbelief, you're more than I could ever need. And that is so true. I mean so many people that are still even maybe grew up in the church and other things, and then maybe later kind of like questioning, do I believe this? Is this something I'm wanting to pursue? It's like, but even in my unbelief. Mm-hmm. Yes. He's still more than I could have. I mean, yeah. That's incredible. Thank you. We'll have your socials here in the description too, so people can check it out. You guys are an encouragement to many musicians maybe up and coming artists as well. And I pray nothing but success to you guys, , both and love what y'all are doing. I love your heart of worship and yeah, I remember seeing that clip too, and I was like, oh, and, and it's the, it's the, the heart and that anointing that, um, what, like, connected with me personally too, and I saw it and I was like, wow. , and I think that's gonna continue to be evident in y'all's life as you lead more and more and write more and more if you want to book them to come to your church, your, uh, women's conferences, youth conferences, whatever. How can they do that guys? How can they do that? Yeah, so if you go to our Instagram, you can send us a message or we have a booking form in our bio. It's a link in our Instagram bio, and you'll just click on the links and you'll see Jen and Zoë booking form, fill that out and we'll reach out to you. Yep. We'd love to lead worship with you and, , be part of what you're doing. So, yeah, definitely. Awesome. They're, they're right here in Nashville again from Connecticut, Texas. So. They're from. We can travel. They can travel. We do travel. They're not afraid to hop on a plane. Totally not afraid. So yeah, book them wherever, you know, wherever you might be having your conference. So, um, do y'all have any final words to keys players, worship leaders, worship songwriters, anything else you'd like to leave us with? Just that there is more than enough room for you. Come on.