Back2Back Radio Canada - Eps 7 - Nick Cross, Interview with Amanda Hagel

In this episode of Back2Back Radio Canada, host Dale Boreland brings you another inspiring mix of Canadian Christian music and meaningful conversation.

Enjoy music from talented Christian rock artist Nick Cross, whose heartfelt songs continue to encourage listeners across the country.

Then, Dale sits down with award-winning singer-songwriter Amanda Hagel for an engaging feature interview. Amanda shares how growing up in a musical family helped shape her passion for music, influenced her artistic development, and laid the foundation for the ministry and career she enjoys today. Hear the stories behind her journey, music, the lessons she's learned along the way, and the role faith has played in her life and music.

Whether you're discovering new Canadian Christian music or looking for inspiration from artists who are making an impact, this episode is one you won't want to miss.

Listen now and be encouraged by the music, the stories, and the faith journeys that connect us all.

Christian music, Canadian Christian artists, Amanda Hagel, Nick Cross, Dale Boreland, Back2Back Radio Canada, Christian radio, faith stories, singer-songwriter interview, inspirational music.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to Back to Back, your gateway to Canadian Christian Music. On each broadcast, we listen to great music and interview the people shaping the future of Canadian Christian music today. Please welcome our host, Dale Borland.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Hey Dale Borland here and welcome to Back to Back Radio. On today's program, we've got an interview with Amanda Hagel. Plus, we got some amazing music coming your way from Nick Across. We'll be playing one of his songs called When God Speaks. And then we're gonna go for his back to back with the song Shout. You just keep your ears to hear. Don't forget that Back to Back Radio is brought to you in part by GMI Hub. To find out more, go to GMIHub.ca In the dark, I was bound, lost and broken, a solid ground, then a voice cut in the night.

SPEAKER_06 1:13

Hold on, I'll show you the light. Are you less happy?

SPEAKER_04 1:20

We got three change too.

SPEAKER_06 1:28

We got three, broken two. We got that.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

The people doubt, but I have seen God's hand in every sea. The people doubt, but I have seen God's dead in every sea.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

We got faith.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Your path is clear in his truth.

SPEAKER_06 3:52

I have no fear. Are you listening?

SPEAKER_02 3:59

That's Nick Cross with When God Speaks on Facebook, Spotify, and Apple Music at Nick CrossMusic. Check it out for yourself. You can spend some time with him on YouTube at Nick CrossMusic. That's at Nick Cross Music on YouTube. To find out more, go to Nickcrossmusic.com. Next up we got Nick Cross's great song called Shout. Right here on Back to Back Radio.

SPEAKER_06 4:26

In the dark with shadows fall.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

I wanna hear you.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Be sure to follow me on Back to Back Radio Canada on Facebook. I'd love to hear from you. Give me a message and let's converse. As we try to always do, we have an interview portion of the program, which happens to be my favorite part. It's gonna be coming up really soon, and you don't want to miss it. Amanda Hagel is on the show today, and she is not only a musician, singer, and songwriter, but a personal trainer. So it's gonna be a great conversation. I'm looking forward to getting into it with her later on. So stay tuned for that. Now, if you're a musician or an artist who has a song that you would like to have on Back to Back Radio Canada, well, there's a way you can actually do that. And all of our artists are affiliated with the GMI Hub. That's the Gospel Music Industry Hub. And with their help, your music could appear on Back to Back Radio Canada.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Singers and songwriters, if you are looking to get your music on Back to Back Radio, then you need to get connected with the Gospel Music Industry Hub. With feedback, you will find out if your music is radio ready. So connect with the GMI Hub today at GMIHub.ca listening to Back to Back Radio.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Amanda Hagel, welcome to Back to Back Radio. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_07 8:57

Um this is uh I was a treat to talk about all things music, and uh it's such a pleasure to uh be introduced to your audience. So thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Now I know that uh you were kind of a cowgirl when you were growing up. What happened in your life you just started doing music?

SPEAKER_07 9:11

Well, I grew up I grew up in the country. Uh I grew up in in the southwest of Saskatchewan on a cattle grain farm, so I was a hardcore country girl for sure. Um, music always came pretty naturally. I grew up in a in a household I was youngest than nine kids. And we had a very musical family. My mom and dad were sang. Um I feel like I was I was synchronistically placed into uh to be able to do what I do today. Um because I had such a cool environment to grow I'm just picturing you and your family was around we would think we would think we just having it. Late twenty twenty-three. So late summer twenty twenty-three. I just came off a huge release. And it was a song that had resonated with so many. It was about my roots and my upbringing back in the prairie. Um it had a beautiful message and it did really well in in the US and in Canada as a very marketing. I came off the huge release, and I was I was as an artist trying to struggle with it to come up with an extra big idea, right? And uh I decided to go into a really good meditation prayer and I was like, you know, what he would like me to see in the world. And I just felt like um, you know, I had to get tired, and I had a really hard question. It was a very emotional time because I wasn't really sure what direction I should go now. And uh it was a Friday morning, I'll never forget it, where I was down in my kitchen and it was a visceral physical experience where I I felt a literal download come into my mind and the chorus of the song was written in an instant. I heard the words, I heard the melody, I scrambled for a pen and paper and a recorder, and I captured it. And within 24 hours the song was written, and um I coined the song actually God's message to the world. And uh, you know, for the the audience who hasn't heard it yet, I mean you'll get it when you listen to the lyrics. It's uh incredibly powerful message. I feel like it speaks to everybody in their own unique way. Um, but I felt like that was that was exactly what I know. I I prayed and I got my answer, and it was such an incredible experience. It's hard to put into words.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

It seems so long to carry all through the tease it starts to show in darkness a distant glow.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

It's your faith that makes you stronger, it's your will that hurts a time when you feel like hope is lost. It's your heart that gets your heart off your knees. It's time to rest. Call me your message in a whispers, came. I felt your pleas. Remember, please miss the storm.

SPEAKER_07 16:58

All we need to do is ask and and open ourselves up to it, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I I love that truth. I love that truth. He's just uh a prayer away. He's just uh you just have to do is ask. He's just right there. I love that. Um The Believer, and it's something I wanted you to talk about. What the uh where that song came from.

SPEAKER_07 17:17

Yeah, so that's uh that's a song that I actually I was interviewed uh on an online magazine, and one of the questions that came in that interview was if you as a person of influence, if you can bring the most amount of goodness into the most amount of people, what would you what would you have in the world to do? What would you ask other people to do? And how can you bring that goodness into the world? And the answer that came to my mind specifically in that incident was, well, I just ask people to pray for each other, right? And all we need to do is send love to each other, and that's it's as simple as that, right? And so the song kind of unfolds uh in in l that little literal sense that I talk about the question and I talk about my answer. And uh it's such a beautiful song because I I decided to strip it down and just have a vocal and a piano and a little bit of percussion, and it's so raw and so pure and beautiful, just like hers, right? It's simple. It doesn't we don't have to call make it complex because it should be, you know.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

It took some time to count simply. One that really may be saying you inspired a way to breathe the most amount of goodness to the most amount of folks today, the minute I got quiet in an instant the answer case as you go about today. Ask for just a moment Think of someone you know that needs some love send their way. It might seem much too simple. Somehow I know it's true. The way we're all connected, there's no space between new news in your own way. Take time today. Doesn't matter where you are, let your heart speak to just mom think of someone send the way to simple somehow no hits There's no space between the wicked everything, knows the power as you go about your tea, would you pause for just one moment And think of someone you know that needs some voice in their way? Somehow I know it's There's no space in your own way.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Now you're a bit of a health uh person, you're like your trainer and all that, but you volleyball, you played volleyball for a while. Um so in in in your uh athletic uh endeavors, I find there's a lot of things that you have to focus on putting in the time. That's all I can say is you gotta put in the time. So uh when we're talking about the spiritual as the spiritual aspect of what um as an artist, what you do, um there's a lot of people that they're they they they do 100% in their music, but they're not focusing on their spirit. So this is this is a challenge for a lot of artists. So what what would you what what do you do to help keep that balance or or is that a struggle for you? What do you think it is that artists need to consider whenever well or for instance for you personally, whenever you're doing that balance of yeah, I want to do my music, but I need to do my walk with God, uh, you know, that balance.

SPEAKER_07 23:31

Yeah, that's I love that question. And uh it's something that I've really I began to really go deeper into and embody even in recent years, because like I said, I've I've been I've been health conscious my whole life. I I've you know I've exercised and and taken care of of my body because I find that that wellness to me, and again in my experiences uh being in the training world, the personal training world, it's not a a singular approach, it's a multifaceted approach, right? So, you know, it's mind, body, spirit, right? And so for me, you know, what I would say to people as far as finding that balance is well, you've got to consider that this vessel that we've been given and this beautiful body that we've and I consider it a beautiful body that we've been given houses the soul and it's our vehicle. It's it's what we utilize to be on this planet, to be able to spread that light and be that beacon in this world. And so to me, finding that balance means you have to first take care of the vessel in order to be able to be the highest expression of yourself, which is that essence of you, your true self. And so, you know, to me, then the priority becomes well, if I want to be the highest and best expression and version of me, I need to take care of this beautiful vehicle, right? And and I do that every day and I I encourage others to do it, obviously, in my profession, uh, in my day job. So um it's not always easy. I mean, I get it, but at the same time, I find such joy in it because I appreciate it so much that you know there's a symbiosis with your body when you actually start to be able to have gratitude, like pure gratitude for it. You want to do everything you can possibly do to be able to help it. And and there's a indirect communication I find that I'm developing. Um, and I feel so much more joy and happiness than I ever have because I feel like when I go out into the world, there's there's this confidence, like there's there's layers of things that happen when you start to to bring the two together. And the spiritual side to me then just is projected out of that. I don't have to try, right? So um, so I would say, yeah, you know, we have to shift our priorities a little bit, right? It it's it's it's I think it's um it's our responsibility to take care of the gifts we've been given, and one of them is our our vessel, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

That's a good word. I just wanted to encourage you by saying that there's a great um opportunity for you as a in your music, but also in your personal life to really impact people in a physical and spiritual way. And I really appreciate that. I think it's amazing.

SPEAKER_07 26:03

Yeah, well thanks, Dale. I'm glad you recognize that. And it again, I'm just following my heart, you know. This is this is that compass that continues to move me forward and and uh that communication with the divine is is is where that speaks through. And so, you know, it's a it's an everyday process, but you know, just think of life like that. It's is this gorgeous synchronistic adventure that we get to go on. And the more we say yes and we open ourselves up to that guidance. I mean, man, life is pretty magical, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Well, that was my interview with Amanda Hagel. We had such a great time listening to her music and having a good conversation. That's what back to back radio is all about. Good music and good conversation. Join me next time as we spend time together with more great music. And of course, an artist interview as well. Hey, don't forget that back to back radio is on Facebook at Back to Back Radio Canada. I'd love to hear your input, tell me what you'd like about the show, and tell me what you'd like to hear on the program. Till next time, I'm Dale Borland and this is Back to Back Radio Canada.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Singers and songwriters, if you are looking to get your music on Back to Back Radio, then you need to get connected with the Gospel Music Industry Hub. With feedback, you will find out if your music is radio ready. So connect with the GMI Hub today at gmihub.ca.