The Sunday Blessings Podcast is hosted by Jay Hildebrandt and features stories of faith, hope, and inspiration. You'll hear extended interviews, musician & artist spotlights, and more. Sunday Blessings can be heard weekly on Sundays from 5am-5pm mountain standard time on Classy 97, Sunny 97, and Classy 97 Lite.
Sharing stories of faith, hope, and inspiration, this is the Sunday Blessings podcast. Welcome to the Sunday Blessings podcast. I'm Jay Hildebrandt, and I'm here today with Angie Killian, who is a a songwriter and has a story to tell about her journey to becoming a songwriter. Angie, thank you so much for joining us today. You know what?
It's my pleasure. I'm so grateful to talk to you. I just love to share my story because it's not really about me. It's about about God. And I I just love that his glory can and my story can can support his glory and reach towards that.
So I I just love I love Jesus. I love talking about Jesus, writing about Jesus, sharing about Jesus. So, yes, I'm thrilled to be here. Yeah. So this this came about kind of in a a unique way, back in 2016 as as I I recall from my research.
So how did this journey begin? So I've always been musical. I played the piano when I was young and I always thought when I grew up I would be a musician and I would I would do doing something with music and then when I got my patriarchal blessing it didn't talk about music at all and I was kind of shocked and so I was like, okay maybe that's not my future. And, so, I'm also really great at math and so I went to BYU and I was studying math and then started having babies and was home with my family. And, I was going through some really pretty intense postpartum depression in 2016.
I had just had my second child, a few months before that and I was kind of drowning in motherhood, you know. Between the piles of diapers and dishes and laundry, I just I just felt like I couldn't come up from air for air and, I was just kind of in a, like, a really shadowy, dark place. I didn't feel like I had much worth or much to contribute to to my, to the world or to even to my family. I just, I mean, depression does scary things to people. And, it was during this time that I accidentally wrote a song for my daughter.
Accidentally? I accidentally wrote it. I was rocking her, she was a terrible sleeper. She would wake up every 2 hours to eat around the clock until she was weaned at like 13 months old. Yeah.
And I was like rocking her back to sleep one night for probably not the first time and I heard a melody in my mind that I didn't recognize and so I paired it with some words. A melody in my mind that I didn't recognize and so I paired it with some words and I sang her this little song and the song itself wasn't important. It's not a song that I'm gonna sing for you or share with you or you know, you know, make a YouTube video of. But the way it made me feel inside was life changing. It was, it was light.
It was joy and I craved that. I mean when you're in a dark place I mean a little candle I think that the the statistic is you can see 1 candle burning in absolute darkness from, like, 30 miles away. Like, it's it's crazy. Like, without the Earth's curve, you could see it 30 miles away. And that's that's what that little song did for me was light this little tiny flame in my heart and I just wanted to feel that all the time.
And so I decided in that moment that you know what maybe music wasn't my future but I could still find joy in creating music. And so I started writing little songs for my children and I found out that writing music is actually a lot harder than I just thought it would be. I felt like writing music should be like a natural thing. I didn't realize that it took a lot of learning and a lot of practice and all of these things. I mean, I was very naive.
I just, kind of, just jumped into it and said this is gonna be my identity and, I spent several years learning everything I could and practicing and writing and getting feedback from people and and practicing, and writing, and getting feedback from people, and learning, and just, I mean, I, there was one songwriter who once told me, write a 100 songs and then write a 100 more. I mean, but, like, it was, like, a very much ongoing process and a couple of months into this I made this crazy promise with God. Like, and like it really was crazy. I look back and I'm like who who are you that you you thought you could make this promise with heavenly father? But it was a simple prayer and a simple promise and I just said, Heavenly Father, if you will send me music I will write it down and I will share it with the world.
And, I closed my prayer. It was that simple. But, it was amazing because a few days later I sat down at the piano and I just put my hands down on the keys and I just felt this melody flow through my fingers and it was just this beautiful Celtic sounding melody with a nice 6 8 and a nice little lilt and, I heard these words come with it and I, and I wrote this song and then I panicked because I was like, woah. Woah. I made this promise and now I don't I don't exactly know how to share this with the world.
And, so, I mean, that's taken a long time for me to figure out exactly what that looks like for me, but it really has been, through fully producing my music and then creating videos to go with it. And, now I think I have like 8,000,000 views on YouTube. So, I mean it's just funny how it started so small and now, I'm getting about, well, I think right now, like 30,000 views on YouTube a day. Just kind of outrageous. So, I don't know.
God is amazing. I know that I couldn't do that without him. And, I and I'm just so grateful that he's allowed me to to find so much joy through praising him. It's it's just an incredible experience. Oh, sure.
So tell me about the kind of music that you write. I am known for writing children's music. Yes. And that is and I love I mean, that is the reason I started writing music and so I love that that's kind of where I've fallen is with children's songs. I love, I love Primary.
I just, I just love singing with my kids and including my children. If you watch my YouTube videos, my kids are always in every video and and they, I think they kind of just take it for granted because this is what we do. But it's just been such a blessing for my family. Yeah. It's been so great.
Yeah. Let me just ask you then too finally. So it must be rewarding for you to to know that this is making a difference in people's lives. Tell me how rewarding it is or what kind of feedback you get. You know what?
Every message, every email, every nice on our YouTube videos or anything, it just it brings me so much, just joy and peace to know that what I'm doing and I I mean and I spend a lot of time doing it, a lot of money doing it but I'm just so grateful that it touches people and, in fact, a few, a few weeks ago I had this experience where, I was asked to sub in primary and it was just kind of didn't go. I, I, I had about 3 minutes and that's not exaggeration. And, I was just really bummed that I wasn't able to, you know, sing with the children and, you know, and I was just feeling so defeated as I walked out of my primary room. And as I was, like, walking down the hall to, like, leave the church with my little kids, the ward right after me was having their primary program. And, in the midst of, like, my total I was just, I was just so sad.
I don't know why I was so sad about it but I was just really sad. And, as I was walking out I heard the children in that ward singing one of the songs that I had written and it was like, it was like a giant hug from heaven. It was like, you know what, you're just fine. You're just fine. You're doing great things.
And so, I snuck in. I snuck in the ward and I sat right on you know how they usually put a little chair next to the door in the middle? I sat right on that chair and I grabbed my kids and I put them on my lap and I listened and cried as these little children just testified. And, it was words that I had been given that they were able to to testify with and the spirit was strong and I just sat there and cried and felt so much love. And then, I even got home and and several people texted me and said we had our primary program today.
They sang one of your songs and it was so great. And anyway, but it was just like it was just like this big hug. Yeah. Like, you're doing just fine. Yeah.
Wow. So you it's obvious you have a strong testimony that heavenly Father is there and guiding you and that Jesus Christ is a part of what you're trying to preach here too. Yeah. Great. Yep.
I have a very simple testimony. Yeah. It's a very simple testimony. There's a lot of things I don't know are true. There's a lot of things I hope are true.
There's tons of things I believe are true. But, there are several things that I know are true. And, I know that God hears our prayers. And, I know he answers our prayers. And, I know he loves us.
And, I mean, that is the core core of my testimony is is prayer. Yeah. Yeah. And love. Well, thank you so much, Angie.
We've been talking with Angie Killian, and this is Sunday Blessings. I'm Jay Hildebrand. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for listening to the Sunday Blessings podcast. If you enjoy the show, please share, subscribe, and rate the podcast.
Sunday Blessings is hosted by Jay Hildebrand, and is a production of Riverbend Media Group. For more information or to contact the show, visit riverbendmediagroup.com.