Michelle Soderberg | Sunday Blessings

Michelle Soderberg, a native of Marsh Valley, Idaho is a singer-songwriter whose album, “Daughters in His Kingdom”  about women of faith has inspired women around the world. She speaks with Jay Hildebrandt about her inspiration for the album and explains the powerful messages of the songs.

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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. Thank you for joining me today on the Sunday Blessings podcast. I'm Jay Hildebrandt. Several years ago, Marsh Valley, Idaho native, Michelle Soderbergh felt inspired to share her musical talents after reading the book, Daughters of My Kingdom, the history and work of the Relief Society.

She was so impressed by the stories of wonderful faithful strong stalwart women. She did a whole album of original music about them. We're gonna talk about that a little bit more in this podcast, but first Michelle tell us a bit about your life and background. I grew up in the Marsh Valley area, the little town of Virginia, and on a farm with my parents, John and Karen Brady, and went to Marsh Valley High School. And then after college, we my husband and I got married.

My husband and I, we moved to Utah, or we were in Utah and lived there for about twelve years. And now we live in Wisconsin. Tell me about your musical background, how you got interested in music, and what you've done musically throughout your life. My parents promoted music in all of us as children. And so we all grew up playing an instrument, especially the piano.

But then when I went to college, I decided I really wanted to pursue that, but I'd never really studied voice formally. And I decided I wanted to learn how to sing. And so I signed up for voice lessons and decided I would be a music major, not really understanding what that meant. And it was very vigorous, but I was really grateful because that's where I needed to end up. And I ended up majoring in music education.

I started at Ricks College, which is now BYUI, and then transferred to BYU and finished there. And after serving a mission, then I started teaching. I did my student teaching at Orem Junior High. And then I taught full time there for a couple of years before we had our first baby. And then I chose to stay home.

And that's what I've been doing since, is staying home with kiddos. Tell me about your religious Christian music. How you got into writing and singing that, and just about the beginning of your Daughters of the Kingdom album. That's a great question. I never felt qualified to write music.

That was not something that I studied formally at all. I did have a choral arranging class at BYU, but that's about as far as it had gone to that point. And a relief society sister had asked me to write she didn't ask me to write a song. She asked me to sing a song for a Christmas program. And I had the strangest thought that I should write one.

And I had never written a song before, and I thought, well, okay. Maybe I will. And I had the words just start to come to my mind. And over the next several weeks, I I worked on it, and I performed it at this relief society event for Christmas and thought, well, that's that. That'll be my closet hobby that I'll work on for the next few years when I have more time, when my kids are grown or something.

And very shortly after that, the book that the church produced, Daughters in My Kingdom, the history and work of Relief Society was released. And our Relief Society presidency challenged us to read it. And so I said, great. I'll read it. I started and it didn't pull me in.

And I thought, well, I committed to read it, so I'm going to. And I pressed forward. And by the time I hit the end of the book, I was so on fire with the spirit of what's in that book and the messages that are presented to us as daughters of a heavenly father that I wanted everyone to read it. But as I started to talk to my friends, they didn't even realize what the book was or always saw that book. I think I put it on my shelf.

And I really wanted people to have some sort of a connection with the messages that were in that book of being valued and of great worth and having a vital mission as women on the earth today. And I had these thoughts come to my mind. It would be so nice if there was music that went along with this book. Someone should write that. And then the thought started to come.

Well, maybe you should write it, Michelle. And I thought, no. I'm not a songwriter. I can't write music. But the thoughts kept coming.

And so I went back to the book, and I started to make notes about certain experiences in the book and how I felt about them and how they might be translated into some lyrics. And I sat down at the piano just with my staff paper and pencil, very, very crude way of just beginning to write music, and started to write. And I felt very strongly. My husband and I fasted and prayed about it and felt like this was something I needed to do. I needed to write music that would follow the messages in this book and have a way to present these messages to women to strengthen and fortify them in their faith in Jesus Christ and in their identity as daughters of heavenly father.

And so that's how this whole album was born. So Michelle, is the book just about the experiences of these women or is it trying to teach motivational principles? The book follows a lot the history women in the New Testament that we sometimes glaze over as we're reading. And we want the messages of Jesus Christ, but we forget that there are also women in his ministry that helped care for him and followed him and were teachers as well. And the book progresses from those women in the ancient church to then women in the restored church and their role in helping to establish the gospel of Jesus Christ here upon the Earth.

And so it does share many, many stories of women from the eighteen hundreds up until now. And how their faith propels them and helps them to be strong. And what the message of the book is is to take these examples of these wonderful, faithful, strong, stalwart women and translate that into what that means for us and how we can be strong and go forward with great faith just as they did. Tell me about the inspiration for the music and lyrics. How did that come to you?

With each song, it was it was a little bit different. The first song that I felt inspired to write was Daughters in His Kingdom, because I felt like that was the general overarching message of the book. And that was just a slow process, just sitting down day after day and jotting down what was in my mind and playing out melodies and writing those down. And then I went to Someone Like Me. And once I had finished that, and I had two songs, I thought, okay.

I really need to get busy here. And it was just going through the book and highlighting certain phrases and words. And then I had a little notebook where I would write down ideas. And I would sit at the piano at night after my children were in bed late into the night, and just let that inspiration flow. There is one song on the album.

By the time I had finished most of the songs, they were slated to be performed by our steak. And another stake had invited me to come and just talk about it a little bit at a luncheon. But they wanted me to present the overall message, and I realized I don't have a song for a soloist that provides the overall message. What am I gonna do? And, so within a couple of days, I wrote daughter, his daughter.

It just came. That was one the one song that just really came, and I felt like every time I listen to it even still, I know that those are heavenly father's words to his daughters and that that's a message that he wants them to receive. I am a sister, teacher, friend, and leader, builder, lifter, And I love that one because of what I just shared with you, that it did just feel like pure inspiration. As I wrote, I felt like the words were flowing through me, but not from me. And they they are my words as well in my testimony, but I know that that was from God.

So I love that one. But the first solo that's part of the presentation that I do for for women is called Someone Like Me. And I love that one because it helps to to share with women that we all have something to give. There is something that each one of us can provide, and it happens in daily, small, simple ways. That was how the Relief Society was formed, was through this simple conversation between two sisters with the desire to help build the temple and serve God in that way.

And I wanted sisters to really feel that no matter their talents, no matter their status, no matter anything, they have something to contribute. I will So I loved that one. Gosh, there's so many. Tell me about the one you sing with your children. The one with my kids that sing is Heaven Everyday.

And that one I really wanted people to feel. That one actually started out a lot differently than it ended up. I thought that it was going to be more hymn like. And once I realized it would be a great partner song between a mother and her children, then it really came together. Because I wanted listeners to understand the vital nature of the mother in the home, even though she feels inadequate most of the time.

That when she turns to God, that when we as women turn to God in our homes, we have his power to be what he needs us to be in teaching and nurturing these precious souls that he sent to us. And then the perspective of the children as well is is important. You know, that they see that their mother is faithful and that she's guiding them and that they can pray to Heavenly Father and ask for that strength as well. Father, hear my prayer. Send thy loving care.

Make our hearts a shelter from the storm. Give me patience, joy, and faith. Bring us peace and strength everyday. Please help me lead the way. Oh, that's beautiful, Michelle.

And finally, what's the main takeaway, the main message you hope that the sisters gain from listening to your music? Regardless of the different hats that we all wear, sister, teacher, friend, leader, that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, and that we testify of him. And we know that we are individually the precious daughters of our heavenly father, that he loves us individually and knows who we are. Thank you so much. We've been talking with singer songwriter Michelle Soderbergh.

I'm Jay Hildebrandt. Thanks for joining me for this Sunday Blessings podcast. 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 J Hildebrand and is a production of Riverbend Media Group.

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