At Benedictine College, the aspect of praise and worship music and the Catholic faith play a huge role in the school’s culture. Many students have been inspired by this and have used their talents in life like music-making or starting a podcast series to achieve a similar goal.
Grace Murphy, a senior at Benedictine College, has done that through writing her own Catholic praise and worship music. She has released a full-length album as well as some single songs.
On April 26, I had the opportunity to talk to her about her songwriting and latest album.
Murphy felt called to make praise and worship music because it felt natural. Murphy has been writing songs for five years but started playing guitar seven years ago.
When asked about this, Murphy said, “It’s kind of what I knew and I love and its all inspired by God and is very natural.”
Most musicians have musical artists they look up to for song inspiration. These people are usually people not in the same genre as the artists that they like, but they had an impact on the person.
In relation to musical inspiration, Murphy said, “I love Abbie Gamboa and Chris Renzema, John Mark Pantana.”
These three artists are all musicians who also make similar music and continue to make music that inspires many people to grow in their faith.
When it came to making songs and looking over her latest album, she realized she had to make some artistic style changes for some of the songs. But one of them really stuck out which was the opening song on the album.
In relation to changing artistic style, Murphy said, “‘Pilgrim Heart’ because it’s the most real song I’ve written and the writing process challenged me a lot. It was the first time I’ve changed my style, and it became a new thing.”
Grace loves making music that inspires people to grow in faith and hopes to continue with music.
Along with Grace, there have been many other students in the Benedictine College community that are currently using their talents to grow in relationship with peers but most of all God and their faith.
In terms of how long she wants to make music, Murphy said, “I’m not sure about after college, but I hope to continue to be making music.”
Murphy’s album contains the following songs:
- Pilgrim Heart
- Return
- In the Middle
- Repair
- Come
- Psalm 84
- The Stars
Her full-length album “Infinite Ache” is available everywhere you get your music.
