In her latest project since her 2018 EP Above All Else, Tiffany Daniels-Hudson is back and pushing herself in her artistry. With her new album, Forever, Tiffany challenges the way Christians view the return of Christ, stretches herself beyond her CCM style, and tackles the topics of anxiety and depression.
Resolute Magazine: Since your last album, what have you been up to?
Tiffany Daniels-Hudson: Yes. So, I literally just released in January. I have just transitioned from my church as the worship director. So, my husband and I have been seeking out what our next steps are. But, I’ve been, you know, promoting things on playlists and things like that.
RM: What playlists? Are you using Spotify or using TIDAL?
TDH: It’s available on all digital outlets. Kind of the thing now is to submit your music to playlists on Spotify and Apple Music just so you can reach a wider audience. So I submitted some before and even after. There’s tons of playlists that my music is available on on Spotify.
RM: So, what does that submission process look like? I know people will create playlists and share them. But, for a submission process, what does that look like?
TDH: There are playlisters, [which] they call themselves, and they make Spotify playlists. You know, sometimes it could be like an acoustic playlist or a new gospel song playlist or something like that. There’s this website called “Submit Hub” where you can upload your music and then they have these different playlisters that have profiles, and they tell you about what kind of music they’re interested in–what kind of music will be available on their playlists–and some of their playlists have, like, several followers. So, it could be hundreds or thousands of followers from different countries or states. Then, you submit your music and they’ll approve it if they like it.
And, so, I got approved for a lot of different playlists. Erica Campbell shared my music which was amazing. I was, like, shocked. I woke up one morning, and she does a like support kingdom artists post– I think she does it monthly. And, I think it was the day after the release, she had me on the post. And I was like, “Oh my gosh!” like, “This is amazing!” cause I’m an indie artist in Chicago. I don’t have a huge following. So, I think she found it on a website. I’ve done a lot more promo around this project. And, so, I was able to message her and say “Thank you” and she responded. It was a huge blessing.
That’s amazing.
Yeah.
RM: So, for this album, I know in the past we’ve done a track-by-track, and sticking to that but wanting to get into more of the process around the album. What is the theme of this album?
TDH: So, the album is called Forever. It’s an EP of 6 songs. The concept behind it is that one, God never changes. [God is] always here, [God is] omnipresent. He’s available. Also, the promise and the hope that once this life is over, as believers, we get to be with [God] forever and [God] is forever. The songs on it really focus around eternity, and also some life experiences that I’ve had as well.
My great-grandmother passed away this year. So, there’s a song on their inspired by that process.
That’s pretty much the heart of it.
RM: Do you have any pre-writing or pre-recording rituals to get you focused?
TDH: This project, I actually got a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. I submitted for a grant sometime last year and I had kind of an idea of what I wanted to do, then, months later I found out that I received the grant. So it was like, “Okay, now I need to really write songs.” Like, get the album out.
I feel like every single album is different for me cause this is my fourth project. For this one, I thought of different types of songs that I would want to have on there, and throughout the process, I was inspired by different things. So, I kind of really wanted to have songs that reflected my sound as an artist and also my creativity, but then songs that had specific themes.
I feel like the process was a little all over the place. I don’t necessarily have a ritual. I’ll sit down and think. I sometimes start on the keyboard and come up with a chord progression that I want to work around. Or I’ll be sitting in the car and get a melody. It’s so different every time.
RM: You brought up your sound and making sure that came through. How would you describe your sound?
TDH: I would say that my sound is a good blend of CCM (Contemporary Christian Music), Pop, and Gospel. I’m not a runner by any means, but I am a powerful vocalist and I also appreciate ambient pads and sounds like that. I grew up in a COGIC church, Pentecostal, so I love gospel.
It’s kind of a blend of all of those things.
The church that I attended for the past 16 years was really diverse. And, growing up my dad introduced me to a lot of artists [like] Chris Tomlin and Paul Beloche. But then I was also listening to Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary. And then in high school, I went through this phase of “Oh, I love the Jonas Brothers and The Backstreet Boys.”
I feel like all of that is intertwined in my music. There’s gospel songs on there, there’s a pop song. And then you got your more acoustic worship-like songs on there too.
Photo taken by JMae Photography.
RM: If there was a song that was difficult to write, which one was it?
TDH: It’s actually the first track on the album. It’s called “Jesus Reigns.” And I had all the other songs done and written. The last one was the most difficult because I had come up with a chord progression that I really wanted to incorporate and I wrote a song right before that was actually called “Forever” and it was gonna be the title track, but I wasn’t happy with it.
It was a slow song, it was kind of a ballad, and I felt like the album really needed an upbeat-high energy song. So, I spent days just tryna come up with ideas. My husband came in the house and he’s like “This sounds like house music.” It was just a mess! And, so, I was just tryna figure it out and eventually started lyrics to it and it just started coming out.
We had a studio session scheduled with the background singers on this song, and I wasn’t happy with the bridge. Usually, the way I work is I’ll either play piano or have a friend play guitar, and I’ll record a rough demo and send it to the producer to come up with the music for it. So, this one I had the track, I had the music, I had come up with the melody and everything, and the day before rehearsal I wanted to change the bridge. It was so long. It had so many words [and] it didn’t really fit. And, so, I was sitting up at night like, “Okay, what am I going to do? How am I going to change this?” And, eventually, the words came. It fit with the music that the producer sent me and, like, I was so happy with the change.
“Jesus Reigns” was the hardest song to write, but it’s also the song that has the most streams. So, I was like, “Thank you, God!” Cause this was, like, really difficult. And I really love it now that it’s all finished.
RM: On the flip side, which song was the one where everything just seemed to come together for it?
TDH: Yeah, so, this EP has 6 songs on it and I released 2 of the songs in 2021. I re-released them as part of the full project. The easiest song to write, I think there’s maybe 2, but I’m going to say the song, “Here.”
I was at a worship night. And most times, normally, I would be singing at the worship night with a group of friends. This particular night I was sitting in the audience, and my friend Gabe there’s a time through the night where he pauses the set and says, like, we’re going to have a time of journaling or prayer. And he plays electric guitar so he would like loop a certain chord progression, or a certain melody. While that was playing, I began to write the chorus of the song. So, after that, I went home and the verses just kind of naturally came out. It was really simple, and really easy, and I felt like it all came together very quickly and it wasn’t a struggle to write at all.
Wow, that’s amazing.
Yeah.
RM: How would you say that you’ve grown since? Not since this album came out, but the previous one before this?
TDH: Definitely a lot more confidence. I think that this album… so, kind of two things happened. One, I became a worship director at a pretty big church and I think that challenged me in a lot of ways. In leadership. In confidence. In musical ability. In addition to that, I think that the older you get and the more you do stuff, the more sure of yourself you are.
I struggled with insecurity for a long time. Especially, as a child. I dealt with bullying and stuff. But music had always been my thing where I felt like “This is my thing.” So, I feel like this album I was able to just… I know myself as a singer. I know myself as a writer. God is just so clear about just being authentically me. But, two, the process of creating an album is so much. You have to work with musicians and producers, and the people that are gonna mix and engineer.
So, this album, because I had done things in the past I knew exactly what I wanted. And I had complete creative control over things. Whereas some of the other albums that I worked on I didn’t have as much control or I was a little more timid about what I wanted. So, this one I was like, “I’m going to work with this person,” and “I’m going to work with that person,” and “This is the sound I wanna hear.” And, so, I think it definitely, when you listen to it in comparison to other projects that I’ve put out, you can hear the difference in confidence and in certainty, and who I am and what kind of sound I’m going for. But, also, the journey of it. From beginning to end, it takes you on this journey of eternity.
RM: That’s awesome. What skills have you since learned that helped you to get to this album?
TDH: (contemplating) I think I’ve learned placement in music. So, what’s a good part to sing really high or to really push things out the way you want them? I’ve learned how to listen more intently to mixes and things that I wanna hear.
I think I’ve just… this album I’ve been able to really figure out who is my team of people that I think I wanna work with. I’m still figuring out things in terms of, like, live what my band is gonna look like. But, I think in terms of like producers and mixing engineers– these are the people that I really enjoy working with and these are the people that get me. And realizing that when you’re building even a track, there’s so many elements to it and you just kind of know what you want. So, my thing is a lot of my music is more CCM, but I know I want a gospel drummer on almost every song because it brings a different element to things. Or, not every song has to have background vocals where you have 3 singers. You can have 2 songs where you have that and then the other songs I can do my own vocals.
Learning how to build songs from the bottom up and learning what the needs are for each kind of song. I think I just got creative and had a lot of fun with stuff this time.
Photo taken by JMae Photography
RM: What do you hope the audience gets from this album?
TDH: I hope that people listening to it, one, can just be inspired that life is hard, we go through stuff. Sometimes it’s like, “Man, is there all there is to it?” But, the fact that we get to spend our eternity with God and it’s gonna be constant rejoicing. There’s gonna be no pain. There’s gonna be no sorrow. There’s gonna be this eternal hope that we just have.
I hope that they can get that out of each song. That, like, you might be struggling now in life. You might be going through stuff, you might be having a difficult time. This is not all there is to it and there’s a hope for you. I hope that people can enjoy the sound of each song and the journey that it takes them on–from start to finish. And I hope that it will continue to reach a diverse crowd cause part of my calling that I feel that God has given me is to be a bridge to multiple races of people and people from all different backgrounds. So, I hope that both Christians and non-Christians can listen to it and be inspired.
RM: Let’s go through each track.
TDH: The first song is called “Jesus Reigns.” We talked about the background of that a little. It’s meant to be this opening song that’s just majestic. It has power vocals behind it.
I watched a documentary. It’s a Hillsong documentary. The one they put out about their album, it’s called Awake My Soul. One thing that their worship leader, Brooke, said on there was that they needed a song that clearly presented the gospel to people. That’s something that they thought about when they were creating a project– we need a song that talks about the gospel.
And, so, that’s what “Jesus Reigns” is on this album. The words “Come and listen to the story I’ll tell of how he saved my soul from the gates of Hell.” “Jesus Reigns” is the song that if you’re an unbeliever, you know who Jesus is. You’re able to hear what the message is. And if you’re a believer, it reminds you of your story of redemption.
RM: Okay.
TDH: That’s number one. Number two… Oh my gosh, I need to look up (laughing)...
(laughing)
The order of my album. I should be ashamed (laughing)
(laughing) It’s all good. It’s all good.
TDH: Alright. Number two is a song called “Get Ready.” Anytime I hear a song about the coming of Christ. It’s always, like, super deep and super sad. You know (singing) “People get ready!”
(laughing)
TDH: And I just, you know, this is too much! The coming of Christ is a celebration and we should be excited about it. “Get Ready” is a pop song. And the chorus is “Get ready! Get ready! Oh, He is coming for us.”
I just wanted to create a fun song about the coming of Christ that people could bob their heads to in the car and get excited about it. It’s an anthem that people could really sing. Because I just always felt like songs based around Revelation or songs based around the coming of Christ were really intense.
Yeah.
TDH: And it’s just, like, this is too much. Let’s get excited about it. So “Get Ready” is meant to be an encouraging song that you can get excited about.
RM: And, then, “He Is Lord?”
TDH: This is a song that’s based off of my great-grandmother’s passing. She passed away this summer and it was hard. That was the first time that I kind of saw the process of death. Literally, the day before she was talking. I talked to her and sang to her, but she was slowly declining. And that next day that I saw her is when she started checking out. She couldn’t talk and her eyes were closing. She wasn’t too responsive. And it was really hard to watch that. I just started thinking about, “Man, I wonder what she could be thinking right now. I wonder, like, is she seeing Jesus right now? Is she gonna see him as soon as she passes away?” And I just began to think about, like: We live this life. We’re here for so long. We have our families. We have our friends. We go through different [things]. And, when it’s time for us to leave– that’s it.
It was hard to watch her slowly pass, but… she didn’t have to be in pain anymore. That’s one thing, my grandmother had a lot of health ailments and things. And she would always talk about the pain that she was experiencing… she doesn’t have to experience that now.
So that song was inspired by “Soon and very soon, we will see the King.” It was inspired by the process of seeing her slowly leave the Earth. I began to read about life after death and what happens from a Christian perspective. I also thought about, I wanted a song that paid homage to our heritage as African Americans.
That song is probably my favorite on the album. My friend Jeremiah Miller is on that one. He sings the first verse and we duet it.
RM: For “Here?”
TDH: “Here” is the one that I mentioned earlier that my friend, Gabe Lopez, was coming up with the riff on the guitar. It’s just kind of meant to be like a prayer song, or a song that God is speaking to us. Saying “When you’re lonely, that’s what I’m here for. Doubting, that’s wht I’m here for.”
In every season of your life, He’s available to you. It’s an acoustic song and actually Gabe, he’s on the guitar, his artist name is A Suddden Branch for Safety, and he’s featured on this song as well.
RM: What about “Enough?”
TDH: “Enough” was a song about… [it came from] a season in my life where I was struggling with feeling satisfied just with God alone. Trying to satisfy myself with, you know, buying stuff. Or, trying to satisfy myself with spending time doing whatever. And it was just like, “No, like, God is actually enough for you.”
Sometimes I think as Christians we go to church, we sing these songs, but in the moment we might not actually believe what we’re singing. We might have to sing the song until we believe the words of it. “Enough” was that song for me. God you are enough for me. I need to sing this until I actually believe that you are enough…
And I did a music video for that one where I’m in this empty room and I’m writing things on post-it notes of, like, distractions. Some of those things were personal for me. Some of those things were things that I think others are distracted by. And at the end of the video, I’m taking things off the wall and the only thing you see remaining is God.
It’s the concept that we don’t have to rely on other things to satisfy us. God is enough.
RM: The final song, “Okay?”
TDH: “Okay” is about my struggle with anxiety and depression. I had a show in July. I opened up for a couple of artists. It had kind of been a long time since I had a performance outside of church. I was feeling really nervous about it because one of the musicians came late and we hadn’t practiced, and we were supposed to have had all this time. It was just supposed to be this small set, an acoustic kind of thing, so I wasn’t too worried about it, but I was really nervous. And it was kind of a different setting for me.I actually do better–the more people there are in a room, I feel more confident. The less people, like if it’s an intimate setting, I’m actually more nervous. So, it was a little more intimate and I did my songs, and it went fine.
It wasn’t bad at all, but we’re our worst critics. So, in my mind I was just having all these thoughts. And I was like “You know, what am I doing? Am I an artist? Am I a worship leader? How do you combine the two?”
I was going through all this stuff. And I had my table, I set up my table with my merch, and some people donated to me that day. This one couple, I hadn’t met them before, and they gave $200 toward my project. And I was so thankful, but I remember leaving that night just feeling insecure as an artist and feeling like “What am I doing? What’s going on?”
So, I went to my best friend’s house… I just talked to her about how I was feeling. I talked to her and she was like “Hey Tiff, I think you should write about how you’re feeling.” And that night I went home and I wrote most of “Okay.”
It’s a totally different vibe for me. My husband is an R&B artist, so that’s his thing. I sat at the piano and began writing this slow song that’s super honest and the first line is “Sometimes I wonder what they think of me. I begin to question who I’m meant to be. Am I called to this life of artistry? Or am I called just to be your masterpiece?” And it ends with just the words “It’s gonna be okay. It is gonna be okay.” on repeat.
The song is a singer-songwriter kind of vibe. It has some R&B influence on it. It’s really ambient and mostly just piano. And I was inspired by my husband with some of the harmonies and things like that. But, it’s just an honest song. And the first time I got the master back, I played it for one of my co-workers and she just started crying on the spot. She was like, “Tiffany, I think that this could be a song for people who are Christian and people who aren’t because a lot of people are struggling with stuff.” And, so, I feel like that song got put on a playlist for a radio station and it’s a non-Christian station. I was super excited about that because I wanted my music not just to reach Christians. A lot of people struggle with anxiety and depression.
I still listen when I’m going through something. Just as an encouragement for me.
Photo taken by JMae Photography
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Photos by JMae Photography
Writer Bio:
Shonette Reed is the founder and editor of Resolute Magazine. The South Central LA native enjoys cooking, exploring, and reading a good book when she's not working.