Our evening at Woodley Baptist Church was a wonderful occasion, and we received an incredibly warm welcome from everyone there. We performed in The Venue, a beautifully intimate space with the relaxed atmosphere of a coffee shop, which was well attended and created the perfect setting for an evening of music, worship, and storytelling.
I was joined by Tim on keyboard, Martin on percussion, and David on fretless bass. Although we had only rehearsed together over four Tuesday evenings, it felt as though we had been playing as a band for much longer. Tim’s beautifully crafted piano arrangements complemented the songs perfectly, David added rich, ethereal textures on fretless bass, and Martin brought colour and rhythm with a variety of percussion instruments, including cajón, bongos, shakers, and chimes. Together, they helped create a musical backdrop that was both sensitive and expressive.
The set featured songs spanning all three albums. From Within the Silence, we performed favourites including In Denialand Louder Than the Thunder, with their smooth indie-folk sound. From Bricks and Mortar came Hiding Place and One True Vine, while the more recent album Everyone Who Calls was represented by the title track and From the Dust, both reflecting the album’s gentle, atmospheric indie-folk style.
The original songs were interwoven with familiar worship songs, including Be Thou My Vision, Holy Forever, and Goodness of God. These moments invited everyone present not only to listen but also to join together in worship, creating a natural blend of concert and worship gathering.
Throughout the evening, I also shared some of the story behind the music. I reflected on how my musical journey began in a group led by my church minister and his wife, how songwriting became a place of refuge and expression during my teenage years, and how those early experiences eventually led to writing songs of faith. During the COVID lockdowns, I began recording music for our church’s online services, learning the skills of home recording along the way. That unexpected season opened the door to producing my own albums, with invaluable support from talented friends and fellow musicians.
Looking back, it was a truly special evening of music, worship, and fellowship. It was a joy to share these songs in such a welcoming environment, and we are grateful to everyone at Woodley Baptist Church for their generous hospitality and enthusiastic support.
It’s hard to believe that four years have passed since I released my first album. What began as a simple lockdown project has grown into a journey that has exceeded anything I could have imagined.
Since that first release, I’ve had the privilege of recording two more studio albums each reflecting different seasons of faith and worship. Along the way, I was honoured to be shortlisted for a Christian music award, and my music has been featured in the UK Christian music charts.
One of the greatest joys has been founding the Ambient Worship Collective, creating a space for reflective worship music that encourages people to encounter God’s presence. I’ve also had the opportunity to collaborate with a Christian artist in the United States, expanding the reach of this ministry beyond the UK.
Other memorable milestones have included being interviewed on UCB Radio and registering my songs with CCLI, making them available for churches around the world to use in worship.
Perhaps what surprises me most is that all of this has taken place while continuing to teach full-time. Balancing the demands of teaching with songwriting, recording, and leading worship hasn’t always been easy, but God’s faithfulness has been evident every step of the way.
Looking back, I’m deeply grateful—to everyone who has listened to my music, attended events, shared songs, prayed, encouraged me, and supported this ministry. Every stream, every message, every conversation, and every opportunity has been a reminder that God can use ordinary people who simply make themselves available.
As I look ahead, my prayer remains the same as it was four years ago: to write songs that glorify Jesus, encourage His Church, and create space for people to encounter Him through worship.
Thank you for being part of this journey. I’m excited to see what God has in store for the years ahead.
I’m super excited to have been invited to Woodley Baptist Church in June to perform some of my music and the stories behind my songwriting.
This evening will be a chilled and intimate mix of live performance, testimony and worship – an opportunity to open up the process behind my songwriting. I’ll be talking about my journey of faith, the themes that shape my music and the ways in which my personal faith journey has inspired my creativity.
It’s always a privilege to share my songwriting and see how my music and worship in general connects with people. I’m especially grateful for the invitation from Woodley Baptist Church and for the chance to share both my music and the journey behind it.
This past year has been an incredibly busy and rewarding season in my music journey. At the beginning of 2024, I set myself the ambitious challenge of writing and recording one song every month. I’m thrilled to share that I successfully completed this challenge, wrapping up my final song in December. The first couple of weeks of January have been spent putting the finishing touches on the recordings, and I’ve just sent everything over to my producer for mixing and mastering.
Next month, during the half-term break, I’ll be heading over to my producer’s studio in Aylesbury to finalise the album. I’m aiming for an Easter release, so the next few months will be all about planning the launch. It’s such an exciting time, and I can’t wait to share these songs with you!
In addition to this project, I’ve been working on a collaborative instrumental project with a Christian music producer in America. This has been under a separate label, the Ambient Worship Collective, and it’s been such a fulfilling experience to create music in a totally different style.
A definite highlight of the year was being nominated for a Christian music award in the Electronic Dance category at the AStepFwd Awards. Attending the red-carpet event was an unforgettable experience, giving me the chance to connect with other Christian artists and celebrate some amazing achievements in the industry.
Looking ahead, my next step will be to release the album online and organise a launch event. I’m still deciding on the album title and artwork, so there’s plenty to do in the coming weeks. But I’m excited to bring this project to life and share it with all of you soon.
Thank you for your continued support on this journey—2024 has been incredible, and I’m looking forward to what 2025 will bring! Stay tuned for updates as the album release gets closer.
I’m thrilled to share that my song “Freedom in Your Love” has been shortlisted for the StepFWD Song of the Year 2024 in the Electronic/Dance category! StepFWD is the Christian version of the Brits, celebrating the best of Christian music across the UK.
To vote for your favourite Christian artists, including Freedom in Your Love, head over to stepfwdawards.com/vote to vote for your favourite artists!
There are so many talented artists nominated across a variety of categories like Contemporary Worship, Rap, Pop, Indie, and more. The awards will take place on 23rd November 2024. Thank you for your continued support!
On New Year’s Eve, I made a commitment to write and record one song a month throughout 2024 with the aim of dropping another album at the beginning of 2025. Typically, an album consists of 12 tracks, so this time frame made sense – especially as I needed to set myself a target that I could realistically work towards whilst managing my family, work and church life. As every teacher knows, managing a life outside of the classroom is not easy!
With 6 songs in the bag, one ready to go (July) and 1 week to go to write a song before the end of August, I am veering off course a little. I thought I would have heaps of time during the summer holidays to write; however, the holidays seem to have dissipated with the summer heat.
One of the challenges I have encountered is managing all the extra admin that goes alongside writing music, such as: releasing tracks along the way, marketing, advertising, keeping social media up to date, producing lyric videos etc. I was also thrown an unexpected curved ball last week when my music and personal Facebook accounts were disabled as they had been linked to an unauthorised account (It appears I had been hacked). Trying to resolve this issue has been excruciatingly problematic as there is absolutely no way of getting in contact with anyone from Meta… unless you pay! I spent the best part of the day online to find out how to get support. The best advice I found (it seems that there are are heaps of people who have been in the same situation) was to pay a £9.99 monthly subscription fee to get a verified blue tick on my music instagram account in order to access the Meta support team. So, I am now sporting a blue tick on my Instagram account and have had some fairly lukewarm, almost robotic, communication with Meta Support, who have apparently escalated a review of my accounts … that was last Thursday. One week later, I still do not have access to my Facebook accounts! This is a huge problem on so many levels. Firstly, I will be releasing ‘Extravagant Dimensions’ on Friday 13th September, so am unable to use this platform to advertise my music. Fortunately, I don’t rely on my account for income and I don’t have heaps of followers, so it is a small inconvenience in the grand scheme of things; however, my personal account is a different matter entirely. It has made me realise just how much I rely on social media to keep me connected with friends and family. If this account is taken down permanently, which is a real possibility, I will lose years of memories and there are a lot of friends that I will struggle to re-connect with. It also appears that I may be unable to create another Facebook account as I have apparently ‘violated the community standards on account integrity and authentic identity’. I actually feel like some kind of detestable con artist who has scammed a whole bunch of vulnerable members of the community. It doesn’t sit well with me and I feel as though I am at the mercy of an organisation who have the power to wipe out an entire existence in seconds. It feels like some kind of Spiritual attack, so I am desperately praying for a breakthrough.
Aside from this particular low point, there have been a number of high points. I am currently working on a collaborative instrumental worship project with a Christian marketing manager and recording artist in America. One of my other passions, aside from contemporary vocal worship, is more ambient instrumental worship that combines piano pieces with soft textures and interesting soundscapes. I find this particular music can support quiet reflection, Bible study and prayer. It also helps declutter our minds in order to make space to encounter Jesus. So, between us, we have collaborated on a collection of music, which we will be releasing under our respective music labels. It has been a real pleasure to meet with him via Zoom in order to discuss album design and marketing strategies etc. It is amazing how modern technology can be used to bring two worlds together. Despite my frustration with the destructive power of social media, the internet can be used to create as well as share the love and word of God. It was great to get an insight into his life and hear his testimony, which is truly remarkable. It was also great to pray together and meet his wife and children briefly. As we work on this project, I am reminded of Romans 8:28 ‘and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose‘. I firmly believe that God has connected us to share the Gospel and enable people to meet with Jesus through the gift of music.
As part of this project, I am currently writing a collection of ambient instrumental worship music based on Genesis 1, which evokes 12 aspects of The Creation story. I will be releasing the first track ‘Shaping the Void’ on Friday 30th August under a different label: Ambient Worship Collective. You can follow my progress on Instagram and Youtube:
Since I set my self a New Year target to write and record one song a month during 2024, I now have half of the songs for my next album ready to go!
Two weeks into the summer holiday, I caught up with Phillip at Appletree Studio, which is in the heart of the rural Aylesbury countryside, to work on the finished tracks.
Once again, I am in awe of his attention to detail with the arrangement and absolutely love the way he has added drum, bass and lead guitar to lift the tracks to another level. As all the songs have been written from a place of worship, in order to glorify God, it is important for me that the person who is producing the music captures the vision. As a Christian producer, Phillip totally gets both my musical style and the message I’m wanting to convey; his production has completely honoured this!
Two tracks stood out in particular for me: ‘Everyone who Calls’ and ‘From the Dust’. I wanted both tracks to capture a slightly chilled ethereal feel at the start, but to build dynamically to enhance the powerful lyrical statement in the middle eight. Phillip blended instruments and vocal harmonies well in order to achieve my vision.
So, what happens next …? Well, the plan is to drop a couple of singles before the album is released in the New Year. I also need to finish the remaining six songs by December, so that I can work on the final tracks during the Christmas holidays. I am spending the summer holidays writing and recording as well as taking a couple of weeks off to have a holiday!
Watch out for another post in the next few weeks when I will be announcing the release of my next single!
Since releasing Bricks and Mortar in October, and launching the album in November, I’ve been super busy balancing my work, family, church and song-writing life. I’m not sure how I manage to fit it all in, but the more I give, the more I seem to receive.
On New Year’s Eve, I set myself a target of writing one song a month. So far, I am on track …
January began with an instrumental track – Liminality. This was inspired by my love of Christina Rossetti’s poetry, which I had been teaching to my A Level students. Some of her poems deal with the theme of Liminality (the in between world). Many of Rossetti’s poems are deeply religious and she often reflects on liminal spaces, such as the space between night and day (twilight) as well as life and death. Liminal simply means ‘threshold’ – the part of the door that you need to step over to enter another space. This got me thinking about the liminal spaces that we often experience in our walk with Christ. One of the most powerful liminal spaces is when we meet with God in the thin place, which is a Celtic Christian term to describe the narrow space between earth and eternity. When we spend time in the presence of God through prayer and worship, we enter these liminal spaces where heaven breaks through. My track ‘Liminality’ reflects this deeply Spiritual place with its piano melody underpinned by layers of textured ethereal pads.
February, March and April’s songs are full-on vocal tracks, which are ready to go to Phillip, my producer, who will work his magic. I’m hoping to drop a couple of tracks in the summer with a full studio album early in the New Year … if all goes to plan!
Emma Noonan Music 