by Matt Conner
Skye Peterson was in search of an adventure.
As a songwriter born to a songwriter and a family steeped in multiple artistic expressions and encouragement, Skye tapped into the wisdom of the trade rather quickly in her own journey. Near the top of the list was the emphasis on experience over education, at least when it came to songcraft. The songs would flow from there.
All The Difference (2024) is the resulting recording, a body of work informed by an overseas adventure of living in a castle, immersing herself in the Scriptures, and committing herself to a community near Carnforth, England. Skye’s newest set of songs asks tough questions while dodging easy answers and wrestles with the faith she’s been handed. Just as in her previous work, Skye’s compositions feel like beautiful, honest companions for the sojourner committed to an authentic journey. We recently sat down with her to hear more about the experiences behind the album, the value of vulnerability, and the artists she’s into most these days.
Matt Conner: Growing up in such a musical family and with friends and neighbors so much a part of the industry in Nashville, was it always clear you’d want to make music of your own? Did you ever kick against that idea?
Skye Peterson: I knew that I've always loved writing songs and I've always loved to share them. I knew that would never stop happening regardless of whether or not it was my career path.
I have always written to process and to pray—for other people, for my sake, and also for God. So there are lots of different reasons I would write. Over the course of the last couple of years of actually doing it for my job, I've seen these other kinds of motivations sneak in there—approval or attention or money.
As a kid growing up, it was almost this selfish thing. Something bad or good has happened to me, so I'm going to sit down at the piano and write a song about it.
I do think being surrounded by songwriters and musicians allowed it to never be a question in my mind that it was possible to follow it as my actual career path. Which is cool, because anywhere else in the world, I don't think it's a given that you could do it for work.
I went to Bible school in England. I didn't go to music school on purpose, because the songwriters I loved most in the world didn't go to music school. They just wrote a bunch of songs and experienced a lot of life and wrote about that and got better the more they did it. That was the advice that was given to me by my dad and several others. They all said, ‘Don’t go learn how to write a song in a class. Go and experience some life, live somewhere else, and do a hard thing. Then that will be your teacher. It’ll teach you how to write songs.’ Also, it was a Bible school, so of course you’re hearing all sorts of Bible stories and having lots of really good yet hard conversations. You're meeting Jesus all over again and in all sorts of new and surprising ways. That’s a lot of material to work with.
MC: By the way, where was the Bible school?
SP: It was called Capernwray Hall and it was in Northwest England, kind of in the middle of nowhere.
MC: That experience, that's still pretty recent for you. What did you expect that to do for you in advance and how much of that was true on the other side?
SP: I expected to leave with more answers about God and how God works, and I think I left with more questions. Part of their philosophy, I think, is that they don't want to give you the answers. They want to teach you how to ask questions and how to actually think about things, instead of just teaching you the information. So that was surprising.
I left with a clear understanding that I was loved, and also a bigger understanding of how broken I was. Both of those things got bigger simultaneously.
You also read through the whole Bible while you're there, and there are only 60 students who are all in your same kind of life stage. Everyone's asking the same questions. It was so healthy for me to be able to actually ask those things and to learn how to have grace for myself and be brave enough to accept that God is a mystery, and maybe mystery is good for us. Maybe not knowing means there's more room for faith and trust and belief rather than certainty, knowledge, and assurance.
MC: It feels like all those themes are wound through these songs. Does that make this set of songs like the proper unpacking of that whole year?
SP: I think that year influenced a lot of these songs for sure. The album centers around God's consistency and God's kindness. One of the things I wrestled with over that year and the years following was the idea that God is either irrelevant to the world or unkind to the world and the people in it—and I didn't like either of those options.
God's been slowly proving me wrong since I knew how to articulate those fears of mine. The album follows a steady theme of his consistency—that whenever I mess up or I don't understand, it doesn't mean that he's not here or close or kind.
I had these big expectations of what God speaking to me would be like. We hear lots of those big stories—a burning bush, a pillar of fire, these very obvious, in-your-face, hard-to-ignore things. To be honest, most of the moments I feel God speaking to me have been as small as a daffodil in my front yard or a kiss on the cheek from my husband. These small, ordinary things I now attribute to God’s kindness rather than coincidence. And they're actually not small at all. Daffodils—time after time, year after year—keep coming up again and getting bigger and better and more beautiful. They’re these literal little miracles that come out of the ground. It doesn't make any sense, and that's why it's so good. So a lot of the album is about learning how to see him, how to view ordinary things as not ordinary.
MC: There's a real willingness in these songs to frame yourself in a lesser way— you’re not the hero at all. It’s documenting a humble moment or admitting what you need to unlearn. Is there any way that you're uncomfortable with putting yourself out there for public consumption? Do you ever think about the way you’re framed in these things?
SP: My dad always said, “If you're the hero of your own story, you're telling it wrong.” And that voice has been in my head for a long time, telling me how to be honest in my music and not in an uncomfortable way. This album might be that.
What’s been on my mind a lot lately is how it's easy for Christian artists to be dishonest. Whenever you're a songwriter, you can sum up the three-and-a-half best versions of everything you've gone through and put it to beautiful music. You're not singing about the whole time. And so I've wanted to paint the whole picture of what my faith experience has been like, which doesn't have to be like everyone else's.
The scariest song for me to put on that record was the song called “Calling You My Lord.” I mean, the first verse is, “I'm positive I need you / I'm pretty sure I want you / but I don't know if I can really say I trust you.” That’s just like straight-up scary to admit. Yet whenever I played that song live, I've seen a lot of people nodding along.
MC: Are you surprised when that happens?
SP: Yes, I am. It's easy to feel alone when you're doubting. I just don't think that's the case. I think it's easy to put on a brave Christian face and I think that can be good to do sometimes—to put your body in a posture like, “No, I'm going to believe this, even though deep down I have a hard time believing this. I'm going to say out loud that I believe this.” My goal is to lead these thoughts somewhere else.
Ultimately, I hope that these songs point back to the cross, to what Christ has done and how he's redeemed those questions, and how he actually is the answer to every question I have. So that song kind of admits that I have a hard time believing in him and then it ends with, “But I'm still here and I'm still calling you my Lord and I'm not going anywhere.” I'm staying here.
Regardless of all of my doubts over the years, there’s been the steady heartbeat of God's love that has been impossible to ignore. It's like my lifeline; it keeps me going and I don't know why.
Why do I keep writing songs about him if I don't love him, if I don't really mean it? Do I really mean it? I think I do, because I keep writing songs about it.
MC: What does the cutting room floor look like on this? Were there a lot of songs to choose from for this or do you pick a few and then really hone in on them?
SP: I pick a few and hone in on them. This album was kind of slow to make because I wanted to choose the right songs. I waited until I wrote the next right song to record it. So the songs are probably written within like eight or nine months. We'd record them one at a time after I had written them, so there aren’t a lot of unfinished ideas lying around.
MC: What do you want people to take away from listening to this album?
SP: I want people to take away that God loves to give us gifts and that God is a lot more generous in his gift-giving than I think we often give him credit for. And so I hope that not only is this record one of those gifts from God, but I also hope that it will help them see that God is everywhere, regardless of whether or not we see it. I think that God's gifts are still given even if they aren't received at the moment.
MC: We talk a lot about lyrics and themes and things like that when we're talking with artists in the Rabbit Room, but can you take me through some musical touchpoints for you?
SP: I love Anais Mitchell. She's like my songwriting hero.
MC: So have you seen Hadestown?
SP: I have. It’s really good. Well, sad but good. So Anais Mitchell is huge. I like Phoebe Bridgers, but I also love Sandra McCracken and Sara Groves and Jess Ray and Taylor Leonhardt. Those kinds of Christian artists I think are really great and are more in line with what I love to actually write. Listening-wise, I mainly listen to Anais Mitchell and Jon Foreman lately.
MC: Anything else that you would want people to know about the album?
SP: I would love to say Asher Peterson recorded or produced the record. He was a big part of choosing the songs and bringing them all to life. Also, Ben Shive produced a song and my friend Jon Guerra produced a song too. I would love people to know that it wasn't just me. It's a team effort.
Listen to All The Difference
Skye Peterson is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville, TN. All The Difference (2024) is her second full length album. Her new project “Fielder,” a duo with fellow sing-songwriter Addison Agen, is putting out its first single later this year.
Matt Conner is a former pastor and church planter turned writer and editor. He’s the founder of Analogue Media and lives in Indianapolis. You can hear more from Matt on The Deepest Cut podcast and The Resistance.