JAMIE MACDONALD INTERVIEW

Around the age of 10, or so, my mother remarried, and we changed schools and cities and moved into our new stepdad’s house which was a great amount of stability for our family but was really tough for us kids (Jamie has two brothers).  He really loved my mom but didn’t want us, and so the first rule he made for me was no singing in the house. That was when I really started loving music and learning to express myself through music. It was like a bit of an escape for me, in a way, from the experience and the trauma I had from the years of being in an unstable family. For that to be taken away in the home was just really confusing for me. I started to get some anger issues as a young girl. I got into some self-harm, and I started doing poorly in my classes at school. I really felt like nobody cared so why should I care if no one else cared about me? Around that same time I got invited to a church camp (at 12). The Counselors where so nice to me and they let me know that God loved me and had a plan for my life. That was one of my warmest memories from my childhood is those counselors loved on me and prayed for me.  At that time, I gave my life to Jesus.

TURNING POINT WHERE JAMIE BEGINS TO LEAVE HER PAST BEHIND

BTM: Do you remember the exact moment you felt your prayers were being answered and and you left your past behind?

JM: When I got back from camp it was like I fell right back off the deep end. Back in the same home things were really hard. My stepdad was an alcoholic, and he had OCD.  He and I just could not get along. I was kicked out of the house and ended up going to a group home. Coming back for a time after spending a little while in the group home, I ended up getting kicked out again. I dropped out of high school and spent about five years on drugs and alcohol and being around drug dealers. I was really hitting one of my lowest points in my life. Then, around the age of 21, I had an encounter with Jesus again. I would be at a party, pretty much always at our house, because everyone was coming around for drugs and people would be passed out. I looked around and I would hear a voice of the Lord saying, “Jamie this is not the end of your story, and this is not where you belong, and I still have a plan for your life”.  I started listening to that voice, journaling, and talking to God more. I really didn’t have a way out of that lifestyle at the time, so when I left there, I ended up at a rescue mission shelter. From there, I just started to rebuild my life, I was baptized and moved in with a fellow Christian friend and we started attending church together. I got into mission work and just spent a lot of years behind the scenes really just learning about God and healing on the inside from my broken past.

 

RECONNECTING WITH HER MOTHER

JM: During the time I was trying to get out of the house I was in with the drugs and everything, my mom and I reconnected. We hadn’t talked in a few years or very rarely talked. She was going through her own journey. My past stepdad committed suicide, so she really took a dive and went though some dark times. When we reconnected, it was like we both had the Lord and that drew us both back into our relationship with Him. Around the same time, my mom was attending a church in Flint, MI and she reached out to say I should come by the church as it changed her life. I never really knew my mom to be a woman of faith but could tell this was real and I showed up to church, and that was where the door opened for me to go to Africa through the church. The Worship Leader is someone she knew when she was younger, and their families had been friends and had attended church together a long time ago. They ended up getting married and we all sang on the Worship Team together at that church. I went and spent a month in Africa then when I came back, I joined the Worship Team. The house was filled with music, which is a sense of a full circle God thing!

 

BIG BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT – MISSOIN TRIP TO AFRICA

JM: When I was invited to Africa, I was new in the faith and really hadn’t had a lot of experience with the Bible. I was still learning what it means to be a Christian.

I signed up with five women to go. It was an off the cuff kind of a trip. We didn’t have all these plans, it was just like I wanted to pray for the sick. I wanted to help build and work with these orphans and build this orphanage. We had some tasks we were going to do but I didn’t expect that we were going to have to preach in front of everybody on Sundays. I was like I don’t preach and I don’t know the Bible. I’m learning and I definitely didn’t have the fire root of the Lord they thought I had. They were like “why did they send you this far if you didn’t have the Word of the Lord for us”? By the time they had pushed me up to preach and I didn’t really have a choice, I found myself on stage and everyone eagerly waiting like “it’s your turn.”  I didn’t know what else to do. Actually, I just found a picture of that recently of me standing up on stage singing. I asked someone to go grab this little drum that I had bought that morning at the market, and it was more of a decoration or really tiny hand drum. But because I was up there singing a cappella I really wanted some support, so I just pointed and said go grab that and get here and play it. He was like “that’s not an instrument” and so the look on his face in the photo, I recently found, is pretty hilarious. You can tell he’s just trying to do what I ask him to do. No one could really hear anything he was doing on it but that was a big break through moment for me where I was kind of forced to sing because I knew I couldn’t preach and I was scared of singing too, but it was like one or the other. I let out a sound that really I hadn’t even heard myself do before. I chose this Gospel song, and it was really the most soul that I had ever sung with. In past records I was kind of shy and singing “folksy” songs from my journal, but this was like belting out a gospel song. The Lord just really blessed it and by the time I was done with the first few lines, people were already joining in and singing along. It became this big erupting in the room of praise. It was such a marking moment for me to unlock my gifts again and say God this is for you!

JAMIE’S EARLY TIME IN MUSIC

BTM: What was your early time in music like?

JM: I spent a lot of years singing, during those years, that I was around the drugs and stuff.  There were a lot of rappers. I did a lot of studio stuff with rappers. I was the girl voice on rap songs. That was more like in a party setting, but I had so much brokenness and insecurity then.  I knew I could sing but I was always too afraid, too broken really to let it all out. The mission trip in Africa was the first time where I felt I was free, and I had already found Christ and had my born-again experience, so it was my first time of really letting it out because this time it was for God.

JAMIE EMBARKS ON A RECORDING CAREER

JM: I started writing my own songs around the age of 25 and had really just started expressing my newfound love for the Lord and my life though song. I recorded my first record from those songs. It was independent and crowd funded. I ended up moving across the country kind of looking for that sound I wanted to be, which was still a little bit more soulful than I was able to find in my songs. I was writing on guitar and moved to Portland and Seattle to record another record up there and ended up getting it finished in Kansas City. Those were the songs that got on TV shows and some commercials. I got into sync licensing and TV and film with some of my second record. My second record is what got me noticed by Nashville. I was offered a couple of record deals in 2019, but it was kind of a hard time just before the pandemic and I was still unsure of exactly what I wanted in music. I spent a little bit of my time praying through these offers and I decided it wasn’t going to be the right fit or time for me to sign a record deal. Then once the pandemic hit, I decided to reconnect with my dad in Georgia.

JAMIE’S MOVE TO ATLANTA AND SPENDING THE FINAL YEARS OF HER DAD’S LIFE

JM: “Around the age of 26, once the pandemic hit, I decided to reconnect and moved in with my dad, who was living near Atlanta, and had advanced Parkinson’s and Dementia. I became his full-time caregiver and entered into a four-year process of walking my dad though the last years of his life and getting some amazing memories with him along with some deep healing in my own heart.   My dad loved music and Christian songs from the 80’s, like Petra. My dad liked to write songs about Jesus. He would send tapes to us when he wasn’t boxing. My dad passed away in August 2023. I then started singing at a prison in Georgia. That really brought me back to life and that was what got me singing. Shortly after I moved to Nashville, which was only about six months ago, and signed a record deal.

BTM:  I understand while you were staying at your dad’s you were actually recording background music for artists in the closet of his trailer?

JM: I was getting calls, so the first round, when I was working with the record label (I was working with Capital in 2019), writing with all their producers. I built a great relationship with a lot of the producers that work with all the top artists in the Christian market. When I would go to record my own songs that I was writing with them back then, I would stack all these harmonies and really filled out these kind of choir parts because I had always written with a choir in mind.  From then on, they (record label) just thought of me whenever they wanted a full choir sound for a song, or even just a regular background, so I kept getting calls from all the guys like “alright we’ve got another one”. I was recording these songs in my dad’s trailer in Atlanta, Ga. Some of these songs were going on the radio, which is crazy because I had no training on the software or the microphone. I barely knew how to plug this stuff in and if anything went wrong, I didn’t know how to troubleshoot or anything.  I just crossed my fingers that whatever I sent them was good enough and they would tell me “oh, it’s great”! It really kept me afloat during that time because I wasn’t able to leave the house and work because my dad needed full-time care.  That is what God provided, which is so amazing. He gave me this little closet side hustle.  I do background vocals for myself but during that time it was all for other artists. I did a lot of Ann Wilson’s records and did some stuff for Danny Gokey. I did Megan Wood’s “The Truth” from my dad’s closet and it ended up being a lot of songs I wouldn’t have ever dreamed being a part of.

JAMIE’S RECORD CONTRACT SIGNING WITH CAPITAL CMG

BTM: Jamie posted on Facebook, November 1, 2024, that after 10 years of independent artistry she announced her partnership with Capital CMG as a SIGNED ARTIST.  Jamie is managed by Roundtable Management and her agency is United Talent.

MOVING TO AND WRITING IN NASHVILLE

BTM:  Your song “Desperate” was released January 3^rd and already has almost 2 million downloads!  Where did the idea come from for “Desperate” and was there help in writing the song?

JM: When I got back to Nashville my dad had just passed (in 2023) and I was in pretty rough shape. I was walking into rooms and introducing myself in a way that was like I’m going though a lot and if I’m writing in my current season there’s a lot of heavy stuff happening in my heart. I showed up to write this specific day, the day we wrote “Desperate;” it was me, and Jonathan Gamble, and Jordan Sapp.  Jonathan and I have worked together quite a bit at this point and Jordan too, but Jonathan knows a lot of my stories, so it was a safe place to share my deepest stuff. He showed up that day with the idea of Desperate.  He said, “You know, I’ve been desperate for a miracle. My wife and I are trying to have a baby and we’ve been praying, and praying, and praying, and not able to have a baby.”  So that is where the song started. He knew my story too and he said he wanted us to write from a place to give other people a tool. Since he first thought of the idea for “Desperate” he and his wife did have their first baby and got their miracle!  We both related on a lot of that stuff at the same season in our lives. That is how we finished penning that song, and to me it was like a song I needed for the last five years of what I went through with my dad.  It was so natural for me to be able to cry that out of the depths of my soul, just because I had felt that for so long and I finally put words to it.

BTM: The song “Million Chances”, did that come out before “Desperate” and what was the inspiration for that song?

JM:  Yeah, that was my first release and that song, the idea actually started from the prison ministry I had. It was my last performance with Ben in Georgia. He had prepared this amazing set of songs with the choir, and they had a few performances planned out for me as a surprise and a few of the girls sang me the song. The way they sounded, it just hit my heart. It was almost like the melody just spoke to me. I wanted to go home and write something that kind of felt like it. It was like the cry of their hearts and being in prison and not knowing when they’re getting out, and finding God’s grace and forgiveness even though maybe the world hasn’t forgiven them. They still have this sentence they have to serve, but forgiveness they found in God, even if they didn’t deserve it. I showed up to a writing session and said I just want to write something about God’s forgiveness even when we can’t earn it, or we don’t deserve it, and He just keeps giving us more chances. I had a couple friends that I had already written with, quite a bit, and we all took it and ran with it. It’s really my testimony as well that God gives me so many chances. It was the first song I wrote when I moved back to Nashville for my own Christian artistry. It’s cool to think how many songs I wrote after that, but that it ended up being my first release, so that’s pretty special.

TOUR WITH SEPH SCHLUETER

BTM:  Jamie just wrapped up a short tour with Seph Schlueter and was asked, prior to her tour by BTM, is this your first tour? 

JM:  I did a little tour with Matt Mahr, as a background singer, so I did get the tour bus experience. That was really fun. I went out a bit with Ann Wilson, as well. This is my first time going out as a solo artist and opening up for someone.  I’m very excited! I did a rehearsal the week of March 24^th with Seph’s keyboard player.  We are actually using the same band and I’m just doing four stripped songs with just a piano to roll things out. I’ve got some more stuff planned later in the year with a full band but for this one we’re just going to start stripped down.  These are just really beautiful worship nights and time to share a little bit of my story. We’ll have a few rehearsals once they get to town this week or just one rehearsal.

HOW JAMIE’S SPENDS HER DOWNTIME/BUCKET LIST/FANS/HATS

BTM: I don’t know how you find the time to do all the interviews and everything you are doing. What do you like to do in your downtime to chill out or decompress?

JM: I love nature! I love being outside and it’s where I connect with God. I feel refreshed when I get to get out with the birds and get my feet in the grass.  I love to get out on walks with my dog and you know we just run around and find a field to run in.  That’s kind of my thing. I usually fit that in every day, at some point. I’m finding a way to get outside to either start my day, usually to walk my dog in the morning. I like to catch a sunset, so those are some of my favorite things!

BTM: What are three things on your bucket list that you hope to accomplish in the next three years or so?

JM: I would like to get a full record out! I would like to do some shows overseas. There’s always been a lot of people saying they really feel like my music is supposed to reach the nations and so that would be really beautiful to kind of walk that out and to be able to do some ministry overseas again. Then, I would say, probably have my own home. Right now I’m renting with some girls, and that’s a fun season. I’ve actually had millions of roommates over the years. I think I’ve been doing the roommate thing for probably 15 years. There’s different roommates in different cities and so having my own home would be a huge lesson in settling down.

BTM: What do you hope your fans will take away from attending one of your shows as inspiration?

JM: I’d say they would walk away knowing that they’re not alone and that God hasn’t forgotten us. Maybe to be inspired to go after all that’s in their heart, all their dreams and everything that maybe life has knocked them down or taken away, but that they’d be inspired to pick those things back up.

BTM: Fun question: How many baseball and other hats do you own? There’s a story there somewhere.

JM: (Laughing) I probably have about 20 hats total. I like a lot of baseball caps, but I also like the wide brim big hats.  I have a couple of those. I don’t know when the hats became such a major staple. You know what? Actually, I do!  When I got my hair cut. My hair has always been longer, at least it had been for many years. I had a haircut go bad at the salon. My hair just kept getting shorter because I had to go back since one side was longer than the other side. They cut it again and I ended up with very short hair. This was in the past a couple of years ago when my hair went short.  So, then it’s like “oh’s my hair’s gone.”  So, I started putting on hats!

With that, BehindtheMusician concluded their interview with Jaime MacDonald. Certainly, a rising star in the Christian Music world as her song “Desperate” just achieved #1 status in Billboard’s Top Christian Adult Contemporary (AC). Several of her recent shows with Seph Schlueter were sold out. BTM wishes Jaime all the best!

Check out Jamie’s latest single “Who He Is” and see upcoming Jamie MacDonald concert dates on her website: Jamiemacdonaldmusic.com

R. Scott Snavely
Behind the Musician