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What started off as being a bass player in the family band, Winnipegger, Levi Willems developed his love for music with his worship leader parents.
"Our family needed a bass player in the little band, but eventually it got to a point where I just wanted to create my own things. And about 2017, I just felt a little nudge from the Spirit."
While at a Bible camp one summer, Willems started to play around with an acoustic guitar, when the passion really grew. "It kind of started off as a simple idea and it was just a really fun thing. I'm a big journaling kind of a guy, and I think songwriting became just a bit of an extension of journaling, processing, life and faith with Jesus. I never really thought of sharing it. It was just one of those times. I've just been following a little nudge from the Spirit and just going from there."
Willems says his songs stem from his own time with Jesus. "A way of processing life with Jesus and a time of personal reflection and worship. I feel like it is something that God has gifted me in. I think when Jesus gifts any of us, no matter what it is, with a gift, there's a call to share it with the community. I think done in the right way it benefits the church, and it's something that the Spirit can work through to reveal who Jesus is."
July 12 marks the start of releases for Willem's EP, To The Lord. Each week for the next five weeks, a new song will be released with the lyric videos also available on YouTube.
"I'm really proud of this project, mainly because it was a community-made thing. What I brought to the table was maybe 20% of it. I brought a little acoustic line and some words and I'm just a part of a really cool community where we're all," Willems says.
He adds that it was written during a dark period as he was dealing with depression during the pandemic. "I think it's a bit of a testimony of Jesus meeting someone in that space and revealing that there is hope that is greater than circumstance."
The first track from the EP is 'Unbelief' and came out on July 12. Willems says it's based off of a passage in the Gospels, "This guy is telling Jesus 'I do believe. But help me in my unbelief,' and it's a pretty famous line and I was really captured by that prayer. As I walked through my own struggles and heartache, I do have faith in Jesus but help me in my unbelief. And so that that song is kind of like a journal entry of me bringing this prayer to Jesus."