BEC Recordings debuts 'Love Running Wild' EP from Tasha Layton

Debut music video for new single ‘Safe Here’ can be viewed exclusively at CCM Magazine

It was last fall when BEC Recordings announced the signing of singer, songwriter, worship leader, speaker and author Tasha Layton. Her current radio single, “Love Lifting Me,” has reached Top 25 status on the Billboard Christian Airplay and AC Monitored charts, and Top 20 on the AC Indicator chart. Her debut single, "I Belong To You," which was touted by listeners as "beautiful with an amazing message," and "excellent lyrically and musically," is also featured on the brand-new EP, titled “Love Running Wild,” available now.

"In Matthew 13, the Kingdom of God is likened to a mustard seed … it’s small in seed form, but grows wildly," Layton said of the title of her EP. "I wanted to reference the uncontainable, unexplainable, contagious love of God that flows into our lives and ends up affecting everything we do. We carry his fire and love within us wherever we go, and it spreads fast and wild like the mustard seed!"

“Love Running Wild's” new single, "Safe Here," features a music video that is debuting exclusively at CCM Magazine.

"I wrote this song in a very unsafe season in my life," Layton said. "I felt a lot of anxiety and the weight of the circumstances around me really weighing on my chest in a way that I felt like I couldn't get a deep breath. I needed to be reminded that God is the lifter of my head as David states in Psalm 3. … It wasn't all up to me. It is in his strength that lifting my head would change my perspective."

Singing since she was a young teen growing up in South Carolina, Layton's voice has taken her all around the world. From appearing on “American Idol” to singing backup on tour with Katy Perry for four years, Layton is more than ready to be on her own sharing her solo music. She already has fans in artists such as Jesus Culture's Chris McClarney, Colton Dixon and Rend Collective, to name just a few.

The road to discovering Layton's artistry is a journey that has been both painful and incredible. As a teen growing up in South Carolina, she began to sing at church and lead worship for her youth group, but when her church experienced a painful split it left an undeniable imprint on her. Carrying wounds inflicted by an unhealthy church family and lies about her self-worth and musical gifts, she eventually left church altogether.

As a college student pursuing music, Layton became severely depressed and, at her lowest point, suicidal. Realizing she needed help, she changed her major from music to religion.

“I was searching and had grown up conservative, so I just wanted to know about other religions,” Layton said. "I wanted to know what the truth was because I needed help … something to grasp that was real, to help me find peace."

Through all of her exploration and research, she rediscovered, “Jesus was the only one who had the power to transform me.”

Finding her voice again, Layton began to lead worship at a church in L.A., which then eventually led her to work as an in-demand session singer and appear on season 9 of “American Idol.” Soon after, Layton was chosen to be one of Katy Perry's backup singers – a job she was grateful to do for four years while circling the globe.

Deciding it was time to make her own music, she headed to Music City.

“Like a lot of artists, I wanted to know I had something to offer in a city so concentrated with gifted people,” Layton said. “I was nervous, but I felt a new confidence to say, ‘God truly loves me, and I can step out and do whatever he’s called me to do because it’s not about comparison – comparison crushes creativity.' ”

Layton began teaching at the National Praise and Worship Institute at Trevecca University and co-writing with some of Nashville’s finest. she also met and married Grammy and GMA Dove award-winning musician and producer Keith Everette Smith.

For more information, visit TashaLayton.com.