By Jane Brady

J.S. Bach believed that “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Yet perhaps the most distinctive musical quality of Julie de Azevedo, popular LDS recording artist, is her ability to focus on the very dust of everyday life – to examine how we apply religion not in theory but in practice.

While religious music in past centuries may have focused on the heavenly, the spiritual – even the ethereal – Julie’s music explores how to handle life when your baby’s crying, your mom is sick, and you’re always running late.

She says, “My music is about the intersection of faith and everyday life. What does my faith in Christ – what does His life – have to do with mine in 2005? [I want to learn] how to better apply the atonement, how to better apply living in the grace of God while in the midst of all the flaws and dust.”

Her seventh album, Home, epitomizes this “where the rubber hits the road” mentality. In June 2004, while in the process of moving to a new home, settling into her practice as a clinical social worker, and savoring her new little boy (after an almost nine-year gap between children) the “songwriting floodgates opened,” and she wrote nearly all of the twelve songs in less than a month. While in the midst of the messiness of life, she “felt the grace of God more fully” than ever before.

One of the most compelling songs on her new album, “Make Enough of Me,” Julie describes as “perhaps the most vulnerable and honest song. I needed to learn how to apply these lofty spiritual ideals to the everyday realities of life.”

Overwhelmed and underpaid
Morning comes too soon
Running late and on my plate
A million things to do

Got a baby cryin’
Another trying to find the other shoe
When I open my eyes
The dam will break
Their need will fill my room

You made wine from water
And raised up Jairus’ daughter
From her bed
From the dead
Filled the empty fishing nets
And with some loaves and fishes fed
A hungry crowd
I hunger now
Make enough of me to go around

Julie likes this particular song because it “represents the process of how this album came to be. I didn’t have time to do this. I didn’t have time to write songs. I didn’t have time to record them. But I was strengthened and supported in the process and here we are. I don’t know how it happened. I mean I do know how it happened. I got a lot of help. Because there’s no way [I could have done this on my own]. If you had asked me a year ago, ‘Do you think you’ll have another album with twelve new songs written and recorded and you’d be doing interviews about them?’ I’d be like, ‘Yeah right!’”

Regardless of the busy timing for the arrival of these latest songs, Julie seems to have found peace in her life. “For the first time in a long time I feel newness all the way around – musically, personally, spiritually – at every level I am at home.”

She continues, “I’m just at this comfortable place, maybe because my music is honest. If you listen to it you’ll hear that I’m not claiming I have anything together. I’m not claiming I have anything figured out. I’m on this journey and so that’s the only way I can do music.”

Obviously her honesty is striking a chord in listeners. An icon in the world of religious music, she has received nine PEARL awards from the Faith Centered Music Association, including Songwriter of the Year in 1998 and Contemporary Album of the Year in 2000. She also won Utah Best of State Female Vocalist in 2003.

But what’s more important to Julie than the flashy awards are the people her music touches. Recently she received an e-mail from a fan who is struggling with an eating disorder. Through her portrayal of honest grappling with faith and hope in her music, Julie was able to inspire this young woman to keep trying to heal.

Julie believes life is “not about perfect relationships, perfect children, a perfect body, or a perfect song. It’s the process of wrestling with the imperfections and still trying to move forward toward Christ and finding joy.”

And wrestle she does.

Recently Julie searched the scriptures on the topic of perfect. In her therapy work, with LDS people in particular, she has found that perfectionism often leads to depression, anxiety, stress, and poor self image. She has been searching for deeper understanding and application of the teaching “Be ye therefore perfect” (Matthew 5:48) because she thinks we misinterpret that teaching. As she searched, she couldn’t find anything that said “a perfect family” or “a perfect life.” Instead she found “it’s about perfect brightness of hope, perfect heart, being perfected in Christ. I think in society we tend to be focused on the external: looking perfect or appearing a certain way and that’s not what it’s about. These songs help me to understand that on the next level. It’s okay to be in the process of trying to deal with the realities of life. That’s how we find true faith.”

A recording artist since 1988, Julie is not defined solely by her singing and songwriting abilities. While she describes music as a big part of her life, it certainly isn’t the only or even the biggest part. “Music has been around in me a long time, before I met my husband, before I had my kids. It’s big, but it doesn’t define who I am.” In fact, in listing over twenty roles she plays (including partner, friend, organizer and listener), only five had to do with music. Certainly her rich life provides fodder for her songs. And the fact that she would be musical whether or not she had a recording contract is clear.

Music is in her blood. As the daughter of famed LDS musician Lex de Azevedo (composer of Saturday’s Warrior and My Turn on Earth) she has had her share of comparisons with him – and not just musical ones. They are both avid sports enthusiasts and physically active, and enjoy challenging themselves in that area. She runs marathons, and he’s in triathlons. They also love talking and spending time with their families. Interestingly, Julie considers her grandmother, also a talented singer, to be one of her greatest musical inspirations.

Thinking I’d end our interview on a lighter note, I asked Julie if she could have any super power in the world, what would it be. After several moments of introspection she responded, “Super power? I just want more compassion. To be able to heal people’s pain.” With Home Julie goes a long way toward doing just that.