Roland U.S.

Tommy Walker

Gearing Up For Ministry

by Corey Fournier

Tommy Walker is a beloved guitar player, worship leader, and songwriter from Los Angeles, CA. His songs are sung in churches the world over, and include He Knows My Name, Mourning Into Dancing, and Only a God Like You. His recent live album and DVD Breakthrough was recorded at the Purpose Driven Worship Conference at Saddleback Church. Tommy keeps a busy schedule between full-time ministry and his current Breakthrough tour, but he was gracious enough to share a few moments with the Worship Connection and talk about his gear, his music, and his ministry.

WC: You play nylon string guitar in a lot of your music but you combine it with a VG-88 in a unique way. How does that work?

TW: I have a Godin nylon string guitar with the built-in Roland pickup. I’m able to mix the direct nylon sound with the VG-88 where I have a steel string acoustic model with the D and G string tuned an octave up, which gives me a nice brightness without brittleness when I’m strumming. Typically nylon string guitars are nice for picking and playing soft, but if you strum too heavily the sound breaks up. But using it with the VG-88 gives me a hybrid where I can also do the “worship leader strumming” thing without having to switch guitars.

WC: What makes the nylon string guitar so special?

TW: I grew up playing and writing on a nylon string. At my church, we do a thing called “acoustic weekend” where I lead worship by myself or with just a percussionist, and I use a different patch on the VG-88 where I have the E and A string tuned down an octave. This brings lots of bottom end to the nylon sound. And that’s the genius of the VG-88 because you can tune each individual string. The EQs are also very nice. It’s an amazing thing! The sound is huge.

WC: When you perform, on which songs do you use this setup?

TW: At the Franklin Graham crusade in Baltimore, MD, I used it on Breakthrough, and on I’m Not Ashamed I even did a solo with this exact setup.

WC: How do you balance your concert schedule with your regular services at Christian Assembly?

TW: For a lot of the concerts I do, I’ll fly out for a few days during the week and then be back for the weekend. I only miss about 12 weekends a year at church.

WC: In the liner notes of the new Breakthrough album, you didn’t include lyrics, but you have song stories and notes for worship leaders. Is that something new for this record?

TW: Yeah, that is! So many people are online, so we put the lyrics on my website for people to download if they want them. I wanted to focus on worship leaders because the goal for me isn’t that I just sing my songs, it’s that churches all over the world could use them. I’d rather people be blessed by the songs than know me. I get emails from Saudi Arabia, South Africa, places you can’t imagine, from people telling me how God is using a song to bless them. That’s why I write worship songs, because God can multiply them beyond what I could ever do.

WC: You’ve done live albums before Breakthrough. How is this one different?

TW: Well, I’ve done a lot of live records, but no question, this one – I mean, there were 3,000 worship leaders there. The energy that was in the room and God’s blessing on that particular night was incredible. When you’re doing a live record, there’s no guarantees. Worship is an in-the-moment experience. But God really showed up in a big way that night. Like, I could say to the whole crowd, “Let’s sing that chorus again. Okay, now let’s sing it in 3-part harmony.” And they could do it! I had a 3,000-voice choir! Some songs on this one are very special for me as well, but that night was unmatched for me.

WC: The record has a lot of up-tempo, rock-style songs and you play electric guitar on those. How do you get your guitar sound?

TW: Here’s what I do. I have a Boss GT-5 and my electric guitar goes into that first. If I’m playing a rhythm part, I use the effects in the GT-5 and that output goes direct into the P.A. But I also have a switcher on the GT-5 output, which sends the signal into a tube-amp. So, when I do a solo, I call up a distortion patch on the GT-5, hit the switcher, and get a big, warm, crunch sound through the amp.

WC: You’ve made hymns an important part of your repertoire. What drives that?

TW: I’m doing it because I love hymns. Sometimes people say, “Should we do praise songs or hymns?” I say, “We should do psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” We should do it all. In a lot of ways, hymns are informational – they have all this doctrine. But sometimes the doctrine goes by too fast! So, I like to create a chorus in a hymn. It’s like, you’ve gathered all this information, rich in beliefs and theology, so I write a chorus that let’s me slow down the phrasing and really respond to what I’ve learned – because a lot of hymns don’t have choruses. So it’s nothing complicated that I’ve done, I’m just adding a response. To me there’s nothing better than doing hymns and choruses.

WC: Part of the purpose behind the Breakthrough record is to support a special relief ministry in the Philippines. How did that come about?

TW: My brother is a missionary pastor and we took a trip with the vice president of FEBC to the Philippines. FEBC has been getting really involved in relief ministry and they’ve been in Manila for over 60 years. So through them, I’m able to provide education for kids of families who live in public landfills. We take an offering at each concert and we’ve raised over $40,000 so far. It means a lot to me to know that at the end of the day, whatever I’ve done, at least I fed some hungry kids and showed them the love of God.