Becoming David - Voice Memo by Phil Wickham

Psalm 8 (Hallé) - EP by Phil Wickham

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Becoming David - Voice Memo
by Phil Wickham

Album: Psalm 8 (Hallé) - EP

Spoken
Hey everyone, Phil here
First of all, I just wanna take a moment to say thank you
Thank you everybody out there for listening to the songs I put out
For singin' along with me
For joining me on this journey as we all run towards the gates of Heaven together
And fill our hearts and our lungs with songs about Jesus and Heaven
All that is done for us to be clean and forgiven on the cross and the empty grave
It's just the love of my life
I don't take any of your time lightly
Or, um, any of what I get to do lightly
It's the honor of my life
And so thank you so much for joining me in it
And I thought I'd take a moment, here on this Psalm 8 EP
To kind of, very informally, uh, podcast style, talk through how this song came to be
How it came to me that
How it came to be that I'm apart of this David movie
And, and just the whole experience and what it meant to me
And so, if you'd like to sit back
You know, sip on some coffee or tea or something
And hang out with me for a second
That's what this track's all about
So, if you didn't know, um
This song, Psalm 8, is apart of the end credit of a new movie out called David
Coming out December, 19th
Christmas time of 2025
And, uh, as of real time right now, it's not out yet
Can't see what God does with this movie, um
But I have the great honor of voicing the character of grown-up David
Adult David in the movie David
So half the movie, the first half, is young David
And then, there's kind of, what I call, an Hakuna Matata moment
If you guys are familiar with the movie Lion King where Simba grew up through the middle of a song
That's kinda what, uh, David uses that kinda tool as well
Where David grows up in the song and halfway through, I take over the song
And then, I take over the character of David for the rest of the movie
And I still can't believe, after being part of this project for over a year
That I get to say, I got to voice the character of David
Ever since I was an eight year-old boy, mm
Dancin' around my room to the soundtrack of Lion King, second Lion King
Uh, shout out there, um
I actually, literally bought the cassette with my own money of the soundtrack, you know
And I was listening to it in my room, singin' along
Ever since then, I always thought it'd be so fun to voice a character in an animated movie
But it was a dream that I just never expected to become reality
And didn't take any steps toward chasing it
But about, um, a year ago, a little bit over a year ago
It all started when I got this call from a friend who lives in Dallas
And he's apart of a church there, and at that church
One of the members is apart of a media company that, um
That was in the works with the company that was making the David film
And so, kinda through the grapevine, my friend had heard that this, this movie was about David
But they were having a hard time finding the right fit for grown-up adult David's voice
And, kinda out of nowhere, my name and face came to his mind
And he said, "Have you thought of Phil Wickham yet?"
Which they turned to him and thought, "Man, that's interesting"
"'Cause he's actually on a list of people that we were thinkin' about reaching out to"
And so, I got a call from my friend, he told me about this conversation
He gave me a number of one of the contacts apart of the movie
Said, "Hey, if this lights a fire in your heart, then feel free to reach out"
And like I said, I had kinda already always had a dream of trying out being the voice of a character of an animated movie
So, it did light something up in me
But even more so, I'm thinking, man, David, the character of David, um
Short of Jesus, my favorite Bible character
I've learned so much from this man
And grown up reading his writings
And reading the stories about God moving in his life
And feeling connected to him in the highs and in the lows
And I just thought, man, bringin'a character like David to life in
In an ambitious, beautiful, epic movie about David would be incredible
But I obviously didn't know if I had what it took to voice any character
I had no acting skills or anything like that or experience
But I did reach out and I said, "Hey, uh, Phil here, my middle name is David"
"And as long as I can remember, I loved the character of David"
"And I've also wanted to voice a character in an animated movie"
So I told them I'm, I'm completely unoffendable
If I'm horrible at this, tell me right away
And I will be happy that you did
And so we don't waste anybody's time
I would love a shot at trying out this character
And so, he got on a Zoom call with me, very soon after that
Sent me a little bit of the script, one scene
It was the scene where Saul turns on David
And throws a spear at David
And starts thinking that David wants to take his throne
And so it was an emotionally heavy scene
And, uh, his name was Ned, this acting kinda coach casting guy
And he starts saying, "Hey Phil, this is what we gonna do"
And he tells me about how we gonna do it
And I'm in my studio at home
And he's in his studio in LA
And I got my mic in front of me at home and
And he starts just saying, "Hey, let's get into the character of David"
"And, just mentally first"
And he starts talking me about what David's gone through
And where his mind's at, and his like this military man now
He's sure of himself, he believes in, he has faith in God
He, he's not afraid of men because he knows God's on his side
But he's also kind and a shepherd
And this is a moment where his father figure, his coach, his general is turning on him
So David's not afraid, he's not angry, but he's tryna calm the situation down
He wants Saul to see reality, not believe the lies that his brain has been
That he started to believe
And so, he talks for about two, three minutes
And the whole time, I'm just, I feel like I'm getting smaller and smaller
'Cause I'm like, how in the world do you take all this and then just say lines?
Like, this is a new world to me, and I thought, "Wow, I don't know if I'm the man for this"
And so I, I go after the first line and pretty quick he stops
And he just says, "You sound too scared, remember, David is not scared"
So I tried again and he said, "You sound too angry, remember, David's not angry"
"He's, he loves Saul, and he respects Saul"
I tried again and again and again
And he says, "Okay, just tryna get in the head of David, picture"
And he says, "Picture your dad"
'Cause he knew I had a good relationship with my dad
"Picture your dad turning on you, believing you did something that you didn't do"
"And being so angry that he wants to kill you"
"And you know something's not right in his mind"
"And you're tryin' to calm down the situation 'cause you would never hurt your dad"
"And you your dad just needs to listen to reason"
"And you're tryin' to calm the situation down"
"Because you know your dad can't hurt you"
"But you also don't wanna hurt your dad and you love him"
And that really opened something up in my heart
When I attacked the next scene, he didn't stop me and I got all the way through
And he said, "Phil, I think I heard a little bit of David in there that time"
And then, uh, I did it again, and he said, "Man, it's better"
Did it again, he's like, "Dude, that might be what they actually use in the movie if you end up becoming David, we'll see, we'll see"
So we did another scene and he's like, "Okay we'll be in touch with you"
"We'll let you know, I'm gonna send this to the guys"
I got a call within the next couple weeks that everybody was interested
That all the people behind the movie, directors and writers and stuff
And they wanted me to do a call back, which is another audition
But they wanted me to drive up to LA
So I went to this LA full on studio place
It's all legit, epic and professional, which immediately made me feel insecure once again
And then I walked in the vocal booth where I'm gonna be recording
And there's like several screens
And people from all over the world, zoomed in, are gonna watch me
And coach me throught the entire script of, of adult David's version
Or adult David's part of the script
And I'm just, once again, saying, "Okay, guys, let me know"
"I want this movie to be great"
"And so if that means with me or without me, you just let me know"
And they, they said, "Let's do it, let's see what happens"
And so we spent the next several hours just going through the script
Tryna find David's voice in me
And as time went on, I felt more confident and comfortable being David
And it was, I could feel my heart, just kind of like, morphing into this character and
And then, by the end, I felt like
I felt like I kinda had even a spiritual experience just, kind of, living out some of these stories and these scenes that I knew from the Bible
And I remember everybody in the room and zoomed in
They just kinda look to each other and they thought, "Man, I think something special happened to you"
But they said that "Don't call us, we'll call you" thing which I just took for like "Well, maybe I didn't get it, but it was so fun to try"
Anyways, couple weeks later, I got a call, I was in an airport
And the casting director said, "What's your middle name?"
And I said, "David"
He's like, "How would you like that to be? Your first name in an animated movie"
And I thought, "No way, yeah"
He's like, "Well, you got the part", which is so, so awesome
And I was excited, but then I knew, like, okay, like, I wanna take this on, I wanna do this well
Because I knew how amazing everybody else, um
How much time and effort and how amazingly talented everybody was, uh
Shout out, by the way, to Brandon Engman who played young David, um
At this point, they, uh, Angel studios had already released shorts of young David
And Brandon Engman which had brought him to life so well, um
That it was kinda two parts where like, if I, when I took over David, um
I knew I was takin' over all of Brandon's work of creating this character that you learn to
That you learn to love for the first half of the movie
So part of me thought like, "Wow, Brandon is so good that you already fall in love with David, I just need to say my lines"
But also, I thought, "Maybe Brandon is so great, I just hope I don't mess up all his great work"
You know, and so I had, I was kinda carrying these two things
But all and all, what, what was always in the back of my mind, you guys, was, um
This idea that young people, hopefully, all ages, but especially young people would watch this movie
And be lit up with the idea that God is on their side, that God is listening
That in any tough situation, they don't have to be afraid
That we can stand on the side of a God who's bigger than any giant in our life
And bringing that story to life in a fresh, beautiful new way felt so exciting to me
Because, as a dad of four kids, I know those, there's been those movies over the years, um
Life Frozen and stuff, back when my girls were young, really young
I just remembered, those, that movie was on so much
And those songs were on so much
In the car, and they knew every word
And I just thought, "Man, what if, what if I got to be apart of the movie that was like that for a young family, like that for a child"
"A young person growing up, that, that these songs, full of truth and of hope and light, um"
"That this story about David and Goliath and how God was on this man's side"
"And God never gives up on His people was like ringing true in young people's hearts"
"And it was the movie that was always on in their house"
"And they were dancing around to the soundtrack"
I just thought, "Wow, what a beautiful thing to be apart of"
And that's what kind of, more than anything, just drove me to just want to do the best I possibly could at this thing, so, um, we
Back to the story, you know, I finished all my vocal sessions, voice acting the character
And then, I had to sing the songs, and they wanted
I was asked to fly to New York and sing the songs, uh, for the
For the score of the movie, and honestly, I've been singing so long
I thought, "Man, they, a part of why they wanted me to do this was 'cause I can sing"
"I've got this, I've been in front of a mic singin' many, many years"
But you guys, singing in David's voice was harder and more challenging than acting
Even thought I'd never acted before
Because I had to kind of like, unlearn all my quirks and little things that I do with my voice
And sing as though David was singing
And so I, it was almost like, I had to act, rather than sing
And so, not only did I have to like, learn more about acting
But I had to forget what I know about singing
And try to sing as Phil Wickham, my name, me, as an artist
And I had to learn what it meant for adult David to be singin' these things and so, um
So that was the part, more than anything, that I had to, I think, set me aside, my ego aside, my ideas aside of what it should sound like
And really listen to the pros of like, hey, we're tryna
These songs aren't, these songs, we're not tryna get on the radio with these songs
We're tryna tell a story with these songs, which was a different way of thinking through, you know, a song
It's like, this is moving the plot along, this is
This a character you're watching going through emotional highs and lows, and
So it took some work, but we go through it and I'm proud of the outcome
So anyways, I did all that, man, a year, last year
And I didn't hear one note that I sing
I didn't one bit of like, my voice connected to the character until this last summer, um
The movie was finished and I was asked to come and screen it in Dallas, and, uh
And so I screened it next to all these pro guys, pro actors in there, the studio execs
I still hadn't seen anything and I'm just like, "Oh, no, I hope I didn't mess this thing up"
And uh, so I'm sitting there, in the theater; um, and, uh, people, like, I genuinely
I'm not gonna say names but people I genuinely respect in the acting world were there
And I'm just like, "Okay, you guys, I'm tryna give the caveats even walking into the theater, like"
"You guys, it's my first time, give me a break", you know, um, but I
The movie starts and within five minutes, Goodness Gracious
You get a sense that this is a beautiful movie
This is a movie that was highly, has a lot of heart and soul, that someone
That many people cared deeply for the story of the source material from the Scriptures of David
That they wanted to portray the truth in the themes of this story so vividly and beautifully like, um
I was so appreciative as a believer in the Bible and Jesus, uh, that this story was told with so much love and excellence and meticulous detail
I was just blown away, I've never seen anything at this caliber, that is biblically based and so full of hope and truth and then, uh
I watched the movie, my character comes on
I was, you know, I was probably equivalent to doing a hundred push-ups
Or a hundred sit-ups, you know, just with how much
I was just like tense, you know, my
My core was like sore afterwards, just 'cause I was like, "Okay, don't mess this thing up"
Um, but really quickly, I just got lost in the characters and the story too
Even after I heard my voices on, coming out of the speakers, with the character on the screen
And I just really enjoyed the movie, I was so proud to be a small part of it
And I just wanna stress that, what a small part I was of a huge dream of
And a huge amount of work for a lotta people, and, uh
I'm just so thankful that I've got a way to champion it a little bit, and, uh
And so the movies ends, I'm just feeling like, "Wow, I can't wait to talk about this"
And uh, but right as it ends, something really special happened right in front of me
There was a little boy in the theater that leaned over to his mom, right in front of me
And said, "That is all in the Bible?", with like these wide eyes and couldn't believe it
And, uh, was just in rapture in this idea of like, this young boy, shepherd, who became king, killed the Goliath and all this stuff
And right there, that moment, and the mom talking back to him, just being a little preacher, a little bit, to her son
Like, "Yeah, that's how God works, He's on our side, even the hard things, we can trust Him"
And just thinking all of the, all ot the conversations and moments in
In families that this will create lit my heart up in a whole new way and that moment
And then, one of my friends was in the theater as well, sitting right next to me
And he had his two boys there
And he sent me just a few days later a video of his two boys all dressed up in like, towels that looked like robes neing David and Goliath
And saying like, "You come at me with sword and spear but I come at with you in the power of God", you know, and, and
And he was just like, "Bro, thank you to you and the whole team for your yeast to this, 'cause look, this is the fruit, look at the fruit of it"
And so, um, I was stoked about the movie, but I didn't know when it was gonna come out
About a month later, two months later, I, I read on Instagram that, that it was gonna come out December, 19th, it just
It was like forced into my head one week
And so I was like, "Awesome"
I got texts all that day like, "Hey, the movie is coming out, get ready this Christmas"
And uh, so I started talkin' about it, but what's wild is that two days before
Two or three days, that same week, before, I found out the movies was comin' out
I had just written a song, um, called, titled, "Psalm 8", parenthesis, "Hallé", and, uh
It wasn't for the movie, it was just a song inspired by Psalm of David
And I was like super into it, I was wondering when we should release it
Should I save it for my next album? Should it be a single thing next year?
But then, I had, it was like fresh in my heart
And I found out the movie was comin' out, and so, uh, I
I sent the demo to my friends who are part of the movie
Said, "Hey, I remember, you guys might already have a credit song already"
But I remember there being no credit song when we watched the screening of the movie
And just in case this is helpful, God's in this
Here's a song I just wrote in the, in the words of David
And really quickly, they got back to me
They're like, "Dude, this is perfect, this is such a good match, you know"
And they're like, "But we wanna do it, let's do it like a little bit of a David version
"And you released your version and we'll just like, get all behind it together"
And so, that's how Psalm 8 happened to be out, um
That's why there's, there's a David movie version where they wanted to make a version that's on the end credits
That feels a little bit more in line; musically, with the, with the movie which I think is great
And then, there's a version that I would carry, you know, uh, like on my records
And the way I would probably do it live, and
So it's all living on the EP, and that's how Psalm 8 is out and listenable right now
But really, I am so honored to carry the characer of David in a small way
Like many, many millions of other people, his story has greatly impacted me, more than most man that have ever lived
And, uh, to carry this story to families and homes and hearts, to be a part of carrying it, it's a true, true honor
And I'm so incredibly blessed to bring this song to you
And I hope you get a chance to see the movie
And I hope, if you have kids out there, that the movie creates great conversation about how big our God is and how we can trust Him, and, uh
Man, it's been awesome becoming David in a small way
And I wanna keep becomin' a man after God's own heart
We know David wasn't perfect, I'm, for sure, not perfect
But I wanna be a man who keeps chasing the heart of God, and I
And I know, you, men and women and children out there, wanna do the same
So let's keep our eyes on Heaven, um
Let's keep bein' honest with God with repentant hearts, always wanting more of what He has for us
God bless you, guys