Bridget Gregory
@bridgetvogel
Bridget Gregory is one of those women you meet and immediately walk away different. If I had one word to describe her, it would be "inspiring". It sounds cliche, I know, there's just no better word.
Bridget has moved all over the world following her call to create music, perform music, record music, but most of all use music to show people they're loved. She has lived on the east coast, west coast, and the U.K. She is out-of-the-box. She's a hippie with a passion for the Church and for people. She's a lover and she goes all-out whether she's on stage leading and performing, or mixing an essential oil cocktail to make you feel better, or sharing her heart over a cup of coffee. She's real, raw, and she makes you feel as if you just took a big deep breath of mountain air. I'm a huge fan, and I'm excited for y'all to get to know her.
Who Bridget Is:
Describe yourself using only foods
I’m not sure if I’m meant to compare my features to foods or my personality the foods I enjoy, but I would say I’m like a good stew: a lot of work goes into it, you know? A variety of spices, low and slow simmering, development of complex flavours… (Side note- Bridget uses British spelling because she is a Brit at heart- mw) Maybe this describes a nice curry as well, which I would gladly eat daily. Spicy, complex, comforting and satisfying...
Something most people don't know about you?
I can’t believe I’m telling you this but it was the first thing that popped in my mind: when I was maybe 10 or 11, my Mom and Grandma went to a camp with a bunch of ladies (age 40s to 60s) one night they all decided to go skinny dipping. Yup. And I sort of got roped into doing it too. My first and only skinny dipping experience was with a bunch of middle aged women.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, that you haven't been yet, where would you go?
Must I only pick one? I have family over in Western Australia that I would love to meet, who have been begging me for years to come. Also, I have a curious draw to go to India-I think about visiting every day. It’s such a colourful, vibrant country, yet so heartbreaking in far too many ways.
What is your family like, growing up and present day? Has this affected you as a musician?
My parents met out on the road. Dad played guitar for a cover band that traveled the Midwest and my Mom ran lights for a number of bands in her early 20s. I was not a product of a committed relationship - my parents tried marriage because they thought it was the right thing to do when I was born, but it didn’t stick. From age 4 to 13 I spent summers with my Dad in Washington state and school years with my Mom in Michigan.
Dad introduced me to all the legends of music - the rock icons, some of the greatest songwriters of all time, blues legends, and the women of rocknroll. My Mom, having met Jesus when my parents split, kept mostly to the Christian music of the 90s, which probably influenced me just as much - Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, I definitely dubbed DC Talk as a favorite band until Hanson hit the scene, but more on that later.
My heart was pulled to the topics of God, redemption, fighting through the battles, but my soul needed to express it with the sounds of the blues.
"Both absolutely led to me being who I am today: a worship leader that doesn’t really fit the worship mold - I have a rocker voice and a filled spirit.”
Bridget's Art
Are you currently writing music? How would you describe your current style and your style as a whole?
I must truthfully admit that I’m not currently writing music. I’ve been in a bit of a lull creatively. I feel as though my style has changed so much in the last several years and I’m in a process of rediscovering who I am. I want to do something really out there - like a project where no one knows it’s me. Something really viby like The Japanese House coupled with Bon Iver, but with lyrics that have more spiritual depth. I just haven’t figured out how to make that sound.
What is one song you could play on repeat for 3 days?
Helpless by John Mayer (and I dream of being that girl singing the background vocals)
Do you have a favorite song of your own?
Tough question. It’s funny because I recently listened back to a bunch of voice memos and older ideas and thought dang, those were GREAT songs! No one’s ever heard them, though! There is one on YouTube called “I Won’t Run” and I’m pretty proud of that song
**(GO LOOK IT UP, EVERYONE! -mw )**
with husband @dylangreg
How has your recent marriage affected your music and yourself as a whole?
I’m entirely grateful that I married a musician. Dylan is a songwriter himself and it’s been fun (and also so challenging) to try to write together. We’ve finished a couple of songs and they’ve turned out really great. Marriage is absolutely a mirror though. It shows you your faults and your strengths. You have to learn how to respect someone else’s opinions and encourage them where may not have the same strengths. Dylan has tried to help get me out of this rut. It’s worked on some occasions, but honestly, I’ve almost been too happy to write! Before, my songs were about struggle and heartbreak. Not that I don’t experience those things, I feel like having a partner helps you process it better - something I once used songs to do, I now have him for. So I guess I need to find a balance there. (between the time I interviewed Bridget and the publishing of this post, she grew a human inside of her. That's right, Bridget is a mom! Check out some of her beautiful words about this journey: https://bridgetvogel.wordpress.com or https://www.instagram.com/bridgetvogel/ )
Where have you seen your music impact other people the most?
I had one song called “Wallflower” that always got comments - it was a story of a girl that was picked out of a crowd for the first time in her life. A bit of a fairy tale song, where her walls were broken down and she let true love in. Honestly, I kind of hated that I ever wrote that song (because it felt so feminine and flowery if you will), but it was the one that seemed to strike a chord with people who heard it.
Aside from that, the record I put out with a Freedom Church in the UK had people messaging me from all over the world. One song I wrote on the record is called “Not Alone” - it was written from a place where I really felt so alone and forgotten in that season of my life. It was a way for me to speak some truth over myself even though I didn’t feel it. That came out a couple of years ago and I still get messages about it. Makes me get emotional every time.
The Beautiful Paradox inside [Bridget]:
Describe your heart.
"My heart is pretty big, sometimes too big as I find I love so many types of people and so many different things."
How did this passion for music start, and how has it seemed paradoxical?
I always say that I was born into music. When I really began writing and pursuing it around age 18, it became an obsession. My plans of going to medical school to become a Pediatrician all changed when I realized that goal could take years to accomplish, but music was happening right then. I believed I was going to make it - and when I connected with a band from Charleston SC that was getting pretty well known at the time, I believed it even deeper.
When I moved to SC, finished up the EP I came to work on (called “The Shakedown,”) I expected that to be my huge launch. But nothing happened. I believed that I was going to make it, but funny enough, I didn't believe in myself to make it happen. Immediately, this sense of defeat washed over me and I crashed.
I wanted to throw my guitar against a wall. I wanted to stop singing. I hated that I'd believed in such a “stupid dream.”
I started leading worship again after that but never really pursued my own music again. In 2014 I took a quick detour to Nashville. At that time, I thought, well surely I'm good enough to be a Nashville writer. After I moved there, I found that again, life didn't seem to deal me those cards. No connection I made panned out, so I walked away again.
I moved to the U.K. and in 2015 got to release an album with them that went to number one on the UK worship iTunes. I wrote half that album & it felt really good. But nothing really changed for my original music.
I'm back to leading worship in the US and I know it's something I'm meant to do, but I still dream of putting out new music that I have yet to write. I still dream of touring, of writing some hit song...but at 30 years old, I'm discouraged that maybe I won't ever accomplish those things.
I think that being creative, you have to have a willingness to roll with the punches. You have to believe in yourself enough to push through the really tough discouraging times but also hold that dream with open hands because maybe it your idea of success isn't God’s idea.
I'm still trying to figure out that balance, don't get me wrong. All in all, it's changed a lot. I wish I still had the same level of passion that I once did but here we are- still on the journey...
What phase of your music is most reflective of your phase of life when you look back over your life as a whole?
The whole thing! My early 20s were full of excitement and opportunity. I embraced it: the adventure despite uncertainty. It was full of challenge, inspiration, beauty. Those songs were powerful, reflective, emotional.
My late 20s, reality sunk in and that inspiration kind of floated away, I guess. The music I've written has been a lot more dry. Funny how that happens.
What things in your life that first seemed to be obstacles have actually contributed to this passion and the woman you are today?
Honestly, my passion for people has often gotten in the way of me pursuing my passion for music. To me, music can be a very introspective, lonely art. You get to share it, but the best songs are usually written in the dark times. Being out with people, making friends, ministering, it doesn't leave me time to be alone and reflect. However, that passion for people has influenced me as a person - the way I love, care, interact, respect. I think I see how I can take many of those experiences, learning other people's stories, and create songs out of them.
Has music aided or hindered your self discovery and identity?
Both - I absolutely had a struggle separating my identity from being a musician. But I have to say that music has been my story - so it is my identity.
How have your spiritual beliefs contributed to knowing who you are as a woman, and discovering your passions for music and other things?
I feel that the faith I have has also changed as I grew, as it should. When I was a bit younger, it was way more adventurous. I wanted God to take me on a crazy ride - and he really did. I just kept walking through the doors I believed he opened before me.
As I got a little bit older, I had to fight “reality” or maybe the world’s expectations - I had to learn the difference in placing my faith in God or in people (often the hard way). I think now, I still want to be adventurous with God, but I'm in more of a quiet season - a disciplined season where I have to learn submitting my dreams to God’s plan. It's not easy. It's not fun, sometimes. But it's helping me to iron out the difference between my selfish ambition and God’s pure calling within the passion for creativity that he's given me.
I've heard it said, and there's a verse that backs it up, whatever you do, do it unto the Lord.
My passion may be for music, but my calling is to love God and love people. As long as I'm doing that, I'm on the right track. Yes God fashioned me for a job he only made me to do, and I think I'm still figuring that out, but my focus, whether I arrive at that pinnacle of living out my passion/dreams has to be that love for God & people.
If you could say 1 thing to women, and you were sure every woman would hear you, what would you say?
