"I want to be authentic to myself
and the kind of music I love and listen to."
Coming off of his recent album "SEASON1", Pat Murphy discusses initial reactions, musical inspiration (both new and old), as well as his "elevator testimony".
Interview by Caroline Gutierrez
March 25, 2026
Have you always loved music? What was the first song that you learned to sing or play?
I have always loved music for sure, but it wasn't a huge part of my life until recently. My mom always jokes about how if I ever eat good food at the dinner table, I'll just dance. It's just something I do subconsciously. I was drumming on stuff when I was little and dancing and singing. So I've always been in touch with it, but I never invested in it until much later. I was big into sports growing up. Basketball was my entire life. Growing up, I took piano lessons for three weeks and quit, and then I tried drums for a month and quit, because I just wanted to go outside and play. Long story short, before my junior and senior year of high school, I tore my ACL back-to-back, and my hoop dreams were crushed. That was when I picked up music and started to try and create something. I immediately fell in love with creating (music) during that time. For me, that was 2020. But before then, the music I listened to started to really impact my life in a big way, probably during my freshman or sophomore year of high school. I grew up almost completely listening to secular rap music. Basketball culture and also being from the Atlanta area kind of combined to be the cultural environment that I grew up in. That music was all anyone listened to, and I loved it. I really did enjoy it. Some of my earliest musical memories are bumping Migos and Lil Yachty with my best friend. I look back on those memories fondly, but in high school, my best friend got into Christian rap and tried to get me into it. We had both just started taking our faith seriously. At first, I was like no, no, no, it's corny. Then he finally got me over, and that started to make a huge difference in my walk, which I was not expecting. That was when I realized how impactful music is, how much trash I was feeding my soul before I started listening to Christian rap, and how much life that Christian rap was actually giving me. That opened the door to a bunch of different styles of Christian music that I started to get into, even more so in college, and definitely now. It's a long-winded answer, but that kind of touched on a few different areas. To the second part of that original question, I play piano, guitar, and ukulele. I didn't start learning instruments really until my sophomore year of college, and I graduated in May. So that was three years ago now. My first song that I learned on the keys was actually “We Find Love” by Daniel Caesar. I have some songs that speak to me, and that one, the keys on it, literally was like a kick in the butt that I needed to just learn the keys. So I looked up how to play We Find Love on piano, and then I just learned from there.
A lot of your music has a theme of one word titles with a period at the end, including the title of your albums. Tell us about that.
To be honest, for me, it's not a super spiritual or theological reason. A hundred thousand songs get uploaded to Spotify every day, and it’s hard to stick out. I wanted to brand myself in a way that would be good to help people find me when they looked me up. It's such a pain when you're a small artist telling people to check out your music, and they ask what to search, and then you tell them and they can't find you.
Give us your elevator testimony. You have one minute to share the joy of salvation through Christ with someone in the elevator using your redemption story. What do you say?
I would say that I grew up in a Christian home, but didn't know what it meant to know God personally. I went through life, went through the motions, went to church and youth group, and all the things. It didn't mean anything to me. It didn't change the way I was living. It didn't give me hope. But my junior year in high school, God took away the one thing that mattered most to me, which at the time was basketball. I thought that was going to give me identity, give me fulfillment, give me hope. If I was good at basketball, if I could achieve my dreams. When He took that away, I realized there's only one thing that never changes, and that's Him. I had to rebuild my foundation on the Lord, and He saved me from hopelessness, brokenness, and from having no source of identity. He saved me from my sin. When I met God, I realized I needed Him for my life abundantly and life eternally. I've been on a journey of pursuing Him ever since, and it's been better than I could imagine.
We're pumped about your latest album release SEASON1, how has the response been?
I think it's been really good. One of the things I love the most is hearing people say “I don't really like rap music, but your stuff is good.” That's awesome for me because I want to bridge the gap between genres. I love hip-hop so much, but I also love a lot of instrumentation and real musicianship. So if I can bring people into seeing how beautiful hip-hop is, those who are not usually in that space, that's awesome. So I've gotten a lot of that. Also, I think people are a fan of the uniqueness, and sometimes it's hard when you're trying to market something and it doesn't fit well into a category. But, I want to be authentic to myself and the kind of music I love and listen to. Some people have seemed to appreciate the mix of trap, rapping, doing whatever, but also there's a piano, there's a ukulele, and there's whatever else. I really appreciate and value that feedback, and that's been a lot of stuff I've been getting.
What is your life verse, or a verse that’s gotten you through this season?
I feel like right now, my season verse is probably, well, this is going to be cheating, but it's a few verses. The Abrahamic Promise in Genesis 12, that's been a lot of what I've been walking through in the last six months. I’ve just seen so clearly in the story of Genesis, The Lord's faithfulness to us. How gracious it is, and when I look back at , myself, I realize how bad I am at being faithful to things and faithful to people. God has never failed to deliver good on His promise. He tells Abraham to go from your country, your people, and your father's household, and to a land I will show you. I will make your name great. I will bless you, and then he says “I will make you into a great nation and you will be a blessing”, and it goes on. I think it is so beautiful. It's amazing. A life verse though, I'm going to go with Psalm 23, the last verse (Psalm 23:6). “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, Forever.” When I think about who God is, He's going to faithfully pursue His people in love, and He wants to dwell with us.