‘Do It Afraid’—Phil Wickham on What He Learned Voicing the Title Character in Angel’s Upcoming Animated Film ‘David’

“Once those sessions were done, I went to New York to record the music. I was excited because singing is what I know how to do,” said Wickham. “But after 10 minutes in the vocal booth, the director and the producer said, ‘Okay, you sound great, Phil, but you don’t sound like David. You sound like Phil.’”

“They said, ‘We know you can sing. But you have to be David. You’re carrying the story. These songs are written like a Broadway play. You’re not trying to get this on radio—you’re acting the song before you’re singing it,’” Wickham added.

“That was challenging,” he admitted and said that he had to set his “ego” aside. Wickham told ChurchLeaders, “I know what I want to sound like as a singer. After 12 records, I know how to present a vocal. But I had to throw that aside, listen to young David’s voice, and sound like the grown-up version of him…It was all new for me.”

“It was really trying and challenging,” he recounted. “But by the end, I’m glad I trusted them. It’s definitely not my albums—but I think it served the movie well.”

Wickham concluded by sharing a moment he experienced during an early screening of the film. “I was in the theater the studio rented out. It was the first time I saw it,” he said. “I watched it the whole time just clenched—thinking, ‘Please don’t be the weakest link of this whole incredible thing.’”

“When the lights came up, right in front of me was a mom with a boy maybe around 7 years old. He leaned over and said, ‘That’s really all in the Bible,’” Wickham shared. “He had no idea I played a role. He said, ‘Yeah, God fought on behalf of David and God kept his people safe.’”

“In that 15 seconds, a child’s heart opened up to the story of God—to the idea that Scripture could be for them, that they could see themselves in a character, and that a parent could speak into their child’s life,” the “Holy Forever” singer said. “That was a microcosm of everything going through my mind as I sang the songs.”