Contemporary Christian singer Moriah Peters starts over with Trala

After six years and two albums – “I Choose Jesus” and “Brave” – as a solo artist, having become “weary from carrying the weight of (her) own name,” contemporary Christian singer Moriah Peters was ready for a new focus in life.

She was interested in philanthropic business, the clothing industry and acting, though she also considered returning to school.

So while in Israel visiting her namesake Mt. Moriah, Peters posed a question to God.

“My prayer was simply, ‘Alright, God, I know the next step is probably not going to be in music, so let me know what I need to do,’ ” she said during a recent phone interview.

As it turns out, God had a different plan in mind.

Peters said she very quickly felt the revelation that she wasn’t finished with music, but rather she was going to start a new chapter that involved stepping forward with her bandmates as part of a new project.

Those bandmates, pianist Jesi Jones and guitarist Julie Melucci, had toured with Peters for the majority of her solo career after her then-boyfriend, now-husband suggested she form a female backing band to help her better enjoy her time on the road.

After returning to the U.S., Peters, a self-proclaimed team player, approached Jones and Melucci and asked them if they were interested in writing music together.

“Thank God for their faith, the faith that they showed in that moment because they agreed to a dream that was completely ambiguous and nebulous and nothing about it was concrete for about a year and a half, two years,” Peters said. “We dove into writing with the sole purpose of creating something that we could be proud of, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

Jones, Melucci and Peters, as Trala, will perform at the Spokane Arena on Sunday as part of Winter Jam.

Though they had performed together for years, writing as a trio was a new undertaking.

Peters said the creative process can be a very sensitive one, and though she had writing sessions with both male and female writers in the past, she had never before sat down with a group of women to write.

Luckily, the band’s onstage chemistry flowed into the writing sessions.

“There was something so freeing and so powerful and really refreshing about what the process became for us, which was the natural progression of the chemistry we already had built on the road transferred into the studio,” Peters said.

The trio’s first release as Trala, an atmospheric electro-rock song called “Holy Collision,” was one of the last songs to come from the band’s writing sessions, but the band felt its message, similar to that of Trala’s mission statement, made it a strong introduction.

Jones, Melucci and Peters wrote Trala’s mission statement at the same time they were writing music.

“People forget that building a band is also building a business and that includes everything that would go into a store business,” Peters said. “You want to have a concept or a framework for how you want to operate things on a relational level.”

A big part of Trala’s mission statement was the concept of a holy collision as opposed to a spiritual encounter.

Trala defines a spiritual encounter as more often than not an expectation, turning on a Christian radio station or going to church and saying “My hands are open. I’m looking for some sort of spiritual awakening.”

A holy collision, on the other hand, connotes something unexpected and in some cases unwanted.

“We felt like that was the approach we wanted to take with music in general and that is to step into environments where we’re surrounding ourselves with people who aren’t looking to know who God is or who aren’t looking to even think about the spiritual side of things,” Peters said. “But with the message of our music, we’re able to share that with them in a hopefully creative way.”

The band released a second single, “Creature Machine,” last month and are planning on releasing another single, “Gotcha,” near the end of the Winter Jam tour. A full-length album will likely follow early next year.

Jones, Melucci and Peters wrote “Gotcha” in response to hearing a slew of songs in which female musicians were cutting each other down and competing with one another.

“We wrote it really with this sense of camaraderie and friendship in mind …,” Peters said. “We wanted to try and create a balance by putting out a song that really speaks to how wonderful things can be when we have each other’s backs instead and encourage each other.”

That message too could be part of Trala’s mission statement, and it follows with what Peters feels has developed over the trio’s time together.

“Even though we just released our first single a couple months ago, I feel like we have been a unit and a team for the past five years playing together,” she said.