For those who may not know you, can you share a bit about yourself and where you’re from?

I’ve been married for four and a half years. My wife Katie and I have two little girls, Molly, who is two and a half years old, and Norah, who just turned one. I originally grew up in farm country in south-western Ontario. When we got married, we decided to settle in a small town close Katie’s roots.

What motivated you to become a songwriter?

Peer pressure. I just wanted to play electric guitar in a rock band. I had no aspirations to sing or write music, but it was something that was encouraged, and eventually led me to grow in that. The more I started song writing, the more passion I realized I had for it. In the last 8-10 years, I’ve really felt a calling to writing songs that people can relate to and use as a tool to aid them in their spiritual journey closer to Christ.

I understand you’ve had the opportunity recently to co-write with other professional songwriters in Nashville. Who were they and how did that experience help you as a songwriter?

This spring when I was in Nashville I had some writing sessions with a couple of guys from the Word/Warner music group. The first was Michael Farren from Pocket Full of Rocks and the second was Paul Alan who has a song on Point of Grace’s latest album. Both guys are very talented song writers, and it was exciting and humbling working with them.

I could relate well with Michael because of his heart for worship and sharing his experiences ministering to people on the road for so many years. I also appreciated Paul’s discipline in business and his commitment as a husband and father, taking care of his family, while still being open God’s plan for his life with respect to music.

I felt like I had developed my song writing skills on my own as much as I could and that I had plateaued. So many songwriters stay in that rut, and write the same kinds of songs over and over again. Forcing myself to write with others (especially more talented writers) was like flexing my writing muscles, introducing new ideas that challenged me, allowing me to get stronger and nurture the gifts God had given me. I personally think it’s something that needs to be done continually.

You are an independent artist and songwriter. How do you manage to get your music into the marketplace and have the opportunities that you’ve had to open for major artists such as Matt Maher and Point of Grace?

I’ve realized along the way that nurturing relationships for both business and ministry is extremely important. When you look at most circumstances in life, the choices you make are usually based on the recommendation of someone you trust. If you need a plumber, you go ask your neighbour who they use. If you need a dentist, you ask a friend. As a musician, a recommendation from someone who can influence the decision makers can go a long way. Even more especially in Church and ministry. A pastor doesn’t want just anyone coming in front of their congregation introducing concepts that may not align with the churches beliefs, etc.

I’ve been blessed to have a wonderful management team to help me develop as an artist, take some of the burden off of me so I can focus more on ministry, and to facilitate the relationships I wouldn’t normally be able to on my own.

Being based in Canada, with a lot of the gospel music industry being based out of the United States, how do you go about releasing your music and how has the Canadian marketplace embraced your music?

Christian radio in Canada has been so welcoming, and I’ve been blessed to have the opportunities that I have. Stations have fewer and fewer spots for “new” music and the few spots available are extremely competitive to get, just because there’s so much great music out there. Promoting a new record and a new single is a lot of work, but it’s worth it. I know so many artists that spend the money to make a great record, and then don’t remember to budget for promotional efforts. Then I start to think, what was the point of spending all that money if no one knows about your music and you have 950 of the 1000 copies you got pressed sitting in your closet still?

Christian radio and retail distribution have taken my music from “the local worship leader” to a more national level. Even today, beyond my belief, my music is reaching and ministering to people across the continent, and that’s an amazing opportunity I feel honoured to have.

What would you say to encourage other songwriters or worship leaders who may want to get their music heard?

I think it’s important to recognize that there are various methods to distribute your music and by not getting radio play or retail distribution, doesn’t make an artist’s song less effective. A recent example I have with my own music is a slow melodic ballad I wrote with another local artist called, “Pursue Me”. I never intended it to be a “radio” song; it was more of a prayer to God. But a friend of mine led it in worship during a youth pilgrimage to Medjugorje . He said it turned into their theme song by the end of their mission trip because it spoke to them and allowed them to worship God effectively.

First off, I was honoured that a song I had a hand in writing was able to be used for that purpose. Secondly, I don’t feel that song is any less effective because it didn’t chart on radio. It served a great purpose and additionally, that song was nominated for “Inspirational Song of the Year” for this October’s Canadian Gospel Music Association Covenant Awards.

Artists—share your music every way you can (YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, worship events, radio, television, retail, iTunes, etc.). But personally, the songs I’ve been most touched by aren’t the ones I’ve heard on the radio. It’s the ones I’ve seen live, where the artist shares the story about the circumstance in their life that inspired the song, being able to relate to it myself and leave feeling touched. It’s the songs I’ve had an “encounter” with.

Something that I’ve had to learn along the way is to forget about the accolades, the awards, and the charts—because there is always going to be someone better. Work towards creating opportunities for people to encounter your songs. Keep focused on Christ and His plan for you.

When you travel and lead worship, you also speak for Compassion Canada. How has being an advocate enhanced your ministry?

My wife and I always “talked” about how it would be a good idea to get involved, but it took us a long time to put those words into action. When we finally did, our eyes were opened. We realized how good we really have it here in North America. How many people around the world suffer and go without. We realized that in our cushy lives, some days our biggest burden was getting our pizza delivered and they forgot the extra sauce, or ordering an ice cream cone, and they ran out of sprinkles. We didn’t know what it meant to go without like so many in our world do today.

We sponsored Marianna from Columbia and we instantly saw a change in our family. We started to see interest from our girls to write letters and draw pictures for her, to pray for her, and we were excited that we had the opportunity to bestow those values in our children at such a young age.

We really felt called to share that with others, which is why we have partnered with Compassion—to free more children from poverty, give them the opportunity to learn about Christ and to help folks that have been blessed, experience the graces received from giving and sacrifice (even though it is a relatively small sacrifice).

A question that we ask at the end of all All About Worship interviews: if you weren’t able to be involved in music, what would you be doing?

God only knows. If you would have asked me that question in my pre-teens, I would have said an action hero—most likely Superman, but I would settle for Batman.

Related posts:

1. Interview with David Santistevan
2. Chris McClarney on Being More Expressive in Worship (plus video)
3. Brenton Brown Video Interview with All About Worship

Wisdom: What is The Desperate?

Jonny: Real Raw Revolution Ministries created The Desperate as a movement of people who are desperate for more of God and desperate to see God revealed in the lives of their friends, family, and everybody they come in contact with. We also created thedesperate.com as a social app to gather a generation of believers together around that idea.

W: Could you share with us what the process was like working on Songs For The Desperate?

J: In the natural and logistically working on this first Songs for the Desperate project was… really exciting and very difficult all at the same time. Noe Chapparo and I started the project when we were both living in Tampa, FL and that worked great. It got really difficult when I felt called back to Georgia and Noe moved to the Faroe Islands off the coast of Denmark.

From that point on we wrote, recorded, and engineered over Skype, ichat, screen share, iDisk, Dropbox, and whatever other technology we thought might help get the job done. We were able to fly Noe over for a week of recording in Florida as well as mixing and mastering in TN and GA so that helped a lot.

God really gave us a grace for the interesting circumstances we were recording in. I would stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning and Noe would get up at the crack of dawn or vice versa so we could record together and God would always show up and really connect and inspire the ideas we were bringing to the table. It was amazing to be thousands of miles apart and still have a great creative flow and an extremely worshipful atmosphere in everything that we did.

W: What is the main thing you hope the listener takes away from this project?

J: We want people who hear this album to be challenged to a deeper level of intimacy with their Father. We want people to hear these songs and say, “You helped me say what I couldn’t put in words.”

We are always more focused on declaring the creative Word of God than with being musically creative. I hope what people take away from this project is not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Cor. 2:5).

W: What’s the one song on the album that’s been getting the most response from churches? What’s the story behind that song?

J: The song that is getting the most response when we play it live right now is “I Surrender”. It’s a song that was written very quickly during my own personal worship time. The song simply tries to express our need for surrender and submission to the Holy Spirit. Because of that it has become an anthem in the altars almost everywhere that we go.

We’ve seen hundreds of people at the altars over the last year crying out, “I SURRENDER! COME AND CHANGE ME! HOLY SPIRIT HAVE YOUR WAY!”. There have been times we’ve played that song for over an hour as people are just saturated in His presence because of being yielded and surrendered to God.

W: What role does scripture play in your songwriting?

J: Scripture is the foundation, beginning and end of everything that we write. We don’t write songs inspired by anything but the word of God. Nothing else is living and powerful and able to divide spirit and soul, joint and marrow and discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12). Nothing else can sanctify, set apart for God’s purpose, like the truth of the Word (John 17:17). Nothing else is held higher in heaven than the Word of God.

God regards His words higher than His own name (Ps 138:2). Psalm 119:11 says that we hide His words in our heart to keep us far from sin. If you want to write songs about Jesus you can’t get away from the word because John 1 declares that Jesus IS the Word!

Sorry, to go on about that. You got me on my favorite subject. I think it’s very interesting that all the melodies and musical arrangements for the psalms got lost but it’s those words inspired by God that endure. That’s why we hold His word and truth in such high regard in our writing.

W: What’s next for The Desperate?

J: We are currently working on 4 new projects. Our label Real.Raw.Revolution Records recently signed a band called Lady at The Well and we just finished up all the tracking for that album which will be out soon. We are also working on the second Songs for the Desperate album, Noe’s solo project, and my solo project.

The thing we’re most excited about coming up is traveling and ministering in 2012. We’re currently booking for a tour all over the country and would love to hear from anyone reading this that has an event coming up they feel like we would be a good fit for.

A special thanks to Jonny Hale of The Desperate for taking the time to share with us. Be sure to connect with them online: 
facebook.com/songsforthedesperate
twitter.com/thedesperate
twitter.com/jonnyhale
twitter.com/noahchaparro
realrawrevolution.com

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Related posts:

1. Episode 73, Interview with Stuart Townend – Show Notes
2. Episode 77: Interview w/ Leigh Nash (of Sixpence None The Richer)
3. Episode 71 featuring Will McGinniss of Audio Adrenaline & Know Hope Collective – Show Notes

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Related posts:

1. Episode 73, Interview with Stuart Townend – Show Notes
2. Episode 77: Interview w/ Leigh Nash (of Sixpence None The Richer)
3. Episode 71 featuring Will McGinniss of Audio Adrenaline & Know Hope Collective – Show Notes

If you can’t get enough of Wisdom Moon and Ben Abu Saada, be sure to listen all the way till the end of the podcast for some secret humorous content.

Be sure to check out our sponsor, RightsFlow. You can visit their website at church.rightsflow.com and follow them @churchcopyright or facebook.com/righsflow

Limelight 20% off  code: AAWLL (www.SongClearance.com)

MySpark $15 off code: AAWMS (www.MySparkCopyright.com)

CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free podcast!

Related posts:

1. Episode 73, Interview with Stuart Townend – Show Notes
2. Episode 71 featuring Will McGinniss of Audio Adrenaline & Know Hope Collective – Show Notes

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Related posts:

1. Episode 71 featuring Will McGinniss of Audio Adrenaline & Know Hope Collective – Show Notes
2. TSC Episode 3: Andrew Peterson – Show Notes
3. TSC Episode 2 : The Museum – Show Notes

Dan: As a Worship Pastor and Young Adults Pastor, how do you organize your time with your team(s) to be ready for services each week?

David: With my worship team, I’m fortunate to work with some skilled, passionate young players who come prepared.

We use Planning Center as our home base of communication where our musicians can reference the weekends they are scheduled and come prepared to rehearsal. This enables us to rehearse on Saturday before our Saturday night service and skip a weekday rehearsal.

It’s pretty rare for a musician to show up on Saturday unprepared, which is amazing. It hasn’t always been this way!

Dan: Do you try to introduce original music in your worship services? If so, how often and what is the response from the congregation?

David: Yes, we do. Most songs typically take 2-3 weekends before they catch on. What I’ve found is that the original songs we write are embraced by the congregation even more than other songs. I’m not sure why, other than the congregation believes in what we’re doing. And, hopefully because the songs are good.

I’m currently trying to introduce one original song a month. We just finished a songwriting retreat with our team a few months ago, so there’s a lot of songs we’re working on finishing and introducing. The hard part is finishing the songs! Sometimes you just need to call it done (for now) and test it out.

Dan: How long have you been blogging and what gives you the drive to write as many as 5 articles per week?

David: Believe it or not, I’ve actually been blogging for about 4 years. I started blogging just because a few close friends said I should. I had no vision or strategy for it. It was random and not very good. Barely had any readers.

About 9 months ago I decided to get more serious about it as a way to extend my influence and have a ‘home base’ for my ideas and ministry. I have a passion to teach so it’s been a great outlet for that as well. I write so often because I challenge myself to do it. I think it’s a great habit for everyone to write every day. Whether they have a blog or a journal or scribble on napkins doesn’t really matter.

Writing has made me a better thinker, artist, pastor, and leader. Positive feedback, blog growth, and having a passion for my niche keeps me going as well.

Dan: Your blog seems to have a lot of participation through comments and social media sharing. What topic would you say has brought the most feedback?

David: Anything worship related gets the most feedback and sharing. I was nervous that narrowing my niche would exclude readers and shrink my blog. It’s only grown as I’ve invested in this niche of worship leading in the local church. Second would be when I write about blogging. I think that’s because bloggers are online more than non-bloggers, so they’re always devouring content.

Dan: If you had one word of advice to give worship leaders, what would it be?

David: Invest your best energies into loving God with all your heart. “Passion for Jesus” is not a one-time event where you then move on to more practical matters. The practical aspects of worship leading are important but nothing can fuel a life of worship leading other than falling more in love with Jesus every day. Guard that passion with your life.

Dan: You are a Pastor and blogger, but you are also a songwriter and in 2008 recorded a worship album entitled “Near”. Can you tell us about the project and how that came about?

David: Recording “Near” was a dream come true for me. I’ve always wanted to record a worship album of original songs because my life was shaped by worship music as a youngster. I spent more time than I’d like to admit listening to Matt Redman, Vineyard, MorningStar, and Hillsong.

I wanted to release what was inside of me. The album was the result of a long season of physical suffering. I had an undiagnosed disease for over a year where I was unable to walk up stairs and lift up my hands, let alone play my guitar and sing. I laid down my passion for that year because I had no choice. Many of the songs were written without me actually singing them because I was so sick. But they were breath in my lungs as I poured my heart out to God through it all. He’s been so faithful.

Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win David’s CD – Near. We’ll pick 3 random winners. Deadline is September 6th. You must be a U.S. resident and at least 18 years old.

Related posts:

1. Exclusive Interview with Matt Redman
2. Exclusive Interview with Joanna (Reyburn) May
3. Exclusive Interview with Sarah Lavigne