Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Northwest's Senior Worship Pastor, Jared Evans and ask a few questions about his personal taste and the future of the worship team.
I've known Jared for a number of years and one of our frequent conversations tends to be about what are we listening to lately, or what our favourite songs are at the moment. Jared's tastes have certainly evolved, as all ours do, over time although it's always surprising.
ME: "What are you listening to right now?"
JARED: "I currently don't listen to much radio, top 40 stuff. Or things with a lot of lyrics. Because I feel like it's going to too heavily influence what my subconscious is singing when I'm playing chord progressions. Which, I ironically heard from Adam Levine. Cause he never listens to radio stuff otherwise he's going to write the radio."
ME: "He already does."
JARED: "Which, yes, he does now cause he completely sold out."
ME: "He is making those sales."
JARED: "So I listen to a lot of jazz, a lot of three piece jazz, piano-based, drums. Bill Evans is my favourite jazz pianist. A lot of house music. A lot of......just instrumental stuff. So I'm not infused by current melodies."
ME: "So, you're getting sounds instead of specific ideas. You're getting feelings."
JARED: "Yes, I'm getting the appreciation of music without the direct influence of someone's melody and I don't want to pay attention to what someone's doing as much as what the music is doing and making me feel."
He hates talking about music like this because he thinks he sounds pretentious. Which, he does. But generally so do I, so we move on. Time for favourite songs.
ME: "Alright, favourite song ever."
JARED: "I'm giving 'em both. My all time favourite song is 23 by Jimmy Eat World, I heard it when I was 18 and the guitar solo in it. I can play it on guitar to this day and that was 10 years ago. Something about that guitar solo, he hit every note that wasn't in the melody that you wanted to be in the melody. That's what I love about the guitar solo. It's every note I wanted to hear in the song that I didn't get to hear in the song. He put it into one solo. And it's perfect. It's like the perfect guitar part. And I remember the day I turned 24 and I listened to the song 23 and I was super depressed because I was older than my favourite song. It was pretty crushing. So that is my all time.....I will never be tired of that song. My other one is Carbon Based Lifeforms's MOS-6581. It is fantastic. It is the perfect example of what house music is. It's the perfect synopsis of the genre."
This is the first in a series of articles about Jared and Northwest Music....and their exciting not-yet-out-project that's in the works. Be sure to check back for the next article where something exciting is sure to be announced!
--Aaron Hansen