Thoughts For Electric Guitarist From Joseph

Hey guys it’s Joseph.  I play guitar for Justin Warren Teseniar.  Just wanted to share with you guys a little about the electric side of things on stage, and how you don’t have to be a shredder to be a lead guitarist.  Some people think you have to be amazing to play lead, but in my opinion simplicity is better.  You don’t want to take the focus off of God and place it on your skills.
Also wanted to talk a little bit about gear.  You can have twenty pedals if you want but if you don’t know how to set them up to your tone, then you should sell them and make some money, Or you can buy more pedals just to make your board look awesome!  Anyways, just make sure that you set the tone of your amp the way you like it and then set your pedals to that tone.  I really like ambient sounds like a lot of delay, some verb and a little drive.  If there is not a keyboardist there, you can really make it full with some ambient sounds.  Some of the pedals i use are;  Fulltone OCD overdrive, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 overdrive,  VooDoo Lab sparkledrive overdrive,  BBE sonic maximizer “makes your tone really sparkly and punchy, almost like a compression pedal, but you can control the bass and treble of it.”  DD20 giga delay pedal “great delay”,  T.C. electronix Nova Delay “really great pedal, especially if you like to preset your delays”,  Nano Holy Grail reverb,  Boss EQ “great for a boost for solo’s and bigger drive in bigger parts of songs”.  I also use a volume pedal, “great pedal for doing swells and being able to leave all your pedals on and not have a lot of buzz through the system.”  Well that is all the pedals i use.  I try to try pedals out before i buy them, especially on your amp, that way you know how it is going to sound.  Make sure you do your research before you buy!
Just wanted to give you guys a little help.  If you have any questions or need some help with something, just tweet me.  @josephjarmon  Thanks guys, tear it up for Jesus!

P.S.  Get a tube amp, it will change your tone amazingly!!!

Thoughts from a Tech Guru

You can never really be sure what to expect walking into a gig.  In my 2 years working with Justin and my 4 years working at Lawndale there have been very few set ups where everything has gone as expected, and the ones where everything has, I was expecting it not to.   I’ve learned that my expectations and assumptions about events are never right, so I’ve been trying to go into things with an open mind.

I’m not naturally a very flexible person.   I like to have everything the way it should be -the way I want it.   This mind set is not always bad, I think it can help get things done quickly and efficiently.  However, if you are so set in how you do things that you simply cannot do it any other way, you will accomplish nothing.   When things go wrong, as they often do, it’s easy to say “I’m not going to be able to do this,” but however much we dislike it we have to make it work.

-Sam Payne

Twitter: @samueldpayne

Facebook: facebook.com/samueldpayne

Spiritual Warfare In Worship (Reach 2011)

Two weekends ago the band and I were blessed to be in Elizabethton, TN and be part of an event called Reach 2011. A great friend of mine, Steven Nauman hosted the event at his church. It was a mission’s camp, where during the day the students go out into the community and do services projects. I love these types of camps because it really helps teach the students that worship is more than standing in an auditorium and singing songs; it also involves being the hands and feet of Christ, worship is an active lifestyle. In my three years of playing camps I have had some great experiences, but I think Saturday nights worship service might be the most powerful service I have ever been a part of!

You know those nights where everything seems to be going completely wrong? It was one of those! During the first few minutes of worship we lost the lights. When it was time for the speaker to come up, he became extremely ill and had to leave the room. So we came back up and played a few more songs while people prayed for Him. Brian Jennings finally made it back to teach and out of nowhere his microphone went crazy making all kinds of horrible noise. It could not be fixed so after being very sick, he had to bring the message without amplification. There where a few other things, but you get the point. I’m not one to blame everything that goes wrong on Satan, I don’t believe there is a bogey behind every bush, but I do believe spiritual warfare was thick in the midst of this service. I believe Satan was not pleased with was going on in the lives and hearts of these students. Talking afterwards with my bass player Dan, he said before the service when he walked into room he felt a weird vibe about the place. Everything felt different to him than it had previously. He just started praying and asking God to cover the place. Other leaders confirmed this feeling later. I know this all sounds really crazy and you’re probably like, “Justin how in the world is this one of the coolest experiences you have ever had leading worship?” Well, I am about to explain!

After Brian Jennings did an incredible job preaching, we went into our response time. We were leading with the song Christ Is Risen, which is an incredible song written by Matt Maher. During the bridge we were singing, “OH DEATH WHERE IS YOUR STING, OH HELL WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY, OH CHURCH COME STAND IN THE LIGHT, OUR GOD IS NOT DEAD HE’S ALIVE HE’S ALIVE!!!!” I can’t explain this and you may think I’m crazy, but in the moment where we moved into the chorus there was this huge release, the atmosphere changed in an instant and it was as if you could hear a million voices singing and shouting the chorus, “CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!!!!” Spiritual warfare was going on in our midst and Satan wanted to do all he could to take our attention off of Christ, and here in this moment it was as if God’s people declared victory in Christ, the One who defeated sin and death, and the enemy fled! Three kids came forward that night to make professions of faith!

I am not writing this to preach that everything that goes wrong in a worship service is because of the Devil, but I am preaching this… That no one and no thing, not man nor Satan, can ever steal God’s glory or keep the Lord from doing what He wants! So I encourage you worship leader and worshiper, ask God to come have His will and way in your midst!!!

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The Release of Departing From Normal!

I honestly don’t even know where to begin! We had an amazing night of worship on June 4th as we celebrated the release of our brand new EP Departing From Normal. A huge thanks to Josh Via and Jonathan Edwards for being a part of the night! These guys are two awesome artist and they really helped make the night great! I also want to thank my band Jeremy, Joseph, Dan, Aaron, and Jonny. You guys are just phenomenal! Also my road manager Brian and sound guy Sam, you guys are just incredible. Also to everyone else who helped, there are really to many names to even mention, and it would take up this whole blog! Most importantly I want to give a big thanks to all of you who came out and worshiped with us, you all really helped make the night special! This whole night was about giving glory and honor to our great God, from the very beginning to the very end.   It was great to finally be able to share the songs and message that God had been stirring in my heart! I hope you all are enjoying the new cd, and I am excited about getting to travel and continue to share these songs! If you didn’t know, and you don’t have the new EP yet, it is available on itunes! We have a lot of exciting things coming up so I hope you will stay tuned, I will be keeping this blog going and keeping you all updated about what we are up to and what God is teaching me as a worship leader and christian artist! Thanks again a million times to everyone!!! God bless you all!!

Departing From Normal is available on itunes just follow this link! http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/departing-from-normal-ep/id442736333

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Online Listening Party

Hello everyone, we are so excited about the EP release of Departing From Normal June 4th, at New Horizon Church here in Durham, NC. The release is only a few days away and we can’t wait to get this new project in your hands. To honor Memorial Day this weekend and to honor those that protect our freedoms, we are going to stream a song from the new EP each day Friday to Monday on our Facebook page. All you have to do is “Like” our Facebook page here to hear the songs and you are set to go! We hope you enjoy and be sure to tell all of your family and friends to go check it out and don’t forget to thank those who have given of themselves and do so daily in our military. God Bless all of you and we can’t wait to worship our God with you.

For HIS Glory!

Justin Teseniar