In just a short period of time , worship leader Brandon Lake has broken out as one of the most gifted troubadours of our time . In addition to his touring dates with Bethel Music , Maverick City , and Elevation , he serves as worship pastor at Sea Coast Church in South Carolina .
[ WM ] Wow ! It ’ s great to meet you today . Thanks for this time to visit .
[ Brandon Lake ] Thank you . It ’ s good to meet you !
[ WM ] I ’ ve been watching and listening to you now for several years , but I don ’ t know much of anything prior to your initial recording . What can you tell us about your early years , your musical influences , and your decision to follow Christ ?
[ Brandon ] Absolutely . Well , I ' m a PK through and through . I ' m a pastor ' s kid . I grew up in a church in Myrtle Beach , old dirty Myrtle in South Carolina . I grew up in a church plant . My Dad ' s a pastor , and we planted a church years ago when I was really young , probably around eight years old . I pretty much grew up in that church , at least in my younger years . And I just fell in love with worship . It all started out , honestly , when I just wanted to be like the guitar player . And so , I thought he played the coolest guitar and just looked so cool , and I was like , " Man , I want to be like him ."
And so my Dad started me out . He taught me G , C , D and E minor . And that ' s about all he knew . Because when you do a church plant , the pastor ' s usually the worship leader as well .
Maybe not nowadays , but back in the day , it was like you kind of wore every hat . And so , he knew a few things , taught me a few chords , and I kind of took it from there . I began just a lot of self-teaching . Obviously , once YouTube was released and it was a thing , it took my guitar playing to another level .
Honestly , I just tried to imitate anyone who was in front of me , who was better than me . And that ' s still my story . I ' m still just imitating those who are better than me . And I feel like I ' ve become a collection of the people I ' ve been around , like Tasha Cobbs . There are little things that you might not know but only I could recognize that I do now because of the way I ' ve spent time with her . And now I ' m like , " Okay , there ' s little things I ' ve picked up from her