[ WM ] Hi Nick , it ' s a pleasure to meet you ! I ' ve loved the work that Bethel has been giving to the body for some time and am already thankful for what your hands have put forth for everyone .
If we can start at the start , was there a moment , player , song that drew you to the keyboard or just a lack of a keyboard player on the worship team ?
[ Nick Stailey ] That ’ s a great question , I think it ’ s hard to pinpoint an exact moment for me where I was like , “ I ’ m a keyboard player .” I grew up playing piano classically , and that was something I really loved . I actually started going to college for music , but God ended up taking me a different direction , leading me to Redding to attend Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry .
I ’ m getting a little ahead of myself , though . I first started playing keyboards at a 3-month worship school in Nashville right after graduating high school . I ’ d never really played on a worship team before and was expecting a training phase where we would learn how to use our instruments in a worship setting . Instead , it was trial by fire , and the first week they put us up on a worship set for one of their church services . I knew guitar chords , fortunately , so I just had to very quickly figure out what I was doing . And , to be honest , that ’ s kind of how my journey has been ever since with playing keys . When I started playing at Bethel Church , I didn ’ t know much about keys software , audio interfaces , or running tracks . That ’ s something I learned out of necessity . I think we all would love to be fully prepared and experts before we do something new , but that ’ s usually not how things go .
[ WM ] As a player , do you have a preference between live or session work ? What is your approach to playing live versus sessions ?
[ Nick ] I really enjoy both , I love the energy of playing live , but I love the creativity involved with session work . If I had to choose one , I ’ d say playing live , there ’ s something special about doing music with your band , and then also sharing that experience with the people in the crowd .
There was something Steffany Gretzinger said to a crowd while we were on tour , she said something like , “ This exact combination of people will never be together again this side of eternity , so we get to give God an offering He ’ s never been given before .” And I think that beautifully sums up why playing live is so special . As far as my approach goes for live versus session work , for playing live , I have a template with sounds that I know will work great in a live setting , regardless of the songs we ’ re playing . For me with session work , I need to try a lot of dumb sounding things until I find something that sticks . So , it ’ s a lot of experimenting , putting on weird effects , turning