Worship Musician March 2018 | Page 20

have really been received well. What are some other songs that you are hearing about other churches using in worship? [Mariah] Yeah, there’s a lot! Songs like “Back To You” and one called “Glory and Wonder” … we have a few churches that just kind of play every song. We ask them to send us videos – we just love when they play them. It’s just totally special that they do that on their own and we love it. really hard to explain… Our language at Mosaic [Mariah] For the band, and for myself, it’s is that we are a tribe, and I feel like worship is one really been about finding the sound that makes of those things that has connected us in a way people a little more open. I find a lot of times that we didn’t know we could be connected. it’s more of a sound than like a lyric because… We now have this universal language that puts especially in L.A. – such a big city with so many our faith into music and song. It’s been really young people, so many artists, entertainers, unifying as a church. and pace-makers, and all these things – it’s so important that the sounds that they hear, [WM] You mentioned earlier that you had set sounds that they know that are cutting-edge a goal of using only Mosaic songs in worship. and “edgy” and all of these things – they are Have you reached that goal, or are you still like open to the arts. When they appreciate the using other music/songs? art, they start to listen to the words a little more. For a lot of us, we’ve done music outside of [Mariah] Yeah, we’re mostly there. So, now Mosaic for many years, so our passion is just we just include songs that we feel are really like listening to music and finding music and speaking to us. Which, I feel is really cool kind of being on the fringe of everything that’s for us because we don’t have to use other happening when we listen to it and when we people’s songs, but we get to. So, there are make it. For us, that’s been a huge part of it… songs that we hear like, “Peace Be Still” from kind of always pushing the limits of what we The Belonging Co., that we are really moved can do to keep that door open for people that by and have they impacted us in our personal aren’t just within the church community that are lives. We’ll bring those songs to each other saying, “Those are great songs; they’re edgy and say like, “Hey, I think this song would really and different…” That kind of opens them up for be powerful.” We love to be able to use those the next level, which is listening to the words songs. People write amazing songs! and engaging and asking questions. It really starts with that sound in the songwriting and [WM] You mentioned that you have a lot of producing process. How are you seeing them respond during [WM] You talked about writing your songs worship? with other churches and church communities in mind. Songs like “Never Stop” and “Tremble” March 2018 your arrangements, or are they rearranging them for their churches? [Mariah] What we’ve seen is they usually use the same thing. Many of them will use the tracks from the songs, which is really cool. But, one thing that I love is when a church kind of makes one of their own arrangements of the songs. You know, I love when it’s different, when someone will make it work for their church. [WM] Talking about instruments, are you using a music director for your arrangements? [Mariah] So, our main team is like five or six of people, and three of us will mainly produce everything. We have one guy who is truly amazing and a total genius. He’ll kind of create the tracks – he’s amazing with computers and sounds and he’s an amazing piano player. So, he’ll kind of arrange it, and then we have a couple of music directors who have their hand in it. Some are more technological than others and have more computer skills and producing skills, and those people will do more of the hands-on work with the tracks. [WM] For your average service time, what does the team look like? [Mariah] At church on Sunday, we have a drummer with an SPD-SX drum pad, a bass player, and an electric bass (like a synth people at your church who do not know Jesus. 20 [WM] Are you seeing those churches follow bass)… then two keys players – we’ll have like a main keys player and then a piano; we’ll have an electric guitar and then six vocalists WorshipMusician.com