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10 Questions with ... Carrollton
October 19, 2015
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Members:
- Justin Mosteller - lead vocals, guitar
- Jordan Bailey - bass, background vocals
- Michael Loy - drums, background vocals
- Jeremy Menard - lead Guitar, background vocals
Discography:
- 2012 This Is Life
- 2014 Breathe In Deep
- 2015 Sunlight And Shadows
1. Birthplace, childhood, schools, jobs, current hometown
I was born in the beautiful vacation spot known as Terre Haute, Indiana. We lived a few years in Indiana after I was born, but later moved to Louisville, KY where I grew up and lived until college. In high school I had some great jobs at Papa John's and UPS (which by the way gave me better health benefits than I have now, which is awesome). At 17 I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Cincinnati Bible College (Cincinnati Christian University). I worked throughout college playing music at coffee houses, bars, and folding clothes at Old Navy. In college I split my major between Biblical Studies and Music. I'm really grateful for my time there. It's where I first started loving the Scriptures and studying, whereI spent many nights in the library because I enjoyed it ... nerd alert! It's also where I first started writing songs and playing music, albeit bad music but music nonetheless. I graduated in 2003 and have been playing music and serving as a Worship Pastor ever since. When I'm not on the road with our band, I'm at home in Cincinnati, OH leading worship at our church, Center Pointe Christian Church.
2. What does a normal day at home look like for you?
Ok. You asked for it. :) My wife Sara and I have 3 amazing kids. Elliana is 2, Elise is 1, and Wyatt is 3 months. Some call it crazy. We call it our 'normal.' So a normal day for us looks like trying to sleep in as 'late' as possible, meaning when the first kid wakes up. Typically it begins with Wyatt waking up before 7am, and Elliana and Elise are soon to follow. Sara takes care of Wyatt in the mornings and I have the joy of getting the girls up. This is seriously one of the greatest moments of the day when I'm home and one of the hardest things to miss while on the road. Thankfully our kids wake up super happy so they're pretty dang funny in the mornings. They love 'helping' me make smoothies in the morning. If it's Monday-Thursday and I'm home, then I go into work about 8:30am. I've served as the Worship Pastor at Center Pointe for nearly six years now. We have an incredible church and an incredible team there. Don't get me wrong, it can be tough balancing the band and being a pastor at the church. I'm extremely grateful for a church that is so flexible and supportive of what we're doing as a band. It's all kingdom work in their minds and ours, not to mention they're amazing support of our family both when I'm in town and when I'm out. I try to be home by 4:30 pm and the walk in the door is another unforgettable moment of the day. Nothing like your daughters running to the door for hugs or to violently tackle you. Once I'm home, I either head outside to start the grill and get dinner on or we go to our favorite family spot, Chick-Fil-A. One of the reasons we live in Cincinnati is our community of family and friends there, so it's not rare to have our house filled with them and their kids. If we're not hanging out at home, then we're hanging out at a park in the area. After the park we'll head home, get "jammies" on, read a story or two, say family prayers, give hugs and kisses, and then lay the girls down to bed. That's when we get our 'date' every night. This typically consists of popcorn, Netflix, and falling asleep on the couch around 9:30pm. The alarm goes off at 11pm for Wyatt's last feeding. We're back asleep around midnight and start it all over again around 7am. Living the dream ... for real!
3. What's the song that you just can't get out of your head right now?
'Shut Up and Dance' from Walk The Moon. So catchy and so good. It's been the song of the summer this year and plus they're local boys from Cincinnati.
4. How much do you travel, what are the challenges? How do you juggle life on the road with wanting to be home?
In the past 12 months, we've played around 120 shows so we've been on the road quite a bit. It's one of the most difficult things about choosing to be in a band. If we were all 20 years old it would be a different story, but all four of us are married and between us we have 8 kids under 7 years old. On one hand it's great because we get to walk together while we're making similar sacrifices, but we would be lying if we said being on the road is easy. A few years ago we got the chance to do an event with Bob Goff, author, carrier of many balloons and the biggest smile you'll ever see. He shared with us some great wisdom that we have not forgotten. He said no matter where we go or how long we're gone we have to always 'be heading home.' Those words regularly play in my mind. We love getting to do what we do on the road. It's a privilege and a joy to share our hearts with so many night in and night out, but it's not home. Face time is great but it's no substitute for real hugs and real kisses. This is why our band is a family ministry. If it was just a hobby or a pipe dream of four guys it wouldn't be worth the sacrifices. Every decision we make, every show we take, everything we say yes or no to is made with our wives. We're following a calling together and could never do it without our families being in it with us.
5. What Artist or Pastor has had the greatest impact on you?
We've had the honor of going out on our first three tours with Jason Gray. We met each other a few years ago since we share the same label and management. He's been a gift to us. He's believed in us, encouraged us, prayed with us, allowed us to play more songs than our allotted time called for, thrown birthday parties on the bus for us, and even allowed us to carry his luggage and gear (just kidding). Seriously, Jason is a dear friend to us and has continually shown us the beauty of community.
6. What's the last book you read?
'The Hiding Place' by Corrie Ten Boom. It's one of the most powerful books I've ever read. Corrie and her family provided refuge for Jews throughout the start of Hitler's reign. They were eventually caught and captured by the Nazis and scattered throughout the concentration camps. She miraculously survived the Holocaust after losing nearly everything and everyone she loved. More than the miracle of her physically surviving the Holocaust, is the miracle of love, hope and forgiveness surviving in her. 'The Hiding Place' is her life story which shows how faith can remain amidst the darkest of evils and how love can triumph over the worst hate has to offer. She was an amazing woman and carrier of the gospel.
7. Funniest or most embarrassing moment on the road?
Last fall we were out on tour with Jason Gray, Unspoken, and Lindsay McCaul. Towards the end of the tour we found ourselves in a great theater in Rapid City, South Dakota. I won't mention any names, but CHAD from Unspoken decided it would be funny to play a prank on us. His prank came in the form of a certain spray that smelled worse than any porta potty. The show was nearly sold out that night so the venue was packed. During the opening song of the night he thought it'd be funny to spray a few sprays side stage and watch for our reaction. When he didn't see us reacting he decided to spray a little more, only he didn't realize he was standing right next to the haze machine which took those few sprays and spread them through the entire place. Slowly we started to smell the worst smell of our lives and slowly but at an increasing rate we started to see row by row people covering their noses, doubling over, laughing and gagging. I literally looked up at one point to see a woman all the way in the balcony doubled over laughing hysterically with her friends because the smell was so bad. And no one knew what in the world it was. Meanwhile backstage, Chad is thinking he totally got us until he sees the promoter and the maintenance staff panicking and hears them talking about evacuating the building for fear that a pipe burst. Like a four year old who ate the last cookie, he had to admit to them that the beast they were smelling was due to his prank gone bad. Jason had to go out and share the 'good' news with the crowd and to be honest the audience LOVED the story. We will never forget that city and that show thanks to our buddy Chad.
8. Take us through a couple songs on your latest project, SUNLIGHT AND SHADOWS.
Sunlight and Shadows comes out of the reality that our lives are made up of days covered with beautiful, warm sunshine and plenty of other days covered in the shadows of what this world was meant to be. The song 'Let Love Win' is the 2nd song on the EP and the first single from the project. We wrote it back in April as a lot of hate and controversy was circling in our hometowns of Cincinnati and southern Indiana. We believe Jesus has called us to be known for one thing above all other things - love. We're to love Him with everything we have and to love one another just as He has loved us. We believe love starts a conversation and it's the only way our world is ever going to change. The core of this song is found in 1 John 3:16, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
The very last song we wrote for this project is called 'Meant To Be.' We literally wrote it and re-wrote it eight times. With three days left before we had to have the record finished we had one more slot for a song and our label felt there was something special in this song we had tried to write seven times already, but we knew it had to be re-written. That was Thursday and we were supposed to be back in the studio Monday to finish everything up. We left Nashville on Thursday, drove back to our homes for the night, and then hopped in our van to play Friday and Saturday in Atlanta. Packed into our beautiful 'tour bus' (aka 15 passenger van), with my acoustic guitar out, while texting ideas to a good friend of ours and co-writer Ross King, we wrote the final version and knew it was finally saying something we wanted to say. It's a song of contentment. It's so easy for us to look at where we are, why aren't we where we thought we would be or where we think we 'deserve' to be. Like the old saying goes the grass is always greener. We've found ourselves over the last year or so wrestling with that temptation. The temptation to look beyond today and right where we stand. The temptation to devalue where we are and what we're doing right now. That's not how Jesus has called us to live. We've finally found rest in knowing that if we're following Jesus with everything we have then we must be right where He wants us to be.
One fun thing about this song for me personally is in the bridge. My mom used to wake my brother and I up singing the old song, 'This is the day, this is the day that the Lord had made, that the Lord has made. We will rejoice, we will rejoice and be glad in it and be glad in it.' As kids it was super annoying, but way better than a cup of cold water which she used on occasion. I still remember that song and more importantly I remember the truth in it. My mom passed away this past year (one of the shadows of this last year) on July 24th. As we were writing 'Meant To Be' her song kept playing in my head, so we found a way to sneak it into the bridge and remind ourselves to be glad in the day God has given us.
9. What organization/service group are you affiliated with?
We partner with Food For The Hungry. We love what they do and how they do it because they believe in community development. The money people give to child sponsorships goes to their entire community where Food For The Hungry staff have actual boots on the ground. The sponsorship money provides clean water, nutrition, and education for a specific child, but it also provides other things like education and job training for parents and the rest of the community. Food For The Hungry believes in helping a community to become self-sustaining so that their staff can eventually step out of that community and move on to help raise up another community out of the devastation of poverty. Their vision and exit strategy is a large part of why we chose to share in their work. When Jesus interacted with people he showed them value and worth. His words, His time, and His touch showed people they mattered to his Father. Food For The Hungry is literally doing this in communities all across the world by saying, 'Let us come alongside to train you and educate you so you can care for one another as a community.' We think this is powerful and beautiful.
10. Person you'd most like to have a discussion with, living or dead.....Deities are excused from this question
This is going to sound lame or at least it'll sound like the Sunday school answer, but honestly I'd love to talk with Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. His telling of those stories have shaped my entire life and the way I see the world. I'd have so many questions and would more than likely discover how drastically I've misunderstood everything. If not Luke, then I'll take Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale who co-wrote the screenplay for 'Back To The Future.' :)
Bonus Questions
1. Favorite Bible Verse....life verse?
Right now it's 1 John 3:16 because I'm trying to learn what laying my life down actually means. (This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other as brothers and sisters.)
2. How & When did you become a believer?
I grew up in the church and I was baptized when I was 10 years old. The only thing I remember about that event was that we had my mom's cheese cake for dessert when the pastor came to our house to talk with me about baptism. In high school, my faith really started to become my own and in college I started to discover a lot of holes in my faith and my understanding of the world. That led me to begin asking a lot of questions and trying to figure out why I believe that Jesus is who He said He was and that's the road I continue on today.
3. What's the biggest "God moment" you've ever experienced? Personally or professionally, when has God shown up in a powerful way?
Five years ago I wasn't interested in dating or meeting anyone. Then one night in December, with friends who had been trying to fix us up for months, I met the woman God would use to restore me and show me more about his goodness than I've ever seen before, over some pizza and a rousing game of Scattergories. There's a much longer story here than typing at 1:18am can allow for, but needless to say I've never seen Jesus more in someone than I've seen in her. Five years later we're getting ready for our 4th wedding anniversary and we have three beautiful babies under the age of three. Yep ... she's a saint!
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