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| Interview - The Gethsemany Garden |  |
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Q: How did you guys started writing and playing music in general and Christian music in particular? Oleg: I started playing music a long time ago. I had several groups even before I went to the army when I was not a Christian yet. At that time I tried to create something, but it was all at a very amateurish level. My musical growth started after I met a teacher who taught me play guitar. The same year I repented and became a believer. My music growth corresponded to my spiritual growth: the closer I came to God, got interested in the Bible, and grew up as a Christian the more I grew up as a musician. The deeper spiritual things I came to know the more interesting music ideas came to me. Sasha: I made a decision to play Christian music at the same time when I decided to play music in general. I never was a professional musician before, but I became one after I repented. I felt God's calling to praise him namely with music, and the Lord has given me a talent to play bass guitar. Vlad: When God opened my eyes on what kind of world I was living in, and when he showed me how good it was to live with him, I made a decision that any music that I was to write would be for him. Igor: I didn't do music before. The fact that I started learning to play was not my decision but God's plan for my life. Roma: I played guitar from childhood, and studied at a music school. When I met Oleg and we started a group I saw that God would bless my decision to perform music professionally, so I entered a university. I specialize in vocals and guitar. Leonid: Once in the autumn I was walking home from work and saw a cafe that had been abandoned a long time ago. I got interested in what was going on inside. It turned out that a Christian church gathered there. I saw guys with guitars and equipment. We made introductions, and they invited me for a service. I agreed and came there just to listen. They had their own equipment, keyboard instruments, and microphones. To me they looked like serious people though they played Christian music. In general I liked their style and manner of performance, so I offered them my services as a percussionist, for they had no one to play drums. For several days we rehearsed, and they approved me. This is how I joined the group, though I never thought I would switch from classical music to rock, especially to Christian rock, but I liked it. I've been playing with the guys for three months now, but I think that the best is yet to come. Q: Who found your group's name, and what does it mean? Oleg: At the very beginning there were only two people in our group, me and our singer Roma. We already performed, played at church, participated in concerts, but we had no name. We started praying, asking the Lord to give us an interesting and distinct name. The name has to be unusual, for we knew from the very beginning that our music would be aimed at unbelievers, so we wanted our name to reflect what the group was performing. Once at a sermon our pastor was preaching about two gardens that had a great symbolical meaning, the garden of Eden and the garden of Gethsemane. In the garden of Eden, man disobeyed God and commited a sin. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus showed his obedience before God and went to the execution that he had to take. And while the garden of Eden is a symbol of disobedience and unruliness of man toward God, the garden of Gethsemane is a symbol of humbleness and obedience to him. And this is one of our main priorities. Q: How do you write your songs? Oleg: It all starts with the idea of what kind of song we want to write and what it will be about. As a rule, we first work on the mood of the song, on a particular harmony. Usually I am the one who does it, then me and Roma write music. When the music is ready and we have the song's idea, we look for lyrics that would fit to this music. We try not to have empty words in our songs, we want every phrase to have a deep spiritual sense and to reach its goal. Sasha: As Oleg already said, it all starts from a ready melody line and harmony,and then every musician thinks up his part. Igor: Oleg writes most parts for my guitar, and some rythmic decorations are born in the process of play. Vlad: As for parts that I play with "The Garden of Gethsemane," Oleg tells me what key they have to be in, and I just play so that they are in tune with the general idea. When I play music for God I don't know where my ideas come from and what it should be. I just play some fragments, and then gradually arrange them into a whole thing. Leonid: First Oleg gives me an idea, some material written on the Korg synthesizer. Then I analyze it, add some things and remove others. Many of my ideas are born at rehearsals, it is a lot of work. Q: What does music mean personally for you? Oleg: Sometime it is hard to express your feelings and emotions by words, but for me it is easy to do with the help of music. I think that music is a distinctive language. That is why our music is not just an accompaniment to words, there is a testimony of what is happening in our lives and what our relationships with the Lord are. Igor: Now music is everything for me because this is what God has blessed me with. I hadn't even dreamed about it. Now music is the only real thing I can praise God with. Vlad: For me music is both worship to God and my life. Roma: I think that today music is a meaning of my life, and I wish this to always be true. I want to play music profesionally. Q: What audience do you write your music for? Oleg: All our music and our songs are intended first of all for unbelievers. There are both well-known praise songs and our own songs in our repertoire. Even if we perform songs of praise, we try to make them understandable for unbelievers. Our other songs are evangelistic where we tell about Christ, the meaning of life with him, and the senselessness of life without God. Our songs are intended for a wide range of people, first of all the young. But some older people also love our music. Sasha: I came from a background where people listen to rock music, and I know that they wouldn't perceive any other music, no matter how good it would be. And, as I already said, we bring namely the Gospel with our music and call people to repent. Vlad: The only thing I can add is that Christians want to hear good music, and we make it good. Igor: Besides the fact that our music is intended for unbelievers, Christians also like it. As for unbelievers whom our music is aimed at, they are mostly young people with long hair who love good old music. Q: Could you tell us about activities of your group? Oleg: Before I met Roma, being a believer I took part in various festivals and as a rule played in the church and at tours. After we met we took part in evangelistic outreaches, played at military bases, in schools, and colleges, gave concerts in our church where we invited young people from the street. We also had several concerts in prisons. We are often invited to other churches. We well remember our participation at secular festivals, in particular "Youth Against Drugs". We took part in concerts at night clubs "Disco-2000" and "Bingo." We played and told people about the way that God offers to drug addicts. We also participated in the benefit action "Handicapped Chidren, Let Us Believe in Ourselves." We presented our new song there, and we offered people to believe not in themselves, but in God. We also take part in various Christian festivals. Q: Could you say a couple of words about yourselves, your friends, and your future? Oleg: I learn guitar-playing technique both with private teacher Vitaly Vasilyevich Vasilyev and on my own, using American, European, and British literature and video schools. I have a school of guitar playing and solfeggio at my church. In the future, I want to enter a private guitar college in Kiev to study music more seriously. And I will try to make "The Garden of Gethsemane" used by the Lord as much as possible to bring the Gospel to the whole world. We want our music to be competitive with secular groups, that is why we pay much attention to self-education and work. Sasha: My plans for future are God and "The Garden of Gethsemane." Igor: I am going to enter a college and to eventually graduate from it. I still love sports, train myself, and love computers. I like people who share my views on music. It is interesting for me to have fellowship with Christians, for they are free people. My plans for the future are to serve God. Vlad: Most of my people are Christians. I visit my old friends with a hope that one day they will receive Christ. In the future I am going to serve God, live for him, raise my professional level, and grow spiritually. Roman: I am interested in all kinds of arts. I have fellowship with musicians, with interesting people, and certainly with members of our church. I am not making any special plans for the future. I just pray that God would bless what is yet to come. I would love to see my future with group "The Garden of Gethsemane." Leonid: In every orchestra, collective, and even in restaurants where I played I have acquaintances. I want to tell all of them about meeting God.
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