It's OK to Playjerise
22nd April 2010 by Julia Hosking
Meet Playjerise
Daniel Georgiou (aka George) and Jake Nauta are both from the Blue Mountains in NSW. Jake attends Springwood Baptist Church and is studying to be a high school music teacher, while George worships at a Christian Healing Centre and is studying theology at Wesley Institute.
We grew up in Christian families
Jake: Growing up, I was very much surrounded with Christianity, and I knew from a very early age that I was saved ... It's always a battle to realise how important and beneficial that that is.
George: I was brought up in a really Presbyterian background, Jesus was always part of the family and part of family life ... I was challenged at a public school with a world where my friends on the weekend just partied and got drunk. That was an eye opener – to see that actually there are people out there that haven't lived the privileged life that I had.
The name Playjerise doesn't mean much
When Jake and George started mucking around with their guitars and song-writing abilities, they were only in their teens. They needed a name, and their 16-year-old brains thought the name 'Playjerise' sounded cool. It stuck. That's pretty much all there is to it.
The song-writing process is "magical"
Jake: For 90 per cent of our song-writing process, the song doesn't have a title, and verse two never has any words, because we just sing verse one when we're writing [the melody]. We get a pretty clear structure for the song before we write our lyrics, and how we actually get our lyrics is a bit of a mystery really!
We didn't expect that people would buy our album
Jake: We didn't plan to do what we're doing ... we didn't plan that people would buy our album ... [But] God's blessed our band. He's guided the whole thing.
Hearing our music on the radio is so cool
Back in the early days, Jake and George waited, excitedly, for the radio to play their song they had agreed to play. It was taking too long, so Jake jumped on the phone and, pretending to be someone else, asked if the station were going to play 'the Playjerise song'!
It's hard to be humble when people ask us to sign their money
Jake: Being in a band can take over, and it can very easily become the priority ... we've always tried to make sure we're humble, which is hard to be on stage. And it's hard to be when you've got lots of people coming up to you and just want you to sign something that they own. We have people that ask us to sign money – like that's weird – and to sign their shoes ... As a band we've always committed what we're doing to God first and foremost, and we've kind of found that if God doesn't want something to happen, it's not going to happen.
The music is a ministry opportunity
George: There are so many people who approach us all the time; excited to meet us, and excited to hear what we have to say. We have the opportunity to speak hope, and to speak the truth to them and into their lives because we've been given that level of influence by God.
Jake: [The band] is a humungous opportunity. It's firstly a mission – not a conventional kind of mission or a conventional kind of ministry – but it has the opportunity to really impact people, a whole range of people ... We want people from all walks of life to first listen to the music but then maybe get into the band and see what we're on about and through that, it becomes a ministry.
The Salvation Army's mission statement is powerful
Jake: Lots of churches need to take on a statement like that. It's not just about saving souls, but it's actually growing them as well.
George: Looking at The Salvation Army and seeing how much they do reach out, it is a bit of a role model for the church. It's always been there; it's always been an outward focused church. That's what all Christians and all denominations are all aiming for – to help suffering humanity.
Our message to Salvo youth
Jake: Don't underestimate yourselves. Even as a young person, you've got humungous opportunity to fulfil [The Salvation Army's] mission statement. And if you want to be musical, follow your musical dreams. It might just happen.
George: Find your purpose with God and desire him more than anything else in life. Desire to know him first, and then out of that flows a life dedicated to serving others.
By Julia Hosking
save. grow. serve.
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Comments
Thanks so much for this Playjerise interview. I love the band and the message they deliver. Bless you Jake & George!!! x
yup, stoked to see playjerise on here. they write the most beautiful music and their hearts are fully in it on cd and live. great work guys!