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ten shekel shirt
Interview by George Martinez (George's bio)
Ten Shekel Shirt makes the perfect crossover between Praise and Worship to Contemporary Christian Music. They are not an ordinary band. Lamont Heibert, the leader of the band, says in this interview that they are musicians and missionaries. I would have to stand up and say they do both very well.
Their first CD release titled "Much" has already produced one #1 hit called "Ocean". I spoke to Lamont a short time back. Here is that interview.
George: I am most intrigued that Ten Shekel Shirt leads worship at Yale University.
Lamont: We have a gathering a couple of blocks off of the Yale campus. We lead worship... when were in town... so, yeah we're worship leaders in the Yale University town of New Haven. Sometimes it's on campus sometimes it's off campus.
George: Is it because of your location?
Lamont: Well I actually lived in Tyler TX a number of years. That's where I met the guys. We worked for Youth With a Mission, a Christian mission organization. We decided to move up here for the purpose of creating gathering places in communities for some students here in New England... We kind of came here because we felt called to the area and so seeing we are missionaries and musicians we just started leading worship in the area.
George: You said you met the other band members in Tyler TX. Is that where you are from originally?
Lamont: I'm originally from British Columbia Canada. My bass player's from Jersey and my drummer's from Dallas. We got one from Texas.
George: Tell me about your new CD titled "Much". I was taken back by it. Some projects can be over produced but you have the perfect blend.
Lamont: Thank you... I don't think there's any things better than being in God's presence. As we all know, God is with us all the time. So I guess it's an awareness of His presence. For me it doesn't get any better than that. Having a number one radio song, playing in front of big crowds of people doesn't compare to just standing in a place where you know God is. I think all these songs were birthed in that place. I would hope that as people listened to the CD that they will find that place as well.
George: I honestly believe your CD does that because when I placed it in the CD player and the first song started playing, I understood the worshipful attitude that you approached the CD with. In fact the first song, "Meet With Me", has been played recently in churches.
Lamont: Yeah a few of my songs are being played in churches. "Meet With Me" was actually recorded by a friend, Paul Baloche... he'd heard me play it a few times and asked me if he could record it. A couple of songs on my old disc are sung in churches. One's called "Sing For Joy" off my album "Dream For God" and "You Are The Reason" on that same CD are played quite a bit.
George: You had a #1 radio song titled "Ocean". Could you tell me how that song came about?
Lamont: Sure. Well the funny thing about that being #1 is I haven't heard it on the radio yet... I wrote "Ocean" or I got inspired for "Ocean" in the fall of '98. I was just finishing up a little three week tour with the band I was previously in. It was the last day of the Tour and a friend asked if we wanted to stay in his condo, so we decided to stay and play on the beach. That night we built a fire and pulled out our acoustic guitars and ethnic drums and wind instruments and began to worship God. As we played we were just overwhelmed by the power and beauty of God's creation. And the next morning I woke up and had words and melodies running through my head. ... it's been a great song from the get go.
George: About the band's name "Ten Shekel Shirt". Can you explain that to me?
Lamont: There's a sermon called "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" which we shortened to "Ten Shekel Shirt". Basically the story/sermon is taken from Judges 17. There's a Levite whose calling was to minister to God and serve Him. The Levite seemed to be unsatisfied with that lot in life and decides to go wandering through Israel and comes across this man named Micah who has these little house idols. This man asks him to be his Levite priest and a priest to those idols for the payment of 10 shekels and a shirt. As this story is told by Paris Riedhead he really brings it home for a lot of us in the ministry that how our ultimate calling is to serve God and how easily we can seek out our own satisfaction (instead of) the satisfaction of God.
For us as a band we just wanted to remind ourselves that you know what, the world doesn't revolve around us. It revolves around God and if the world did revolve around us and our satisfaction then we could live as selfishly as we can and we would be fulfilling the purpose of life. But I think God has a more loving plan and that is the fact that His glory and His desires which are relationship with mankind are really at the center of all things. So for us as a band the name Ten Shekel Shirt is a reminder to keep God at the center of all things.
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Ten Shekel Shirt Much BUY NOW! |
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GetChristianMusic.com Christian Songwriters Resource Broken Records |