22nd March, 2006

DAVID ADAMS

Eight albums on, Christian music chart-topper Nathan Tasker says prayer remains the key element in his songwriting.

“I spend a lot of time praying that God would give me the songs to sing,” says the 30-year-old Sydneysider. “I’ve found that the songs he gives me are usually better than the ones I force.”

“When I was younger, a lot of my writing was an attempt to take doctrine and put it in a song whereas these days I’m trying to take the way doctrine impacts real life and put that into a song." - Nathan Tasker

Tasker, who cites artists such as Keith Green, Randy Stonehill, Michael Card and Rich Mullins as among those who inspire him, released his latest album - Must Be More - late last year.

Musing on how God communicates to him about his songs, he says that reading the Scriptures plays a major role in inspiring him as does reading theology books.

“(It’s) also just people that we meet and seeing the way the Gospel impacts on real lives, I think is one of the ways a lot of my writing is being affected lately,” says Tasker, who is already working on his next album.

“When I was younger, a lot of my writing was an attempt to take doctrine and put it in a song whereas these days I’m trying to take the way doctrine impacts real life and put that into a song. So I think the process has changed slightly and hopefully become more real and more engaging for people as well.”

Tasker grew up in a Christian home near Hornsby in Sydney and recalls making a decision for Christ in his late teenage years.

“Both my parents were Christian so I grew up reading the Bible at night with my dad and praying,” he explains.

“During my early teenage years through highschool, I think I called myself a Christian during Christian studies class because I went to a Christian school, but if you had of seen me, I didn’t do anything that a Christian would do - I did the exact opposite.

“It wasn’t until the beginning of Year 11 that I read No Compromise - the story about Keith Green - and was really impacted by how he knew Jesus. He was more than just an historical figure to him and I didn’t know Jesus like that. So I read through the Gospels over two weeks and at the end of that I became convinced that Jesus is who He says He is. So I prayed a simple prayer and have been endeavouring to follow Him since then...”

Tasker can still recall the strength of feeling he felt as he had prayed and how much he had “wanted to be associated with Jesus and all His promises”.

“I think up until then I had been seeking satisfaction everywhere else and it hadn’t satisfied me. But in Jesus I saw what it was that my life needed and hope for eternal life as well.”

His love of music comes at least partly from his Christian upbringing. His father used to lead to a camping ministry in Sydney called Crusaders and Tasker recalls spending much of his early childhood on the camps watching as highschool students played the guitar.

“One thing I noticed about those guys was then whenever they played the guitar, lots of girls gathered around them,” he says. “I thought to myself ‘Wow, they know something I don’t’. So I begged my dad in Year 8 to get me a bass guitar and then in Year 9, I begged for my dad to get me an acoustic guitar - a black one because I thought that was particularly trendy. So I started teaching myself how to play those instruments and over the years I just kept adding more instruments that I was enjoying. I had such a desire to be able to play as many instruments as I could...and to play other people’s songs well.”

Tasker says the most important responsibility he has as an artist is in trying to “create in truth and excellence” and making sure his work reflects some of God’s glory.

Tasker now plays an array of instruments from the mandolin and bouzouki through to the electric guitar and "some piano". He had some formal instruction on the double bass while at highschool but his use of all the other instruments has been self-taught.

“I think a jack of all trades and master of none,” he says of his ability to play a range of instruments. “But it gets me by and I love it.”

Becoming a professional musician wasn’t something he planned.

“It happened completely by accident...” he says. “When I left highschool I wanted to be a primary school teacher and was going down that path pretty quickly. However during that time I was being invited to come and play Christian songs to youth groups and to churches... (and) that kind of snowballed until I deferred university and went into it full-time.

"To be honest, it was never something that I sought out; I never had any dreams or goals of being on a huge stage and playing for people. It was just something that happened and even today I think if God called me away from it and showed me another thing to do, I probably would be quite willing to do that.”

While Tasker started off performing covers of Randy Stonehill, Mark Heard and Keith Green songs - with his first public performance in 1993, he soon came to the realisation that the message of the songs he was performing wasn’t exactly what he wanted to say. So he started writing his own songs.

“So I wrote out of a desire to communicate to people in front of me.”

Tasker says the most important responsibility he has as an artist is in trying to “create in truth and excellence” and making sure his work reflects some of God’s glory.

“What I really want to do is to be a creative artist that reflects truth...”

This means creating music that isn't subcultural for Christians but is counter-cultural and doesn't take its lead from the mainstream music scene.

"I think we should be leading the way..." he says.

These days Tasker spends much of his time on the road both in Australia and overseas - so much so that four days in a row at home in North Sydney counts as a good break. His music has already taken him across Europe, the US and South Africa and he says he’d love to tour in countries in Asia.

“Certainly Singapore and Hong Kong have quite a growing Christian music community,” he says. “Also their openness to the Gospel is really encouraging - there are very many missionaries who I am in contact with in those places who I would love to go over and support and encourage what they do and connect and partner with them.”

Supporting others in their ministry is a passion of Tasker and his wife Cassie.

“We don’t want people just to come along and find out about me,” the musician says. “We actually want to partner with churches and with ministries and with people who are already doing great things on the ground in different countries of the world and even here in Australia.”

He has a particular passion for Michael Youssef's global radio ministry Leading the Way and includes a presentation on their work as part of his concerts.

Tasker says having Cassie with him all the time helps to keep him accountable and grounded, particularly when on tour.

“I very rarely have this problem, but if ever I started to think ‘Wow, we’re really achieving something’, she’’ll immediately remind me that the things of the kingdom are invisible before they’re visible...and I think we all need that.”

While he sometimes struggles with spending time with God and admits having seasons in which the Bible seems very dry to him, he says that reading writings which are “soaked in the Scripture” has helped in those times.

“A good example is John Piper’s works or Eugene Peterson’s - I read their books. They’re guys who just know the Scriptures so well and they have an ongoing conversation with God which is intense and real and they allow you to be a part of that and I think oftentimes that fans the flames of my own passion and my own desire.

“I actually spend a lot of my time when I’m playing in front of people praying that God will use what I’m saying and use what I’m singing and use what I’m reading out of the Scriptures to really impact the people in front of me,” says Tasker.

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said ‘Christ on the lips of my brother is often stronger than Christ in my own heart’ and I think I know what he means by that. Sometimes you need to be inspired by others and I often get that through books.”

Tasker has come along way since the days of playing Keith Green covers to church youth groups, but he says he does miss those early days.

“I didn’t have a care in the world except for the fact that I could go and play music to people,” he says.

“These days, I think I’m like everybody in the world that we live in which the world tells you about your financial pressures and what the expectations are and what you should be achieving. I miss that ability to just go to youth group and sing - (where) it doesn’t matter if I don’t sell CDs, it doesn’t matter if I don’t get paid and it doesn’t matter if the Christian music industry finds out there were only 10 people here - it’s all OK. I think I really miss that.”

As a result, he says he relishes those times when he does have an opportunity to play somewhere for free and not to worry about selling CDs.

“It will be just to keep my soul alive, you know. Those times are so refreshing. I would love it in the future we could actually raise support to help support what we do so we didn’t have to worry so...when we get rung up by groups saying ‘Can you come to our prison? Can you come here? Can you come there?’ and we could say “Yes we can and you don’t have to stress about raises your finances or whatever, we just want to come and bless you’. I think that would be amazing.”

Still, Tasker adds that despite having publicly performed more than 1,200 times in public, he has an overwhelming desire to communicate what Christ means to him every time he stands before an audience with a guitar and sings about Jesus.

“I actually spend a lot of my time when I’m playing in front of people praying that God will use what I’m saying and use what I’m singing and use what I’m reading out of the Scriptures to really impact the people in front of me,” he says.

~ www.nathantasker.com