12th November, 2008

DAVID ADAMS

His journey hasn't always been an easy one but it's that very fact which has helped Gavin Gardner to write songs that connect with people right where they're at.

“They’re the songs that really kind of relate to where you're at and then give you hope in that as well. That’s my purpose in writing and I don’t want to lose that...It’s like it’s OK to be on the journey and you don’t have to be there yet as long as you’re on the journey.” - Gavin Gardner

The 24-year-old musician, who has just released his first EP - Time, describes himself as a "prodigal son".

Hailing from Australia’s country music capital, Tamworth, he grew up in a Christian home but says that in his late teenage years he started drinking heavily and smoking marijuana.

While Gardner says he felt guilt about his “slow slide of compromise” and kept telling himself he’ll “turn back one day, maybe when I’m a bit older”, he says that he “always believed that Jesus died for me".

“I never let go my belief - I was just doing the prodigal son thing, I guess,” he says.

It was when he was confronted with his mortality after smoking some joints that had plant pesticide residue on them - sending him on a “really bad trip” and making him so sick that he truly believed he was going to die - that the reality of what he was doing struck him.

“It just sort of all hit me...” Gardner recalls. “It was like a full-on feeling, man, that I was just about to die and end up in hell so I just prayed and asked God to get me out of it, (telling Him) I would follow him and I’ll give up all this stuff.”

“The next day, I was thinking ‘How am I going to do this?’...I couldn’t see myself not drinking any more but it’s obviously the power of God that enables you to go and do that and I ended up not wanting to do that anymore. It wasn’t a struggle for me, I just didn’t do it.”

It took around 18 months before he was fully recovered as he dealt with what he describes as "pretty severe anxiety" triggered by his experience. Gardner says that his doctor was amazed that he was able to hold on to his job throughout his recovery and that he was able to do so without medication.

But he says that it was only by relying on God that was able to put aside his former lifestyle and receive the healing he needed. “I just relied on God and He got me out of it..."

The son of a country music singer, Gardner still lives in Tamworth - now with his wife Jen, a classical pianist. For the past few years he has been the worship leader at the church he attends, Christian Life Centre. He also works as an arborist for the local council.

Gardner says he’s always had an interest in music.

“I’ve just always wanted to hold a guitar ever since I was a little fella,” he says. “Watching the church band, I just always wanted to play”.

Gardner, who plays both acoustic and electric guitar on the EP, cites influences as diverse as Coldplay, Johnny Cash, Oasis and Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot). He describes his songs as being written from the heart, based on his own experiences.

“My aim in writing is to reach people in different situations," he says. "Music just blesses me heaps."

Gardner says he enjoys listening to songs that combine the reality of life with the truth of God’s Word.

“They’re the songs that really kind of relate to where you're at and then give you hope in that as well,” he says. “That’s my purpose in writing and I don’t want to lose that...It’s like it’s OK to be on the journey and you don’t have to be there yet as long as you’re on the journey.”

Time is available through Small House Records.