Caught in the Glow 2-3-18

Hi! Welcome to Caught in the Glow! This is Brianna, and I will be writing the fourth article of this school year. This is where Katelyn Schesser and I interview students on NSA who’ve recently traveled to a fun place or event, partaken in an exciting competition, or accomplished something amazing. We hope you enjoy hearing the stories of people on NSA and all the awesome things they get to do while being enrolled in here!

My fingers danced on the keys as I played the song and sang the verses as my brother and teacher both strummed their instruments. I was nearly bouncing in excitement, it was my first time playing in a band setting and it was so much fun. I’ve always loved the way music seems to flow and just vibrate through me, but doing it like this was a whole new thrill. I love the chance to worship God in this way and I know I’m not the only one. Meet Andrew Klassen, a 12th grader on NSA who has a passion for God and music. Hope you enjoy this interview!

Brianna Harpel: So I understand you are a musician; what instrument(s) do you play? Do you sing?

Andrew Klassen: Bass, guitar, drums, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, keys, and I have an understanding of stringed instruments in general. Yes I do.

Brianna Harpel: Wow, thats a lot- do you have a favorite out of those?

Andrew Klassen: Well I'm partial to bass, because that was my first instrument and it's what I play in the most bands I do stuff with.

Andrew Klassen: But drums is my 2nd, because it carries the most dynamic weight out of all the instruments in the band

Brianna Harpel: Gotcha, cool. So you play for bands? How often? where at or what for (As in for church, for fun, events, ect.)?

Andrew Klassen: I play for churches a lot, at smaller churches I'll go and lead worship for their youth groups and things like that, but also there's a bigger church (bigger as in something like 5000 people every weekend or so) that I'll go and play bass at for some of their services or if they have a conference being held there or something. Then I play bass for a band that isn't affiliated with church, but will still do church events, and we'll do concerts every couple months, apart from occasional events we'll play at. Whether it's with a band or not, I'm involved in worship leading for 2-3 events every week.

Brianna Harpel: Wow, that's really cool! How long have you been doing stuff like that?

Andrew Klassen: I've been involved in worship ministry at my church for the last 4 years, playing for other churches for the past 2, and the band that I play in outside of church started last year.

Brianna Harpel: Wow, that's awesome. So what made you interested in music and eventually performing?

Andrew Klassen: Well, music has been something I've done on various levels since I was 7, but when I was 12, my church held a concert for a band from Idaho (probably the least exciting concert I've ever been to), and somehow after that I just felt like music was what I was supposed to do. I always wanted to play in bands, but I've found that once you get to a certain level, the opportunities find you, not the other way around.

Brianna Harpel: lol gotcha, it's really great that you've found where you feel led and I love how you worded that last sentence lol are there other things you hope to do through playing music, something you aspire to be?

Andrew Klassen: Yes, I'm pursuing a career in music production, which is at its simplest just making songs sound good, but it's probably the most all encompassing area of music you can be in, because you end up playing, writing, recording, and producing music, which makes me happy cause I'm down for all of that. I just got accepted into Berklee Online (yesterday), and I'll be working towards a BA in music production through that.

Brianna Harpel: That sounds like a really cool career ^-^ And congrats on being accepted to a school where u can pursue it! I can't think of any more questions XD Thank you for your time!

Andrew Klassen: Yup! Thanks!

Andrew Klassen: You're welcome.

Did you enjoy reading the interview? We would love to hear from other students! You can do so in two ways--submit a random question for us to ask, or supply us with the next interviewee!

For the first way (submitting a random question), it can be anything you want. We will pick one question a month and ask the interviewee. These questions will be called RF (Random and Fun) questions.

If you know any NSA students who have recently traveled to a fun place or event, or completed something you think is amazing, please do tell us! Sometimes finding a student like that can be really difficult for us. It’s not like “Snap, Crackle, Pop!” they appear out of nowhere (though I kinda wish it were that easy… NSA is full of awesome people, we just need them to step up ;D). So, please, tell us if you do know someone! Give us their name, where they went or what they did, and we will get in contact with them!

To submit something or give feedback to us, please email me, Brianna Harpel, or Katelyn Schesser--or leave a comment below. We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you, Andrew Klassen, for your time! And thank you, reader, for reading this article! I hope you enjoyed it! See you again next month!

- Brianna Harpel