Jordan Gallas wakes up early most Sunday mornings to help lead worship at Grace Community Church, but only late at night does the inspiration and focus come for Gallas to create and mold his own music. Finally finished with the schoolwork, youth group meetings, and family affairs that fill the daytime hours, Gallas takes the midnight moment to sit back on his bed. With his acoustic guitar reflecting the pale starlight shining in through the second story window, he begins sifting through the many melodies and lyrics that have been spinning around in his head.
“I write about whatever’s going on in my life, what I see,” Gallas said. “I had writer’s block for so long, but now all of a sudden a melody pops into my head and I can’t stop writing. I’ve got the idea, then I figure out the key on my guitar and put lyrics to it. I’ve been working on some songs for months now, sometimes I write one just in an hour.”
Gallas has a drawer in his room dedicated to the many journals of song lyrics and ideas he has written in past years but decided not to keep. If he feels a song lacks quality or emotion, he just moves on to a new idea. “Take Me Far,” a recent tune Gallas enjoys, sings about the struggles of falling into sin and how sin disguises itself into something that seems good. The strong balance between Gallas performing his own music and modern worship music helps to form such songs.
“I’m influenced by Dave Matthews Band, but also by bands like Switchfoot and Thrice,” he said. “Church also inspires me, plus playing there helps me get comfortable with playing in front of people while also learning new rhythms and chord progressions.”
Gallas has sung onstage since Vacation Bible School at age five and began playing guitar at age thirteen.
“I felt weird standing onstage with just a microphone,” he said. “I need something else, so I picked up the guitar. I wanted to have the frontman feeling.”
Another student songwriter, sophomore John Claset, has similar songwriting patterns. Claset has reportedly written thousands of songs, but he only keeps a select few. His “awfully optimistic masterpiece” entitled “If” received its public debut in January when Claset sang the song at Legacy Legends.
“I perform in a lot of piano recitals, but it felt good to sing one of my own productions for once,” Claset said. “Songwriting to me is taking a lot of my thoughts and emotions in a way that gives me a huge outlet and hopefully a good song.”
One striking difference stands between the musical hopes of Gallas and Claset: whereas Gallas would like to play songs locally and stay with his family, Claset hopes to make a living with music and tour the world.
“I’ve wanted music to be my career since I was a kid,” Claset said. “My career pursuit has to involve music, maybe even producing soundtracks for video games.”
Neither artist plans to give up on music though without first trying. Gallas, with the help of his father and his brother Josh, has recently been working on recording an EP of his music, setting up a homemade studio in their living room. The album could ideally be finished in autumn. Either way, both feel the need to be heard. As said in Claset’s song “If,” this light would tell me that I’ve at least tried.
