Christie Gerschutz is both a solo artist and children’s book author and has been involved with music ever since she began to learn how to play the piano when she was six years old.
Her very first performance was a piano recital for a nursing home. “I was nervous,” Christie said, “I still get nervous when I have to go on stage, not that I’m nervous about performing well, but I’m nervous about the whole talking thing and keeping people interested.” Since her first piano recital, Christie has been very busy musically. She now plays nine different instruments and performs at many different places, her favorite being a church in Cincinnati where she feels that everyone is extremely accepting and welcoming. Christie decided that she wanted to pursue a musical career after seeing her first Rebecca St James concert. Rich Mullins (writer of the song “Awesome God”) is by far her biggest inspiration. Christie finds him so inspirational because he was not drawn into the superficial world of glitz and glamour, but instead chose to remain real. “He had a beat up old pickup truck he traveled around in and he would play barefoot in a tee-shirt and jeans. He was really real with people and he wasn’t afraid to have problems and he was somebody that people could connect with and could help people not be afraid to have problems.” She believes that “[God] used him [Rich Mullins] for His glory” because of his imperfections and problems.
Christie strives not to be superficial, but instead real and relatable, drawing her inspiration for the songs that she writes from her life experiences “especially about guys.” She says that “all of the myspace songs about guys are true.” For example, she mentioned that some of her songs involve things such as being ditched by a guy because he “thought he needed somebody that was really fake”, and believes that this song can “relate to a lot of women who have been jaded for the younger woman.”
The favorite part about being a musician for Christie is performing and using music as a very versatile medium which can reach a lot of people. She really enjoys... “making people think and making people laugh. I love that you can put a lot of messages into music and even shift people’s way of thinking about how they view God or about being a Christian.”
Because she feels that “live music is really dying because of illegal downloading,” Christie hopes to put her music on the Internet on websites such as I-tunes because she believes that the music industry is shifting towards the Internet, however she says that she ultimately leaves her future as well as her goals in God’s hands. Christie believes that Findlay needs more places for musicians to play at and that the places that Findlay does have need to be “more actively looking for local artists and more active about being willing to pay and promote [musicians].” Aside from the town improving its musical opportunities, she also believes that “everybody should learn a musical instrument at some point in their life. It teaches you patients and diligence. You might find that it’s something really daunting at first, but there are a lot of people who are middle aged or older that wish that they knew how to play an instrument. It’s never too late to learn, and even if it seems hard, I really think it’s something that can enrich your life.”
Her advice to other aspiring musicians is to “play your style of music…its not all about pop and rap. Figure out what you like and what is unique about you and play with that; don’t be afraid to be different. The world won’t look at somebody who just blends in.” The guys have found a way to try and solve these problems for themselves though, by putting on their own “all ages” shows at Amvets Hall. Their last show at the Amvets Hall has been their favorite performance so far. “
