Interview with Shayne White, member of Grace Fellowship

What do you do for a living, Shayne?

I’m a massage therapist.  I have owned my own business for about a year.   Before that, I was homeschooled, and was part of a band with my family, where I played harp.  We went around performing a lot, so I was making money through childhood.  But that was a long time ago.

You were part of a band with your family?

Yeah, it was celtic music, and it was called Distant Oaks.  We played all around northern California.  Being homeschooled, we just got into that because my mom was always into music.  We were always hanging around when she was doing it, so we just got right into performing even when we were young. 

How old were you when you started performing?

I was nine, actually.  Distant Oaks officially ended a couple years ago when my mom passed away.  Jared (my brother) and I had our own projects doing electronic music with synthesizers and stuff, but we didn’t play the harp and recorder again until we started playing for the church, last year. 

How has it been to play in the worship band at Grace?

It’s been different.  The music itself is totally different from celtic music.  The other aspect is the focus is not on our performance, but on seeking God, almost like we’re doing a prophetic thing on stage.  It’s been a good experience.  It was kind of hard at first because whenever I’d play harp, I’d think of my mom a lot.  But God got me through it, and now I’m really enjoying being in the worship team.