We’d like to introduce you to Jon Troast, recording artist and for the past few years worship leader at our church, Christ Church. You can access his music on all streaming platforms.
Q. Hi Jon. Please tell us a little bit about yourself (where you grew up, your family, etc.).
I grew up mostly in the Midwest (MI, WI) I spent about 8 years in Nashville, TN before moving to IL in 2018, when my wife and I got married. I come from a fairly large family (7 kids), which I’m grateful for. It definitely shaped me and influenced my songwriting.
Q. You have been making music for some time now. Please tell us about how you got started, your house concerts, recordings, etc.
I started out playing with my brother and some friends from high school in a band (The rubberband). I was quite shy as a teenager, but music gave me a little outlet. After some fairly terrifying open mics, etc. those nerves started to relax. I would play (solo and with the band) at various coffee shops, colleges, restaurants, etc., eventually realizing I could probably make enough money to pay my minimal bills at the time. I traveled down to Nashville a few times to record (prior to moving there), and those recordings opened a few doors for me, including a chance to play on “A Prairie Home Companion” and some songs on Sirius XM’s “The Coffeehouse”
After a few years of doing music full time, I decided to start playing house concerts as a way to connect more with my audience. That became my “bread and butter”, traveling coast to coast, playing hundreds of concerts, meeting all sorts of people and hearing many great stories, which led to more songs.
Those songs are on a continuing series of albums (5 song EPs) simply titled letters of the alphabet. I’ve released “A” through “J”, and “K” should be done soon!
Q. You became worship leader at Christ Church a few years ago. How did that come about, and what do you enjoy most about that role?
I’ve always loved leading worship, but traveling as much as I did made it hard to do that consistently. As a husband and father, I also had the desire to not be on the road quite as much, though I still really enjoy touring. During the great “shakeup” of 2020, the opportunity came up to step in at Christ Church. It has been a blessing to be in that role and be home more, but still have the flexibility to continue playing house concerts.
What do I enjoy most about it? Well, I really have loved writing corporate worship songs that go along with our different sermon series. When the creativity is clicking, I feel like in some ways it’s what God made me to do. Maybe not un-similar to the runner Eric Liddell saying “when I run, I feel His pleasure”.
Christ Church is also a great singing congregation, so being up front, hearing and leading a group of worshipers praising our glorious God is a great privilege.
I also get to work with a lot of talented, servant-hearted musicians and singers. So, yeah, there are a few things I enjoy about my role at Christ Church. 🙂
Q. Please tell us about your new album. It’s different from your previous recordings. How did it come about, who worked on it with you, what are your hopes for the music, etc.?
The new album, “Pilgrims by Faith”, is made up mostly of the songs I’ve written for the different sermon series (Isaiah, Daniel, John, Philippians, and Hebrews), plus a song I wrote a few years back (“The Rising of the Son”) coming out of a season of depression, and another song written for a service of lament in 2020 (“Lord, Have Mercy”).
The intention is that these would be corporate worship songs, with melodies that are more accessible and in a range that works for a majority of voices. My hope was that these songs would be a blessing to our congregation as reminders of ways God has worked in these different seasons of our church, but also that they might be a blessing to the larger body of Christ as part of the chorus of praise around the globe. So, I presented the idea to the elders, and they were very supportive.
I went down to Nashville last fall to capture the bulk of the recording with producer Andy Osenga (who actually grew up in IL, around the corner from Christ Church!). Then, earlier this year, Andy came up to IL to capture our congregation singing the songs and mixed that audio with the studio recorded tracks. Because we have such a singing congregation, I really wanted the corporate worship element to be included on these songs. I feel like it invites the listener to join in more freely.
