Back2Back Radio Canada - S3E4 - Jake Fretz, Interview with Matt LeFait

Back2Back Radio Canada returns with another inspiring episode celebrating the voices and stories shaping Christian and gospel music across Canada.

In Season 3 Episode 4, listeners will enjoy music from Jake Fretz along with a special feature interview with Matt LeFait. In the interview, Matt shares his music journey, the experiences that have shaped his ministry, and the heartfelt collaboration with his son and daughter on his song “Beauty of the Lord.”

Hosted by Dale Boreland, this episode offers meaningful conversation, encouraging music, and a closer look at the faith, family, and creativity behind the songs impacting listeners today.

Tune in and discover more of the incredible artists making a difference in Canada’s Christian music scene.

#Back2BackRadioCanada #CanadianChristianMusic #GospelMusic #MattLeFait #JakeFretz #BeautyOfTheLord #ChristianRadio #FaithBasedMusic #WorshipMusic #CanadianArtists

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Back to Back, your gateway to Canadian Christian music. On each broadcast, we listen to great music and interview the people shaping the future of Canadian Christian music today. Please welcome our host, Dale Borland.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Hello and welcome to the show. My name is Dale Borland. You're listening to Back-to-Back Radio. On today's program, we're going to have a great interview with Matt LeFay, so stay tuned for that. We're also going to have some music from Jake Fretz. Jake Fretz has got his recent release called Run and Rest. It's a concept album composed of uh congregational anthems and ballads, and uh it leads the listener into a journey alongside God's presence through his life, his peaks and valleys. So I think it's a very interesting project. Something you want to check out. To find out more, go to jakefretz.com. Also, we've got some more music coming up from Jake, so stay tuned for the back to back. But opening up the show, Not My Will, right here on Back to Back Radio.

SPEAKER_06 1:12

Our creator and author, the perfect face of our father. Jesus Christ, there's no other, no one like you, no one but you.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

To rewrite every story. Spend your life to restore me. Now I'm brand new, alive in you. Yeah, you gave your life stacked with fughts, so I give mine to you something, I'm doing to the kingdom Empire my life with your random Now I can walk in freedom and live for you No one but you Yeah, you gave your life in sacrifice So I can dump I'm gonna be done juice on the win to brand A drink from the cup set before me carry my cross for your glory I later my life to lift up your name So I said, This is Back to Back.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Now, beyond the studio and stage, Jake is equally passionate about his local church, and he crafts his songs alongside his own worship team. So, to find out more about him, check out JakeFretz.com. Next we have Made It All right here on Back to Back Radio.

SPEAKER_06 4:57

What can I say for the sun that shines and warms my face? What can I say for the moon and night that slows the world's pace? What can I say when every day's a perfect picture of your grace? What can I say? Cause I really love it. Yeah, I love it. You made it up, you made it all bad, we did it up, you made it all bad, we did I'll make it nobody put it who made everything And it's so so good What can I stay for the stars that spring that quench the ground? What can I stay? For the autumn leaves that float the colours down What can I stay when everything is season? I can find a reason to sting out Where can I stay? Cause I really love it, yeah, I love it. You make it up, don't make it all that we dead You bake it up, don't make it all badly dead, I'll make up it's good, but it's good, if it's good, but you've got it's good, but it's good, it's good, but it does not body Later on in the program I get a chance to interview Matt LeFay.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

It's gonna be awesome. You can join me, it's gonna be fun. I'd also like to invite you to join me on Facebook. That's right, back to back Radio Canada is on Facebook, and that will give us a chance to chat face to face or Facebook to Facebook. That'd be awesome. Leave me a message, let me know what's going on. I would love to hear from you. If you have any suggestions about the program or something you like about the program, let me know so I can do more of it. This could be a great chance to get to know each other a little better. And don't forget that this is brought to you in part by GMIHub. Check out gmihub.ca. If you scroll down on the page and you see back-to-back radio Canada, there's a way that you can actually donate there. There's a button. Push on that donate button and send your donation today and join the team of back to back radio. If you join my support team, I would be truly blessed and grateful. So before you even do that, I just want to say thank you. And next up is my favorite portion of the show. That's when I get a chance to do an interview. Today is gonna be Matt LeFay. So stay tuned. I'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

You are listening to back-to-back radio.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Singers and songwriters, if you are looking to get your music on back-to-back radio, then you need to get connected with the gospel music industry hub. With feedback, you will find out if your music is radio ready. So connect with the GMI Hub today at gmihub.ca.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

Welcome, Matt LeFay, to Back to Back Radio. I'm excited to be here. Your journey, let's go back to the younger you. Whenever you were first starting in your music uh trying to figure out whatever you were going to do with that, what was your first reason for getting into music in the first place?

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Oh, that that's a great question. Uh I've I've been a music lover since I was very young, and I always I say this as a joke, but uh I wrote my first song when I was like six. I I couldn't escape music. It was not a good song. I'm not going to show you it ever. Uh, but that was kind of the beginning. So I was beating on a guitar trying to figure things out. Uh I grew up with my parents pretty much primarily listening to Southern gospel. So I was very exposed to uh, you know, vocal, vocal runs, harmonizing, all these different things that I kind of incorporate into my own music now. But um I I never really heard Christian rock or like even contemporary music until I was a teenager when well I shouldn't say teenager, I before I was teenager, I was like probably 11 or so. Uh we had our first Christian music radio station come to St. John, the the like the area I live in. And after that, man, it was it couldn't stop me. Like I was I was crazy about listening to music. My parents didn't want me at that time to listen to Christian rock, which was pretty funny. So I would sneak in, listening to Christian rock, because this sounds hilarious now, you know, church kid growing up, but uh I would sneak and listen on my old radio and record it.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

You know how you could record, you know, yeah, I do the same thing. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

So I would record not full songs either, and then I would listen back to them on my Walkman. That might tell you how old I am. But I haven't been able to escape it, so that that's like the birthing process of how all of this started.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Okay, so you're already into Christian rock when you were about 12, 13, whatever. What was the band? The first band you kind of went, ah this is awesome. TFK, all the way. I come from a generation before you, so that's right. The music I was listening to was the resurrection band, so that was many years before.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

I know who they are though, so that's good.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

You had uh some TFK influence on you, so you kind of got the rock fest going. Okay, so what about later on whenever you started writing your own music? Who did you think you wanted to be more like? Who who was the person you would say, if I was gonna do the music I want to do with that?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Wow. Uh ever since probably 2004, I've really looked up to guys like Matthew West. Um his writing style is second to none. Uh Jeremy Camp in that kind of category. So like exploring with deep layers like Matthew West, like kind of hitting the rock vibe like Jeremy Camp. That's kind of where I've always aimed, I suppose. Yeah. Probably makes sense now that I think about it.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

That's cool. That's really cool. Alright, so what I wanted to do is I want to talk a bit about what is it like being um like when you're doing the music that you're doing, and then compare that to what you thought you would have been doing. Like, say say let's go back to whenever you did you were like first starting out in this and you say, Well, I'm never gonna make a doing this, I'm just gonna be driving a truck. Well what kind of thing was it that you would be doing instead of this?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Well, it's funny my wife and I have this conversation a lot. Uh because you know, in my eyes, I still haven't made it, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

So um humility speaking, like, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Uh honestly, I'd be in the construction industry. Like uh I I do flooring and stuff of that too, so uh that's you know that's my jams. But it hurts.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Oh, I know. I I I I have been in construction for a couple of decades and I had to stop painting because it's just my body doesn't have the muscle for it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Oh man, that's funny. Other than that, though, I would say probably some kind of ministry thing.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

So let's talk about some of the music. How about the beauty of the Lord? Like, what's the origin story?

SPEAKER_02 13:27

So that song, I there's there's kind of a cool story with this one. I wanted to have a feature, and I I had a few in mind that I wanted to join me on this song, and nobody was available at that time, which is which is pretty funny because I've talked to these artists before, and we're going to do music together, and we have done music together, it's just no one was available, and I'm like, well, I want to drop this song before I go on my my fall. We just did a Newfoundland tour in the fall, so I wanted to drop the song before that. And things just weren't falling you know in place, and I had written everything except for the second verse, and I felt like you know, this verse is for somebody else. After trying to figure out who to get on this song with me, and realizing that hey, this might not happen until even you know early next year, I I I don't know why I didn't think about it, but I have a 13-year-old daughter who is an incredible singer. And she she's she she sings with me on my concert, she tours with me, and I don't know why I wasn't thinking it. But anyway, um it just hit me one day. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm dumb. So I asked Amanda.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

You know, it's interesting because I was on on your YouTube channel, I saw Amanda singing, and I thought, guys, she's so young and this is a great job. So, people go check out his uh YouTube channel. Yeah, Mad LaFay, check out all the stuff that's on there, and you're really gonna enjoy what he has for you there. Okay, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, so uh she jumped on the song with me. We sat in it was right before Christmas time. We sat down and we wrote the second verse together, and uh she had some great ideas and bouncing off me, and I was you know keeping her in the in the guidelines, and uh it was just a lot of fun, it was a it was a cool experience, and then uh getting to record her like I I produced my own music, so I have my studio here. So uh you know it was just a lot of fun. And then my son joined me on guitar, he's a 16 he's 16 music guitar player, so he he played guitar on it. And uh it's it's cool though because if we had to rush this song, even if I had another feature on it, uh we would have missed a really cool opportunity which happened, and that was shooting the music video for this song. And I don't know if you've seen it or not yet, but uh it was a really special moment and we didn't rush it. We like put the word out, we said we need like 35 worshipers to join us for this music video, and we shot the music video in the foyer at our church, which is you know random, but why not? And it has really cool vibe, but uh during the the music video shoot, it was like a worship service, it was fantastic. And I I don't know, it was all you can almost looking back, you can see it's God ordained. Uh Matt just sometimes wants to push and push and push until things work. And uh this this kind of was a lesson that's saying Matt just you know, it's okay to hit the brakes and uh God's thing. I got this. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 16:24

There's a holy presence feeling this house. An unavoidable moment is down looking up. I see a king who's come down.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

All I can do is surrender The sound of angel shakes this room Only one response is all I can do I am I am under Before the beauty of the Lord The beauty of the Lord Holy is all I can speak In the beauty of the Lord is all wanna see cry holy Holy Holy still but you come in.

SPEAKER_05 19:15

I am I am done.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Okay, one more track I'd like to talk about if I could, is The God Who Sees Me. Now this sounds like a song where um you're reaching out and and you realize through this all, God is there already, and he's looking at me, he knows what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Uh that song came from it was a couple years ago. It's funny we talk about uh jobs and careers and stuff like that because I was in like a comfortable job. I'd been there for 13 years. Uh I was, you know, I felt I you know I was happy, but I felt God pushing me for like a year straight, and all I kept feeling him saying was step out. I'm like, I don't know what that means. Uh so after a year of not listening, I listened and I stepped out, and to to make things ends meet and stuff, I joined my wife and her, she has a cleaning business. And uh this is a few years, a couple years ago now. As soon as I stepped out, literally, everything went wrong. Like everything fell apart. Um, I went through some crazy like anxiety and depression, which I had never experienced before. Uh I'm one of those like tough, you know, you can do it, macho guys. So it was really strange. And I sat down in that in that season, and I'm like, God, I don't I don't know what's going on here. I I obeyed, and uh this is this is what I get, you know, like humanity talking, right? And uh I I sat down and I was reading, I think I believe it was um Genesis 16, where Hagar in the Bible is um is running away in her desert season, I like to call it now. And uh God shows that he is the God who sees her, even though she's been rejected and kind of thrown aside. And that's I I really resonated with that. I felt like that was me. And I sat down and I wrote the lyrics and it just it really just flowed out of me. And um that's that's that's where the lyrics for that song came from. So it was it was cool because I had been following him for like the previous year and he was going through kind of like the same kind of season and I I just felt like I needed to reach out and anyway things happened and we got together and he joined me on that song. So it was a really cool opportunity as well.

SPEAKER_05 23:20

It's been one of those years or so I didn't see it coming. I never cried so many tears. I know your promises that I'm held so closely. Cause right now I'm lonely.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

Running away from the shelter of this home I've ever known. Running away, running away losing my strength. Why is this world begun to wind into a place? I know I don't belong. I'm in the desert, but your promise never left me. You're the guy who sees me. You see my brain, my tears. You see I'm tired of running. So who have I the fear? When I know there's nothing that can separate me from below to save me Neither death nor life, death nor height, angels nor demons. I gotta take it slow it away from the shell to the only home is you win and don't see anything Will your presence never leaves me You can't see me Never let me down Even when I turn around it's not chasing I'll never ever bring alone You're calming every single stone that is raging the face that we raised us I'm safe with you Jesus It's been one of those years I didn't see you coming But I'm gonna hold it away from the shelter of this cold heaven door I'm just in the two days open I'm in the desert But your brother me You're the guy who sees me I love the fact we had a chance to sit down and chat and I get a chance to play your musical I appreciate it man thank you very much Thank you once again for joining me on Back to Back Radio Canada It has been really cool Join me next time won't you and also remember we are on Facebook Back to Back Radio Canada check it out for yourself and back to back Radio Canada is brought to you in part by GMIHub.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

To find out more about GMIHub, go to gmihub.ca