Matt Switalski was introduced to music by being forced to take piano lessons when around 6 years old.  Little Matthew, who has been called "the devil incarnate" by his mother and himself, sought to put an end to the much despised piano lessons and succeeded after three months or so by making his piano teacher disgusted with him as a devilish child. 


Matt had a distant relationship with music until he reached twelve years old, where his older friends began to play instruments.  Drums somehow interested him, and his friend showed him a few beats to play on the drum set found in the storage of a church accross the street from Matt's house, which he ended up purchasing a few months later for eighty something dollars.  Playing drums quickly became the most important thing to Matt for two or three years, until his sister (Lori) began to pick up the acoustic guitar.  Matt saw the guitar as competition between his sister and himself, and practiced for several months until he reached his sister's skill level, victoriously returning to the drums. 


When almost 16 years old, Matt's family switched churches, and after three months the youth worship leader left the church he was newly involved in playing percussion for youth worship.  The youth pastor asked him if would be willing to attempt worship leading, Matt complied and began little preparation.  With such poor guitar skills and having never really sung before or done both simutaneously, the first sunday Matt was asked to lead worhsip for the youth group was not only unexpected and unplanned, but was also embarrasing and disasterous; Matt couldn't sing worth a lick, and everyone knew that, including himself.  Thus, the youth leaders thought it good to have another guy sing with him while he focussed on practicing guitar; this went on for six months.  Then, the youth leaders suggested that Matt sing and play guitar alone until he was ready for additional people (a.k.a. band members); this went on for another six months.  Finally, after an entire year, auditions were held to see who would be picked to be part of the youth worship team; the core people ending up being Mary Greenhouse (or Leadbetter), Lori Switalski (my younger sis and always a better singer than I), Jake Smyles (percussionist), and eventually Nathaniel Norton (bassist and sometimes guitarist), along with Matt, of course.


Matt lead youth worship for two years, until leaving to CCBC (Calvary Chapel Bible College) in Murrieta, CA, where Matt met Denae Templeton, who left an indelible mark on Matt's music life.  Denae was a worship leader herself, who not only sings much better than Matt but also knew a few things on acoustic guitar that he didn't.  She was willing to partner and work with such an inferior musician, rubbing off her skills on him as they began to play worship and work on her original songs together.  Their relationship lasted for about for six months, and then abruptly terminated, birthing Matt's first original song to be written, "His Saving Life." 


Since that first song, Matt has completed two other songs, one being "The One Becoming Two."  Matt takes forever to finish a song cause he usually doesn't like what he hears and trashes it or changes it, and then still takes forever to finish it.  Simply recording the vocals and acoustic guitar for "The One Becoming Two" was another great step in Matt's music history. 


Written by Matthew Switalski.  Sunday, March 4, 2007.