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Canadian worship leader and artist, Jake Fretz has been a music lover before he can remember.
"My mom always tells me that she would go to church on Sunday mornings and as soon as the music would start I would start kicking and dancing so much that she actually had to take a seat in the pew. So I've always felt like this is something that has been in my blood and in my DNA right from the beginning," Fretz says.
His passion for music grew as he would be in the choir, but eventually turned his focus to sports before music came back. "It was in high school that I started meeting Jesus through worship and got my first guitar. I started leading in our church and then had some lovely people come alongside me, and from there, I've just been meeting with Jesus with my guitar ever since."
Having his faith as an inspiration for his music has been huge for Fretz. "It's kind of hard for me to separate faith in music, mostly because our faith in Jesus encompasses everything. When we have a worldview and understanding of who God is and the way that He loves us, then that changes the way that we get to see the world and see those around us, and we get to experience things. For me, it's helped me experience music in a deeper way."
Something that has helped Fretz decide what songs to release rather than keep private is singing them at his local church. "As I'm connected with my local church, I get to try out new songs with them, they become the guinea pigs. Sometimes it's wonderful and sometimes it's quite humbling in that process."
Fretz recently released 'Your Song' with childhood friend, Dave Siverns. The song was not written with the intent to be released but rather for their own congregations. "We wanted our own people to be able to meet with Jesus. The heart behind that was as we looked through Scripture specifically, we started thinking of Revelation and we started thinking of Isaiah. You see this apocalyptic literature or this idea where Jesus pulls back the curtain and shows us a little more of what's going on behind the scenes in the throne room," says Fretz.
"There's this song where people are singing holy, holy, holy. They're declaring God's worthiness. They're declaring His Majesty and what always surprises me is that He's so beautiful that they never stop," he says.
Fretz says he has new music coming out this year and you can stay up-to-date here.