Biography and Pictures
Joseph Gill
So who
am I, anyway?
Well,
how much do you want to know? I suppose I can start at the beginning...
I was born on April
13, 1984. This is only interesting because I was born on Friday the 13th
(no joke!). Let's skip over my early life...The first tidbit of my life
that might be interesting to note is that I have music in my genes. My
mother is a world-class singer (though she's too humble to admit it) and
my father is an amazing singer and an accomplished pianist. It was he,
in fact, who taught me piano at the tender age of five.
My first song that
I ever wrote (I still have it) was about love. The lyrics go like this:
"Love is such a beautiful
commotion, but no one really cares."
I remember giving a
concert with this song when I was young, probably seven or eight. When
I was nine I teamed up with my best friend at the time, Byron Vaughn, and
a couple other neighborhood kids to form a band, which we called quite
appropriately, "Boys Band" (since it was all boys...for a while, until
my sister joined). I remember giving three free neighborhood concerts with
the Boys Band, all the while playing the ukulele (if you can call strumming
frantically on a toy ukulele while singing off-key actually "playing" it).
Nevertheless we all had a blast, and hey, we were only nine so it really
didn't matter how good we were, since we were cute anyway.
I continued writing
songs even after the band broke up a year later, my songs becoming more
complex and actually sounding decent. For the most part I was trained in
MIDI (for those non-initiate, it's a rather simplistic form of music writing
on the computer which involved more technical than musical skill), and
I ended up building a website around my MIDI files (some of which can still
be found online at http://www.angelfire.com/md/bsa/foolio.html. Don't ask
about the "foolio" part, it was a silly nickname that I got when I was
twelve...I once did a stupid spoof of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" and
my friend Chris Moss gave me the nickname "Foolio", which for a while I
thought was cool (since all the cool musicians had fake nicknames,
like Prince or Coolio himself) but now I think it's just dumb and I'm embarrassed
by it so please don't bring it up in my presence!).
So anyway, I had fun
with MIDI for quite some time, amassing a collection of over 50 original
songs, some of which can be heard on my first album, "Last Rites". But
I'll get to that later. Anyway, I won a few awards for the MIDI songs,
most notably for "Sole Heir (To A Fortune)" which did end up on "Last Rites".
But MIDI was only a stepping stone for me to record a real, live album,
which was still to be a few years in the future.
For my seventeenth
birthday I finally got what I asked for: a real, live (well, okay it was
inanimate) electric-acoustic guitar! Only problem was, I had no idea how
to play it. Thanks to many books I got from the library and the patience
of very talented friends, I was able to finally learn how to play the guitar
well enough to be able to perform in public. My main venues for playing
music was at church, however. When I started at Franciscan University in
the fall of 2001 (only four months after I got the guitar), I became known
as a piano player only, since I was involved in music ministry for Mass
and also in playing praise & worship Christian contemporary music.
That was all well and good, but as the old line goes, "I ain't got no respect
around here," and piano players definitely always played second fiddle
(ha, ha) to the guitarists (I know, I know, it should have been all for
the glory of God, but what can I say, I'm just a vain old sinner). So,
henceforth, I decided to become more versed in guitar. Three semesters
later, in the Spring of '03, I tried out to be a music ministry group leader
on guitar and made it, and I have been leading worship (on guitar) for
two years now.
Nevertheless,
my dream of publishing my music had remained unfulfilled until one day
in September of 2002, my sister called me at school. She said something
about having to do a project in her senior year at Urbana High School,
and that project needed to benefit a charity. She wanted to do something
to benefit Birthright, a charity that helps poor women to care for their
babies and toddlers. So, she was wondering if I would be willing to produce
a mini-CD for sale for the charity.
I was thrilled with
the idea! It was a lot of work (moreso for her than for me) but after many
frantic emails and late-night recording sessions, "Last Rites" is the CD
that came out, carrying seven tracks of my own original music. I remember
grinning ear-to-ear when I first heard the playback of "Carefree Day" (the
first song we recorded) because it was the beginning of the fulfillment
of one of my lifelong dreams!
"Last Rites" sold well,
and we were able to make over $350 for the charity after paying for production
costs. I was pleased to be able to help out the charity.
Life continued on as
normal, and I continued writing songs and dreaming of a new album. In Spring
'04 I began to pray about it, and in May I called Mr. Doug Jackson, one
of the most talented recording engineers in the business. He was excited
at the prospect of doing a Christian CD for charity, so we set up some
dates and began recording.
"The Sacred Romance"
came out in December, 2004, and for me it's more than just an album. It's
a faith testimony. It's an expression of my love of God. May it be for
you an instrument through which you can know the Father's immense love
for you.
I will be starting
seminary at the North American College in Rome in the fall, in my final
studies for the priesthood. Please pray for me!
I think it interesting
that God used one of my main passions in life, music, to draw me to Him
and to inspire my conversion. In fact, my conversion is based a lot on
Christian music and the grace that can come from it. For the most part,
growing up, I was pretty much a Catholic in name only. Holiness wasn't
something I was too interested in, even though I was considered to be a
good kid and I kept out of trouble. However, God rocked my world when I
was sixteen and I started going to a local community college, which was
a half-hour away (on a good day). The ride was boring, and I didn't really
like the Eminem rap crap that was always on the secular stations at that
time (geez, I'm dating myself...I'm that old?), so the only thing to do
was listen to some Christian music tapes that my mom had in her car. So
I did...Sam Rowland, some acapella, some praise & worship music. Nothing
too earth-shattering or amazing. Nevertheless, by listening to that music
and singing along with it (yeah, I too sing in the car), God's grace slowly
began to work on my heart and change it around for the better. I suddenly
realized what had been missing in my life up to that point, why I felt
such incredible emptiness. I was lacking a love for the God who loves us
enough to empty Himself out for us. He had been weeping, waiting, suffering
for me, and I had been ignoring Him for my entire life.
There were no lightning
bolts from the sky, no great amazing revelations. Nevertheless, God's grace
is powerful. For Lent that year I decided to take up praying the Rosary
as a penance. At
first I hated it! But slowly, surely, as I began to meditate on the mysteries
of Christ's life, death and resurrection, I found a love for the peaceful
prayer of the Rosary which has never left. The grace of God had conquered
my heart, and I had begun to surrender to Him.
All of this is reflected
in my music. I never used to be able to write music about spiritual topics;
all of my songs used to be about my friends or loving some amorphous girl.
As much as I tried to write about the spiritual life, everything sounded
cheesy, corny, and fruity (notice the food analogies...Danny Pfister, that
last one was for you). But slowly, as God's grace began to conform my heart
to His, I began to write love songs, not to some girl, but to Christ, the
Divine Lover, the One Who has captivated my soul.
So I guess that's where
I'm at now. Pray for me, it's been a journey, and it's not over yet. I'll
pray for you and for all those who hear "The Sacred Romance" that together
we may journey to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb to love our God for all
eternity.
Pictures:
Top, trying
to play guitar at High Rock along the Appalachian Trail on the PA-MD border
Middle,
a goofy moment between Mom and me during our photo shoot at Blue Ridge
Summit
Bottom,
a time of reflection at Swallow Falls State Park in Western Maryland (near
Deep Creek Lake)