Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack Berry.
Hi Jack, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Memphis, TN with an amazing family with 3 sisters and growing up my favorite things were basketball and music. When I was about 10 our family adopted a baby boy named Henry. I had never been more excited to have a brother. Suddenly, one night while staying with friends, we get a call in the middle of the night to go home just to find out that Henry’s mother would be taking him back. It was heartbreaking.
I started making music when I was about 15 years old and fell in love with it even more. Music was an escape for me, I was not close with my Dad, and I was somewhat closer to my mom. I grew up in a Christian home but I was very far from it.
I got kicked out of school when I was a freshman in high school. I then later struggled heavily with substance abuse and kind of gave up on myself. I masked myself everyday to try to be someone I was not while I was breaking entirely on the inside.
I got back into my school after a year and was ineligible to play for mostly my whole sophomore year which devastated me.
I still was struggling heavily with substance abuse and my mental health. Music was still a huge part of my life, writing and making music daily. Later on when I was 18, In a span of 4 months, 3 of my friends tragically passed away. That is something I do not thing we can ever truly prepare ourselves for.
I remember feeling so lost and hopeless, that there was nothing in this world for me and that I was too far gone.
Countless mornings I would wake up saying I’m going to change and I still wouldn’t. Waking up not remembering where I was, what happened the night before, and just completely broken. I hid so many things from my family, friends, and honestly I was pretty good at masking it. I remember my best friend had always kept asking me to go to his church and I finally got to a point where I said yes. I remember the pastor saying if you want to give your life to the Lord today or need a fresh restart come to the font. I did not want too but I did. For one of the first times in my life I had an encounter with God. It wasn’t some crazy supernatural thing where I got free’d and delivered from everything, I just has a sense of hope i’ve never had before. I felt like Jesus was right there in all of my mess waiting for me to run to him in his arms. I had a joy I quite never could find for the last 18 years and the answer was right there, God. The only reason i’m here today is because of him and by the grace of God.
I feel like we tend to share our stories or testimonies as something that’s ended, well it never will end. I still struggle, i’m still a sinner, I still need help, I still mess up, but I know who my father is and where my identity comes from now. I’m still learning each and everyday. All of this, really changed me and shaped me as an artist. My music and what I wrote about drastically changed because of what God did in my life. Through my music, I pray to reach those who don’t know the Lord, and even those who do. My story is not just for one worldview of people, but everyone. You are not alone, and you are never too far gone. There is no such thing. People need to realize that just because you start following the Lord, does not mean struggles go away. You just handle them differently with God.
Me and my dad now are basically best friends, and I feel that way about everyone in my family. I could not ask for better parents and sisters and am so thankful for everyone who’s invested in me and brought me in. It is all because of God, he had entirely transformed my plans and my heart.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Some of the struggles an artist I think how easy it is to get caught up in trying to make music you think people will like instead of purely sharing your heart and enjoying the creative side of it. It can become very stressful. If you write a song and show it to 100 people I think just about 60-80 of them will receive that song differently in their heart. That’s the beauty of music, It is truly art.
Another hard thing, being a Christian who makes music, people will always be looking for something that is wrong with your music or even take things out of context. In the music world, there is kind of a constant fighting between what is right or wrong, Christian or not, and purely a lot of dividing in the Faith based music industry. It should be more about just reaching lost people, which is really up to God and we are just his vessel. Being vulnerable is one of the hardest things someone can do and also the most beautiful.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I make music and that is also what I’m known for. The two songs I became more known from was a Kanye all of the lights sample called “Devils Lie” and also a Drake sample I did with Big Swerve called “Child of God.” The biggest thing for me is hearing back from my fans, which I refer to as Family, and seeing how my music resonates with them or the ways its sparked something in their heart in a new way. This is purely the Holy Spirit and it by the grace of God I get to make music and put it out and people will listen to it. I am also proud of being able to look back at my work and truly feel like there has been growth after each song. My most recent song “God knows I tried” is probably my favorite song I have ever made. I love folk music, I love Sam Barber, Noah Kahan, Kyndal Inskeep, Bon Iver, and buffalo traffic Jam. It is really hard not to listen to every style of music though.
This is what I believe sets me apart from other artists. Firstly, that I have maybe multiple different genres of music and want too keep experimenting with all music for however long I am able too. Furthermore, All truth is God’s truth. A song that expresses the human experience is a drop of rain that rolls off the leaf into a stream down the river and into the ocean and that ocean is God. my songs are different chapters of the book of my life. If you took one chapter of the book of Job and read it out loud you could say that isn’t biblical at all. You could do the same thing with the book of Ecclesiastes. But in context, altogether, they are part of a really big story that is worth reading and responding too. I pray these songs are a body of work, relating to each other, responding to one another, confessing and rejoicing, representing the human journey in relationship to God. This is a great conversation and one that has been going on for ages and one that you won’t win and don’t need to win.
If you go listen to my very first songs all the way to now, there are different ways you can see how God has changed my life in very unique ways even in just the way I may write, or the way I write about something. It’s like a tapestry, except Gods tapestry we will never fully be able to understand the complexity and beauty of everything’s he’s done and created and done for us.
When i’m 40, I want someone to be able to look back at my music and hopefully find songs for similar situations they are in or struggling like mental health, depression, anxiety, heartbreak, loneliness, fear, and realize God has never forsaken them. A lot of Christian music makes life seem like rainbows and a cakewalk, I want to be as real, authentic, and vulnerable as I can so even myself looking back at my music can see some of the hardest times I was in and in the end I’ll praise the Lord thru all the suffering and tell everyone about him, that’s not my calling, that’s a command. My calling is not music either, It is to follow the Lord and give my life to him each and everyday.
I’m a Christian but you can’t reach everyone from one point of view. I do not make “Christian music” but I am a Christian who makes music for the Lord. Nf is a great example of all of this too.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Figure out why you are doing it, where you are going, who are you doing it for, and more importantly do not ever let yourself lose you’re creative mind. Try to find the balance between what gives you more creative freedom and what that space looks like. It really is harder at times.
Listening and taking advice from people who are actively doing music full time is so so important on you’re journey. Do be very careful though with the noise, a lot of people will tell you what music you should make, how to make it, what to write about, and that is where you can be overwhelmed. Find a few you trust whole heartedly, but before that be intentional about what the Lord is saying to you and putting on your heart.
Do not worry about the numbers, worry about the music and your heart posture towards each song. The Lord will guide you.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jack_brennan_berry?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-berry-41359a1b2?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@brennan901?si=a31gN_aAjEku5Bhg
- Other: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/album/6iAZeQmpiReB9wdzdQYtZH?si=E_8j6gL3RE-Ln6G-Hq9kHw
