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INTERVIEW WITH MARIUS MANCI |
D.P.: Who is Marius Manci?
MM: I am 24 years old. I was born in Romania, Oradea, Bihor. I was born in a Christian family. I attended “Bethel Church”. I was about 14 years old when I started attending the Baptist High-school in Oradea, but I never got to finish my 9th grade in Romania because I came over to the States.
D.P.: How was it when you came here?
M.M.: I had a culture shock when I came here. The first thing was that I went to a black school, in Detroit, and it was very hard for me to understand their language because they use a lot of different words than the English that I learned in Romania which is more British oriented and I’ve never really known how to fit in. But, day by day, I learned how to acquaint, I learned their ways and it was easier for me. God helped me to adjust. Then I moved to live with an American family, their name is Inquist, and God really blessed me with them. They gave me the opportunity to go to a better school and I really had a better chance to get closer to God.
D.P: When did you start to sing? Did you always have an incline towards music?
M.M.: The first time when I sang was at my father’s sister wedding. What determined me to sing was the fact that I really felt that there was something in me that was always there. I felt a big incline towards music. And by having the opportunity to listen to such a variety of artists I said: ” That’s it man, I’ll be singing soon”. My singing took off when I was 18 years old, in “Bethesda Church”, in MI, when I first formed a group called “ The Young Prophets” with Beni Garrison and Cristi Gabra. Even if our first so-called performance wasn’t so good it was a start and from that point, even though it went ugly, I decided that was what I was going to do. I started working with a vocal coach Rony Rockman, I went to a school of music in Royal Oak and I got more and more into it. I think God forms you slowly. He took his time with me and after my ears discovering a whole bunch of sounds and artists I kind of shaped them all and made a sound of my own, after having the abilities to do such a thing.
D.P.: Why did you choose to sing a Christian and not a secular music?
M.M: I just noticed that even the famous people like Elvis, died and left behind all their riches and the houses and I saw no point to life. Even if you are popular, if you don’t have God in your life, if you don’t praise God, if the first thing in your music is not presenting God, then your music is poor and dry. I want to do something for God and there is no other alternative.
D.P.: I know there was a change in your life? What was the reason for this change?
M.M.: I was always questioning myself and I had doubts many times. Is my life really okay? I got baptized at 19. I said: “ Well…do we really need to get baptized?” I had so many questions in my mind. But I read that Jesus went up to John Baptist and He said: “ what is got to be done, it’s got to be done” and I looked it that way. If Jesus said that this has to be done it has to be done. Then I discovered that I didn’t know so many things about the way a Christian should live when I got baptized but as I went along I prayed and stayed close to God and He taught me step by step what to do. So at 19, I was determined to change my life and leave everything behind, all the confusion, all the doubts, all the questions….
D.P.: Tell us a few things about your albums.
M.M.: On the first album that I recorded with the guys I was more like a robot, I was trying to portray something that wasn’t me. I think some people are called to be in a group, some people are called to be as soloists. I think that I never got in a group because I was always so worried about the other guys not messing up. So, I decided to take this on my own. The second album, because I grew in my faith I understood more what to write about. And because I wasn’t a teenager anymore and I knew what the teenagers go through I had stuff to write about and my first album speaks a lot about the way kids deal with life. The name of the album is “ A Blend of Emotions”.
D.P.: Do you compose your own songs?
M.M: Yes, I wrote about 37-38 songs for the first album and I recorded about 14, but I selected only nine.
D.P. Do you think it is important to listen to a Christian music?
M.M.: Yes, it is very important. When I was a teenager I was convinced that there was something wrong with listening to both kinds of music. I think also the style of music is important. I think teenagers are more influenced by music than by message preached in church. A teenager would not have the patience to listen to a preacher but would have the patience to turn on the radio and listen to a song and these days there are so many catchy songs out there. The music is just getting better and better. Just when you think it has reached its limits all of a sudden you see that it expends to higher limits, because the devil composes and he knows the code to get to the teenagers’ hearts. Before God gets a chance to try to put you through experiences of life the Devil rushes in. There’s a whole bunch of effects of the type of music you are listening to. Music can lead you to different sins; especially these days it is very provocative, very perverted and the lyrics are very dirty.
D.P.: What do you think about what Aristotel said that music forms characters?
M.M.: I’ll have to agree with him. Secular music and Christian music give you a solution if you are dealing with something in your life. Now, if you listen to secular music it pops you up a solution, like my girlfriend left me, this is what I should do, I lost my job, that is what I should do, or like John Lennon: “imagine there’s no heaven, imagine there’s no hell” and people start to imagine what if there was no hell or heaven and I would be the owner of my own spiritual life. Christian music gives you a solution that is always God. Now, which one are you going to choose? Will you choose to listen to John Lennon or Metallica or Guns’n’Roses whose message is discouraging, they even push you to suicide, or to a music that tells you a hope for tomorrow, that even if you lost your job it’s fine. Life has a lot of hardships but God is the solution. God always has another day, secular music just pushes you down.
D.P.: Tell us something about your favorite bands?
M.M.: I am really upset with the fact that a lot of Christian artists start singing secular music. DC Talk was my favorite band but now, one of them, Toby Mac recorded a secular album. I think you can’t play on two stages, you have to choose. And many others sang secular music, like Michel W. Smith, Amy Grant, Chapman…These are the days when we are living a lot of confusion. So, we have to open our eyes and separate what needs to be separated. To tell you the truth I don’t have a favorite anymore.
D.P.: Why do you think they chose to sing a secular music? Out of confusion or out of commercial purposes?
M.M.: I think is both commercial and confusion. They thought they couldn’t do it in the secular world the competition being too big so they decided to hit the Christian world first. After they gained some popularity and money they took the chance in the secular music. And of course there is a lot of confusion also. They think, yes, maybe it is okay to do it…We deal with this stuff everyday…
D.P.: Could they have had the motivation to go out with a Christian message among all this secular music?
M.M.: I think a lot of them have this excuse, that Jesus had to go to a sinner’s house, but once they get on that stage they don’t sing about God. One of them, though, which is also one of my favorites, Avalon won a Grammy Award this year and they stood up there in front of everybody and said: “We never really thought that there was an award for the kind of music that we are doing because it is for Jesus Christ and only for Jesus Christ.” In front of a whole bunch of artists and millions of Americans watching on TV they witnessed Jesus and they were not ashamed of Him
D.P.: What are your future projects?
M.M.: By the end of this year I want to get back in the studio and start a new album. I also want to work with different artists and record duets and hopefully my music will inspire a lot of teenagers and make them think about Jesus.
D.P.: Do you a have a message or urge for our readers at the end of this interview?
M.M.: We live the days of confusion, when the words in the Bible are coming more and more true. Are you really prepared if this was your last day? And also, everything is so mixed up today, pray for God’s guidance, pray that He will lead you through everything that you do.