Marcus Elzey

So I’ve decided to start this once a week post dedicate to a certain person thats played a role in my life. And the honor of my first one of these will be dedicate to one of my best friends Kyle Troop.

Kyle and I haven’t necessarily known each other as long as most of my other friends from Oak Leaf, but he has with out a doubt been one of the most influential. Kyle and I met when we both were playing music in the church’s elementary school environment. He was an interesting character at least I believe I had seen him around the church, but that was the point in my life that I was very awkward, especially when it came to talking to people. Kyle and I soon became quick friends mainly by just talking about music. He’s seriously just one awesome dude who I can’t imagine not ever meeting. If you know kyle then you would probably agree with me, if you don’t then you suck. BUT if you are a musician looking for different products, Kyle is an authorized dealer for companies like SJC DRUMS, PEDALTRAIN, ELECTRO-HARMONIX, WESTONE and a few more companies. You can find all of these products HERE. CHECK HIM OUT!

Haha, so as most musicians will probably agree with me, being a guitar player is not exactly the cheapest hobby in the world. Usually the most essential items that are used in your style of playing are the ones that need replacing/modifications/repairs. Recently I was fortunate enough to get a Line 6 DL4 Delay modeler and after playing with it for a while I can’t imagine not having it on my board because of al the different sounds and effects that it can make(especially if your a guitar player that likes to make ambient swells). Here is my problem. The DL4 breaks more than just about any stomp box out there, and has an infamous volume drop when turned on. How do I fix this? There is a guy named Jack Vaughn who does a JHV3 mod on DL4’s that fixes the volume drop and also replaces the switches on the unit to ones that work much smoother and are less likely to fail. I’m also going to be sending my Fulltone Fulldrive 2 to Jack to get the switches replaced because it has been acting up on me lately. Jack has a great price for every one of his mods and fixes your pedal to be 10 times better than it was before. Although Jack has great prices for his mods, what I need to get done can also burn a hole in my pocket pretty quick! Hopefully I’ll be able to fund these essential quick fixes in the next couple of weeks. Until next time!

I’m sitting in the green room at Winter Xtreme 2009/2010 and I’m pretty sure I’m getting fat off of all of the food they have been feeding us. The Pigeon Forge Convention Center is DEFINITELY the largest venue I’ve ever played in(I mean come on, it’s holding 4,500 people) and I have been having a blast. It’s been so cool hanging out with Will, Matt and Jake and leading all these kids in worship. I’ve enjoyed this experience/opportunity so much thus far and hopefully more doors like this will open up one day!

So there are a few Christmas gift that I’m hoping to get this year. I stole the idea of this post from Jake. You should check his out too!

• Line6 DL4 Delay Modeler
• White VOX premium vintage coil guitar cable
• A 25 foot Gold Mogami Guitar cable
• Some new velcro for my pedal board
• Gift cards from Gap, Heritage and Buckle
• Clothing wise, I would really love to get THIS, THIS and THIS.
• “The Jerk” statrring Steve Martin on DVD. This is one of my top 5 movies of all time!
• Who could forget about CA$$!
• And if you want to be REALLY generous……..This Vox AC30HH head with the matching cabinet.
• Lastly, a 2010 Ford Escape. I’m not really an expensive sports car type of guy, I just want a nice car that I can fit all of my gear in with good gas mileage!.

Well, there is my Christmas wish list. What do you guys want for Christmas?

Typically when I lay down in bed (like I am now) i beging to think. Not about anything specific, just about what going on in my life. Here’s what I’m thinking about now….

I don’t deserve any of this

I wish I could just be done with college already

I can’t wait for this weekend at Oak Leaf Church

How am I going to get better both musically and physically

Why do so many people in the world try to prove that God is non-existent, yet ignore the evidence that He is alive when it’s right in front of their face.

These things I usually will sleep on and God eventually shows me the answers.  So……what’s on your mind before you go to sleep?

I don’t know about those of you who read my blog (But I really would like to!) but every now and then I make a list of goals for myself. This list could be ranging for 6 months or 5 years, even though most of the time I forget about them.  Here’s is the list I just made. I made no deadline to have these completed, therefore I have all the time on the world. I figure I’ll leave it in God’s hands. If these goals are meant to be they will happen, I’m absolutely positive about it.

• Finish college and begin working as a/an accountant for my grandpas accounting firm or as the finance person at a church
• Read and break down the Bible chapter by chapter the Bible. Hopefully this will help me understand how different people interpret scripture differently.
• Move out of my house by the time I’m 21
• Run a 5k race and finish well
• I’ve actually been asked this a few times, and yes, I do eventually want to get married
• Become physically healthy and in shape for my age
• This goes with the last one, but I need to lose 35 pounds
• Travel to some cool places like Memphis, Nashville, Cleveland and Paris.
• Keep bringing people closer to Jesus through music and any other way to be an influence to others.

What are some goals you might have?

I’ve been thinking alot about this whole “black Friday” thing and it’s caused me to wonder. People start shopping at certain stores at midnight for the best deals while the rest of the country decides to sleep in until 3 a.m. Sure it’s fun going out and saving a lot of money on expensive gifts, but in the long run it kind of saddens me to see how everyone gets so hyped up about this unofficial holiday but don’t for a holiday that marks an eternal event that saved my life, your life, your childrens lives etc. It’s unbelievable how people get more excited about black Friday than they do about Good Friday. Nobody wakes up at midnight to read their Bible or just talk to God on Good Friday (or any other day of the week for that matter). How is it that we as Christians can get so caught up in the material things that are here NOW and not the things that will last FOREVER? I’ve been guilty of this too, but how can we fix it? It’s like what michael say, “people ALWAYS find money to fund whats important to them”, and usually and that importance isn’t the church. Good Friday marks the day that Jesus Christ died for us, to be sacrificed only to rise from the dead. Black Friday is a day where we wrestle in a store to get the last Malibu Barbie.

Here’s an update

1. Whitley is an awesome girlfriend, better than yours.
2. I’m really hoping to make giving guitar lessons my only job over the next month or 2. I figured out the numbers and I would only need one or two more students in order to make this happen. If you’re interested, just shoot me an email at marcuselzey@gmail.com, or send me a message on twitter.
3. I’m real excited to be hanging out with a bunch of family this week for Thanksgiving!
4. Christmas is drawing closer and the weather is certainly showing it! I’ve been freezing all week!
5. I’ll be posting a blog soon about the gear that I’ll be getting around or after Christmas. Be ready gear heads!
6. I hope everyone is having an awesome week!

It’s been a long but satisfying week. Right now I’m sitting in my sociology class bored out of my mind while my teacher talks about racism. Here’s a quick little update of whats been going on.

1. Tonight after I get off of work I’m going to Sam Jones to play at a youth lock-in with Matt, Kyle and Roy. IT’s gonna be ROCKIN’!
2. Whitley and I celebrated our year and a half anniversary. She made me a card and a recorded a rap on garage band for her. I recorded all the beats using my voice, guitar case and clapping. I’m thinking about taking up a rapper name. My full name is Marcus Christopher Elzey, so I think MC LZ would be appropriate.
3. Seriously I’m ready for Christmas to be right around the corner.
4. Speaking of Christmas, tomorrow my family, Whitley and myself  will be setting out Christmas light in the yard. If you think that your yard has a lot of light during the holidays, you obviously haven’t seen my house. I think we come pretty close to beating this dude. We’ll be lighting them all up the day after Thanksgiving.
5. I’ve really been wanting to get a new acoustic guitar lately. particularly this one.
6. Since it’s out that I’m going to be the worship leader for FUEL I’ve been asked many times if I won’t be playing electric guitar as much. To those of you wondering, I can’t stop playing electric. Playing electric guitar was my first passion about music so there’s is absolutely no way that pI’ll ever slack up on playing it
7. And I want a new guitar amp, haha! Check it out !
   
8. For all of you gear nerds, Kyle showed me THIS cable that will double the milli-amps to larger pedals that require more power, so you don’t have to go out and buy a larger power supply like the juicebox.
9. I’ve procrastinated so much about getting it, but for Christmas my parents told me that they will buy me a Line6 DL4. You have no idea how pumped I am about this. I plan on getting a JHV3 HiFi mod on it shortly after getting it.
10. Oak Leaf Church is going to be crazy awesome this weekend! It’s the second weekend of the Hope series and there is a special surprise in store for ALL who attend. You don’t want to miss it.

I have a feeling this week will be great. There’s a ton of cool stuff going on and I thought that I’d fill you guys in.

1. At the moment I’m hanging out with my awesome girlfriend watching “13 Going on 30″. Not really my kind of movie, but I love getting to spend time with her especially since we have both been real busy lately. You should follow her twitter HERE!
2. I decided last week that I’m changing my major in school from nursing to accounting. The whole nursing thing just wasn’t my nich, so I think that hopefully working for my grandpa’s accounting firm would be great!
3. Kyle and I are hanging out early on Thursday, and after that I will be hanging out with Whitley for our year and a half anniversary. It’s crazy to think its been that long!
4. I get to work on Friday, but also get to play for a youth group with Matt and Kyle at a lock-in at midnight.
5. I won’t be playing at Oak Leaf this weekend, but I will be spending some much needed time with the girlfriend and family. I’m real stoked!
6. I found out that I get to lead worship in the main service at oak leaf November 28th and 29th. I must admit that I’m kind of nervous though. Can’t say that I’ve ever led worship for a thousand people. haha!
7. Life is gooooood