Explicit Faith  guitarist Derek Shreve was born in Cumberland, MD and raised in Maysville, WV. He played percussion from the 5th grade through high school. He also enjoyed reading and playing video games. “I was a typical band geek and spent a lot of time in the library,” Derek recalls.

Derek attended church as a child and was saved and baptized around 7 or 8 years old. His mother became a preacher when he was around 13. “I decided somewhere around that time that though I believed in God and accepted the truth of Jesus, I didn’t need to bother him with the small things. It is only recently that I have come to understand,  maybe so recently that I am still coming to understand that is by  ‘bothering him’ with the small stuff we come to live the life he intended and be who he intended us to be. By ‘bothering him’ with the small stuff we come to have a relationship with him. That does not make things easier, but its not suppose too.”

Derek learned to play the guitar in 1995. He is still learning to play in 2007! He considers himself 35% guitar player and 18% singer. (We are still trying to figure out the missing percent)! He began playing songs that were popular at the time. His parents moved to Springfield, WV as his mother took over four churches in the area. Though he was old enough to be out of the house, he stayed at home. While living there, he met his neighbor Mike Strauss who first introduced him “to the idea of not playing things that had already been played, but playing something new, off the cuff, which in turn led me to try writing.”  Mike now lives in North Carolina and works as a musician.

In 2000, Derek married and began his family. He now has a daughter of 2002 vintage and a son, 2005 model. Around this time, he started playing bluegrass with his father in an established group. Due to a positive response from some of the songs he had written, he decided to record a few of them in his basement. Derek recalls, “I had little to no knowledge of what I was doing. Everyone thought that I really must know what I was doing to make a CD, but it is like anything else. If you want to do it, badly enough you will.  Somewhere in this time, I decided to try out the mandolin and even the fiddle, which I play on the CD (a miracle if ever there was one, as I cannot play the fiddle, not really).”

His mother then was moved from  Springfield to a Mathias charge where she met Dusty Landacre. “She mentioned Dusty to me a few times and that he wanted to start a Christian Rock band. It would be a chance to play the music I like to play,” she said. “She was right, I like bluegrass and even old hymns, but when it comes to playing, rock and the blues are what come out naturally.”  Although already busy with a full schedule including family, his own business, and building a house, Derek was led to meet the guys and give the band a shot. “Now here we are!” 

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