Chris Wrate, the calm, soft-spoken, guitarist who oozes talent and plays for mega-star musicians around the world including the recent American Idol winner, Lee DeWyze, recently sat down with me to chat over a cup of coffee at Stir Crazy in Hollywood, CA.

How long have you been playing guitar?

I've been playing the guitar for about 8 years now. I started when I was 17, going into my senior year of high school. My mom got me this red $90, beat up, full of stickers Ibanez guitar. I was playing bass guitar previous to that, so I was at least playing some form of guitar. Just added two strings to it.

How long were you playing bass?

Bass was probably about 2 or 3 years before that.

What kind of music were you playing?

Punk rock. It's amazing to see the vast change that occurred from punk rock; Blink 182 and Green Day, to where I'm at now.

Who are you playing with now?

Right now I'm playing with Charice Pempengco, an artist from the Philippines. The season 9 winner of American Idol, Lee DeWyze. Sacha Edwards from McGhee Entertainment, which manages Kiss, Guns & Roses and Hootie & the Blowfish.

Have you been touring with all of them?

Recently, I've been touring with Lee DeWyze on his promo tour for his recent album. I've been working with Sacha Edwards as her guitar player and music director, and doing some showcases for Disney and Hollywood Records.

How did these 3 gigs happen, who came first?

Charice was the first gig I got, that started around May of last year. She started off as an artist from the Philippines, got discovered on YouTube, was brought over here by Ellen Degeneres, then got discovered by Oprah. After that I started working with Sacha over the summer, as a referral I got from someone I met.

Were they all referrals?

A couple of them were the same guy. The first thing I ever did was an audition for The Offspring at the Musician’s Institute where I went to school.

What came of that?

I got into it, and didn't think it was anything I would become a part of.. [laughs], which is funny because that's the music I started listening to: Blink 182, Green Day, The Offspring. I loved that stuff. I just kind of wanted to get in front of them, and get acquainted with them. Hopefully get invited to his other auditions.

It wound up going really far, and I ended up playing with the band. I took second to somebody who was 10 years older than me. They're like in their 40's now. The idea of them touring with a 23-year-old at the time was just not anything they were hip to. [laughs]

So that started a bunch of auditions for me. [Barry] the same guy that referred me to that audition, made the band for Charice. So that's how I got that gig. [As for] Lee, that was something where I just got an email from a friend about this audition. They held a cattle call of a few auditions. 250 people showed. It was just a process of elimination, and somehow made it through.

Tell me about your times of struggle as an artist.

During my last semester at school, that's when I got The Offspring audition, I really tried to get myself prepared for graduating and having work so I wouldn't be packing my bags and heading home right after I graduated. [laughs]

Luckily, I had the support of my family. It took me a little bit. The first gig I got out here was from a Craigslist search.

[laughs all around]

After weeding out all the bad auditions on there, I found something from an artist who just moved out here from Nashville. A country-rock artist. She held an audition. I got in, and that suited me well for the time. We just played a lot of local clubs off of the sunset strip. That was the only thing going for me. I was trying to get a part time job. Nobody would hire me.

I started wondering if I was chasing the right dream. I came close to going into recording school in Nashville, and wasn't even really confident in the idea of just being a guitar player. I thought that was a crazy idea, making a living being a guitar player was just, ahhhh! doesn't sound too hopeful...

In all these auditions there's just hundreds of guitar players going out. What separates me from these guys? And what's going let me sustain a career out here so I don’t have to move back home.

You play everything from pop/rock to praise and worship music. Do you think it's important for musicians to play different types of music?

I think it's absolutely necessary for me. And it should be for others to step outside of what you like and are comfortable with. I think to limit yourself to a certain genre or type of style is really going to limit your chances of getting hired in the real world. If that's what you're going into, if you want to be a hired musician, or even a producer or anything like that, the more you take in and the more ideas you fill yourself with, that's going to contribute to you as a musician, and not limit yourself in terms of your creativity. You gotta be able to look the part and play the part. You can't be, I'm a rocker and I'm just gonna get rock gigs.

Do you also write your own music?

I was HEAVILY into that. Before moving out here that was a big part of me. I really started out writing acoustic and was into the coffee shop type of playing. The first few artists who got me into writing that stuff were John Mayer and Dave Matthews.

Photo Matthew Desotell

It's funny how things can change. When I came out here, I was still writing and I started to write with other people. Something changed. I think also just being in school and studying guitar I was thinking, How am I going to make myself hire-able? What am I gonna do? I focused more of myself on the study of the guitar, and I really started to enjoy the fact of supporting an artist. Doing everything I can to contribute to that artist without actually being the main guy in the front of the stage.

Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

When it comes to music, I definitely think so. You know you are your own worst critic.

In your relationship with God as an artist, what do you see as your part and what do you see as God's part?

This was one of the hardest things for me to navigate. I think that's why it took me a long time to get gigs. One of my closest friends put it a good way: I make God my manager. If you go to your manager and say, I'm really interested in getting into this, and I want this kind of gig, learning that it's okay to ask God for things was huge. Going to Him and saying these are the things I want. Put me into a position to do that, and I'm going to do the work. I will knock on doors. I'm going to do these auditions and pray about the things you set up in front of me.

Learning how to ask for those things was a huge thing for me because I felt like, how do you ask God and say I want this?

What was holding you back?

I think it's just the feeling of being undeserving, and understanding also that that's what grace is for. I read in John Eldredge's Fathered by God that his daughter heard an ice cream truck and went up to him and said, Dad give me two bucks quick, now, the ice cream truck is about to leave, and at first he says, I can't believe you are just demanding money of me right now, but then it hits him: The ice cream truck. Of course, I understand. In her eagerness for the opportunity that is right there, that's how we should approach God.

You don’t see God with the rigid schoolmaster rap that He sometimes gets?

I think sometimes we maintain this perspective that we're unworthy individuals. That He doesn't care for our needs. But going back to how my father provided for me, and helped me fund my dream when I wasn't financially in a position that I could; It's like, Okay, my earthly father is doing that, and this is such a bible verse right here, but how much more is my heavenly Father going to want to care for me and do those things?

You mentioned the moment you felt it click with God and you started getting these gigs, what flipped the God switch?

I was getting fed up with things. I have a lot of great people around me, and wisdom I can seek out. There were a lot of people around me at my church in the same business. It's a very common story, and when you start to relate to these people and hear what they went through, I think that's what gave me the new perspective. It's funny because when it all unfolds and things do happen you're like, I get it now. I understand every day and why it happened that way., Every audition makes sense to me now. God had a plan all along. If I got that first audition with The Offspring, I can't imagine that I would have kept God in my life.

Did you ever make a conscious decision to give your talent to God?

I think humility is something that my father really made a point throughout my childhood to instill in me.

I think that's something I always try to give thanks for, and I'm just being reminded of how quickly things shifted. Then understanding how it looks, and how it's applied in the real world. I'm playing this guitar, and I'm playing on this show, how do I represent? I think that's the next level: how can you be that light in the entertainment industry

Who are some of your musical influences?

When I first started to get into the guitar my dad started to take notice. He was like, All right, it's time to pull out the vinyl! Luckily, my dad has a great vinyl collection. I have NO musical family members. But my dad really loves music, and he knows a lot about the musicians and the bands, but I'm sure he can’t play a note! [laughs] He had a lot of old Led Zeppelin stuff, Hendrix, The Cream, Derek and The Dominoes. And he was a big Clapton fan. That was one of the first guitarists I sat and really listened to, and really admired his playing. When I got into it later on, especially when I was writing, John Mayer was definitely an influence.

Let’s shift gears and talk about Christian music. Why do you think it’s such a hard market? Why do most people think it sucks?

[laughs] I'm glad you asked that! It's funny, I SO relate to that. My mom always used to say, Why don't you play in the church band? and I’d say, Because it's awful. A bunch of moms that think they can sing get up on a stage- and at least the church I came from, it seemed like any mom who would like do the dishes and sung worship was like I think I can do this. I think I'm gonna get up on Sunday and sing out of tune.

I don't know what it is, but it's all cheesy. I tried to get into it. My mom bought me cassette tapes of DC Talk, Newsboys. I think I like it. No, no. I actually don't. [laughs] Man, I don't know what it was. I don't even feel like it was so much the message. It was just,

[laughs all around]

I never could quite put my thumb on it, but a lot of the stuff I do enjoy, such as Hillsong and Israel Houghton, and Tye Tribbett, when I heard them, I thought, Okay, some of this music isn't really all that bad.

I've spoken to a few musicians who are Christian and they prefer not to be categorized as Christian musicians. They want to be considered just musicians like anyone else. Do you see this as becoming more prevalent in the Christian artistic community?

You don't want to be this guy: Yeah, don't hire him. He's that Christian guy. You don't want to put yourself into that position. Where you're not getting gigs because you're, that bible thumpin' Christian guitar player. [laughs]

Is music what you want to be doing for the rest of your life?

Definitely. Absolutely. 100%. That's right, I'm in for life.

What makes a musician a great musician?

I think one of the key things that makes a great musician, whether it's a singer or an artist, is your ability to put your heart behind it; really sell yourself with emotion. You can't go wrong when you are putting yourself into it 100%; when you’re heart’s into it. You need to be passionate about it at the end of the day. You gotta sell it with as much conviction as you believe in it.

Because that's gonna be so much more felt than however fast or what the notes are rather your emotion behind your song, the passion behind the lyrics, that's what the people are going to relate to. Because they want to be emotional and passionate about the music they listen to and they want to relate to it on some level. I think you can't go wrong when you are putting yourself into it 100% and your hearts into it, you need to be passionate about it at the end of the day. You gotta sell it with as much conviction as you believe in it.

What would you tell someone who is in the position you were in before the ball started rolling?

[laughs] Don't go home quite yet.

Any musician that's of faith I would say pray and pray some more. It can be really so disheartening. God wants for you what you want also. If you are on fire and passionate and love something so much, why wouldn't God want you to have that? Believe that God wants you to have that. He believes you and loves you and he's gonna want you to have that too. Understand that God wants you to succeed, he doesn't want you to fail.

What's your desert island album?

I think I know this one. My desert island album would be John Mayer's Continuum. Everything is just brilliant. The first time I listened to it, the tone of his guitar and the over all quality of the sound, just blew me away. I'm in love with that album, it's a great piece of work. I'd say that's my desert island album.

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• Chris Wrate