They were four friends who had known each other since ninth grade. They had sung together in junior high choir, and now they were all sophomores at Viewmont High School leaving a seminary class together. It was a nice day, they were feeling good and they spontaneously broke into song.
"We started singing 'Ye Elders of Israel' in four-part harmony," says Nate Kasparian. "And then we stopped and looked at each other and said, 'Wow! Maybe we could go somewhere with this.' The next day I showed the guys some songs that I'd made up the piano part for, and we started to come up with the words."
4Ordained was born. The quartet, comprised of Kasparian, Jacob Juarez, Landon Peay and Robert Allen, has been writing, singing and recording music ever since.
"Landon's dad said if we could come up with six songs, we could go into the studio," says Kasparian of Kevin Peay, who has been involved in the local music scene for some 25 years or more.
So they did — and recorded their first CD, a six-song disc called "Standard Bearer." Within two months, the thousand CDs they had produced had sold out through various concerts and performances. 4Ordained was asked to perform on a DVD that was done for the Especially for Youth program. They were invited to sing the national anthem at a Utah Jazz game. And they kept writing.
"It all has happened so naturally," Allen says.
Kasparian, Juarez and Allen are now students at Utah State University, while Peay attends Weber State. They are all planning on going on LDS missions in the spring (the money they make from the CDs is going to help finance those). And they all get together to sing, write and perform whenever they can.
Earlier this year, the four returned to the studio with enough material for another CD, a full 12-song disc called "Bring Me Home," which has just been released. It contains their arrangements of a few favorite hymns as well as new songs they have written — songs with messages and titles such as "Bring Me Home," "Keep Walking On," "Stand a Little Taller" and "He Cares."
If it seems like their songs are full of faith, prayer and encouragement, it's because they are.
"There have been some times when we've been in contention, and nothing has seemed to come together," Allen says. "We've stopped. We've prayed, and it just comes. At the end, we look back and say, 'How did we do that?"'
"And then we say 'thank you,' because we know those are the Lord's words," Kasparian adds. "We also know it helps to be spiritually minded. Things come when you are in tune with the spirit."
This may not be the kind of music you'd expect typical teenagers to produce. Some say it shows a maturity beyond their years.
"These songs are our testimony," Allen says. "They have come from the lessons and scriptures we've studied. It's easy to write them because we are all so passionate about the church, and we want to share that passion. It just flows."
"We want to sing the truth," Juarez says.
"We hope that we can uplift others, as we also uplift ourselves," Peay adds.
"We want to get the word out that you can feel the spirit through music, that there's happiness in music," Kasparian says.
That's a lesson that came to each of them in different ways. "I hated singing in junior high," Allen says. "I thought it was only for losers and weirdos. But a friend talked me into signing up for choir, and I fell in love instantly."
Kasparian and Peay both started playing the piano at a young age. But it wasn't until Peay found the guitar that he really jumped in with both feet.
"He was really into sports," his father says. "But once he decided that baseball wasn't going to be his thing, he began working harder at his music. One day he came to me and said, 'I don't want to play the piano anymore. I want to play the guitar.' I told him that was fine, but I didn't really know any guitar teachers. He said, 'That's OK. I can teach myself.' And he did."
Juarez, too, got into music early. "I remember singing the Primary songs," he says. "I loved them."
Sports have been another common interest the four share. Peay and Kasparian played tennis in high school; Juarez and Allen were on the soccer team, and Juarez now plays soccer at USU. Those experiences have also affected what they bring to music, they say.
"Music takes practice and perseverance just like sports," Juarez says.
And patience. After being in the recording studio, "we have a new appreciation for all the music we hear," Kasparian says. "Recording takes a lot longer than you think."
"You have to have patience or you have no success at all," Kevin Peay says.
As a father, he says, it has been both amazing and gratifying to see what music has done for the guys.
A refuge, a strength, a common bond, a testimony. Music is all that and more to 4Ordained.
"We love the gospel with all our hearts," Kasparian says.
Adds Peay: "Music is the way we've found to share that love."
E-mail: carma@desnews.com