The Man, The Myth, The Musician: Jairin Schad

SideQuest's most recent show in the Blackroom. Taken by Karl Schad.

Written and media by Taylor Harpster.


In the realm of music on Greenville University‘s campus, there are a lot of bands and solo musicians that play and occasionally write the kinds of things you like to listen to. From country music to rap, or even dubstep, a wide variety of music genres are represented. Throughout the years, GU has been home to a quite a few talented musicians, such as Jars of Clay and many others.

Jairin playing some tunes during our time together. Taken by Taylor Harpster.

I got to hang out with and learn more about one of Greenville’s very own, Jairin Schad. Jairin is a junior who is majoring in Worship Arts, one of the interesting varieties of majors offered in the music program here at Greenville. Jairin primarily plays piano/keyboard but he also sings, plays guitar, and plays bass. He is the frontman and the lead singer for one of the more well-known bands in Greenville’s music scene, SideQuest. He also plays electric guitar in the band. Having attended many of their shows myself, SideQuest is a super down-to-earth band that just really enjoys playing music for people.

Jairin helps participate in the songwriting for the band, and has written/co-written many crowd favorites like “Oh, Despair!” and “Keep it Down“. Jairin enjoys writing, and many of the songs he writes come from personal experience. Jairin does not just write songs for SideQuest though. Jairin has done a fair amount of solo music (which can be found on his SoundCloud), as well as writing songs with other on-campus artists such as Mandy Pennington. SideQuest is also not the only band Jairin has been in. For a short time, Jairin played bass guitar in a band called The Great Indoors (Now known as TREY). Jairin split with The Great Indoors to focus more on SideQuest matters as well as his own music.

All 4 members of SideQuest at Midnight Breakfast in Fall 2016. Source: GCSA (GSGA).

When I asked Jairin about his future, he said he definitely wants to lead worship wherever God calls him. Jairin does, every once in a while, lead worship at his home church, but he is not the primary worship leader there. As a Worship Arts major, Jairin puts a big emphasis on God’s calling for his life and where that will take him. When asked about SideQuest and the possibility of the band continuing on past Greenville, he made it evident that while SideQuest will likely continue and possibly tour after Greenville, Jairin definitely does want to pursue leading worship as a career. For him, SideQuest is a window for a larger opportunity that God has in store.

The following is a video interview between Jairin and me in which we talk about his music and what that entails for him. The background music that you will hear in the video is all original music that Jairin either participated in writing/co-writing or played/sang in. Some of the instrumental piano music that you may hear as well was recorded by the two of us while we hung out and talked all things music.

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here