The Music of Fepeste: A Soundtrack for Mundane Joy

I first listened to Fepeste (pronounced fuh-pes-tay) on a Saturday during a busy season of life. I had lots of items on my to-do list that day, but my growing weeds demanded me to move mowing the yard to slot #1. I put my earbuds in, pressed play on an album which was recommended to me, and got to work. For the next hour as I pushed the lawnmower back and forth, I was transfixed. Fepeste’s music became for me that day a perfect soundtrack for the mundane, ordinary stuff of life.

For a bit of context, Fepeste is the musical project of Eric Jett, who labels his songs as “dad jams about faith, hope, and worries.” His new album “This World Ain’t Mine to Change” is a hopeful and realistic look at life from the perspective of someone who sees his days in light of eternity but often gets caught up in the anxieties that tend to plague us all. The songs include lyrical themes of death, contentment, hope, and worry, all rising up from Jett’s unique voice against the backdrop of music tinged in 60s surf-rock, 70s AM radio, country, and folk music.

Eric Jett himself is the latest in a long line of rootsy, Christian artists operating mostly outside of the Christian music industry vortex. This outsider existence has traditionally allowed much greater freedom for artistic expression and musical experimentation. From Glenn Kaiser, Daniel Amos, and Mark Heard in the 70s and 80s, to Michael Knott, The Lost Dogs, and Sarah Masen in the 90s and 00s, these artists explored the grace of God and the human condition in honest and vulnerable ways. Jett is right at home in this company, displaying his own vulnerability as he explores lyrical themes such as human brokenness, the difficult call of following Jesus, and future hope through the gospel.

The new album, “This World Ain’t Mine to Change,” kicks off with the short song “Be Forgotten,” an ode to the brevity of life and the eternal promise of life in Christ. The first sound you hear is a vocal harmonization of the lyrics, “Die and be forgotten by a world that never loved you, a leaf on the breeze, a trampled seed, we all succumb to eternity.” This might sound morbid, but Jett gives great hope in the next line, “Die and be remembered by the one who created you, blossoms and leaves from a planted seed leave behind his legacy.” “Be Forgotten” is what would happen if Bob Dylan was reading the book of James while listening to the Beach Boys.

We can embrace our ordinary lives with the full understanding that we are “stained glass from grains of sand,” the very image of God formed from the dust of the earth.

On the album’s lead single “That’s Okay,” Fepeste recognizes his creaturely finitude, the sovereignty of God, and the freedom that comes from embracing both truths. Recognizing his limits, he sings:

“There’ll be a final day,

that this song is played,

Like the grass that fades

And I’ll go to my grave,

And you won’t know my name

That’s okay, that’s okay”

Later in the same song, Jett’s recognition of human limitation, confidence in God, and purpose in Christ leads him to sing:

“Oh come what may,

I’ll just be here in my lane,

With the Gospel to proclaim

Hearts aren’t mine to change,

And that’s okay

This world ain’t mine to change,

And that’s okay”

The motto “that’s okay” is not a nihilistic shrug at the purposelessness of life, but a hope-filled recognition that we do not have to be more than we were made to be. I am getting older? That’s okay. I will not be remembered? That’s okay. Death is coming for me? That’s okay. I do not know what tomorrow brings? That’s okay, because “Only he can tell us what any of it means.”

In the rest of the album, Fepeste gives us a needed reminder to recognize that both the long days and the short years that God has given us are means of praise and gratitude. While songs such as “Never Got Good” and “Doomsurfing” are vivid portrayals of our ability to waste time and not learn from our mistakes, other songs like “My Only Comfort” and “Who You Look To” bring the focus back on Jesus as the one who is able to make sense of our messy lives. Pulling together all the individual lyrical themes of the album is the undergirding theme of eternity. Like the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55, Fepeste shows that living in light of eternity means that we can wink at death and all of its now-empty threats. More than that, we can embrace our ordinary lives with the full understanding that we are “stained glass from grains of sand,” the very image of God formed from the dust of the earth. And if we never have a wide platform, travel the world, cross off all the items on our bucket list? Well, we can hum right along with Fepeste, “That’s okay, that’s okay.”

Fepeste, “This World Ain’t Mine To Change,” is available on all major streaming platforms and for purchase through Velvet Blue Music.