Album Notes

Titus Curtis - Lead singer/songwriter

I was born in South Haven, Michigan but it wasn't more than eleven months into my life on earth that my entire family (mom, papa, and two older brothers) packed up and headed for the mission field. We lived for 4 years in Japan, came home on furlough (a working vacation for missionaries), and then headed off to Gambia, West Africa. Growing up as an MK was awesome! I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We spent two years in Gambia and it was here that two awesome things came into my life that undoubtedly effected the past 20 years. The first is the greatest of all. When I was 6, about a year into our stay in Africa, I became severely aware of my own sinfulness and my need of salvation. Through the testimony and guidance of my father (papa) and my brother Abram (who felt compelled, I'm sure by the Holy Spirit, to instill in me an immediate awareness of Hell) I came to know Christ as my personal redeemer. Looking back I can see that the Holy Spirit was indeed at work in my heart and life, drawing me to Himself. Shortly after that (this is the second thing) I became keenly aware of this huge, black instrument with gargantuan silver pipes sitting in one of the rooms of our house. I wasn't the most studious 1st grader in the world and I discovered that when my parents weren't around, it was way more fun to go play around on the Marimba than figure out the pattern in a row of 4 geometric shapes. It didn't take long for papa to see that I was interested in his Marimba, so he began to teach me to play. Soon we were playing duets (southern gospel style) and he had me up in front of groups of people playing right along side him.

From there one thing led to another. When I was about 9 or 10 I realized that I could pick out alto or tenor parts by ear. In 5th grade I picked up my grandma's old saxophone and started teaching myself. I started playing it in the 6th grade band and that's when I knew I would always be hooked on music. I was ripping out jazzy Christmas tunes I heard on the movie "Home Alone" and playing them for my class. Meanwhile, my band teacher was trying to get me to explain what was going through my brain when I played by ear. Those must have been some funny explanations!

I was part of a typical family where the mom wants her son to grow up to be a prodigy on piano, so I also took piano lessons for about 4 years from Faye Lopez (she is awesome!). In addition to everything else, I started teaching myself guitar as a sophomore in high school but I didn't really realize how much I enjoyed singing and playing until I went to college. Before I wrote my own music, I made rewrites of old hymns.

TitusJustus actually began as a worship team for Purdue Bible Fellowship, but I realized it could be a great outlet to further the creativity of the songs I was writing. When Josh, Steve and I got together to work on my original music, I don't think any of us had a clue what we were getting into. The Lord brought all the other pieces together with Jim, Nicole, and finally Bethany. These people have become like family to me and if you ever meet any of them, you'll soon realize that they are just humble servants of Christ. But hey, isn't that the coolest thing any of us could hope to be? The Lord is taking us on an interesting journey with some unexpected twists and turns. I hope our music will touch your life and the lives of those you share it with.