Located in California’s south Orange County, Ocean Hills Church has been ministering to the community of historic San Juan Capistrano for over 25 years. They also host the annual Worship Life conference, attended by worship leaders from all over the country. Music is a huge part of their ministry, and they’ve been blessed to have Holland Davis serving as Worship Leader and Assistant Pastor for the last four years. Holland is a gifted singer, songwriter, and guitarist who’s perhaps best known for his composition “Let It Rise,” recognized with an ASCAP award as one of the most performed Christian songs of 2006. Prior to arriving at Ocean Hills, Holland served as the Director of A&R and Marketing at Maranatha! Music, where he started the Worship Underground label that introduced such artists as David Crowder and Pete Shambrook. After that, he was at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA, where he started the School of Worship and re-launched Calvary Chapel Music. Recently, Holland helped launch www.worshipsong.com, an online resource for worship leaders to share their own worship songs.

Among his many duties at Ocean Hills, Holland prepares music and leads worship for three weekly services: two on Sunday morning and one on Wednesday evening. He chooses music and instrumentation for the unique needs of each congregation. “Worship reflects who we are as people, it reflects our love for God, and it reflects the communities that we’re connected to,” he relates. “Depending on the community, the culture, the folks that I’m connected with and serving with in the band as a team, we’ll do whatever is appropriate.”

Holland also takes a very personal approach to selecting musicians. “I work really hard in the selection process,” he says. “I work slowly with people. As I get to know them, their gifts, and their heart for God, we’ll invite them to be a part of the worship community. Then, I’ll put together teams out of that pool of musicians, and those teams end up playing together pretty regularly.” He actively encourages his music teams to use their own creativity in their worship. “Each group is allowed to have its own personality, and I really encourage people’s creativity,” he says. “I’m not the kind of worship leader that comes in and says ‘here are the charts and here’s what I want you to do.’ I’m more like ‘here’s the roadmap, let’s get in and create around this song and see what we can come up with ourselves.’” This approach has been very successful for him. “What I’ve found is that people will remember the parts because they created them, and there’s more ownership in the song because it’s their ideas that they’re bringing to the table. It feels less like a performance for them because they’re invested creatively.”

Most of the time while leading worship, Holland plays either acoustic or electric guitar, depending on what the music calls for. Either way, he relies on a selection of Roland and BOSS gear to help him get the job done. When playing acoustic guitar, Holland loves his Roland AC-60 amp. “Sonically, it’s one of the best acoustic amps I’ve ever used,” he says. Because of its size, the AC-60 is often used in monitoring applications, too. “We have the Roland SPD-S Sampling Pad, which we use to run our loops, and the AC-60 is great to put by the drum kit to monitor the loops. We love the AC-60, it’s one of our favorite pieces of gear.” 

Holland also can’t do without his favorite BOSS pedals. “I have the old DD-5 delay, I love that delay,” he says. “What I actually do is use two DD-5 pedals connected in series. I set one for a dotted eighth-note delay, and the other for a quarter-note delay. Then, I connect a tap tempo pedal to each and strap them together as one big pedal. When I’m playing electric, it gives that Edge [the guitarist from U2] delay sound.” He uses the DD-5 with his acoustic guitar as well. “It brings a dynamic to the acoustic guitar—especially if you’re doing fingerstyle picking—where you can take a simple chord progression and make it sound huge.” Holland much prefers delay to a chorus effect. “A lot of acoustic guitar players use [chorus], but for me it loses the sound of the acoustic,” he says. “When I use the delay, I can still maintain the sound of the acoustic guitar, and it adds a fullness that’s really cool.” He’s also a fan of the BOSS TU-2 Tuner. “It’s a must-have thing,” he says. “I’ve had a bunch of tuners, but the BOSS always outlasts all of them.”

For keyboard duties, Ocean Hills’ Roland RD-700SX Digital Piano sees a lot of use. As Holland relates, “It’s our staple keyboard. We use it with our prayer meetings, in our youth ministry, in our women’s ministry. It provides basic sounds that we can really rely on all the time, and it’s MIDI capable, so if you want to expand the sounds you can. It has a great acoustic piano sound, pads, and it has a nice electric piano sound as well. It’s just a great staple item.” For various amplification duties, Ocean Hills has two KC-500 amplifiers. Though primarily used as keyboard amps, Holland likes their flexibility in other applications. “We use one as a mini-PA for our pre-service prayers, all done with the Roland keyboard amp.”

One of the keyboardists for Ocean Hills’ Sunday music team is Curtiss Matovich, a member of Union of Saints, an award-winning Christian hard rock band that regularly opens at local venues for acts such as Toto, Asia, and Starship. He’s a big fan of Roland keyboards, and every Sunday he brings in his own personal keyboard rig consisting of a Fantom-X7, XP-80, and the VP-550 Vocal and Ensemble Keyboard. He’s quite excited about the VP-550, one of his newest acquisitions. As Curtiss puts it, “I’m addicted to this thing!” He came across the VP-550 on the Roland U.S. website while searching for an expressive vocoder-type keyboard. “I watched the demo video [with Don Lewis] and it was so incredible. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get this!’” He was particularly impressed with how easy it is to use. “I didn’t even have to pull out the manual,” he says. “When I sing into the microphone and put my hands on the keys it just sounds incredible.”

Holland really appreciates what Curtiss’ keyboard setup and playing brings to Ocean Hills’ Sunday services. As he relates, “The VP-550 has a distinct sound. He uses it with our choir, and with the background vocals when we’re light on vocals. He also does some really creative things with it, where he’ll take vowel sounds and do a percussive thing. He’s always exploring new ways to get sounds out of it, to enhance what we’re doing. I’m always amazed at what he gets out of [the VP-550].” Most of all, Holland appreciates the range of sounds from the Fantom-X7. “The Fantom has a bunch of sounds that, for me, are part of the sound of the worship. We really miss them when they’re not there,” he says. “Roland has some unique sounds that really capture the flavor of congregational worship. Sound is inspirational, and when I hear a certain Roland pad, or a certain kind of keyboard sound, in me it elicits a worshipful response.”

Holland is looking forward to the annual Worship Life conference at Ocean Hills, where Roland presents a music technology workshop. “From the worship leaders that come, we always get great, great feedback,” he says. “Especially with some of the new products that Roland’s come out with, products that make it easy for people like me to do our jobs, where people come and worship the Lord.”

To learn more about Ocean Hills Church, visit their website here.

For more on Holland, visit his website here.

For information on Curtiss and the Union of Saints band, click here.