Minnesotan To Meet: John Hermanson

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- This week's Minnesotan to Meet has played in gigs all over the country.

His duo, Storyhill, has made regular guest appearances on "A Prairie Home Companion."

By day, John Hermanson's music and sound from Egg Music in Minneapolis can be heard in commercials.

One of his team's latest projects, a Microsoft Surface commercial featuring NFL players Clay Matthews III and Drew Brees, has about 200,000 views on YouTube.

While this is his day job, his real passion is writing and playing songs.

"Many musicians have embraced the internet and the social media part of being a musician, and I'm not one of those people," Hermanson said.

That is exactly what Hermanson is doing; embracing the internet every night during advent at 8 p.m.

"It's a ritual. It's something that I know I have to do at 8 p.m. every night, but it's sort of a time to listen to the words," Hermanson said. "It feels like I've stumbled upon this new way of looking at the text."

The St. Paul resident's album, released on Dec. 20, is based on the Book of Isaiah as it now appears in the Old Testament.

"A lot of the songs are paraphrases of texts, but as much as possible I tried to stay true to the actual text," Hermanson said.

He calls it a form of mediation, and chance to really get lost in lyrics.

"I find myself reflecting on it during the day and becoming much more a part of me," he said. "One of my favorites is the last song on the album which is from Isiah Chapter 11 which is just this beautiful poetry. It's hard for me to recite it without singing it. It centers me a little more, it feels really good."

Bible lyrics are put to song by Hermanson every evening. His hope is that his songs give a new way to reflect during this holy holiday season.

"I hope that the words provide the same kind of hope and comfort to other people that they provide to me," Hermanson said.