Creative Connections: Mateo Meares

How Churches Can Attract and Develop Creative Talent by Reimagining Their Spaces

By TechArts

How does a church or organization attract creative talent, nurture young artists, and serve its community, all at the same time?

One of the best recent examples comes from Mateo Mears, Music Director at PazNaz Church in Pasadena, whose approach to music, space, and people has transformed a once-underutilized facility into a thriving and active space.

We sat down with Mateo to discuss his journey, his philosophy on music and community (and how it shaped him), and how rethinking a church’s physical spaces can bring new opportunities for artists, congregations, and neighborhoods alike.

A Life Shaped by Music and Community

Like many musicians, Mateo’s love for music started early. But for him, it began with Motown. Those soul-filled recordings weren’t just songs; they were experiences. Riding in the car with family, listening to old soul classics, Mateo found music to be something that helped him process life, emotion, and meaning.

“My love for music became with Motown,” he said. “The first time I heard those recordings… there was so much soulfulness in the music. It just really spoke to me.”

“Music’s just been kind of an ever-present companion,” Mateo explained. “I’ve always found myself kind of integrating life experiences through music… for a lot of musicians, I think we kind of think and feel in music.”That deep emotional connection to music eventually became inseparable from another powerful force: community.

Music, Family, and the Power of Community

“I married into a musical family, for sure,” he shared. After meeting his wife as a teenager and learning guitar from her, Mateo became part of a tight-knit creative circle.

What stood out most to him wasn’t just the music—it was the effect music had.

“I’ve always loved music because of the community that it brought,” he said. “Somebody said to me one time that the greatest gift music brings us is community.”

That belief led to an unconventional season of shared living and music-making in Los Angeles, where a small home studio became the foundation for something much bigger.

“That was really kind of the beginnings of what would become the studio space at PazNaz,” Mateo said.

Seeing Possibility Where Others Saw Storage

When Mateo was invited to consider becoming Music Director at PazNaz, he toured the church campus just like anyone else would, classrooms, offices, familiar church spaces.

“We walked into the old choir room,” he said. “At the time, it was filled with all the junk that COVID brought.”

Choir had stopped. The room had become storage. But to Mateo, it represented huge possibility.

“It really sparked the idea that this could be the bigger show,” he explained. “The dreams of what could take shape—a musical community, an artist community, people who wanted to make the world a better place through music.”

Shifting the Vision Beyond “Filling Seats”

Mateo believes many churches struggle not with faith, but with imagination.

“I feel like churches struggle for language,” he said. “A lot of time it boils down to… how do we get more people in the seats?”

Instead, Mateo envisioned music as a way to create meaningful experiences that foster connection—even outside a traditional service format.

“There was the opportunity to invite people into these experiences, where they can make friends, where they can have beautiful experiences with a group of people,” he said.

“I think good music attracts good music, musicians, and people that find that meaningful,” he added. And when people are drawn in by excellence and authenticity, meaningful community follows naturally.

A Beautiful Room With a Serious Problem

The main performance space at PazNaz was honestly stunning—architecturally rich, full of history, and clearly built with care. But there was an unworkable issue.

The sound system simply wasn’t serving the room or the people in it.

“We were in a space where the sound system was not serving anyone,” he explained. “For probably a decade, they had been looking for a solution.”

“If you felt like you were giving a really great performance… you had to overcome the sound system,” he said, rather than having it support the moment.

Finding a Partner Who Listened and Duplicated

TechArts came recommended through relationships Mateo already trusted.

“It was somebody that had a project with you,” he said. Even then, expectations were cautious.

“I was just kind of thinking, you know, this is going to be another attempt and fail.”

That changed once the conversation started.

“You always wanted the best for the space,” Mateo told us. “You were attentive to the things I was saying—the vision.”

Rather than jumping straight into specs, the focus stayed on understanding the room, the community, and the long-term goals.

“That felt really… authentic,” he said, especially when presenting the project to leadership.

Designing Personalization for the Space

“If I said, ‘Can we do a stereo field, a left and right array,’” he recalled, “you guys were like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’”

What mattered most wasn’t just agreeing—it was proving it could work.

“You came back with a plan that showed that it could be done,” Mateo said. “That attention to detail really set TechArts apart.”

Proving the Space’s Full Potential

Once the system was installed, the impact was immediate.

Suddenly, the space wasn’t limited to one or two days a week. Artists, organizations, and event hosts took notice. Requests poured in.

More importantly, the church gained the freedom to say yes.

Yes to concerts. Yes to recordings. Yes to community events. Yes to benefit fundraisers—even when profit wasn’t the goal.

“The sound system is the linchpin for activating that space,” Mateo shared.

Revenue generated from events now helps fund real-world impact: feeding people, supporting neighbors, and serving communities in crisis. In one powerful example, PazNaz hosted a benefit concert for a local church whose members had lost more than 60 homes.

Because the space was ready, they could say yes.

More Than Technology

“It costs money, in some ways, to make the world a better place,” Mateo said. And when spaces are equipped well, they can serve far beyond their walls.

At TechArts, this project was a reminder of why we do what we do: not just to design systems, but to help communities elevate the spaces they already had access to, to showcase its full potential.

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