Music mentorship program and sober nightclub offers safe outlet

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Servant’s Heart at 1501 North Gate Mile in Idaho Falls is more than just a nightclub. It is a safe place for young people to enjoy the nightclub life-without the potential pitfalls of bar crawling. Servant’s Heart is a clean and sober environment for anyone over the age of 18. ID is checked at the door.

“We don’t believe that having a good party has to be synonymous with a bad environment,” CEO David Moran said. “So we decided to make Heart Beat, high school night, and 18 and up club in order to give a space where people can come and have a good time and they know that they’re safe.”

“We’re not trying to take down the bar scene, we’re not trying to push anybody away,” James Manzanares, head music producer said. “We know that there’s a good community there and there’s a lot of wonderful people. But there’s a lot of people who, that’s not necessarily their scene and that’s not necessarily how they want to spend their nights. And those are the people that we’re trying to reach with this.” 

Several bar owners have agreed with Manzanares that the community needs something like this.

Servant’s Heart closed down temporarily on July 3rd due to the new mask mandates in an effort to keep their patrons safe. They plan to host a grand re-opening on August 14th.

“We want to make sure that we are able to keep people safe and keep our employees safe, first and foremost,” Manzanares said. “It’s very important to have fun but it’s also important to stay safe. That’s one of our biggest goals behind why we actually opened and then closed for a little bit. And we’re reopening on August 14th and we’re ready to start partying again.”

Sober beer pong is one of the party games and concessions are sold in the lobby. Servant’s Heart is looking to partner with local vendors in an effort to support small local businesses and provide a wider variety to their patrons. 

They also offer high school night and showcase live performances on Tuesdays. Many of those showcases are local artists who recorded tracks inside Servant’s Heart.

The Music and Mentoring program offered at this unique venue provides low-cost lessons to get local artists on stage. They charge by the song at a reduced price to give people an avenue to learn and grow in their skill sets. Moran says their goal is to be the people they wish they had when they were teenagers. 

“We’re called Servant’s Heart for a reason. We’re here to serve the community” Moran said. “We believe in our community. We can grow up and we can grow forward. We can teach youth that they can have a great time...we can give people an avenue for music. Every Tuesday night, we put artists on this stage so they can show off their talent and we pay them to be on stage so we can sow into their talent because we want to see them grow. We give away studio time a lot to people who can’t afford it.”

They run a full professional studio where youth and young adults can come to record music. They also provide writing, vocal, and stage performance lessons. The purpose is to give people a chance and an avenue for growth, especially when it comes to music.

“Idaho Falls can be the epicenter for music. Idaho Falls can be fun and exciting,” Moran said. “The next big thing can come out of Idaho Falls and we don’t wanna miss a kid who wouldn’t otherwise have the avenue. We don’t wanna miss them growing up and being the next Taylor Swift or the next millionaire producer. We wanna see that happen for the people in this community.”

The client starts off figuring out what genre they would like to produce and Servant’s Heart staff assists in that process. Manzaneres discusses music theory with them and helps them determine if they would like to learn to play an instrument. If not, he will help them build a song from the ground up. Moran specializes in writing music and helps the client write their lyrics. Then, they will be introduced to a teacher for the instrument of their choosing. Eventually, Moran will teach them stage performance and help them fine-tune their presence so that performing becomes fun.

“We don’t let anybody go. I don’t care how much past music experience you’ve had,” Moran said. “We want to bring people in and give them an avenue and a dream to help them be the performer and the person that they really want to be.”

Gunnar Martinez is one artist who says he hopes to make it big someday and he will never forget Servant’s Heart for helping him with their music and mentorship program. He says he was never able to afford his dream of making music until this program was created.

“These guys have really given me an opportunity here to create music and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do my whole life...they’re really trying to make a positive impact here,” Martinez said.

Manzanares says the mentorship program provides an outlet for some struggling artists just looking to follow their dreams.

“They’re like ‘yeah, I don’t have the best home situation, or I don’t have the best mentorship from adults in my life,” Manzaneres said. “And so we’re able to provide that for those kids and be able to give them positive outlooks, give them positive places to be able to spend time and not get wrapped up in drugs or alcohol, and even just wrapped up in bad communities with bad friends or bad places because we’re just all about good vibes here.”

He says community response has been better than expected. They’ve had approximately 20 artists come into the studio as part of the mentorship program. Eight of those artists have performed on stage.

“A lot of them are just recording their music, staying quiet, until they’re ready to blow their stuff up,” Moran said.

Artists showcases are currently being streamed live through Facebook while Servant’s Heart remains closed during the mask mandates. They ask for donations to the company’s Venmo to make up for the lack of admittance fees and accept whatever the community is willing to give.

“We want to see new faces," Moran said. “We just love this community and we’re not going anywhere. We want to be a staple in this community and we will fight to do that.”

Many nonprofits helped give Servant’s Heart their start and Moran says they plan on giving back tenfold.