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I always enjoy "behind the
scenes" anecdotes of how and why songs are written...it's
amazing how many top 40 hits started out as a simple song about a
banana. This page will give you the backstage
gossip and insider information you deserve. |
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March the Unafraid.mp3
(Chapter 3 of
Love the Unafraid) |
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- Recording Process:
3 acoustic guitar tracks (2 are distorted by software), up to 9
vocal parts,
3 doumbek hand drum tracks (1 is flange distorted by software),
and 1 drum machine
- Behind the Groove:
I'm not sure how a rock song evolved into a dance remix of
itself.
The original idea of "just adding a drum machine" spiraled out
of control and somehow I've ended up with a foot-tapping,
romper-stomping, completely-different-but-I-dig-it style of
music.
I admire musicians who have the guts to credit their
influences so I'll point mine out and see if you hear
them in this track...feel free to keep a scorecard at home:
Collective Soul - guitar riff and some of the background vocals
("uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh")
ABBA / GLAD - harmonies throughout and background vocal-packed
bridge ("I truly.....liiiiiiiiiiive")
Evanescence - I think I ripped off the 8th note distorted guitar
entrance in the verses on accident
Dolly Parton - she taught me harmony in the first place
Queens of the Stone Age - first background vocal descending
harmonies ("oooooh")
Whitney Houston - any time it gets danceable (snare drum
entrance stolen from "Queen of the Night")
Michael Jackson - in the second verse there is a break with two
finger snaps
Sting - doumbek hand drum (a la "Desert Rose")
Josh Dahm - guitar harmonics (taken from pretty much any bass
part he's played)
50 Cent - just kidding
March the Unafraid is about surrender. Specifically, it
is about overcoming fears associated with surrendering my plan
for my life in favor of what God wants for me. In
religious-speak this is often called "surrendering to God's
will".
In the past those four words automatically brought two thoughts to
my mind:
1. I haven't surrendered yet and I know I need to
2. I don't know what God's will is or even how to recognize it
For me the problem was (and often still is) a fear of losing
myself in the surrender. While it is easy to admit that God has
the best idea of how we should run our lives, it is entirely
another thing to actually let Him. After all, what if He doesn't
want the same things for me that I do? (and He almost certainly
doesn't...)
All talk of surrender, submission, and worrying about the future
fades into the background when I remember to trust God. That's
what this is really all about....God is asking us to trust Him.
I'm not saying our values
and lives won't change when we ask God to take control of our
lives. On the contrary, a great deal of who we think we are will
and
must change. What remains is who God made us to be.
God treasures our individual uniqueness....He gave it to us
in the first place. We can trust His plan to be perfect for who
we are (see Romans 2:12).
I don't pretend to have all the answers or even to be
"right"....I just know what makes sense to me and if it helps
you in your own walk with God then I am glad. If my ideas don't
help or are irrelevant to where you are in life, feel free to
dismiss them. |
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Carousel/Move to Sever.mp3
(Chapters 1 and 2 of
Love the Unafraid combined) |
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Carousel.mp3
(Chapter 1 of
Love the Unafraid) |
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- Recording Process:
used 2 acoustic guitar tracks and 1 vocal
- Behind the Groove:
I've long nursed a secret ambition to write an album that tells
a story from start to finish...you know, like Pink Floyd's
The Wall but without all the scary cartoons.
Carousel is the first track in a project I call "Love the
Unafraid". This version of the song is only 40 seconds
long, but it sets up the story for the rest of the album (it's
entirely possible that the album version will be longer and
feature the Russian choir from The Hunt for Red October....but
for now you'll have to be satisfied with a simple melody and a
few twangs of my guitar). |
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Move to Sever.mp3
(Chapter 2 of
Love the Unafraid) |
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- Recording Process:
used 5 acoustic guitar tracks, 7 vocals, and 12 hand claps
- Behind the Groove:
This song tells you "what the Spirit did say" at the end of
Carousel. Move to Sever is about a God who
loves us enough to let us choose what we are going to do with
our lives, even if we insist on riding carousels while the
parade marches by.
Keep your ears peeled...melodic themes in Move to
Sever and Carousel are referenced and developed in
later songs on the album.
One of the reasons I'm putting these tunes up is so you can
watch the project develop. If Love the Unafraid
turns out to be awesome, you can tell your friends "I heard the
demos for that album when he was writing it! Even then I
knew it was going to rock!". If the project is a disaster,
you can totally disavow all knowledge of it and hide behind
sales racks when you run into me at Wal-Mart. Either way
it should be interesting. |
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Sarah's Song.mp3 |
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- Recording Process:
used 1
aching heart and an acoustic guitar.
- Behind the Groove: I wish all songs
came as easily, but less painfully than this one. It was
born out of idle guitar strumming as I lay on my bunk missing a
special someone who shall remain anonymous. |
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Picasso.mp3 |
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- Recording Process:
used
5 hand clap tracks, 2 finger snap tracks, cannibalized drum
sounds from a completely different song I recorded over a year
ago, and 1 acoustic guitar.
- Behind the Groove: The first stanza bounced around
in my brain and on various scribbled-out notepads for two years
before I finally put the song together. The tune
originally included a random stanza about penguins and Eskimos
which didn't make the final cut because: a) there aren't any
penguins in Alaska, and b) it had absolutely nothing to do with
the rest of the song.
Lyrically, I was addressing how we often strive to identify
ourselves with lifestyles and images designed to impress other
people with how special we are. We hide behind cardboard
cut-outs of perfection in the hopes no one will notice our
shortcomings. In fact, we spend so much time squeezing our
square bodies into round holes that we dismiss our own strengths
and uniqueness.
Let me hit you with some universal truth: You are completely
unique. You do not need to look like a supermodel or be
able to yodel in seventeen languages to be cool or have value.
You are special because God made only one of you and he loves
you exactly as you are. So put down the string and step
away from the cardboard, please. |
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