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...plus some insight
into our songwriting and recording process.
This particular album (the Reckless Love EP) is a collection of
6 songs from our upcoming 10 track release. We will be touching
up some of these 6 songs for the full length album, in addition
to mastering the entire project.
i. Pursuit
(movement #1 of the Reckless Love trilogy)
- Recording Process:
Literally, there are "years" of work in this track. For
example, the C.S. Lewis quotations that Josh and Rachel read
during the middle of the second verse were recorded over the
phone line back when I lived in Florida. We saved those
sound bites for almost five years before finally using them
in this track, as originally intended. It makes me smile
every time I hear that part of the song.
- Behind the Groove:
The Reckless Love trilogy is close to my heart. Aside from
its personal lyrical content, as a songwriter I've always
longed to write a trilogy.
These three
songs were written over the course of four years. Josh
and I wrote "Pursuit" in my senior year at Asbury College.
The core melodies of "Surrender" were written in the
sanctuary of Mt. Freedom Baptist Church, where Josh serves
as a music minister. "Desire" was written mostly in my home
studio.
Here is the
"official" description of the Trilogy's movement:
This trio of songs is a journey from brokeness and addiction
to restoration and freedom in Jesus. The first movement (Pursuit)
paints a picture of an increasingly desperate person for
whom “mere affection” is no longer enough…but the well-worn
road of addiction only leads further from the love and
acceptance they yearn for. The time signature of this
movement is 5/8, giving the song a restless motion that
betrays inner turmoil and brokeness. Occasional measures of
6/8 are present in the verses, hinting at a promise of
completion and wholeness in the future.
Pursuit ends with the declaration “I know that you
saved me, I need you to change me”. This cry of the heart
leads into the second movement (Surrender).
Surrender recognizes the reckless and relentless
nature of God’s love affair with us (“I’ve been changed by a
lover so relentless neither life nor death could keep us
apart”). God sacrificed everything because He loves us
beyond measure. Surrendering to Him brings the wholeness and
rest that we crave. The time signature is now 4/4, creating
a contemplative, balanced feel.
The third movement (Desire) begins by asking “Who
trusts a golden heart to one who stands in tarnished
armor?”. This song is filled with wonder at the “beautiful
contradiction” of God’s love and the “nature of Grace I can
never escape”. The chorus is a celebration that “through no
fault of my own” Jesus is “everything anyone could ever be
to me”. The intensity continues to build as we grow
increasingly aware of God’s pursuit of us. By the end of
Desire, the only response we have left is a body-shaking
cry of thanks to the heavens.
Musical themes are developed and referenced throughout the
Trilogy. For example, the main melodic theme of Pursuit
becomes the a victory cry in the chorus of Desire.
On a purely
musical level, the instrumental interlude at the end of
"Pursuit" and before "Surrender" really gave us some
challenges. We knew where we wanted to go, but weren't quite
sure how to best get there. Josh and I labored for days over
the arrangement, and the end result is probably my favorite
part of the album. Spanish guitar, timpani, and chimes.....
ii. Surrender
(movement #2 of the Reckless Love trilogy)
- Recording Process:
MIDI strings, lots and lots of ridiculously picky string
programming
- Behind the Groove:
If you've gotten this far in the Trilogy, you've heard some
of Josh's amazing orchestral scores. As beautiful and
layered as his arrangements are throughout the album, to me
the strings in "Surrender" are the most powerful. The rich
chords infuse this song with so much emotion....I love it!
I wrote the lyrics to this song during a service at Quest
(the church Collin and I attend). I was SO excited to finish
them because they were the last unfinished lyrics in the
trilogy....I read them to a couple of friends at church who
just looked at me like I was nuts. I guess you need to hear
the whole musical movement to get the full effect....
A word about recording and arranging strings:
We want to thank John Roller, Matt Lane, and all the other
fine musicians who helped us track live strings for this
project. Although we ended up going the MIDI route in the
end, it was a huge help for us to refine the arrangements by
hearing how real string players would approach the scores.
A word about programming MIDI strings:
Simultaneously the bane of my existence and the most
fulfilling challenge of the album. Every note of every voice
has been tweaked to make it sound the best we can possibly
make it. And because Josh scored it, there are a LOT of
notes spread out over the five orchestral voices. (Not to
mention the individual solo cello lines and string quartet
arrangements in the other four songs on the in-progress LP)
iii. Desire
(movement #3 of the Reckless Love trilogy)
- Recording Process:
MIDI strings, lots of note tweaking
- Behind the Groove:
One thing you will notice if you come to our live show is
how different the live version of "Desire" is from the
studio version. What you hear on this recording is what we
hear in our heads while we play the song.
One of the
biggest differences from the live version is how the strings
take over in the chorus. My live rhythm guitar part isn't
present or necessary in this arrangement. You might also
notice that our big yelling section at the end of the song
isn't present in the studio version.....we decided that it
was more fun to save that for our shows.
One insider
thing I'd like to point out is the very low frequency
ascending notes that happen in the final rocking section of
the song. We stole this idea from U2, who save some
subharmonic notes for the absolute final chorus of
"Beautiful Day"....which I always found to be an inspired
study in restraint. I mean, it would have been so easy for
U2 to say "I love it! Let's put those super low notes in
everywhere to thicken the song up!"....but instead they just
used it to highlight and reinforce the overall song
movement.
In homage to their songwriting discipline, we've included
subharmonic notes under the chaos at the end.
We call Josh's note-filled assault at the end of this song
the "insane banjo".
June
- Recording Process:
Heaps of head scratching, lots of trial and error
- Behind the Groove:
We avoided "June" for as long as possible while tracking
this album. We knew that while our live arrangement works on
stage, for some reason it just didn't translate in the
studio. After much deliberation and experimentation, one of
us suggested adding a suitcase keyboard.....thus ending our
inspirational deadlock.
One of the
challenges of this particular song is the bossa nova groove.
Sometimes our particular ensemble has a tendency to err on
the side of relative complexity when it comes to
arrangements...so forcing ourselves to keep a straight bossa
groove for the whole song brought whole new levels of part
writing to light.
From a
lyrical standpoint, this song was birthed out of the irony
that tattoos become less and less rebellious the more people
get them.
- Behind the Groove:
After our initial mix, it became apparent that the first
bridge ("every time we fall....is it love?") needed
something extra to push it towards awesomeness. Josh laid
down that wicked hard rock rhythm guitar part and the rest
is history. Gotta love pinched harmonics.
Be sure to listen closely to Erik's bass line during the end
section....it's tasty.
Another behind the scenes note: One of the surprise song
changing moments happened with the addition of reverb to the
final drum hit after the quiet third chorus. That ringing
hit gave the transition to the next section an extra push
and made the whole song work. It's amazing how much little
things add up.
Captain (Save Our Souls)
- Recording Process:
Nothing unusual. That pipe organ sound is a guitar. The
thunder and rainstorm was recorded from an open window in
downtown Lexington, KY. It was one of those storms that has
lighting striking WAAAY to close for comfort. Some of the
thunder crashes were so close that they distorted the mic
and were unusable.
- Behind the Groove:
"Captain" has become the grandaddy song of our set. It's
been around the longest, which means it has evolved the
most. This song is probably the first "epic" arrangement I
ever wrote (after listening to Guns N Roses "Estranged").
The first two thirds of the song were written while in
college...and the fun "save...our......SOOOOOOOOUUUUUULS!"
part was written more recently.
"Save.....our......SOOOOOOUUUUULS!" is also my favorite
lyric to sing live. There is something barbaric and honest
about throwing a head back and pleading for salvation at the
top of our lungs.
Isn't Josh's
string score incredible? I am so grateful to know and play
with these guys.
All music and lyrics copyright 2009 by Too Many Drummers
