Let me fill you in on the past year, creatively speaking…

Remember Our Creative Community? And my own personal goal to post 12 recorded masterpieces (humour me…) this year?

No?  Well, seems I didn’t either.

Actually, I did…I was just ignoring it…

It all went so smoothly for about 5 minutes.  Then I decided to go and produce our church’s first worship album, and it all went a little haywire.  Great excuse huh!

The last song I posted here was back in May.  MAY?!?  Where did the last 6 months go?  Wait, I know exactly where they went.  Lots and lots and LOTS of hours in a recording studio with the awesome worship team from Awesome Church.  It’s a sacrifice I’ve been glad to make, though Diane and I have definitely felt the strain too.  The album is very nearly done though, and this is a good good good thing.

Anyway…

About a month ago, I did a post over at my good friend Jenni Clayville’s blog telling a bit of my story, because like everyone  … I have one. Or two. Maybe more.

In the comments, Jenni’s amazing husband Brian requested a song for his birthday.  Now, he may have been joking (I really don’t know – I never asked – it’s not like I haven’t embarked on this personalised song thing before), but it was the impetus I needed to write something of my own again and see if I could remember how to do this.  I’ve been writing and recording congregational music all year, which involves a very very different process to how I approach my non-church music, which mainly comprises mini electronic pop epics (poptronica).

So I wrote this. You now have your own song, Brian.

And Jenni, I still want to re-do yours properly as a thank-you for sending me the audio file of Brian’s snoring that inspired this.  I’m just looking for a big band… who’ll work for free…

Gotta say though…my snoring is WAY worse than Brian’s. Though the only time it’s been recorded I had sinus and a completely blocked nose, so…

Back to the song…

Lyrics: as usual for me, it took a long time to get the lyrics to happen. Music = easy peasy, but lyrics…no. Except when I’m writing church music, when the lyrics often come first and suggest the melody, etc.  In this case, as for all my commissioned “song-for-a-friend” works, I try to dig up plenty of dirt from significant others, but usually most of the good stuff comes from Twitter and Facebook stalking anyway.  Add in some inspiration from a great post on Brian’s blog, and we have a song that combines Biblical truth, snoring,  fishing for sharks, gas and twittering…amongst other things.

Music: again, as usual for me, it’s crammed too full of ideas because that’s pretty much how I roll all the time; always lots going on.  I love the production side of making music, even though this isn’t produced as well as I’d like it to be, purely due to time constraints.  It also has a few of my now trademark twists, which are therefore not twists because it would be a twist to do something straight.  I may be the M.Night Shyamalan of poptronica.

Love Endures (Snoring) by dg4G

Waking everybody with a sound
That’s been likened to sawing
Some call it snoring
All the best husbands do it
So our wives have something to tweet about

As if the bobbleheaded conversation
sprinkled with some speculation
covering the sanitation habits of the generation
that we’re raising all across the nation
…wasn’t enough

(some choral wailing)

Kids are upside down in nearly
Every single family picture
It’s probably better that way
Definitely better than attempts
to fish for sharks from the car

I wonder whose genes he got?
Should this be rhymed with bergamot?
Maybe, but probably not
Though citrus-scented gas
Might be a winner

(some more choral wailing)

(Love)
Love never gives up, never looks back
Never gives up, never looks back, never gives up…
(endures)

(Love endures)…

Waking everybody with a sound
That’s been likened to sawing
Often called snoring
And if I’m not sleeping through life, you’re not going to either.

**Could I have possibly written a more tongue twisting bridge? Why yes, I could have. This abridged tongue twister (ha!) was the compromised version… It was also much harder to sing at 12.30am than it is now at 10.00am. Hmmmm…  Did you hear the stumbles in there?  I might as well have sung “dup nebber dip dup”…

Warning : this is a wordy post.  I’m making up for not posting here very much lately with something I’m passionate about – worship music.

Hillsong have been making live worship albums for 18 years, and while there’s been lots of changes to the team in that time, a couple – like Darlene & Reuben – have been around for the vast majority of that time.

They know what they’re doing. But more importantly, God knows and honours what they’re doing.

It goes without saying that this album sounds amazing. My company provides some of the ancillary services for Hillsong’s conferences and recordings, so I know a bit of what goes into these productions, and they are productions. Very. Big. Productions. This year, they decided to record the album across several locations and several weekends, including each of their Sydney church campuses + the Colour Conference, all in March.

You’ll likely be pleased as I was to find that only two of the tracks are found on the recent Hillsong United album Tear Down The Walls (“No Reason To Hide” and “You Hold Me Now”), so there’s 11 brand new songs here.  Well, brand new if you haven’t been hanging around Hillsong over the past year or so.

At Hillsong Conference this past week, we sang fewer songs from this new album than would usually be the case, but does that mean it’s a weak album ? Not at all. In fact, even at this very early stage, it’s one of my favourites.   In my opinion, their weakest patch began around a decade ago, but with each album since  2004 growing in quality and focus, they are at a new peak in album production.

Note I said albums, not songs … there has always been strong songs in the mix, and the last 3 Hillsong Live albums (Saviour King, This Is Our God, and now Faith + Hope + Love) contain consistently captivating praise and worship music, with thematic links, musical consistency**, and everything you want from Hillsong – energetic praise, anthemic worship, and those tender moments you can use for personal worship too.  Importantly in my opinion, these albums all utilise Hillsong’s now familiar military breakbeat across a diverse range of worship songs.  It’s a musical device I understand – there is something very special about a group of people, be it 20 or 20,000, coming as an army of worshippers before God.

But what about the songs on this album?
The album will be out in the USA in 3 weeks I think, and since that’s where the vast majority of you, my readers, reside, you’ll find out soon enough … but for now, here’s my opinion of the CD.  Note that the DVD is a different track order to allow logical flow based on the locations where the songs were recorded:

1. The First And The Last – a less anthemic opener than we’ve become used to from Hillsong, and nothing mind blowing, but a good congregational praise song.

2. For Your Name – Jad Gillies is leading a lot more often for the main church these days, and this is one of his best. I like the different feel that this song has (especially the sequenced pulsating backing). I’ll definitely be using this in our church at some point.

3. Glow – the 3rd-track-mid-paced-big-song, 6/8 time works well for this, not to mention David Ware’s soulful voice.  David opened the conference, and while the quality of his voice isn’t shown at full effect in this song, he was the right choice to lead it.

4. It’s Your Love – possibly Mia Fieldes’ strongest song since All For Love, with a beautiful picture painted in the verse lyric, a catchy chorus, and Darlene taking us into the powerful bridge where the title resides. Not sure if I’ll use it, but I will certainly worship to it myself. A lot. Especially the bridge/tag.

5. I Will Exalt You – Brooke shared the story for this song in the songwriting sessions, and it’s a beautiful, gentle, intimate song. I’m an emotional worshipper, and just typing this is reminding me of how this song led me to a place I wasn’t expecting at conference which involved tears.

6. Yahweh – a very Reuben song (and if you’re familiar with Reuben’s songs you’ll know what to expect I think), we’ll definitely be using this in our church. This is an anthemic ’set-closer’. And throughout the conference, this was one of the most loved songs by the delegates, all 22,000 of us, give or take.

7. No Reason To Hide – moving into the second half (Hillsong Live albums are almost always sequenced in 2 sets in case you’d not noticed that before), this is one of the songs on the United album, and it’s one we’ll be doing at church soon. Too. Much. Fun. It’s a minute shorter than the United version, but the basic arrangement is identical.

8. God One And Only – with an opening riff that reminds me of Panic On by Madder Rose, this is a fun praise song, as everything JD leads is. We’ll likely use this too. Matt Crocker (who I think is now around 21 – he must be, he’s been writing with the team for 5 or 6 years now) has come up with most of the main riffs Hillsong have used in recent years. The stories he told in the songwriting sessions made me feel much better about my writing process

9. The Wonder Of Your Love – a co-write between Leeland and Marty Sampson, this is the mid-paced-big-song of the second ’set’.  If there are any low-lights on the album, I guess this and track 12 get that gong. But that would be doing both songs a huge, huge disservice.  In reality, Hillsong have so many top writers, nothing bad gets on the albums these days. A sign of this – Ben Fielding, writer/co-writer of some of their best songs in recent years, such as This Is Our God, He Is Lord, Mighty To Save – doesn’t have a single writing credit on this album, but he talked at the songwriting sessions and is still very active.

10. His Glory Appears – the shortest track, and one of my favourites on the album. Easily one of Darlene’s best songs in years, having Brooke lead this was the perfect choice.  It’s gorgeous, and I’ve been singing it to myself since I heard it. Very simple, it’s just a single verse and chorus. Oh, and being a Darlene song…you can probably guess it’s about the cross. And no bad thing either.

11. We The Redeemed – Jill McCloghry has a sweet voice, and I believe I’m right in saying this is her first time leading a song she wrote herself on a Hillsong album. I can see us using this song in our church; it fits well with who we are. It’s got the military beat, it’s got a simple, well-phrased melody, and good scope for ebb and flow in the arrangement.

12. We Will See Him – co-written by Reuben with Robert Fergusson, one of Hillsong’s best preachers, the second pre-chorus – ‘we’ll see the fullness of His word, all of His promises revealed’ really resonated with me leading into the last song on the album. Apart from that, it’s a pleasant enough song. Very Reuben.

13. You Hold Me Now – a lot has been written about this song since its inclusion on the United album, so I won’t rehash it. Easily the single most powerful song at the conference this year, Brian & Bobbie Houston have affectionately renamed this song “No More Bad Stuff”. Amen to that.

It’s going to be a long time ’til I tire of listening to this album…at least partly because I don’t listen to much music on repeat, but also because with our church album recording project ramping up, and my own personal stuff getting a look in as often as possible, I’m going to have to be very selective with listening.

So, what would you recommend I listen to in coming months?

** Musical consistency (by genre) is something our own album is actually not going to have when it comes out later this year – it will reflect the diversity of our team, purely because we can’t do 3 or 4 individual albums to fit each genre.  So I’ve got a big job to do to sequence it sensibly.  Pray for me.

.

• The theatre last night was awesome. And #livelove was lived lovingly. Or something.
• The weather has been amazing for the past few days.  It’s our mid-winter’s spring.
• If you’ve never seen theatre sports (in this case, Spontaneous Broadway musicals), you really need to.
• Our new home, for at least the next year, is the one we wanted it to be.
• We are ever so slightly ECSTATIC about this.
• The musical we had written for us last night (at the Sydney Opera House, no less) was called The Simple Dapto Life.
• Our church changed its name on Wednesday, just in case you missed that in several other heavily signposted references over the past several weeks.
• The musical starred Paris and Nicole, Paris’ greyhound Fingermuffin, and the centrepiece song “My Ex-Best Friend Is A B*tch”.
• I’m not looking forward to packing.
• Writing B*tch makes me think of awful Irish 90s girl group B*witched
• I’m in awe of the pianist from the show.
• Anyone wanna pack for me?
• Now this song is in my head.  Lord, let the rapture come now!
• A new financial year means lots of work for those in financial management. ie: me.  “Hooray” for audits.
• I’m seriously in love with my wife.
• Seriously, hooray for soundly-executed audits, for they are the business world’s equivalent of having an accountability partner.
• Why am I having so much trouble finishing songs lately?  Or rather, songs that I’m happy having people hear?
• The amazing cast last night managed to incorporate French into the musical at every available opportunity.
• When preachers give a message as poorly structured as this post it drives me barmy.
• I executed a contract today that was 5cm (2 inches) thick !!!
• Does anyone use the word barmy anymore? Or did they ever?
• Accountability is still a problem if all parties are in bed with each other .
• Thanks for reading my 150th post.

• It’s Thursday, July 2, 2009.  How did that happen?  I might have tweeted about our financial year on the day, but I didn’t get anything on here… Slacker
• We think we’ve found where we’re moving to.  We even have a back-up plan if this one falls through.  We hope it doesn’t though, ’cause we love the place we’ve found.
• Hillsong Conference 2009 is next week!! YAY!
• My dad is coming to stay with us this weekend.
• We will be moving during the week after Hillsong! Anti-yay … to the moving process…
• Hyper-yay if our desired house is where we’re moving to.  And just mega-yay if it’s the backup plan option.
• I’ve been writing lots of half-finished songs (read: electronica soundscapes), but I’ve nearly finished one I’m really happy with.
• It’s been a few months since I did a proper song.  And yes, I count ‘Asian Cowboy‘ as a proper song.
• My Our Creative Community commitment for June has slipped by.  Hopefully this song happens so I can stay vaguely on track.
• The next recording session for our church album is coming up soon too. I thought May was busy.
• We had an all staff meeting following our annual stocktake.   First time in over 6 years.  Yep.  This is some of the change I’m driving, and it’s great to (a) see it happen and (b) be appreciated.
• The next song we’re recording for the album is one of mine.  It has a simple complex I-think-it’s-simple sequenced introduction and line which runs through half the song.
• I need to wrap this up and get on with writing employment contracts, enjoying enduring end of financial ‘fun’
• Now I’m really late for LifeGroup Online … oops!

Swineflu continues to wreak havoc across our country. And by ‘across’ I mean the south-eastern state of Victoria, where nearly 80% of the cases have been recorded.  Weird.  We have gone from 30 to 1,300+ cases in 2 weeks, there’s only 30,000 cases world-wide, and Australia – a country with ~0.3% of the world population, has ~4.3% of the total cases…perhaps pandemic is an accurate description for us?

Anyway, this post has nothing to do with that  … you can find loads of information about it at various other netstinations (yep, the el crapola word making doesn’t let up), so I’m not gonna stir up any more paranoia than I already have. **

What’s really going to be in lockdown is our worship team, who are going to be holed up in the studio Saturday working on our second recording session.

For me, that means approximately 14 hours in the studio, praying, working with the engineer, praying, co-ordinating who’s coming and going, praying, making sure everything is brilliant.

Oh -  and praying – did I mention that bit?

All of this is great, but it also involves sacrificing precious time with my marvellous wife. And the sacrifice is getting bigger over the next few months as we go from one session a month to two sessions starting in August, aiming to wrap up recording in mid-November for a mid-December release.

In the meantime, we personally have that small issue of moving in July too. Yay!

We’ve been talking about recording our original songs for years (and years) so I am excited that this year it’s not just talk, but the sacrifice still hurts.

I know, I know … that’s what sacrifice is all about. 

Apart from losing out on time with Diane, one of the things that I’m personally sacrificing is spending more time on my personal writing and recording goals.  So, if anyone finds that extra day per week that I’ve seen getting talked about on the interwebs recently, please send me the code for that too.

What sacrifices do you make to pursue dreams?

**Seriously, do pray for our country, and especially Victoria, as this flu continues to worsen its grip on that state and the physical and mental well-being of its residents. Thanks.

I’ve really been enjoying my walk down ChoralMemory Lane, and since it (tenuously) links in with my aim of mixing choral music with electronica, I’ve extended it to a third part.

(I know – I’m really stretching the friendship aren’t I…I might stretch it even further too.  So there.)

This week I’ve posted just the one song (I can hear your sighs of relief), but have given you a little bit more information about the inspiration.

Actually, that’s a lie…all I’ve done is include this link to the beautiful part of Queensland that inspired this song. And to say that Diane and I also spent our first anniversary in a stunning resort that overlooked some of the beautiful sub-tropical rainforest that covers most of this amazing place.

It all feels so long ago…and yet, as though no time has passed by at all.

I enjoy living in a large city, being surrounded by hustle and bustle, hundreds of different cultures, cuisines, artistic expressions…the list of diversities is endless.

But, kinda peversely, what I enjoy about it the most is how much more I appreciate the beauty of God’s untouched creation.

This “song”, the third movement from Great Southern Spirits, as featured in my last choral post, and performed by Australian Voices, never fails to take me directly to Kondalilla National Park.  It is like going on sabbatical without ever physically leaving; instant refreshment, ready to take on world once more. A lot like meditating on the Word of God; certainly no replacement for that – just a wonderful accompaniment.

It’s an unconventional piece (as if you’d expect anything less), but truly evocative of the Australian bush.  Lyre birds, whip birds and bell birds can all be heard in the amazing female parts that form basis of this piece.

I love it, and I hope there’s something in there that you can appreciate to.

Where does music take you?

Enough of you enjoyed last week’s post on my choir boy past that I’ve now served up part two.

This time, I’ve gone for pieces that are quite different musically, but there’s another key difference…these are both much much longer.  So make sure you’ve got time to appreciate them, or can put them on nice and loud as background music for 15 minutes or so. Freak out your neighbours with the 2nd one especially.

While you’re listening, you should also go and have a look at my elder sister’s blog, CeeLew, who once again was a soprano in these choirs, while my non-blogging, non-Twittering, non-Facebooking younger sister, Lis (Liz, but since her name is Elisabeth, her Liz is Lis…ok?) was an alto.  I was a tenor.  And I am these days as well, though I’ve worked a lot on increasing my baritone range as well.

First up, our school choir : St Peters Chorale.  It’s still a world class choir, even without all of us.  I know, hard to imagine isn’t it??  It must be the Graeme Morton factor, as most everything he touches turns to gold when it comes to choral music.

(Had I mentioned we went to boarding school, btw?)

Anyway, Past Life Melodies by Sarah Hopkins is a great example of haunting simplicity, and features some wonderful harmonic singing.  If you’re short on time, fast forward through to around the 4:30 mark, by which time the drone has been set up and the harmonics are starting to bounce over the top as two of the guys trade harmonic lines.  I will admit I was always a little disappointed with the title of this piece (and not just because of my faith), as I think it is far more evocative of the Australian outback than it is of past lives.  What do you think?

Next we head back to The Australian Voices who featured in the last post.  This is the final movement of the title track of our first album, Great Southern Spirits.  Uluru is the indigenous name of Ayers Rock, that amazing centre-piece to our nation.  Diane and I have been there 3 times, and I can’t get enough of the place.  Truly amazing, and I think this song reflects the diversity of the environment quite well – but bizarrely you can hear me very clearly throughout.  There were 15 other guys in this choir, so I’m not sure why my voice is so prominent; I know I can project well…so that must be it…

This piece was considered key in the album winning the Sunnie Award for Best Classical Album in 1994. The lyric is based on poetry by Michael Doneman, while the music is by Stephen Leek, who was also our school’s composer in residence for a period of time. You don’t realise how cool that is until after the fact. Like a lot of things in life I guess.

Enjoy the outback … “they capture the moment on film”

Now that this brilliant word is so common around the interwebs, and along with numpty is now regularly getting a workout in my office – since my staff are so awesomesauce.

So it obviously needed its own song.

Yes…you read that right.

It’s worth noting that I was introduced to the wonders of this word by the fantastically awesomesauce photographer Joshua White, and I give him the credit for such startling creativity in the word invention department, but please note he doesn’t have to take any of the rap for the song…that’s all my (poor) idea.

Anyway, here’s my May track for Our Creative Community. I realise this one is little more than a novelty track – but remember how I said I’d need some laughter back in this post? Well, this is a great way for Diane and I to laugh together. A lot.

Hope you get the odd chuckle out of it too.

I was a choir boy.

Much of the international travel I have had the privilege of taking part in across Europe and the USA is because I was a choir boy.

And the choirs were good. We won some ARIA Awards for classical recordings. That’s our equivalent of the Grammys.

If you know what I sound like, you can clearly hear me in these (very short) songs. In fact, even if you don’t know what I sound like, you can still hear me clearly…you just won’t know.

Both my sisters were in this choir too. Good times. So long ago. Eek.

The Australian Voices

Australian Up-Country Song : Percy Grainger – by the time this was written, Percy was living in the USA. He was almost a pop star in his day (late 19th century), and was missing home. For reasons unknown, he decided wordless was the way to go. I’m very glad about that.

Autumn Song : Peter Sculthorpe – one of my favourite contemporary classical choral songs, beautifully simple and evocative, particularly if you’ve ever visited Tasmania, Peter’s home state.

I’ve got plenty more, so if you’re interested, let me know in the comments and I’ll do another choral heritage post soon.

And if you’re feeling particularly bizarre, try playing both MP3 files at once. Yeah.

Firstly : Transition Phase Update
Stage one : completed at 7.34pm Thursday EST (Aust) ;
Emotions : primarily excitement…at the moment…

So, continuing my posts on stuff that has influenced and helped me, here’s a recent “stuff”…

When I was unemployed last year, I came across Worship The Rock (WTR).  I posted about that back here.

I met a bunch of great worshippers, and eventually found my way onto (into?) Twitter, where I’ve subsequently met the vast majority of you guys, o wonderous blog readers.

One of the first WTR friends I met is a multi-talented guy, and just about the time I joined WTR, he posted a new song there as well as on his blog.  It’s a rough, 4AM kind of demo, but the lyrics really resonated with me and what I was going through during that period.

For a few days, I listened to it over and over. I’d be lying if I said it was my style musically, but the imagery of the lyric and especially the chorus, the passages of Bible that it led me to, made me want to take this further than passive listening. So I asked Nate if he had the chords written down.  He didn’t, but I sat down and worked them out which is not something I would usually consider doing.

Then I recorded it myself – my first cover. Ha!  And the second thing I ever did in GarageBand.

So now, here it is for you…both the original demo, and my – uh – somewhat “altered” rearrangement. I’m also including this as my April song for Our Creative Community – with other things going, I’ve not finished anything new, though I might have something relatively early in May for you. Yes, I know I didn’t write this song, but … oh … whatever …

Lyrics and some Biblical inspiration are here too…and thanks to Nate for allowing me to post his demo. You’ve been a huge blessing to me Nate, and to many others as well

Ephesians 4:22-24:
Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires (the ‘mud’), to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self (His ‘clothes’), created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Your Clothes

I’ve walked away from those awful things
I’ve closed the door on all that before
I’ve poured the shame and poison down the drain
I have repented – how many times will I hurt You?

Father I just want to make you proud
Every time I stand I fall down
These are Your clothes, no one would know
I have covered them in mud
Holy Father wrap me in your arms
Tell me how to be more like you are
These are Your clothes, no one would know
Lord please wash away the mud

Lord I have turned to you
I have learned what is right
Guided by Your light
I’ve found my way, so Lord if I stray
I will repent – how many times will i hurt You?

CHORUS

You’ve called me to be more like You
Lord help me be what you want from me ‘cos
I just want to please You
I just want to please You
I just want to please You Lord

CHORUS

Your Clothes – David Goodwin