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

This post is part of the spring challenge over at Our Creative Community to share our various creative processes.  So after you’ve read this, head on over there and check out everyone else.

I’ll be honest, when OurCC left us this challenge, the very first thing I thought was “well, that’s one post for the week I won’t need to think much about then”

Except…that would be wrong.

Defining my creative process proved more difficult than I had imagined.  I also wimped out on being truly creative with my blog response; I should have done a vlog, but didn’t want it to be just a little talky, unedited one…and…and…and… :/

Anyway, here’s what I came up with.  All things considered, this took ages to write :

What ignites that flame inside you to create?

Quite apart from the fact I feel like being creative nearly all the time, I get inspired by others’ creativity.  A play, a song, a sculpture, a book, a solution…a tweet, a blog post.  Etc. I think it’s at the root of my being, which makes sense since God is there, and He’s the Master Creator.

What sparks that passion inside you?

I kinda answered this already above didn’t I.  Actually, is this really the same question presented in a different way?

How do you channel your creativity into a finished product?

With great difficulty.  I often get into the middle of something and divert over to something else.  Being part of this community and having some clear goals has helped me be more focussed and target oriented.  Learning Garageband and therefore having more flexibility in how I present what I do has been great.  I can’t believe I had a Mac for over a year without touching it!

Still, not knowing how to play any instruments well is annoying.  As is my concern for my neighbours, which therefore restricts how much I’ll let myself go with my vocals.  I know I can do a lot more with my voice – I do it at church on Sundays, and have done in choirs for years…so I might need to find a place to let rip that’s soundproof.

And, importantly for me, the creative process of songwriting includes the recording and production.  It’s not just a song, it’s how it sounds, what synth is used, what bass sound, how many different drum tracks.  It’s all part of the process.  At the same time, I love how someone else could pick up the raw ingredients (music, lyrics) and create something entirely different in their interpretation.

What do you do when you struggle to create?

Usually this means I’m over-tired and need to step back and recouperate.  At one time, I’d push through.  This never yielded results, so I’ve learnt from that.

How do you celebrate your wins?

I’m not sure I really know what wins I’ve had.  Putting something out there that is enjoyed is a win I guess.  But a bigger win in my book is being satisfied with something I’ve created.  Coming back to it later and not wanting to change anything.  I’ve done that a couple of times.  Not many times, but it’s been done

Do you enjoy your creative process?

Yes.  If I wasn’t enjoying this, there’d be little point in doing it.  I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have my creative process and my income stream intersecting; some fatigue would be bound to set in at times.  However, it’s less likely to be an issue than when you feel your income earning is pulling you away from your creativity.

At the moment, I am blessed with a better crossover than some people I know…but I’d still rather be able to create all day than have to work.  So come on benefactor, I’m waiting

How do you share your creative elements with others?

For my congregation friendly songs – in church.

For my electronica & other noodlings – on my blog.  And it’s pretty diverse.  I gotta say, I’m really enjoying the self-imposed challenge of writing songs for/about other people.

Hopefully combining the two at some point by doing some video-clips which can be played at church of the songs I’ve created which are currently only on the blog.  Though probably not the ones I’ve done for/about other people.  Or my “25 Things” song.

The ones I do for church are going to be recorded for our first ever worship album over the course of the year too.  V.excited about this

(After a few aborted attempts earlier today, I’ve gone with another ‘brand’ of embedded playlist which seems to obey and not autoplay when it’s told not to…I don’t like the adverts it chooses to put at the bottom of itself, but such is life)

Along with some questions being asked on other blogs, for me this week is becoming a bit of a journey through history, so in further response to my Monday post, here’s some of the music that has spewed forth along the way.

The playlist is basically in reverse chronological order, and includes…
(a) “Unchangeable Truth v2.0″ (yes, I know that’s somewhat ironic titling) – added some hall reverb while keeping the initimacy of the vocal, also boosted the bass slightly (maybe too much?) and dropped the lead vocal to sit better in the mix. I need some studio monitors for the study!
(b) “I Am There” – the first thing I recorded in Garageband, all of 6 weeks ago. The lyric was written by a netfriend in NYC for another friend of hers who’d been through some major challenges; everything else is my contribution.
(c) “A Lover’s Song” – our wedding song, which was a surprise for my wife when we danced to it; we were both a bit overcome I think.
(d) “Your Smile” – a 70s/80s MOR love ballad pop song, which got played on local radio a few times when it was done, yonks ago.

There’s a reasonable amount of diversity in there, which might go part of the way to explaining my ‘probably not expecting this’ statement on Monday. The diversity covers everything from style to the quality of the songwriting/singing/recording; quite apart from whether it was done in a real studio and mastered, or by me in the study. Regardless, all fun.

‘Course, this doesn’t cover anything I recorded before I started writing my own music…maybe later…maybe…

Comments always welcome, including criticism (maybe especially the criticism, cos I can’t get better if all I get is praise or silence

In response to my last post, which for a few of you is the first time you’ve heard some of the loony creative stuff that comes out of my mind and mouth, some background. This may be reminiscent of the 25 Things tagging on Facebook; I really must do that, I was tagged a while back…

1. I don’t play any instruments, so it’s me and my voice. There are loads of reasons for this, at least one being the amount of time I spent in choirs at school and university.
2. Most of the music I’ve written in the past 5 years has been congregational praise and worship music, often to suit a specific season in my church, but a few that have lasted the distance too.
3. We’re going to do some studio recording this year which will hopefully result in an album.
4. I’m getting off topic.
5. Despite not playing instruments, I know lots of theory, so instead of playing a guitar or keyboard, I sit and move dots & lines around the screen, adjusting intensity, length, pitch, etc. However, it means that what I create in this way is very different to what I create with my church worship team. This is a good thing.
6. I love electronic music, especially the crossover of electronica (or armchair techno & intelligent techno, my fave names from the early 90s) with choral music.
7. Writing for me, rather than congregationally, only restarted in December 08. However, I was a little distracted by how much fun Garageband is and have only completed this one song…and then only because of joining @ourcc. Nearly everything else I’ve done on there has been (somewhat dodgy) recordings of some of the more congregational songs I’ve written, usually in a very different manner.
8. I might post some of those here for your curiosity too This may also include some older recordings, and maybe even some that I’ve done which don’t have explicitly Christian lyrics.
9. My wife and I often discuss the difference between relative and absolute truth, and the general shift in society to the whole “this is my truth, tell me yours” type of thing, rather than an acceptance that some things just are, no matter what you do or do not believe. This was a major seed point for what became “Unchangeable Truth”.
10. With the idea floating in my head for ages, the process of physically ‘getting it down’ only began on Saturday after the huge week of prayer at my church meant zilch self-creativity time…it was worth it though.

That’s 10 lines of somewhat interconnected thought. I’m looking forward to where all this goes!