Seven Months (Plus)

I’m a terrible blogger.

Alas, when my life gets anywhere close to busy, I don’t seem to make the time to update this as much as I should. I don’t want to discontinue this outlet, either, because I do enjoy writing. My apologies to those that have read my blog, few of you that may actually be. I’ve just been... busy.

With what, you ask? What have I been doing over the past seven months?

Well, the short answer is: continuing my preparation for eventually going into full-time ministry. The longer answer? Voice lessons every week, helping my church’s choir (for the second year in a row) produce our annual summer worship project, and most importantly... working on my ever-elusive first demo song.

Why Do I Need A Demo?

The general idea behind posting demo materials on this site is simple. I want to showcase my style and abilities to those that may not be aware of them, namely, future employers. Western culture is becoming more connected than ever, and technology is allowing a wider range of people do do amazing things (for relatively low costs). Since ministry work may call me away to a place where few (if any) know who I am, it’s important for me to be able to show what I can do, how I do it, and why.

Why Did I Choose This Song?

I wanted to select a song that aligns with the purpose and passion of my life and ministry: whatever the word or deed, all the glory and focus will make its way back to God. Songwriting, however, is not my strongest trait (at least for right now). Since I’m not writing my own songs at the moment, I decided in April to select Chris Tomlin’s “Once And For All.”

While some may think of me as a “Tomlin fanboy,” the decision to record this song came after a great deal of consideration. It’s obviously a “good song” (I think that, at least), but more importantly, it is a great declaration of who God is, what He has done through his Son, and why He deserves our attention and praise. Further, I’ve been struck by how quickly this song “catches on” with worshippers. (This has been my experience, both at Passion 2013, and in my own experiences leading the song in worship.) It certainly speaks to the giftedness of the men who wrote the song, but it also speaks to the Truth behind the song. In short, I couldn’t think of a better song to feature on this site.

The Process

The process began in April, after gathering together the necessary backing elements. This was a struggle by itself, since I did not have the time or resources to properly record multiple guitars, drums, and keyboards. In an attempt to expedite this process, I made the decision to use MIDI computer instruments. Now, MIDI (or virtual) instruments can be hit-or-miss, in terms of their sound. Virtual sounds have improved greatly over the past five years, and it is becoming easier and easier to compose and edit MIDI files. Still, it took some effort and patience (and, ultimately, money) to avoid sounding like I recorded the demo with a cheap Casio keyboard.

Once I gathered all of the virtual instruments together (over two-thirds of the final product are MIDI virtual instruments), I needed to record vocals. I began recording my vocals with my vocal coach, Carmen Rairigh. She’s a talent in her own right (check out her site, CarmenRae.com), and she was also kind enough to record some backing vocals. I also approached my good friend and bandmate, Allyson Kehoe. There are few people in this world I would rather lead worship with, and this project would not be what it is without her. Finally, I approached my church’s student pastor, Dan Lyle, to throw in his vocals to add a doubling effect.

It took about seven months to get the recording together, after some trial-and-error, and some patience for people’s schedules to clear up (after all, between the four of us, we have very little “professional” experience… and this was all done for free, without seeking any financial returns). I also decided to move from a basic three-part harmony, to a two-part main vocal line with three-part backing vocals, about midway through the process. This added a few months to the process, but I feel it was worth it in the end.

Once all the recording and editing was done, it was time to mix and master the song. I did not want to pay to get this done (it’s VERY expensive!), so I sought to learn how to do this myself. Since I have zero experience in this area, it was quite the undertaking. While I do believe the final product is good for what this project called for, I will admit that it is far from what a polished studio project would sound like (aided by professional studio engineers).

Licensing

About halfway through the project, the issue of copyright and licensing was brought to my attention. This is an uneasy subject for me, and I may talk more about this in a future post. The bottom line is, though, that there are laws that govern intellectual property in this country, and as a Christian, we are all called to follow the laws placed over us. No matter if one has reservations about them, or may view them as “unnecessary” due to the nature of the project, the requirements of copyright law do not defy anything in Scripture (for the most part). Translation: I had to pay up.

I will say that the rates were fairly reasonable, and the people at Captiol CMG Publishing (formerly EMI CMG Publishing) and Music Services, Inc. were quite easy and pleasant to deal with. I did hit a few snags with Sony/ATV Publising, since they didn’t operate like the other two licensing companies (it would also help if people would reply to emails in a timely and professional manner… just saying). Still, after some patience, I was able to acquire 100% of the legal permission to stream the song on this site.

The Final Product

Over seven months of work culminated in my first demo song, which can be heard by clicking here. I could not have done it without my amazing friends (Allyson, Carmen, and Dan… THANK YOU!). I don’t know when my next demo will be posted (it will probably be a video), but it will hopefully come together in a fraction of the time that this project took. Finally, it’s good to be done with it, and I hope you enjoy it.

When Plans Come Together

I love it when a plan comes together.

In most ministry cases, though, plans are rarely in our control. Even the best-laid plans of man can be tossed aside like a rag doll, if God has something better in mind. Still, I’ve discovered that if the right group of people get together, and if those people possess the same focus, then extraordinary things happen. If “the plan” is to collectively honor God by offering Him the very best we can, then He honors that sacrifice.

The plan comes together... and that’s what happened this past weekend.

For the third year in a row, I had the pleasure of leading worship during LAUNCH Weekend at my home church in Lutz, Florida. It is a weekend event that serves as a kind of “spiritual supercharge” for students, as they are making their way through the school year. Founded in 2011 by myself and my former youth pastor, Kyle Nix, LAUNCH Weekend was my first opportunity to lead worship for this style of event. I had full creative control, and had few limitations (given our limited resources). We worked hard, but I’m not sure what we expected to happen that first year. We certainly didn’t expect to catch lightning in a bottle, which is what happened. God moved in a mighty way that weekend, and from that point onward, we were going to bring our very best to the table for this event.

Two years later, I joined forces with youth pastor Dan Lyle and speaker Jon Stepan to once again put on this event. Since I’m currently in a unique position than previous years, I really felt compelled to push the envelope with our musical expression of worship. Aside from the continued use of technology as an enhancement to my style of worship, this was the first year that I had an established band and repertoire at my disposal. I had also (gratefully) gained the trust of my church's leadership, who gave me the go-ahead to do something different from our "normal" services.

We went for it... and it was good.

My tag-team partners in leading worship for LAUNCH 2013, Allyson Kehoe (right) and Tayler Biles (left).​

The funny thing about life, however, is that it continues to unfold without regard to "fun" events like this. It was certainly one of those weeks in the greater body of my home church, where we experienced everything from the joys of new life to the pains of unexpected death. As we cranked through the weekend event, the students were ready for worship. Once Sunday morning arrived, however, the Spirit was ripe to move through our entire church body. And move, it did.

This is the one thing that continues to stay with me, even after this weekend has ended. In planning this weekend event, there was no way for any of us to know what this past week was to bring for our church. Moreover, I am in a very limited position to do much to help minister to our church body in situations like this. Our plans were set months ahead of Sunday morning, and we were in no position to change things at the last minute.

But, this is how God works. Only God can allow a worship set list decided over a month in advance to strike the perfect chord in the hearts of the worshippers gathered. Only God can ensure that the perfect group of people are gathered to help shepherd the congregation through the desires of the Spirit. And, most importantly, only God can give a very exhausted group of leaders the strength to get through a service like that... twice. We are all nothing without Him, and it is only through Him that plans truly come together.

My Summer Vacation (Or Lack Thereof)

Finally... I'm back, and better than ever.

It's been an interesting, but ultimately great, summer for me. Very busy, with lots of changes, but the past three months have not unfolded in quite the way I thought they would. I thought that this summer would culminate in a new job for me, but alas, that did not happen. I also thought this summer would have provided an exciting opportunity to engage the ideas of this blog in a practical way, but that did not come to fruition, either. Most practically, I thought that the events of summer would not prevent me from regularly updating this blog. That certainly did not happen.

So, what did happen this summer?​

Well, some of the changes (and thus, delays) that summer afforded me were expected. For example, the content management system for this site, Squarespace, released a new version of their web service. I took this opportunity to rework the entire site, and I’m very pleased with the results. Not only is this the result of Squarespace’s new look, but it’s also because of the site’s new images (produced by my wonderful, creative friends at Jerdan Photography).

While redesigning the site, I also decided to make more demo songs. Researching the best way to do that, however, forced me to address a very important point: I don’t want to go to prison. At least for the time being, I will be posting demo songs that are not written by me. So, whatever songs I decide to post, I do not own the rights to those songs, and I must pay for the rights to post the songs. I’m not sure if I fully agree with how the rules work on such things, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully, you will see a lot more additions to the Music page of this site, and rest assured that every addition to this site will be legal.

Even though the ministry opportunities I thought the summer would offer did not come to fruition, I still got the chance to grow as a worship leader. The band that I’m currently a part of got the opportunity to work with our church’s worship choir for their summer worship concert. This was not something I initially considered to be a part of my “style,” but it was a great exercise in submission to authority, and it stretched me musically and spiritually. The choir also conformed more to my band’s “style,” so the result was quite amazing. God moved, in His power and will, so all the glory goes to Him.

In a roundabout way, this collaboration also allowed me to do what I originally set out to do this summer: begin incorporating creativity and technology into worship. And, although it did not happen the way I wanted it to happen, I now have the opportunity to push the limits of creativity in worship at my church on a semi-regular basis. You can feel it coming... the cliche just wants to reach up and smack you in the face, but the truth of the statement still cannot be ignored.

Sometimes, that’s just how God works.