A little love from Sputnik

Spring Cleaning?

Okay listen (or read). What the heck is spring cleaning for? Let me propose something...

I don't ever clean during the "spring" times. I usually find myself cleaning during the dark or winter times, and I think this speaks volumes to the human condition. Maybe it's just the way I am wired. I am more of a feeler than a thinker... Thank you Myers Briggs. When spring time rolls around I'm feeling the sun shine and life. I'm watching things grow up fresh and I'm out in it. There is no cleaning; just going and doing and living. 

I think we (I at least) do all the cleaning in the dreary times to simulate the stable times. I can see that little Zoloft bubble bouncing across my imagination because I think our whole generation has social anxiety disorder. Are people really watching closely and constantly enough that you have to seem perfect at every turn?

Example. This past weekend I received some news. The kind of news that makes you want to vomit but you can't because you can't even breath. I made my humble attempts at processing and prayer and continued to go along with this thing in my gut. When I got home guess what I did... I cleaned. I cleaned my room. I washed all the dishes and there hasn't been a used dish in the sink since. I washed my car...really?! Yes really. And I did loads of laundry. No pun intended. 

Why? What good does that do? None really. I just had to get all the ducks in a row that I had some control over. "Look at me. I have everything under control. It's all good." And it seems to me that Christians are the worst at this. Hmmm.

Thoughts?

Faith. Hope. Life.

So I went to a show last night. I went to see friends and be with friends. The fact that it was free was cool, but let's be honest... I would have gone anyway. It was a fantastic evening. Conversation and catching up turned to music, turned to reflections on Easter, turned to fellowship, turned to worship. Every aspect of the night was beautiful, but I noticed something as I enjoyed the perfectness of it all, and that something is what I wanted to share. 

There were kids everywhere! Newborns in strollers. Toddlers all bundled up. Young kids sleeping in the pews. There was one kid in the back that yelled something terribly cute after every song. I never new what he or she was saying, but in my heart I knew it was worshipful. Lot's of the kids were the children of artists I went to see, and I am sure I watched just as many little ones running ahead of their parents in to the lobby where we had the merch set up. 

One of my favorite things about my friends that played last night is the sheer amount of talent that was displayed on the stage. Not just musicianship but lyrics and the care and intention I know was put in to each song. They were songs about faith, hope and life. Hey there was even one song about a shinny rocket and another about a baby peeing on his dad. As I sat there and listened to my friends play their music for family and friends that had come to a hometown show I was reminded of something I have let myself forget. There is life in this gift of music. I had gone to see most of my favorite artists share a stage, and most of the night my attention was drawn away from the front to watch a bunch of kids react to the music, stare at nothing really, or just pull their mom's hair... and it was great. 

So in this very real, artistic, humble, creative community I have longed for there is no fame or riches or glamor, but there is love and life. And there is a Savior. Jesus said He came that we may have life to the full, and I am thankful that He has surrounded me with so much new life...and music. That's cool.

Pictures will have to do 'cause I have no words!

(you may recognize this as my house studio. you may also recognize the Mr. Ben Shive. it was a fun night)

Looking for some feed back...

Need some feedback from the proverbial peanut gallery. Thoughts if you will.

The one on the left or the one on the right? The masterful design work is done by my boy Bryan Rumfola. Look him up. Please leave your comments at the beep...

"Beep"

The run away song

If you have read any books about writing like Ann Lamont's Bird By Bird or Annie Dillard'sThe Writing Life (seriously who does that?!) you will notice a theme. The same theme can be found on some of my favorite songwriter's blogs. The idea is to let the work go where it wants. If you have an idea and start writing and the story, theme or direction begins to change, go with it. Very rarely, in my experience, does the song or story come out exactly as I planned or outlined. This is especially the case in the studio. I never consider a song "finished" until the album is printed up and in the consumers hands, but even then I reserve the right as the songwriter to mess with it in performance. 

Nothing about today was any different. I worked on the song I started yesterday all day long. It is taking a shape I really enjoy and sounding good, but it's not totally my original idea I scratched out yesterday morning on a paper towel (sometimes you gotta rock what you got before it goes away). AND today the first of NashVin's friends stopped in to record some fun parts on the new tune. You should be able to hear some rough demos soon.

And so it begins (our little secret)

I woke up this morning humming a tune. I proceeded to get ready for church, jumped in the car, and no gas (in my car OR any gas station for miles), so I came back in still humming the same tune. I milled around the house and started singing the words that went along with my little morning song. Before to long I realized the song I was singing wasn't really a song at all...yet . It has been so long since an idea just fell out like that, I almost forgot what it was like. Since I was all out of gas, confined to the house and my roommates are out of town I decided to run with it. So I took the really gross old strings off Ope, my primary acoustic. I put on some nice new strings and began to write this new song. It was really exciting. After a while I set up the whole rig and recorded my ideas as they came. 

All that to say... I have been putting it off and putting it off and putting it off, but today I think I started my solo record. 

So here's the deal. I will keep you posted on here, put up fun pics, lyric ideas, questions, and progress reports if you will be super patient, encouraging, and participate in this project with me. Keep your ears open.