New video on You Tube from Andy McKee. I love Andy McKee’s music, he has an awesome sense of melody and despite his amazing talent he never seems to over do it. His ability always serves the song, I don’t get distracted by it. I can tell he aims to write the best song possible and not write the best song that demonstrates his ability. I just wish the dude could sing. I can have immense appreciation for instrumental music, I just can’t listen to it very often. If Andy is reading this blog post (chances are not good at all) here’s my suggestion to you Andy. Get Sarah McLachlan to do some vocals on your next cd. I guarantee you will have some smash hits. Your songs are perfect for her voice.

Before I get to the video I want to tie this into songwriting. As a songwriter it’s critical that when writing a worship song you have a concept or dare I say revelation that you are building the song on. That you write creatively to serve that revelation and not serve your talent. Sometimes simplicity in your writing will better serve the revelation, other times complexity will. As long as the focus and goal is finding the best way possible to capture, present and respond to the revelation then our talent becomes helpful and aides in accomplishing the goal instead of a distraction and a hindrance to that goal.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• Worship Evangelism and why it isn’t working (3)
• Video: Spontaneous Baptisms on Easter at Mars Hill (1)
• Video: Radiohead performing In Rainbows live! (2)

Our church is in the middle of a new building buildout that includes a significantly larger sanctuary. This required some new gear and an entire new set of sound issues. I’ve been in bands, and behind boards since I was a young man and I have what I consider to be a “passing” knowledge of how to mix. I certainly know my limitations, and this project was way out of my league. We needed a professional.

In God’s divine wisdom and grace he planned for my path to cross Jeff. I met Jeff in my smoothie shop while we were bumping some Whiskeytown. He asked if I enjoyed Whiskeytown to which I replied “heck yes I do”, one of my favorite bands and Ryan Adams has to be one of the preeminent songwriters of our day. He let me know he used to run sound for them and Ryan Adams. It’s moments like these that I use as proof of a good and loving God.

I asked(begged) Jeff if he might be willing to help us out and boy has he ever. He came and did things I’ve never seen and certainly have never heard. It sounds amazing in there and I am so grateful for Jeff and others of his ability around the world. God bless you professional sound men and God bless you Jeff! I want to cry I’m so happy…I think I will….excuse me.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• Can you find the big mistake? (5)
• Working “Reason” into worship, drum loops, synths and other crazy things (3)
• Welcome to the new Rising Sound worship music blog (0)

Figure it’s time for some gear talk on here since I’m really excited about my new foot controller purchase. A couple years back I switched to Guitar Rig(GR) for my live rig. I never imagined I would be using a complete software rig ever in my life, but that was until I heard Guitar Rig. I used to be, still am I suppose, a collector of as many classic pedals as I could get my hands on. With my Matchless Hotbox being my pride and joy. All multi-effects pedal boards, amp simulators, software solutions I’d heard up until GR sounded sooo bad, I never even considered them. Then my brother begged me to start using GR on a few recording projects we were doing and I was really impressed. My huge complaint with multi-effects units and software apps has been that the sound is so obviously a digital signal, there’s no cabinet breathing, no warmth, no peaks that you can pick out. It’s just all washed and over compressed and just too cute and nice.

One thing GR lets you control in addition to any combination of amps and cabinets you wish is mic placement. I can’t tell you how important that is for sound and GR really hit it out of the park there. So once I realized that the amp/cabinet selections were actually really good, I then got to enjoy the wide selection of other effects. It’s super handy being able to get such a wide tone swing during a live gig. Not to mention the flexibility afforded by the other effects. But sound quality is of the utmost importance and I can honestly say that GR is the only software/multi-effects unit I’ve heard that makes me say “wow” (yes those are quotes around wow). And GR2 has made me even more pleased, but I’m upset that they continue to release major upgrades at a blistering pace, GR3 already is out. Ever heard of minor FREE updates Native Instruments???

So now onto my purchase. I originally bought GR 1 which came with a 4 button (not really banks) 1 expression pedal foot controller. 2 of those buttons are reserved for switching presets, so really you’re left with 2 buttons. That really made things tough, lots of preparation needed to be done on the presets making sure from song to song you could quickly get to each preset. Not an enjoyable situation. So I needed a bigger foot controller and found a Behringer FCB 1010 Midi Foot controller (actually a lot of them) on ebay for dirt cheap. 10 button, 2 expression pedals AND 2 dedicated preset/amp switches. So now I don’t have to use any of the 10 buttons for switching presets and the 2 expression pedals is huge. You always want volume control but many times I need tremolo speed or wah control or other such timings that can’t be tapped out. I can’t wait for it to arrive and get it all setup.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• My stage setup, instruments, software, etc… (2)
• Gibson introduces self-tuning guitar, dubbed ‘Robot Guitar’ (2)
• 60s Ludwig Drums found at goodwill for $100! (1)

As I posted earlier, a few of us from our church were able to attend the Continuous Worship conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The highlight of the conference was no doubt Mark Driscoll’s teaching on idolatry. It is life changing stuff and should be required listening for all christians but especially for those of us leading worship in music. I won’t attempt to summarize in this post, rather I’ll just you can download it here or listen to it below. Enjoy.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• Love songs - the good the bad and the tacky (0)
• Continuous Worship conference at Mars Hill Church (3)
• Working “Reason” into worship, drum loops, synths and other crazy things (3)

Early in October we mentioned Chris Lizotte had agreed to do an interview with Our Rising Sound. Just heard back from Chris and below is the conversation we had. We tried to have a wide ranging sample of questions taken from our readers and contributors. I want to personally thank Chris for taking the time to respond, he’s a busy guy so we really appreciate the love. Please follow the link above and check out(and buy) Chris’ music if you have not already. Ok let’s get this party started, ORS = Our Rising Sound, CL = Chris Lizotte:

ORS: Who are some of your biggest music influences, regardless if they are in the church or not?

CL: I Love the new Wilco record! My Friends are a big influence on me: Ryan Delmore, Rick Kamrath, John Barnett, Marc Ford, Paul Jackson, Kevin Prosch.

ORS: Earlier in your career you wrote mostly non-congregational worship music. Now we’ve heard more of your songs being played in congregational settings. Did you find the transition of audience and purpose difficult to make in your songwriting?

CL: At first, Yes. As the years have gone by I it’s been easier. Maybe because I lead worship on a regular basis and I love to write songs that point people in the direction of honoring Jesus!

ORS: What sort of songwriting discipline do you follow? Some people write something everyday even if it’s bad just to keep the discipline, other’s only sit down and write when they feel inspired externally or internally. How do you approach songwriting practically?

CL: When I’m inspired. I try to have a guitar around always.

ORS: When you find yourself lacking inspiration to write how do you fight out of that? Or do you fight out of it?

CL: The prayer room helps with that. Just stopping everything and getting still helps a ton. Gives me a chance to listen.

ORS: What part of songwriting does you find the most challenging? What do you do to overcome those challenges?

CL: Lyrics. Refer to answer above

Read the rest of this entry »

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• Worship Evangelism and why it isn’t working (3)
• U.S. religion: even “Christians” see other ways to heaven (1)
• Alan Roxburgh interviews Sally Morgenthaler (6)

Last Thursday evening Minus the Bear was playing a show at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe AZ. My brother and myself are big Minus the Bear fans so we weren’t going to miss this show. They were touring with a band called Helio Sequence, a fellow Northwest band. I’d never heard of them but I hear a tune on their myspace page and was quite impressed. It was shaping up to be one heck of a show.

The opening band was pretty terrible. They had 3 acoustic guitar players, one of which sat down behind a piano, which would have been cool had he played a single note on the piano. As it stands I have no idea why the piano was up there or why he was sitting behind it. The third acoustic guitar player was obviously one of their dear friends and they didn’t have the heart to tell him they don’t need him anymore. They did a lot of folksy counter melodies, and it sound cool the first couple songs. But eventually they lost steam and their harmonies were not in key and the wheels started to come off. Also there was just so many harmonies all the time it got less interesting each song and just annoying, no space at all.

Then Helio Sequence stepped on stage. They consist of a drummer(Benjamin Weikel) who looks like he had to take a day of at Microsoft to be here and a very unassuming, understated lead singer/guitar player(Brandon Summers). Certainly not a pair you’d see on the street and think, musicians. They begin the first song as they did most all their songs, drummer coming in right on time with a synth track. Drummer is absolutely nails, dude has near perfect time (playing to a click is not easy) and he lays down just amazing rhythms. Benjamin used to be the drummer for Modest Mouse. Very unorthodox playing style, you can tell he is having a blast, I was having a blast just watching him play. Brandon has an amazing voice, reminds me a lot of John Lennon, especially when he does half yell/growl. He used a ton of reverb on his voice with some delay and at first I was hesitant that it was called for. But it really worked over the entire set. He’s an amazing song writer, vocalist, guitar player. I was blown away how good they sounded, I thought for sure there would be empty spots with just 2 guys up there, but I never got that sense. They completely rocked and it made me want to go buy all their music. To me that’s a successful show.

The same can’t be said for Minus the Bear, whom I love. Their mix was terrible first off. None of the cool guitar parts cut through, it was just a wall of mush. Their set lacked a story as well, meaning it didn’t take you on any journey. I just wish their was a little more unexpectedness to it, some pauses for us to catch our breath. But it was just fast fast fast, loud loud loud. I like fast and loud, but there has to be some dynamic. So I came in expecting to see Minus the Bear rock and nothing else, what I got was Helio Sequence stealing the show, making me a huge fan and Minus the Bear leaving me wanting.

Go buy their latest album Love and Distance, thank me later. Here’s a video for “Don’t Look Away” that Fred Armisen (SNL) directed for Helio Sequence.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• video: Helio Sequence on Jimmy Kimmel (0)
• Review: Helio Sequence at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix (0)
• Tom Waits press conference, tour kickoff (0)

Great blog post from Bob Kauflin at Worship Matters blog. It discusses the responsibility of the worship team to value and instruct their musicians in “traditional” music training and theory. This is something we’ve discussed as it relates to songwriting and operating in excellence in our craft. I would add that too often in the church are songs written or played out of constraint of ability and ignorance of theory or method. Of course we’re all constrained by our ability, but traditionally the bar is set pretty low in the church. Is the simple chord progression and melody an intentional writing technique or a consequence of our lack of devotion and commitment to music. Too often it’s the latter. 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed 

Related posts

• Proper perspective of creativity in worship, why worship band members are so easily offended (1)
• How to properly use simile in worship songwriting (0)
• Worship Evangelism and why it isn’t working (3)