Listening to 'Undivided'

My copy came in the mail today. Our songs are first and last. I've not had a first or last song on an adult's cd before. Both dangerous positions. If the first song's a dud, no one will stay around for the rest of the cd and if any of the songs are really bad, the final song could never be heard!

Of the middle eight songs, my favourites are Michael Morrow's Lift Up Your Heads and Trevor Hodge's No Other Name.

Michael's brilliance is that he can take an obscure biblical image - the anthropomorphised gates of Psalm 24 - and make us not just understand it, but feel it. Completely non cliche. We hear the words and have a vivid picture in our minds. And so wonderfully joyful. Why would anyone be glum? Jesus has opened the gates of heaven.

Trevor Hodge's No Other Name is a different kind of song. A bit epic. But I find I'm wanting to keep on listening to it. Think it will work really well in church.

I think Undivided could be emu's best cd yet. I'll be listening for a while.

Anyone else got their copy?

wow!

Just listened to one of our songs from Emu's new cd which will be released next month. It sounds really good. Better than any of our stuff before. Can't wait to hear the whole album.

Come to twist next weekend for a taster.

God Departs in 'Never Alone'

Quite a few people have been concerned about this.  Some considerably so.  Let me clear it up.

Hi ****,

Thanks for singing our song.  I hope it worked okay with your congregation.

Others have also questioned what that line means.  I think it is most clearly understood if you consider it with the previous words:

'A creeping dread in every heart,
Lost in the world, now God departs."


When I wrote these lines, I had Luke 23:48 in my mind. 


 Luke 23:46-48
⁴⁶Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
 ⁴⁷The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man." ⁴⁸When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
 
The word 'lost' does not refer to Jesus but to us. Humanity. In crucifying the Son of God we were putting ourselves in a very lonely position.  We were trying to remove God (in Jesus) from the world.  And, in a very real way, we succeeded.  God was with us in the world and we caused his departure (not ultimately, of course).  The people standing around realized something of what they had done and beat their breasts. 


These lines were not meant as a comment on God abandoning Jesus or anything like that.  I simply meant that one moment God was physically with us in the world, and the next moment, he wasn't.


Is that okay?


Thanks for asking.  It's good to know that you are thinking about the words that you are singing.


In Christ,


Simone

sh!

Don't tell anyone yet but preparations for the first ever Brisbane twist music ministry conference are underway.  It will be fantastic.  All the cool people will be there doing very cool things.  The uncool people (me) will also be there and we'll be having such a great time that we'll forget to wish that we were cool too.  It'll be the kind of event we'll file away in our minds and rave about when we're 108 and senile.  Don't say anything now, just smile smugly when you see it announced in the sky (or on your church bulletin) and remember that you heard it first here.

want to help emu test new songs?

from an emu email to supporters.

Emu is currently planning its next big release of congregational songs for later this year - and we need your help! We want to know what you think of the songs we are planning to publish and how well they would work in your church. This is going to happen in focus groups in Sydney (Gladesville) and Brisbane (Carina) on 1st March, and Oxford, UK on 12th March. We will give you access to the songs first - then you come along and sing and give feedback. Our numbers will be limited - so if you would like to attend, please reply to philip at emumusic.com, and include some information about yourself, eg. 'I run my church band', 'I really just love singing in church' etc., so that we can get a broad range of people coming along. If you are nowhere near those locations, there may still be a chance for you to have some input, so let us know.

If you've been reading for a while, you might recognise some of the lyrics.

Sydney

Andrew and I had a fantastic couple of days in Sydney. Andrew is still there - stressing about an assignment he has to put in tonight. I'm home alone for the week, realising that I can't do basic things like unlock the downstairs to get to the washing machine... Can we hold out till Friday?

Highlights of the weekend
1. Going round the harbor on Lara's dad's boat with Philip and his UK friends, Lara and Ben.
2. Introducing Andrew to my emu friends.
3. Having such a great time that Andrew and I both forgot it was my birthday. Surely, the best kind of birthday.
4. Singing at twist. Always good, but a little different this year. More piano - and a very nice piano, very nicely played.
5. The songwriting discussion thing that I was a part of with Micheal M, Rob S and Philip P. Jodie McNeil interviewed us and we chatted together about the songwriting process. We were worried it could be a bit self indulgent and boring for people to listen to but it was heaps of fun - for us at least! MM showed us the evolution of come hear the angels sing - which was so interesting, Rob introduced a new song (it had some nice alliteration), I spoke about traction in lyrics and Philip told us his AABA + x factor method.
6. Micheal Jensen's workshop on musical styles and church music and stuff. All good fun to argue over what it means to transform cultural styles for the gospel... Remains to be seen what practical use the discussion will be.
6. Fish and Chips at Manly. Thai with Rob and Claire.

MJ on musical styles

This looks fun. I'm sorry I won't be able to be there - I'm part of the writing workshop at Twist.

Will I see any of you there?

God Unlimited Now Available

Anyone got a copy yet?

I twisted!

It was fantastic. My 5th twist. Possibly the best. Highlights?

• Singing with 100 people who love to sing, being led by minimal (but exceptional) instrumentalists.
• Staying up late watching Andy Judd and Sarah Bailey muck around with one of my lyrics and set it to music. Amazing process. Andy played chords and Sarah made up stuff over the top. After a couple of hours we had a demo verse and a demo chorus (they didn't match so well, but it's a start.)
• Leading the songwriting elective. Was heaps of fun. Watch out for up and coming songwriters!
  
• Eating more junk food in one weekend than I've eaten in an entire year. There was chocolate everywhere.
• Being at the beautiful Port Hacking.
• Coming home to find that my blog's continued without me!
  

God Unlimited samples are up

Have a listen.

God Unlimited

God Unlimited is here. Available June 25.

Love Ben's artwork.

God Unlimited

God Unlimited, Emu's new kids cd, is almost ready to go. Here's what's on it:

1. I wanna know more about God (P. Sheely)
2. God unlimited (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
3. Three in one (P. Sheely)
4. Don't let it grow (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
5. You chose me (R. Smith)
6. Through this Night (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
7. Forget the rest (P. Sheely)
8. All for Jesus (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
9. It's not what I do (P. Sheely)
10. Mighty Saviour (R. Smith)
11. Nothing else matters (P. Percival/S. Richardson)
12. So great is Jesus' love (P. Percival/S. Richardson)

Ben has done a really cool Doctor Rocktrin pic for the cover. The cd will be available in a couple of weeks.

You heard it first here!

everyone should know...

...that Ben can draw really cool pictures.

Dr. Rocktrin 2 Coming Soon!

Exciting days. Emu's next kids cd is at the mixing stage. Each day I get another almost complete song sent to my inbox. I may be biased, but I think it's going to be a good cd.

It's in the Doctor Rocktrin series which is pitched towards older kids (but my five year old loves it too). Musically, it's half rock and half pop. Paul Sheely and Rob Smith have written the rock half. Philip Percival and I have written the pop songs (We've drawn inpiration from the High School Musical movies - but hope that our songs have more content!) Many of the songs are suitable for singing in Sunday School or in other children's ministries. Some of them are especially for kids (and grown ups!) to listen to on their cd players or ipods.

The Doctor Rocktrin series aims to teach kids basic christian doctrine. This cd has songs covering:

• god's bigness (all the omnis)
• the trinity
• election
• the uniqueness of christ
• salvation
• atonement
• the nature of sin and repentance
• living for jesus
• hope and comfort
• the new creation

Look out for it. It should be available from emu music next month.

This is a cool brochure

twist 09

Dr. Rocktrin 2

I've co-written 7 songs in the last few weeks for emu's next big-kids cd. Varying qualities, ranging upward from very bad.

I only need to come up with one more song. It needs to:

• be simple so that it instantly works in any context
• be loved by parents and kids
• say something significant
• be so good that it sells the cd

Basically it needs to be a hit. In Christ Alone for 11 year olds.

That's all I've got left to write.

twist music ministry conference

I am looking forward to twist this year. There are two conferences: twist away, a live in conference at Port Hacking from the 12th to the 14th of June and a very schmick single day event on the 24th October featuring Keith Getty.

I'll be at both and am just starting to think about the live-in conference. Last year Twist was non-residential, but a few of us were accommodated together. It was fun staying up late gossiping with SB and PP. I think the weekend away format will work really well for workshop training. You can't flick between workshops, but have to commit to one strand for the entire weekend - instrumental, vocal, writing or sound.

I'm helping lead the songwriting strand. The idea is that we have heaps of time to learn the theory together, do writing exercises, work individually on our own songs and get personalised feedback. I have felt the lack of time frustration with previous Twists. I think it would be great if by the end of the weekend, everyone had a reasonably polished song to take back to try in their churches. Sound like fun? I think so.

If you are someone who likes to write (I'm speaking to you, blogger!), you should come along. Even if you're not a music person. There are many people out there who can write tunes, but not so many who can write decent lyrics.

Acts Sunday School Material

I am writing Sunday School material based on the book of Acts. I'm after a cool title to tie it all together.

Here are some ideas I've had so far:

God on the move - I'm thinking of Stephen's speech

To the ends of the earth - I'm thinking Acts 1:8.

King of the World - I like that the word 'king' is in this one. If the material is good, it will become part 3 in the 'The King the Snake and the Promise', 'Meet the King' trilogy.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

I'm writing for a new kids cd

This is my inspiration.

come hear the angels sing

The new emu cd 'come hear the angels sing' will be available next week. A few samples are up on the emu site now. Philip Percival and I wrote tracks 4 (You are our God - see sample) and 8 (Exalted Evermore). If you're not an emu-plus member, become one and get the cd at a reduced price.


I've just listened to the title track (written by Micheal Morrow - who's a star!) - it is brilliant. Communicates such joy that you can't help smiling. Tune and lyric match is amazing. Theologically rich. I particularly like the ideas in the first verse:

come hear the angels sing
'worthy is the lamb that was slain'
gathering round the throne
'hail the son of man, hail the son of man.'
not for their sin he died
it was no angel crucified
and yet they hold him in their sight
and live to praise their Lord.'

But the rest just goes on and gets better and better. Have a listen.