We have been chipping away at this new album now for a week and things are really starting to come together.

We are still in the early stages of this process, which can be a bit grueling, but we are really having a blast.  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Friday -

Chris and I went into the studio and tracked “scratch” tracks of acoustic and vocals.  Essentially, I sat down and recorded a basic, acoustic guitar track and then got up and sang it.  I did this for all 10 songs (11 actually as one was supposed to be on the cut list) and with that done, Dana and Chris will be able to record drums and bass with something to go by other than just a metronome.  We spent 4 or 5 hours in the studio laying these down and having Chris there was a big help.  He was able to remind me of things I was forgetting and so I think we laid a solid foundation for the next pieces.

Monday -

Dana, Chris, Tim and I went into the studio and worked out drum parts.  It was a fairly lengthy process in the sense that we went from 10 to 7, but it was way quick considering that tracking 10 drums (actually we did 11 before I realized that 1 was on the cut list) usually takes a couple of days.  We went in with an understanding of how the songs all work, but without specific drum parts laid out.  The process could not have been easier!  Joel (our producer/engineer) had some great ideas and with all of us in the room kicking things around we were able to get some very cool, distinct parts.  Dana deserves most of the credit, however, as he was really able to sit down and make these parts come to life.  Before tracking drums we all had a fear that all of the songs sounded the same and were pretty generic.  That is no longer a worry.  The drums sound great and feel great and lay a really solid foundation for all of the other parts.

Wednesday -

We did bass.  Chris, Tim and I went in and did the bass work.  Chris is flat-out brilliant!  He just has a great ear and understands how to give songs a pulse while staying out of the way for parts that aren’t there yet.  We went in at 6:30 and finished by midnight, which again, makes for a long night, but in comparison is really quick.

The foundation has been laid and now we should really start to see these songs come to life.  After a much needed break (5 days off while Joel does some shows down south and we do services here), we’ll go back in on Tuesday and start doing keys and guitars.  This process will take a few days and then we’ll do vocals.

I’m getting more and more excited about the final product and can’t wait to start sharing some songs with you guys!

Check back here for more updates soon!

Last night Tim, Jill and I went over to Dana’s to hash out more of these songs for our recording project.  We head into the studio on the 10th and with that date rapidly approaching, we want to make sure that we all know the basic structure of the songs.  It’s a fun process, but it is missing a key component; guitars!

Joel Piper will be engineering and producing this little project and will be doing a bulk of the guitar work.  Since he’s not in on these early sessions the songs are not exactly zesty.

It will be really interesting, and I think, refreshing to hear what the guitar lines add to these songs.  I’m excited for the final product and am now just getting antsy to begin.

We’ve got some trimming to do (13 songs to 10) and a lot of production to add to this stuff, but it is getting more and more fun as we go!

stay tuned…

On Tuesday of this week Tim, Jill, Chris and I all went over to Dana’s to hash out a few songs and prepare to record some demos.

We worked through 5 songs which was pretty surprising considering they were mostly new to Dana and Chris.  I suppose not having a guitarist in the room made it go quicker as those guitar parts tend to be the driving hook and developing those can take some time.  That can happen a bit later though.

For now, we’re plowing through.  We’ll get together on Sunday and work out the rest and then Tuesday night we’ll start laying down drum and bass tracks.  We’ll continue to build these rough demos of each song so that we have something to play to in the studio in February.

This process, though somewhat laborious (that’s right, I said it) is really fun for me.  I really like getting in a room with other musicians and thinking through where songs can go and what we can do with them.

I’ll try and get some video this week and post it here so that the 5 of you who read this (hi mom) can get a sense of what’s going on.

oh by the way, I think we have a name:

drum roll please…

The Avenue

What do you think?

So we are locked in and will start recording February 10th!

There’s a lot of work to do in the meantime demoing songs and making sure we know what we want to do, so while it’s going to be a lot of fun, it’ll also be a lot of work.

I’m really excited about this project and feeling more and more like this is something we should do.  And I think the end product is going to be something great!

I’ll be posting video and pictures during the process and letting you all see it as it unfolds.  And, of course, I’ll let you in on how and where to buy this thing!

So stay tuned and wish us luck!

I have been thinking through and sorta-kinda working on a recording project for a long time now.  It’s one of those things that I really want to do, but have never really believed that my stuff was good enough that people would want to listen to it.  I worry that I’ll put a lot of time, energy and money into a recording project and it just won’t be that good.  While I’m not sure any of those insecurities have left, I am sure that this is something I need to do and am going full steam ahead.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing as of late with Tim Douty (a phenomenal piano player and writer) and I think we have some good stuff.  I’m currently lining up studio time and am going to do this over the next few months.  I think what’s great about this project is that it won’t just be mine.  I’ll be sharing a lot of the vocals with Jill (Tim’s wife and a great singer) and the songs will almost all be co-written by Tim and I.  It takes the pressure off and makes it a lot more fun.

We’ll see how things materialize and, I’ve got to say, I’m a little nervous about writing about it this early as that means we have to do it, but I’m really excited to see what happens.

2009 has come and gone and I thought I would recap some of my highlights.

You remember when your grandparents or parents would tell a story and they would say, “the year was 1965…”? I’m not that guy.  I don’t generally remember the year something happened as much as I do the event itself.  I remember making a cross-country trip with my family as a kid and I remember the first Major League baseball game I went to and I remember the first time I kissed my wife, but for the life of me I don’t remember the year these things happened.  Frankly, why should I?

I was thinking about 2009, though and realized this was a pretty big year for me.  There were a handful of pretty life-changing events that took place and I thought that if I didn’t remember the year, it would be hard to see how much God had blessed me with.  He didn’t just give me a few good things here and there, but he blessed me with a lot of great things continually.

So here goes; my recap.

1) Gracie Mae - This one was an easy #1.  Jenn and I had our first child and she is the love of our lives.  I was always excited about having kids, but having Grace has surpassed any expectations I may have had.  She’s just so cool and fun!  I’ve had the somewhat unique opportunity to be a stay-at-home dad two days a week and, while I’m a bit out of my element at times, it’s really allowed me to have a pretty special bond with her.  She smiles all the time, seems to love music and really likes snuggling up to daddy.  Frankly, she’s my favorite thing in the world.

2) My wife - Now, I didn’t get married this year, and though Jenn and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary, it wasn’t a milestone anniversary, like 5, 10, 20, 50, etc.  However, Jenn and I grew even closer this year.  We worked through some pretty challenging things at times, from work stuff, to family issues and others and got through giving birth.  I also saw Jenn in a way that I haven’t seen her in a long time; right in the center of God’s will.  Jenn has been trying to figure out what she’s meant to do for a while now.  She’s taught in a couple of different schools and both have been really bad situations.  She’s done ministry and while she’s really great at it, figuring out how to do ministry when it’s not your full-time job has been a hard adjustment.  She’s been going through this rather tough process for 3-5 years now and while she’s always had a lot of faith, there have been times where it’s hard for us to see that she just can’t seem to find that “sweet spot.”  That all changed this year when Grace came along.  During her pregnancy, while she was well within her rights to complain and be frustrated she spent much of her time laughing.  Watching her give birth and fight through all the pain and junk that comes with giving birth (reason #437 I’m glad I’m a dude by the way), she pushed through it all and now is an amazing mother.  I love watching her with Grace.  She never seems to lose her patience and she at various times will just look down at her and say, “man, I love this girl!”  It really has been great to watch her step into mother hood.

3) I got promoted - Kimberly MacNeill is the greatest boss anyone in my position could have.  She has taught me so much about ministry and service programming and this year, as she stepped into a new role, she and the executive staff turned over her position as Pastor of Worship and Arts to me.  Since then I’ve gotten the chance to “hang with the big dogs” on the executive staff and be completely in charge of our weekend services.  We’ve been working so hard around here and I think our team has been doing great.  We did “Journey” a four week series using music from Journey to help people navigate tough times, “Re-Dream” a four week series helping people see past the difficulties in life and imagine all that God has still in store for them and a Christmas season that included “A Beatles Christmas” our special Christmas Service chalk full of amazing music and a candlelight service that was fantastic.  2010 will certainly bring a ton more work, but I’m so excited for what lies ahead.

4) Songwriting - I’ve been writing a lot of new music and am excited to see what happens with it.  I’ve gotten to write and record with some great musicians like Dana Pellerin, Luke Mundy, Tim and Jill Douty, and Paul Carlson and Justin Kulekjian.  I’m so stoked to see what God is able to do with these songs as we’ll introduce some of them at Clovis Hills in 2010.

There have been so many other great things that have happened to me this year that it would take multiple posts to talk about it.

I am so excited for the new year and am looking forward to everything God does!

There is, perhaps, no bigger reason for my lack of blogging in the last 5 months than the birth of my daughter, Gracie.

So as I begin this process again I thought it only fitting to show you some pictures of her and why my attention is focused more on her than on all of you (sorry).

So, you can look forward to seeing pictures of my little rock star whenever you stop by.

The economy has hit us hard at Clovis Hills as it has everyone else.

I think over the last several months there’s been a feeling of hopelessness around here; like this ministry thing is a lost cause.

We lost 7 staff members to this recession and it has seemed like at every turn all of us have been reluctant to try anything new or different for fear that we would alienate people or that we’d miss the mark.  That fear has kept us from really getting excited about all the things that have gone right and there have been a lot.

I think I may have been more of the problem than the solution and unfortunately, that’s caused me to have a pretty crappy attitude at times, doing, what is and has always been, my dream job.  Imagine that, getting paid to do what you love to do and finding any way you can to make it suck.

That’s all changed now, though.  This is the summer of dreams, baby, and we are going for it.  Over the next couple of months we’ll be driving hard to a relaunch of Clovis Hills that coincides with our first sattelite campus, West Hills Church and we’ll be getting back to what made this place special at its founding.  We are, after all, the church for people who hate church!

It’s the summer of dreams because we are amping everything up, from creativity in music, drama and video to lighting and technology and making the weekend at Clovis Hills a place you’d want to invite your unchurched friends to.  Our production team and I are going to be working hard this summer to make sure we’re getting all of this right and by the end of the summer/beginning of fall we’ll be in full swing, taking risks and swinging for the fences.

This is what I signed up for.

This is why I love my job.

This is what I’ve been called to do and I am stoked to see it happen.

You don’t want to miss what’s coming!

It’s official, the kid is here!

Here’s how it all went down.

Grace was due on may 9th.  By May 12th, she still hadn’t come and there were no significant contractions so that morning we scheduled an induction with our doctor for Thursday the 14th.  We were pretty relieved that we finally had a date and with nothing to do for a couple days we hit up a Grizzlies game with the Huffman’s and my in-laws.

The game was a blow out, the Grizzlies won, and we left having had a pretty good day.  That night, however, the real fun started.

Jenn woke up at 3 am with what she called her first big contraction.  Thankfully she was able to get back to sleep and didn’t have to wake me up.  I would have gotten up, of course, but at 3 o’clock in the morning I’m not sure how much help I would have been.

She woke up again at 5 am and that’s when the contractions started getting consistent.  We were timing them and went about our regular morning, trying not to get our hopes up.  We went into the hospital the Friday before and were sent home so we didn’t want to repeat that.

After 2 hours or so of consistently strong contractions we decided that this was it and we would go in.

We got there and they “checked her” and she was dialated to three.  This meant we were staying!

We got into our room and started the process.  Jenn walked a lot and the nurses monitored the baby.  Our main nurse, Jill was fantastic!  She was fun and helpful and let us know what was going on every step of the way.

After 12 hours of labor and one very helpful epidural, Jenn had made it to 10 and was ready to push.  After just 30 minutes of pushing Grace was here!

Mom and baby are both doing great and we’re enjoying life.  Here are some pictures.  I’ll post more soon.