Here’s what happens when you combine Micah Foster’s new camera, my willingness to make an idiot of myself and a lengthy layover in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport.

Enjoy.

I’ve worked at Clovis Hills for nearly 4 years now.  My time here has been amazing as I have grown as a leader, minister and musician in huge ways and have gotten to do things most people my age don’t.  I got hired as a 26 year old kid who knew nothing and yet, my opinions have been valued and my point of view listened to.  I’ve got no complaints.

Except maybe one.

You see, I care about my appearance, as most of us do.  I want to look good and so I pay attention to what I wear and how I style my hair, etc.  You’ve got to if you’re going to be on stage in front of 1500 people every weekend.  I don’t think it’s crazy for someone to be concerned about the way they look on stage like that.  What I do think is a little crazy is that so many other people are concerned with what I look like.

Here’s the history:

When I first got here my look was t-shirts, jeans and flip flops.  Many people thought that me showing my bare toes was great because it meant I was free and easy and comfortable in my own skin.  Others thought that I should put some shoes and socks on out of respect for Jesus (though I’m pretty sure he wore sandals).  Either way, people were looking at my feet and not at Him so I put on some shoes.

Over the next couple of years I tried a lot of different things including, but not limited to, a faux-hawk, t-shirts, dress shirts, polo shirts, no shirt (just kidding), khakis, jeans, jeans with holes, cords, etc.  No matter what I wore, people like to make comments; some good, some bad.  I even had one guy offer to take me to a store and buy me some slacks (I declined).

Over the last few months I’ve been wearing what I think looks good and is comfortable to me which often times includes a tie, a vest and jeans with or without holes.

This weekend, I had multiple people comment about my “new look” which is not new at all!  I don’t get it!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not spending my days being a people-pleaser.  I’ve learned that there will always be people who have opinions about what I should say, do or wear, and that’s fine.

I just think it’s comical, really.  I’m glad people like the way that I dress and while I’m bummed that others don’t think I look good at times, I don’t cry myself to sleep at night.

I’m not sure what the point of all of this is, just wanted to let you into my world a little bit.

If you see me and think I look great, by all means, let me know.

If you want to buy me pants, I will probably decline.  Lovingly, of course.

A couple of years ago this happened:

That was enough to tell stories about for years to come.

Then a couple of days later this happened:

Making Easter 2008 better than we could have ever dreamed.

Thanks to Micah for reposting these videos as, I must confess, I almost forgot about this completely.

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!