main cow pic

02.26.10

Recklessness and Discipline

Filed under: creativity,music — 8:35 pm

I have not written a song in too long.  Not a good one, anyway.

I have dozens of clips on my iphone voice recorder – various choruses, lyrics, and bridges to nowhere – but it’s been months since finishing an actual song.  This is a problem!

And so I was both thrilled and horrified to stumble upon Steven Pressfield’s latest blog called “Depth of Work”.  He unleashed a fire hose of honest, creative challenge that humbled and fired me up.  Here’s a piece of it…

Pressfield

“Jon Naber won four gold medals in swimming at the ’76 Olympics, all in world record times. I saw an interview with him right afterward. The reporter asked a very insightful question about a sport where thousandths of a second separate gold from everybody else: “What’s the difference between a good swimmer and a great one?” John Naber answered as follows: “In competition, almost immediately after you hit the water, you enter the Pain Zone. It hurts–and it gets worse every meter you go. The great swimmers,” John Naber said, “are the ones who can go deeper into the Pain Zone and stay there longer.”
That’s depth of work. In my experience, depth of work consists of two components. The first is recklessness; the second is discipline. Dionysian; Apollonian. Passion; reason.”

Read the rest of his blog HERE.

Recklessness and discipline.  Both are absolutely necessary to create anything worthwhile.  To be honest, I’m doing pretty well with the creative recklessless right now…plenty of new and crazy ideas are dancing around in my mind and journal.  But my discipline is terrible!  Non-existent!  And I don’t want to be a “dreamer who doesn’t actually produce anything” much longer.  It’s time…

02.21.10

my very own Chinese Democracy

Filed under: music — 12:29 pm

the man himself

In 1995, Axl Rose (of Guns n Roses fame) began work on a new album called “Chinese Democracy”.  It was postponed, delayed, re-tooled, re-postponed, and re-delayed until finally released in 2008 as an over-hyped disappointment.  It is my deepest goal to follow in Axl’s hallowed footsteps.

Last spring, I made plans to give away a new Remix EP with the launch of a brand new website.  In my excitement (and incredible confidence), I even blogged that it was coming in August 09.  And yet here we are in 2010…

But against all odds, it is nearly ready.  Really.  My very own Chinese Democracy is coming next month.

Part 1 is a new website.  It’s time to take this old iWeb creation out behind the barn and “put ‘er down.”  For the last couple months, I’ve been indulging my inner nerd, learning Dreamweaver and HTML, and building a brand new site.  (dec 23rd blog about it HERE).  Can it possibly be good enough to warrant the hundreds of hours I put into it?  Not a chance!!!  But I’m still really excited for you to see it.  Hopefully, it’s a big step up.  If it’s not, please lie to me.

Part 2 is a free EP.  For a limited time, I’ll be giving away a 5 song EP at the site called “With Broken Wrists:  The Alberta Remix”.  My friend Bobby Ray is a creative powerhouse, studio wizard, terrible dodgeball player, and lover of all things 80s…so when he offered to do a few remixes of “With Broken Fists”, I jumped at it.  (His dodgeball ability didn’t really factor into the decision, but I thought you should know.)  Bob mangled, re-imagined, and transformed my melodies into something incredibly vibrant and cool!  In fact, one of my good friends recently said, “No offense, Aaron, but I like the remixes much better than your CD.”  I like to think of Bobby Ray as “The Grand Rapids Dangermouse”.  Or maybe “Dangermouse with a terrible throwing arm.”

So please keep watching for updates!

02.14.10

Weekend Reflection: Connecting with the deep ache

Filed under: willow,worship — 12:37 pm

We sang a new song this weekend at Willow called “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me”. I love this old spiritual from the African-American tradition because it taps into that deep ache inside of all us. “All creation waits and groans…”

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how the Willow community would react – it is SO different from what we usually do – but they jumped right in to pray and sing from their toes. I found it incredibly moving to hear thousands of people admit our shared desperation and bellow out: “In my troubles, Lord walk with me!” If that isn’t church, I’m not sure what is.

If you’re looking for the song, the only recording I know of is from a live CD we recorded a couple years ago at Mars Hill called “Worship in Every Direction”. Troy Hatfield (worship leader at Mars) introduced this song and it quickly became a church favorite. You can check out more of what Troy and the team are up to at musicatmars.com, and feel free to listen to “I Want Jesus” below. Enjoy!

I Want Jesus to Walk With Me

I Want Jesus To Walk With Me
Traditional spiritual

I want Jesus to walk with me
I want Jesus to walk with me
All along my journey
I want Jesus to walk with me

In my trials, Lord, walk with me
In my trials, Lord, walk with me
When strength is failing
I want Jesus to walk with me

In my sorrows, Lord walk with me
In my sorrows, Lord walk with me
When my heart is aching
I want Jesus to walk with me

In my troubles, Lord walk with me
In my troubles, Lord walk with me
When my life seems a burden
I want Jesus to walk with me

02.10.10

Worship music for those who don’t always connect with worship music

Filed under: music,worship — 12:44 pm

recording organ

If I’m completely honest with you, even though I work at a church, I don’t listen to much worship music.  Some of it often seems overly-happy, overly-simple, and using the same recycled ideas/sounds/lyrics over and over.  I wish it connected with me more deeply – I need it to!

Come O Spirit

So you can imagine my excitement when my friend Blaine introduced me to an understated collection of old hymns and spirituals called “Bifrost Arts: Come O Spirit.” I can’t tell you how much I love this music.  It’s quirky, dark, haunting, beautiful, and deeply holy.  These songs connect me to the Almighty like very few others do, and I’m really thankful.

Created by artists like Leigh Nash (of Sixpence), The Welcome Wagon (with Sufjan Stevens), J Tillman (of Fleet Foxes), Denison Witmer, and many others, the music is fascinatingly diverse while remaining surprisingly unified.  It truly accomplishes their goal of…

“…discarding the trappings of the Christian-culture industry to
reintroduce the transcendence, beauty and historical gravity of western
sacred music to the places where it belongs…” (from their website)

If this sounds at all intriguing to you, please check them out HERE.

Finally, can I ask you a couple questions?

1- What music helps ground you spiritually?
2- If you’re of the christian tradition, do you connect with modern worship music?
3- What kind of music/art/experience do you wish existed to help you connect with God?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

02.08.10

great voices

Filed under: Palestine / Israel — 1:52 pm

Since returning from the middle east a week ago, my head has been spinning and heart has been nearly pounding out of my chest.  I don’t know what to make of the situation or what to do about it.  Other than sharing some stories, I’ve been very slow to come to conclusions or make declarations, and even slower to share them “out loud”.  But it’s been wildly helpful to process with the others who went on the pilgrimage…to hear how they are wrestling with what we saw and heard.  A number of them have been blogging about it, which you may find helpful.

Brian Mclaren was the organizer of the trip, and his blog became the central point of contact.  Make sure you check out his February 6th post called “Responses to my Palestine posts so far…” where he responds to some of his most critical mail.  Brian’s grace and humility in the face of vicious attack is truly inspiring, and he lays out a compelling vision for why he’s doing what he’s doing.  brianmclaren.net

A few of the other bloggers from the trip are Dave Gibbons (who I posted a fun video of below!),  Tim King, Amanda Henderson, Mike Todd, David Wilcox, Nance Pettit, and a great article by Greg Barrett here.  These are some of the most fascinating, intelligent, gifted people I’ve ever met.  I hope you enjoy learning from them as much as I have!

02.02.10

Love Can Change the World

Filed under: music,willow,worship — 2:31 pm

Banksy work on a Palestinian garage

A couple weeks ago, we sang “Love Can Change the World” for the first time at Willow.

The response was overwhelmingly great, but we received a handful of negative comments and emails…mostly about the opening line “bridges are more beautiful than bombs.”  (It’s hard for me to understand why a song about love and peace brings up so much resistance, especially with Christians. Why do you think that is?)

And now after spending the last couple weeks in the middle east, this simple song has re-embedded itself inside me. We walked through a palestinian refugee camp to meet people living in this hopeless situation. We stood at the separation wall built to bring “greater security” but actually pouring fuel on a simmering fire. We met with numerous people who have been jailed and interrogated for speaking freely. What a mess. Violence leads to more violence. The oppressed become the oppressors. And peace gets pushed farther and farther away.

However, “Love Can Change the World” didn’t begin as a song about international politics. . .it actually was born out of something more internal. How do I treat the person in my life who drives me crazy? How do I speak about the person who has spoken poorly about me? How do I act when someone/something doesn’t let me get my way? It’s one thing to work for peace overseas, but it’s another to forgive a friend who deeply hurts me. And although I’m not great at either, I want to live a life of BOTH!

Learn more about the song HERE.

02.01.10

Weekend Reflection: prayer quote

Filed under: willow,worship — 1:56 pm

Since a number of people have asked about the quote I read yesterday in church, I thought I’d post it here:

“When we pray through Christ we are praying through the body of Christ, which then includes Jesus, Communion, and the body of believers (ourselves) here on earth.  Thus, not only
God in Heaven is being petitioned and asked to act.  We are also charging ourselves, as part
of the Body of Christ, with some responsibility for answering the prayer.  If my mother is sick
and I pray that she gets better, but do not drive her to see the doctor, I have prayed as
a theist, but not as a Christian.  To pray as a Christian demands concrete involvement
in trying to bring about what is pleaded for in the prayer.”

“The Holy Longing” by Ronald Rolheiser

Fr. Rolheiser is one of my favorite authors.  I’d highly recommend both “The Holy Longing” and “Forgotten Among the Lilies” to anyone who feels the ache of being human and incomplete. . .