Churning 'em Out

It's getting more and more difficult to come up with things to write about on a weekly basis. Forget daily -- I don't have enough hours in the day, it seems to take care of the items on my lists, and there always seems to be something else to take the place of a recently vacated list spot. However, something potentially exciting happened this week.

I started writing a rock opera several years ago. I got about as far as the 13th song when I hit a writing wall. I know how I want the rest of the story to go, and I've got the ending all fleshed out . . . it just turns out writing the storyline in song form is more difficult than one would think. "Tommy" wasn't written in the same day Rome was built, you know.

Anyway, the last song I wrote for it is one that I've actually considered submitting to the American Idol songwriting contest, and the only thing that's kept me from doing so is the fact that they tend to look down on up-tempo rockers and are still operating under the delusion that the listening public prefers watered down ballads with black holes for souls. Topically, it would have worked because it talks about taking the initiative you've kept yourself from in order to achieve what you've always wanted. And last week, I thought that the song might be a great one for our church's Southeast Campus band to play at some point in our current series (titled "So Now You're Dead . . . What's Next?").

So I contacted Thom, our band leader, and told him about the song. He told me to email him the lyrics, which I did, and he got back with me and told me he liked it and to get it going so that we could see whether the rest of the band would be able to catch onto it. So I took some time the other day and finished writing the chords and the melody, and I REALLY like the way it turned out. I'm getting together with our guitarist at some point next week to hammer out the details and transitions, and to finalize the format of the song, also to see if he can come up with a good solo for it.


The last night I spent a couple hours working on an idea for a song that I'd written down a few months ago, which, strangely enough, could also be used for this current series at church. And oddly enough, the melody and chord structure is pretty much intact in my head, which isn't what typically happens when I sit down to hammer out song lyrics. This one is really, really wordy, but I have a feeling it'll work out well, even in a corporate worship setting. The sound that I'm hearing in my head reminds me of a mixture of Chris Tomlin, Green Day, and . . . well, the other part is something I can't really compare to anything else. I guess that's ultimately what I'm looking for, isn't it? [Chorus of Angels: Yes. Yes it is.]

While this hardly constitutes a writing resurgence, I do feel as though my focus is coming back around to the things God has asked me to set aside for a time. I keep looking more and more to Him, and He keeps piling it on me. The good stuff, I mean. I'm working more, becoming more busy at both jobs, yet I feel his joy carrying me through everything.

If that's not reason enough to mark the date with a document such as this, I don't know what is.


(Oh yeah. If American Idol is still doing the songwriting contest, I'm freaking entering the first one I was talking about. Screw convention.)


There Is No Box.
Zach

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