You know the deal. A blank white screen in front of you and your mind totally devoid of inspiration. Song writing can be the most frustrating thing in the world. There have been so many times when I've thought this is it - I'm never going to write a song a game. I'm ruined!! (We can be prone to being a little over dramatic at times.) Well I've put together my top 10 tips to help and inspire songwriters. Hope you find them helpful.
A few months ago I met a great guy called James McWalter. He's a worship leader at a local Catholic Church and is doing some really amazing things. I thought it would be interesting to pick his brains on what he's been up to and learning. Here's what I found!
I'm in the States at the moment doing a mini tour with my good friend Mike Pilavachi. We're hanging out in California leading at different churches that we have relationship with. It's been truly wonderful to see something of the beauty and diversity of God's Church.
Recently in worship I've been using a prayer from a Pentecostal preacher called S.M. Lockridge. Lot's of people have asked me about it, so below are the words to this amazing prayer (this is an edited version). Be inspired!
We're really pleased to announce that Matt Redman is confirmed to come and speak at Worship Central, on Saturday Nov 18th. Matt is a great friend with an amazing heart for worship and a deep passion to encourage worship leaders and musicians along on the journey. Make sure you book in for the day. We also have speaking Les Moir (heads up Survivor records), Graham Tomlin, Al Gordon and myself. For more info visit worshipcentral.org. It promises to be another amazing day. Hope to see you there!!
After 11 nights, over a thousand miles travelled up and down the motorways of England, numerous flights and hotel rooms; our part of the Delirious Tour is finally over. It’s been an absolute blast. Looking back the opening night at Southampton seems an age ago. It’s been quite a journey. Many lessons learned and lots of fun had by all.
I'm on tour with Delirious at the moment. Having fun.
After a nightmare journey from Nashville via Chicago I finally arrived in L.A at 1am this morning. We got a few hours sleep and then it was breakfast and into the studio to start tracking. We're working in Conway studios in West Hollywood - fantastic studio with great facilities. It's a great team here. Matt Bronlewee is producing (Michael W. Smith, Leeland, Chris Tomlin, Natalie Imbrulio). On guitars we have Lyle Workman, bass, James Gregory, keys, Patrick Warren, acoustic guitar Bruce and drums, Dave Raven. Between them these guys have played on records for people such as Sheryl Crow, Sting, Beck, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Avril Lavigne, Macy Gray etc... Pretty amazing to have them working on these songs with me.
It's been a pretty full on day. We've managed to track the vocals on four of the songs. The morning started with 'The highest and greatest.' Again we've been working through the songs in sections. So with 'The highest and the greatest,' we'd sing through verse 1 and chorus 1 for about 8 or so times. It often takes a while to get the voice warmed up and to get the right feel for the song. Eventually it started to click together. Nathan is very good at pushing me hard. No chance of slacking off!
Today I arrived in Nashville to carry on working on my new album. I'm spending tuesday and wednesday working on vocals, before flying to L.A to track the four remaining songs left to record. I'm going to try and keep up the daily blogs on how it's all going.
