WorshipCentral

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.
We started the day working on Almighty God. The first song of the day is always the most scary. It takes a while to get in the grove - to settle into the sounds and to find the arrangement that really works. I was getting quite worried early on. Just didn't feel like people were getting it. It felt too safe and chilled. It had a sense of beauty, but lacked a sense of energy and excitement. We've started the song down - which took me some time to get used to. As a band we played the song through quite a few times. After each take, Matt would come in and offer some insights and direction. We'd look at the drum pattern and try and find something that pushed the song and added energy. Then the guitar part needed some work. It didn't feel big enough in the choruses. The riff for the song is different from how we play it live. Might take some getting used to for people - but I think it works. Anyway after a few hours we'd managed to track the song and have all the parts in place. Sounding cool.

Next up was a song called, 'Holding Nothing Back.' This is pretty straight forward rock. Again we took some time to find the right feel. The song kicks off straight away with the verse. The drums then kick in for the chorus. This song felt great. Tons of passion and heart. For these songs we're trying not to add too many parts. The danger is you end up cluttering the track. So with this once we got the right parts we ran it through a few times and recorded a few takes. Matt when he gets home will find the best version and build the rest from there. It's great all recording together in the same room - you can really play off each other and capture the songs.

No time to rest, we then moved on to a song called, 'Take my life.' This felt like it came together much more easily. There was some debate over the speed of the song. Too fast and the verse felt rushed, but too slow and the choruses dragged. We settled on 80 bpm. Some beautiful parts. Great guitar sounds, amazing keys. Really pleased with this. It feels cool.

Finally after a very long day we looked at a song called, 'Take the world.' This is more a refrain. I'm really keen for the song to contain tons of emotion. Had in mind for it to be a slow building song - lots of space; just keeps getting more and more intense. This song looks like it will be the closing song on the album. With this song it's hard to structure out the exact parts. It's more felt out. In the end we had the click in for the first half of the song and then took it out. Just meant it could be more free and organic. Sounds pretty epic. One of the my three 'E's.'

Well we're done for the day. Matt will take the tracks back to Nashville and work on them. I'm coming back to Nashville in November to finish the vocals. The album is coming to an end. There's some string sections to add to a couple of songs. A gospel choir to add to 1 song and then a few more vocals. Then we design the art work for the cover. After that we are done!