Monthly Archives: January 2009

02.1: Life is What it Is

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22

Had the privilege of putting this together with Tam this week… I nearly finished the lyric on the plane ride into Oregon, then tweaked things with her this week.

You’ll see that I used a LOT of your suggestions on this one. Thank you! This process is really refining me. More on that later.

Here it is:

I used to think that I was superhuman
Could do anything if I put MY mind TO it
Then life came along and kinda had to ruin …
It all

We all have a story
and it’s all been told before

This life is what it is
This life is what it is
The ups and the downs
The hits and the misses
This is life…
Life is what it is.

Some people believe their glass is half empty
They’re others who know they’ve been given plenty
But we’re not livin… if we’re not drinkin
It all

Chorus
This life is what we make of it
This life is what we take from it
The ups and the downs
The hits and the misses
This is life… life is life
This is life & life is what it is.

Feeling

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23

Finished my studio sessions today (Yesterday – Thursday)… I found myself swimming in a sea of emotions, wave after wave until I could no longer tell which way was up. After about the 3rd hour of singing, I realized what I was experiencing.

My songs are most often based on some type of personal experience I’m facing. They are my diary. I write about life, ups and downs… Joys and sorrows. All of it. Through each song – each memory – I was reliving bits and pieces of the past three years of my life.

I was prepared for the typical stresses of studio work. Brent warned me that recording vocals can be a physically and mentally stressful experience. There are the high notes that I wanted to talk myself out of reaching… Hour after hour of standing straight, controlled breathing, don’t move don’t move don’t move – just sing. Singing is a very physical process. Doing this for hours wrapped me in fatigue. Muscles hurting that I didn’t know I had…

But I wasn’t prepared for the emotional stress. And I wasn’t prepared for how my own songs would draw those long forgotten memories right back to the surface. I didn’t realize how much raw feeling was packed into the sound, tone, and lyric of each song collected for this project. Even the upbeat and funny songs harbor a much deeper and painful message. Even these songs wrapped my soul in emotion.

I found myself resisting. Not wanting to surrender my heart and voice to the lyric and tone that I’d written months, even years, ago. But, for this project to reach it’s potential, I knew that I had to give myself to each song. Fully. Openly. Unhindered.

When it was all over with, I sat down to listen to a few takes, and I wanted to cry.

I had nothing left in me but to weep over the why’s and how’s of each of those songs.

The Wall

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18

I think I’ve hit it. I’ve been here for 4 1/2 unbelievable and jam-packed days. Getting very little sleep. Laughing a lot. And doing what I love to do…

If we’re not recording music, we’re listening to it or writing it or talking about it. ahhhhh…. This is amazing.

I’m beginning to think that I won’t be able to adequately thank Brent for what he’s doing – in producing this project for me. Lining up musicians. Setting aside all this time. Y’all have no idea.

I can’t wait for y’all to hear the shapes and textures that these songs are forming. I’ve shared most of these songs here on the blog, many written in the past year or so… You’ll recognize a lot, but you’ll hear them in ways I never could’ve put down for you.

So yeah, my days are full. My cup runs over. And I’m flat exhausted right now.

But, having the time of my life.

More to come…