Spending some time with Moby

So, I love NPR. You wanna know why?.... Well, I'll tell ya why. There are many many reasons, but for the sake of this post please allow me to indulge in just one. NPR has a tremendous respect for great art and does a fantastic job reporting, supporting, and educating the masses in this realm. Over the past few years I have loved listening to interviews with different artist and musicians I had never heard of before and then going to their website and listening and reading further. Great Stuff I tell you! Occasionally they will have a story about an artist that I, as well as the rest of the world probably knows about. About a month ago I stumbled upon one such article. It was titled "Exclusive First Listen: Moby, 'Wait For Me'" When I fist clicked on the story and saw Moby there with his big black framed glasses and his bald head I started to drag my little arrow back up to the tool bar to find a more interesting story. Something a little more indy and a little less 1990's. That's when some strange force seemed to reach out through the screen of my computer and poke me in the forehead. Then with a loud shout said "Hey! Chris! Give Moby a Chance." sooooo...I did, and I am very glad about it. I was very inspired by listening to his newest record and actually, it kind of sent me into a spiraling google search, which taxied me with ease back and forth between YouTube videos, Moby's website, Facebook, Wikipedia, and the whole lot. I actually know quite a lot about the guy now. I enjoyed his many videos on YouTube and enjoyed reading the several comments below the videos about how much his music was speaking to people. In the land of YouTube one is hard pressed to find so many positive comments about it's content. Moby's videos are full of people's comments about being encouraged. How great is that! Needless to say, all of this was and is very inspiring to me. I feel like the music that is in my heart is in a similar genre as this guy, and here I was so quick to judge and throw him into the pot with all the rest of the sold out pop artists who are making ba-jillions by selling crap. So, here's to Moby!

This was one of my favorites!
Not sure who created the video.

The beginnings

This clip was taken during a spring evening thunderstorm in my living room among my dearest of friends and my wife. This event has been a strong reference point in my heart for this project.

The evening began with dinner and great conversation with friends. Friends that we have shared our lives with over the past 8 years. After dinner we all sat down in the living room and welcomed in a good ole Oklahoma spring storm. We opened all the doors and windows, turned off all the lights, and lit some candles. Something inspired me to offer to play some of the music I had been writing. It was most likely my good friend Cameron who has always had a way of calling me out to pursue my giftings. Anyhow, I got my laptop, plugged a few things in to an amplifier, and played. Afterward we all sat quietly for a long time, with out feeling the need to talk or move on. We just took it all in. The dinner, the conversation, the storm, the music, the life we were all sharing.

It changed me.

The "Resound" Project

There are moments in life when lots of little things happen to come together just right. You know; a great book, followed by a great movie, followed by a sermon at church, followed by a new record, followed by amazing conversations, that all seem to have the same message. Then all those little things, like small pieces to a puzzle, start to work themselves together. Before you know it your looking at something BIG.

This is one of those seasons for me.

Now for some, the thought of recording an Album may not seem like such a BIG thing. For others it may seem larger than life. For me however, it is simply humbling. There has been this small whisper of a voice in my soul for quite some time now that has encouraged hours upon hours of writing and recording music that has rarely left my computer. It has been a hobby to me, a way to explore a gifting. Something I enjoy doing in my spare time, and by spare time I mean when I decide to stay up late into the wee hours of the morning. I never really thought anything of the music that was coming out of me...and to be honest I still don't.

Well, to be to the point, the small whispering voice has become a sort of clamoring loud voice, and instead of leading me off to my private world of creating melody and rhythm, it asking me to share this music with at least my local community if not the wider world. My faith leads me to believe this is God's voice. A voice manifest through my friends, family, and community. Over the past six months I have had a few opportunities to play some of this music for people. Some at the local church I attend and others in living rooms of friends and family. Every time, there has been an overwhelming response from those whom I have shared it with. The response has always been,

Them:"Do you have any CD's?!?"

Me: "No...."

Them:"What?? Why Not!?!"

Them: "You NEED to record this stuff! I will pay you!!"

Me: " I know, I know...okay."


So this is it. I am going to do it! I will do my best to write and record an instrumental project that reflects truth and beauty at its core. I will embark on this journey over the next several weeks and months in hope that it may cause people to pause, consider, and reflect on the truths and beauty that surround us daily. I will do this because I don't want to ask the question later in life, "what if I would have....." In turn I hope this will inspire others to pursue the whispering voice or the loud clamor inside there heart. I would love for this to be a shared process for a community of people. All are welcome! Lets journey together. Lets discover what lies beneath the surface of our hearts. If we decided to go deeper, what would happen?

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
proverbs 27:17