Trip was awesome!!

NY was absolutely awesome. Time with my friend Matt and his wife Jaime was truly a Godsend! I took a lot of pictures of downtown Albany and surrounding areas. I will post those pictures up soon. There was plenty of beauty to behold =) Most of the time spent was relaxing, fellowhipping, and working/practicing on muisc. The experience of it all was awesome!! I mean it was enriching, empowering and spirtually gifted. Me and Matt worked on a song called "I'm a cross", and it started out with him on the piano and singing and me working on beats on my monome. Then it just kept blossoming and evolving. We did like two preproduction versions and kept recording any ideas we got. By the end of the week, we had recorded Matts little cousin, Mom, cousins friend, a local singer named Malcolm, me, Matt 10 times, Jaime and maybe other people too...that was just for vocals. We ended up with a choir like chorus, it was really powerful when all the voices were combined :) Then Matt hopped on the bass and added a slick bassline, and also did some guitar work on the track. I came up with a really up tempo beat for the chorus and got the song arranged out. I plan on doing this original version, getting all sounding awesome. And then doing a couple other versions, maybe like a breakbeat version and a dance version. The mix right now though is in shambles and needs work :(. But, I beleive it is a challenge God is giving me to show my skills and move them forward, to learn and grow. A lot of time was put into this track but its energy is strong. It is a good solid Christian song. What more could you ask for?

Last week was also more than a musically growing experience as well. It was spiritually enriching as well. I feel like a different person from the dude who boarded a plane on Friday the 14th. One of the many lessons I was taught was dilligence. Working hard all the time. No laziness allowed. Matt would get up everyday at 5:30am and blast Christian music and work out. It didn't matter who was asleep or awake. He didn't do it to be annoying, he did it because that was the best time to workout and worship before he went off to work. He put God first and it didn't matter what time it was :)Putting God first. You would think it would be easy. But it is not, because it has been our nature not too, our sinful nature. We have too much pride. So, everyday this week so far I have been waking up at 5:30am and reading the Bible and practicing my bass. When I get home from work open up my Bible and read it. The practice piano and work on music. Everyday, the dilligence. This week in NY gave me a thirst to grow with God, as I realize my music doesn't matter if it is not inspired by God. I want to be truly inspired, and close with the Lord. I am going to do my best. Thats all I can do, and depend on the Lord for the rest, as I know my best is never going to be good enough.

I met a lot of awesome people in NY as well. Matts wife Jaime is really nice and we spent the day in downtown Albany looking at all the SWEET buildings. The designs are a gothic feel and I got a lot of awesome pictures of a cathedral church. It was one of the most structurally magnifecent churches I have seen in person. Jaime is an awesome cook and good woman of the Lord. So that was a blessing to meet her. I met some wonderful people at Matts church. One of them being the pastor and he stood out from most. He had this fire of the Lord about him. Part of his sermon was about how when Jesus was sleeping in the boat while the apostles were out fishing, a storm came and it was soo bad that they were scared and Jesus was sleeping. The apostles woke up Jesus and said "...do you not care, we are going to perish...!!" Jesus got up and told the storm to calm, and it did, then he said "why are you so afraid?" The pastor then said: "Folks, I am going to tell you something...I can predict storms. Yes, I know you may laugh, but I can do what the weathermen can do. I can predict storms." " I may not know when or where the storms will be, but I can tell you that they will come!" "But with Jesus in your boat it doesn't mean storms won't come, but it does mean you will sustain and get through them." Man, so true, and I am glad Jesus is in my boat! There so many other meetings awesomness, too many to list in a short blogging. Matts family is great as well! His mom and dad are real nice and his sister and her daughter Mallory are awesome! everyone was just a blessing to meet and interact with. What a wonderful time.

So on the musical front. I am really tearing myself down and rebuilding musically. I feel like I have never been genuine. I do not really like my music to be honest, I think it is boring and non aggressive. I feel it is just not me. It has been what, 8 years of hopping from person to person, then solo, then person to person again. I have learned so much but always put God second. How I know this is because I never let God work through me musically, I am always afraid of what people will say when I make something genuine as that is when it will hurt the most. But, by doing that I put God second. God puts in my heart to make something, I must do it. So, I am trying to finish up some projects that are lingering and just practicing. I really feel I have a hunger to get good at the bass and piano/keys/synth. Concentrate on that. I am also selling a lot of gear, I want to limit myself, and then re-get gear that I need but make it high quality. I am looking to upgrade my monitors so I can get fatter mixes and be confident that my mixes will sound good, but my emphasis will be on the solidness of the song writing. I feel these things are on my heart so that is why I am doing it. I am also working on my lunch breaks and breaks with making music from my Nintendo DS. A bit of an 8bit project, and I feel it awesomely a blessing. So, moving to NY may still happen. I may never do music again. I am at the mercy of the Lord. =) He comes first.