I read this article in Paste Magazine the other day, and found it to be really thought provoking…maybe more so for those of us who grew up in the church. I can’t say that I fully agree with his approach to art….but it’s a great discussion to start. I’d love to hear what you think about what he has to say here.

Go check out His stuff here and here.

I grew up in church. For the first 15 years of my life or more, I was singing church tunes every Sunday and Wednesday. By the time I got to high school, I had learned all the songs and was playing along on the guitar. And it’s clear to me that this intimate knowledge of church songs influenced what kind of songwriter I am. When I first started realizing this fact I was paralyzed with horror I wanted to hide all the stuff I was embarrassed by. But I just had to say to myself, “Dude, you are who you are, and you have to be cool with it and own it.” I mean, until I was 14, I was only allowed to listen to Christian music. For me, the purpose of music back then was much different than it is now. What I understood about music, from the culture I grew up in, was that its purpose was to tell people about religion, to “spread the good news.” So it was pretty utilitarian. Officially, no music existed for its own sake. It existed for the sake of proselytizing. Part of the reason why my lyrics are so literal and concrete is because of this situation in my childhood. As I was developing as a songwriter, I had a lot of conflict with this idea. Even in the early years of Pedro the Lion, I was struggling, trying to understand the purpose of music. But its also the reason why I gravitated towards bands like Fugazi or U2, who-for lack of a better term-had something to say. That appealed to me because that’s what I understood about music. Then, from there I slowly learned how to get excited about music for its own sake, and not as a tool for some other end.

I was pretty sick yesterday, so I had some time to watch the movie version of The Kite Runner. I had forgotten how much I love this story. I read the Kite Runner about two years ago, and it was absolutely one of the best books that I’ve ever read. I was in Central Asia while I was reading it, so my surroundings probably amplified what I was reading…but, regardless, it’s a great book.

The picture of redemption is so vivid in the book… And even the movie does a great job portraying that. As always, they had to cut out some things from the book to make it work for a movie. But overall it felt true to what I had read years ago.

I’m not one of those people who makes a big deal about reading the book before you see the movie version. But I really would recommend doing that for The Kite Runner. There are tensions between the father and the son that I think make the book land with such potency. The tensions are still present in the movie…but not as much as in the book….I’ll shut up here, so I don’t ruin anything.

But, a word of warning: It’s a difficult book to read and movie to watch. A lot of terrible things happened when the Taliban had control in Afghanistan, and, although the book is fictional, Khaled Hosseini paints a picture of the injustices that happened during this time.

If you’ve read the book and seen the movie I’d love to know what you think about the two.

Enjoy.

I found out what we are having…Danielle didn’t.

A few weeks ago Brent from Colossiansthreesixteen.com was kind enough to interview me for his Music Monday post. Brent is a stud blogger, and does a great job of emphasizing the arts…so its not surprising that he asked some really thoughtful questions. When you have time you should go check out his blog.

I thought I’d post the questions and answers for ya’ll to see. Hope you enjoy.

• When/how did you first begin writing your own songs?

I’m probably not like most songwriters, in that i didn’t really play guitar that much or write music until later in life….after college. Soon after college, i started helping lead musical worship for the college ministry at my church, Providence Baptist, in Raleigh, North Carolina. That’s about the time I started having a huge desire to write music. As we would learn and process things, I would find myself wanting to put these ideas into music…. that all started about five years ago. The songs off of this CD are almost all songs that we use for corporate worship in the Providence college ministry or ones that reflect what we have been learning during teaching times.

• For those who haven’t had a chance to hear your music yet, how would
  you describe it?

I write almost everything from the acoustic guitar, so I think the final shape of the songs probably reflect that… Acoustic guitar driven pop/rock, to give it a title. I had the huge privilege of working with a guy named Nathan Nockels on this CD. He’s a killer producer. Nominated for all kinds of awards. He definitely gave the whole project a much more polished sound.

• 
  What role does music play in your own life?

I think my above answer about writing music probably wasn’t completely honest about my involvement with music. I grew up in a very musical family. All of us kids took piano lessons, sang at church, etc. All of those things contributed to music being very influential in my life. It’s interesting too… i really feel like art/music has helped me express so many things inside my brain in the last few years. The title song from my cd, “adore and tremble”, is a good example of this.

“Adore and tremble” is a hymn written by Isaac Watts, that I redid. It’s like a poetic retelling of Psalm 2. Psalm 2 talks about how the wrath of God will be poured out on those who see God as inconsequential. But the beauty of the rest of the psalm is that God invites sinners to repent….to “kiss the Son” and turn away from sin, towards God in Christ. I wanted to communicate that message with the words and the music. So, in the part that talks about God’s wrath, I tried to make it very minorish sounding, with chord voicings that sounded like they were coming after you. But then I made the chorus, which is a hope-filled invitation for us to turn to God, open in to major voicings. So I guess the point is that art has allowed me the opportunity to talk about things that are pretty weighty and has given me multiple ways to express it.

• Who are some artists who have influenced you?

Man this is a hard one….so many. David Wilcox, Counting Crows, Keith Green, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, U2 definitely, Radiohead, Makoto Fujimura, Dave Eggers….there are so many others. This list might lead you to think that I have always had my finger on great art…which is far from the truth. I too went through an 8th grade C&C music factory phase…just like you did. Haha.

• How does your faith influence your music?

The majority of the things I write are for corporate worship so faith has so, so much to do with what I write. It’s an interesting thing to try and express faith in music. I feel like we succeed when we put a lot of thought and effort into phrasing things well. I think that a lot of typical Christian phrasings get old after a while. So, it’s important for me to work hard at phrasing these songs about our faith. Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I love working with old hymns….their wordsmithing is incredible.

• What is your view of “Christian” music?

I see no division between the sacred and the secular-as Christians we are to glorify Christ in all that we do. Regardless of what arena artists are working within, we’re all called to same standard of excellence and holiness.

• Are there any artists you think are getting this mix of Christian faith and music right?

Well, I think Sufjan Stevens is doing an incredible job of fusing these two together. Songs like “For The Widows In Paradise For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti” do such a great job of this. It seems like Derek Webb is really conscious of this as well. Another person who is really great is Brooke Fraser. Her CD Albertine is amazing. One other guy that I’ve always looked up to with this sort of thing is Robbie Seay. He’s writing some really great music and he’s never cliché lyrically…which I’ve always liked.

• What’s next?

I hope to keep writing music. I’d like to have the chance to do a full-length version of this CD sometime soon. Baby #2 due in June. So yeah, that’s it…come visit us in Raleigh sometime.

hello there. my name is daniel (see pic 1). i live in raleigh north carolina. i’m married to danielle (see pic 2). i’m daddy to bennett (see pic 2), and baby #2 coming in june. i grew up in cleveland, ohio. i graduated from liberty university. i work with the college ministry at providence baptist church. the first great music i remember listening to is august and everything after by counting crows….specifically sullivan street. i have two guitars a breedlove and a epiphone chet atkins. i’m a big fan of moes, but i think chipotle is slowly winning my affections. this is my favorite coffee shop in raleigh, and i like this one as well.

thanks so much for stopping by.

picture 1

picture 2

i have the incredible opportunity to study the Psalms with these guys. we’ve been working at it for about two years now. today we were in 36. it occurred to me this morning as we were working through the text that the Psalms are such a gift for our prayer life. the Psalms have concrete, propositional truths, mixed with emotional longings. praying like the Psalmist means we pray in a way that we don’t leave our emotions out…but we let them become informed by what we know to be true about God….and about us.

nothing revolutionary there…just some thoughts.

thought i’d list out a few finds that i’ve enjoyed this month.

5. mustaches- here’s why i think the mustache was created in the month of march. we all know that coming out of februhairy one needs a less drastic facial hair option than just clean shaven. the mustache provides just that. its halfway between februhairy, and clean shavenapril. it’s mustache march. here’s my own attempt at mustache march, in early february.

4. needtobreathe. this album actually came out in late august…but i just found out about these guys a few weeks ago….so for me its a march find.

i’m a huge fan of intro/editorial songs at the beginning of cd’s and the heat (their 2nd on atlantic) has a great one. these guys have such a great melodic ability….easy to hear on songs like signature of Divine (Yahweh), or restless. they have a really epic sound kind of like coldplay in that way….and Bear Rinehart voice really is amazing. the 14 songs are 9.99 on itunes…so save up and get the whole album…you won’t be disappointed.

3. Erykah Badu. yet another selection that didn’t actually release in march…but i first heard about her a few weeks ago…so she’s in. Erykah’s latest CD New
is the kind of cd that needs a couple of listens before its understood. If any of you have any thoughts on her music i’d love to hear them. again i think i’m a bit late in the game on her stuff…but have enjoyed what i’ve heard.

2. Paste magazine new layout. i’ve been a big paste fan for a number of years now, and a subscriber for 2. so i was so happy that they gave it a new look. not that the old was bad…but its like seeing your wife in a new dress…same hot wife, great new dress. great combination.

1. this is going to be the greatest let down in all top 5 history. i planned on talking about sigur ros’ new documentary/movie called heima….which the band released on youtube on march 7th. i guess i didn’t realize that they would take it down…so now you’ll have to wait for the official release of the dvd. i found this quote about the film on their site..

‘heima’ is sigur rós’s first ever film, filmed over two weeks last summer when the band undertook a series of free, unannounced concerts in iceland. they hauled 40-plus people round 15 locations to the furthest flung corners of their homeland for their debut venture into live film, to create something, well, inspirational.

the movie feels like their music….ethereal and epic. such a good way to spend 90ish minutes.

well there they are…top 5. hope you enjoyed.

This weekend danielle, bennett and i went to charlotte to spend some time with my family….when we all come home there are 9 of us – 2 toddlers and 7 adults. friday night we rented the king of kong….which is now in my top 5…seriously.

the movie is about these grown men who are obsessed with the game donkey kong – like the really old, arcade version of donkey kong. for years, i think 25 something, this guy named billy mitchell was the top score holder with a little over 800,000 points. then steve wiebe, a guy who lost his job and suddenly has all kinds of time, decides to challenge him. i know you’re thinking it sounds lame…but it really does have a great plot, and incredible character development. i even think rotten tomatoes gave it a 96%…which is pretty good. even if the subject matter doesn’t appeal to you, i promise the hairdos won’t disappoint. hope you enjoy – let me know if you like it.