Bennett loves Photo Booth.

Daddy loves having the day off with his girls.

Happy Thursday.

Our producer for OTI, Jeremy Larson has some pretty awesome stuff happening right now that I thought I would tell you about.

1-He produced our album…which is quite possibly one of his crowning achievements….hahah…just kidding.

2-He played most of the string parts for Mute Math’s latest record Armistice

3-He played some of the string parts for Sleeping at last’s latest record.  He will also be opening for SAL CD release show in Chicago.  Go see them if you’re in the area.

4-He has made two records that you should all own.  Side note: whenever anyone asks me what kind of music Jeremy makes I always say that Jeremy’s music is the stuff that comes on in Gray’s Anatomy when the guy is going to kiss the girl.  Very viby stuff…makes you want to drink coffee, or go kiss someone.  Preferably your wife if you’re married.  

5-His girlfriend Elsie makes some killer guacamole, and has a great blog that you should all read.

I’m sure there are other cool things happening in the life of Jeremy Larson right now…these are the things I’m aware of.  So glad our paths crossed with this guy. He is so, so talented.  And now such a good friend.

Hope you all have a fantastic Thursday.

daniel

Bennett and I got to hang out with Mrs. Wolf at a baseball game the other day.  She absolutely loved it (read: she was scared out of her mind, and wanted to get out as soon as possible) and wishes we could do it again.

Thanks Bec for the pic.

The summer is coming to a close…at least for me.  We go on our leadership retreat for the college ministry later this week, and once we get back from that it’s just days until all the fall activities kick back up.  So I thought I would talk about the books that I’ve read/am reading this summer…. and there haven’t been as many as I hoped there would be.    I’m a really slow reader and I have two young kids, making reading time hard to come by. So I’m constantly remembering a quote by John Piper, “Books don’t change people; sentences do.  That’s all we remember.”  I love that quote cause it reminds me that book reading is not about saying you finished the book…but about actually being impacted by the book.  When I am reading, there’s a big temptation just to get through a book, so that I can tell people I’ve read it and claim to have some new insight.  But, I’m trying to slow myself down and remember that the sentences will be what changes me not the chance to say that I read this or that book.

Anyways, sorry for my ramblings….

Here are a few books that I’ve loved this summer.

1. Proclamation and Praise. by Ron Man

 I can’t think of another book that has been as useful to me in leading worship as this book has been.  Ron Man does an excellent job of explaining the present work of Christ in our corporate worship gatherings.  I think a group of us are going to read this book again this fall in a study group.  

2. The Wages of Spin. by Carl Trueman

This is a book that my buddy Nick Roark recommended to me.  And I now love this writer.  He is hilarious, and also has a great ability to address the issues of the modern church through the lens of Historical Christianity….a difficult thing to do I think.  He’s also the author of the article, “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?”… which can be found in this book.  Great article. So glad that I got this book.  

The Big Picture Story Bible.  by David Helm and Gail Schoonmaker

This is the book I’ve spent the most time reading this summer… with my 2-year-old, that is.  If you’re a parent, this book is a must-have.  It ties the Bible stories together under the themes of God’s kingship and promised Messiah.  A great overview of the Bible… even for adults, actually.  Plus, the illustrations are pretty cool.

There have been a few others…but i’ll have to blog about them later.

Happy Monday.

Since we’ve been back from Missouri I haven’t had the chance to write
about our time out there.  So here’s my end of recording thoughts.

The making of the CD was so much fun, but also so inspiring…and it was mostly because I got to record this project with these guys.  They are all AMAZING musicians.  James, I’m convinced, is going to be producing records for a living very soon.  He’s such a natural.  He has this amazing ability to know where holes in the songs are…and then he knows how to fill it.  Really, really gifted dude.  I’m so thankful he was with us.  Mike is one of the most solid musicians I know.  He honestly did everything in one take -with drums, guitar, random shaky things.  He’s also a great engineer in the studio…he knows how to get great sounding takes.  Pat has this crazy talent for figuring out how to make really special moments in songs.  I know that sound cheesy…but it’s so true.  He really does understand what will and won’t connect in the song.  And he also does amazing face-melting guitar solos. 

On the Incarnation was produced by Jeremy Larson.  I have had an unhealthy man crush on Jeremy’s music for a long time.  He has an EP called Swim and then a self titled CD that I think you should all go buy right now.  So when he  agreed to produce our album I was so geeked out.  After working with him on this project I can tell you that he really is such an amazingly talented musician.  But really the two things that stood out to me the most about Jeremy were his work ethic, and how kind he was.  Jeremy put in 12 and 13 hour days while we were there.  12 and 13 hour days.  That’s crazy.  He was one of the most kind people I’ve ever been around.  Jeremy went out of his way to make us feel welcomed….which I think is one of the reasons it was so easy for us to jump right in and start working so well on this record from the first day we were out there.

I really loved every secondof this process…the rides out and back, recoding, staying up ’til 4 or 5 every night (uhh… morning, technically), drinking our weight in coffee…daily. It was such a memorable trip.  And I can’t wait for all of you to hear these songs.  Soon.  Very soon.

James put this awesome picture together on his blog…it was too cool not to steal.  Both James and Mike have written some great posts about the trip.  

I’ll try to have my own wrap-up blog post very soon.  We kind-of hit the ground running when we got back, so I haven’t had much time to write.  Hopefully soon.

We are all thrilled with how this project came together.  Can’t wait for you all to hear it….just a few months away.

This is the best video yet…enjoy.

So we got a little behind on our posting of the videos…sorry.

Hope you enjoy day 3 and 4.

Also, go check out James and Mike and Patrick’s blogs…they’ve been posting about recording.