Knee Deep In Basic Tracks….

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written about our studio project, (which is a hymns compilation of several Mars Hill bands) largely because I’ve been really busy working on it. We are now knee-deep in production, and we’ve finished 4 of the 5 bands’ basic tracks. Pastor Tim’s new band will be going in to do their basic tracks at the end of the month.

We are seeking to capture Mars Hill Church’s missional perspective on corporate worship in a way that shows our diversity and inspires other churches and musicians not only to worship Jesus, but to do so in a way that is in tune with their local culture Christian or not.

I’m really excited about the way things are turning out we’ve been able to hone in the already great existing arrangements, which has been great for Brian and I (the producers) as well as a nice time for the bands to be able to step back and get new perspective on songs that many of them have been playing for a long time.

This is something that we as bands at Mars Hill wrestle with and as music director, I am trying to address (forgive the bad analogy) the need to keep the “wheels turning’, but never getting a chance to really work on the engine. We’ve grown at a very fast pace and have just barely been able to create enough new bands for new campuses as they crop up, so stopping to re-group or record has rarely been a luxury we’ve had. Though Projects like this one are a nice “break’, we’ve opted to do this one while keeping most of the bands in current Sunday rotation because of necessity. While this has been difficult and a lot of work, I feel it has gone well so far and we haven’t burned out any of our volunteers.

For the next blog, I’ll geek out a little on some tech-y stuff and discuss how we got good sounds in the studio…