“One of the ironies – at least I think it’s irony because I’m still confused by Alanis Morissette – was that some of the people we told to let loose would send back exactly what we sent them, and then others we’d tell ‘we need you to sing this exact part’ and they’d send us back something totally different,” Odmark says. If you hear other things that should be in the song, put them on there, then we’ll piece through it and figure it out what’s working with other peoples’ instincts.”Įven if it meant sometimes getting the exact opposite of what was asked for. “It doesn’t speak to the idea of community to tell them ‘sing this exactly like we did on the demo.’ We wanted them to do it how they’d do it, sing it how they’d sing it. We said to them, ‘What we really want is your instinct.’ “I think a lot of artists create in a very controlled environment, where they’re taking cues from people on what they should be singing and how they should be singing it. “One of the great parts, too, was to let the artists who weren’t able to physically come into the studio with us, just let them loose where they were,” says vocalist/lyricist Dan Haseltine. “It’s out of my hands, it was from the start…”Īnother of the challenges of trusting this new method of creating was not only asking others into the The Shelter process, but also convincing them to bring their own imprint into the project. “I should really be a V.P.,” Mason laughingly concludes, to the amusement of his bandmates. “He directed the choir, as well, so not only did he get ’em in the room, he told ’em what to do,” Lowell continues. “I should really be in A&R,” interjects guitarist Stephen Mason. “Steve did a great job of rallying a bunch of independent musicians from around the Nashville area,” including Katie Herzig, Andy and Jill Gullahorn, Sarah Masen Dark, Julie Lee, Trent Dabbs and Kate York. “We wanted the songs to sound like a group of people more than ‘there’s Toby, there’s Leigh, there’s Mac,’ so we brought in a choir,” says keyboardist Charlie Lowell.
#Jars of clay mac
Songwriters they respect, like Laura Story, Thad Cockrell and Phillip LaRue, injected new lifeblood into songs that had been percolating for more than a year, and long-established, readily recognizable voices, like those of Mac Powell, Amy Grant, Brandon Heath, Leigh Nash, TobyMac and more, lent timbre and texture to this new set of Jars of Clay songs.Īnd yet, the motivation was there to make them more than just a set of Jars of Clay songs. So the call went out to the creative community Jars has long been part of, but hadn’t felt led to truly tap into previously. “It wasn’t going to work any other way, and it didn’t make sense to us to write a record about community that was just us talking to one another.” We wanted it to be an expression of what it was trying to articulate from a concept standpoint,” Odmark continues. “We wanted to make a record about community, and we wanted the recording process to be community. We brought people in on the songwriting side of things, and we knew in the beginning that we wanted as many voices as possible in the record. “This was a push in a totally different direction. “Jars of Clay, historically, has been this kind of compact creative environment we’re known for doing everything from the songwriting to the producing to the artwork,” says guitarist Matt Odmark. But for Jars of Clay, long-known as a self-contained creative organism, opening up the doors to let new voices speak into the process wasn’t the easiest decision. Neither would recruiting talented friends, both long-time and brand new, into your working environment. Writing songs about community as an aspect of shelter wouldn’t seem like a revolutionary idea.
“Cast off the robes you’re wearing, set aside the names that you’ve been given…”
It can be physical or spiritual, close-in or far-flung, untested or time-honored.įor the men that make up the creative force called Jars of Clay, this season has tested their perceptions, challenged their beliefs, underscored their experiences and opened up the possibilities for new definitions of this necessary component.Īnd now it’s time to share their vision of The Shelter. CBN.com “Ar scath a cheile a mhaireas na daoine.”Īn old Irish proverb, as translated: “It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.”Īnd like the other simple building blocks of life – air, food, water – it can take on many forms.
0 kommentar(er)
