February was a crazy month!! Between keeping up with things at work, taking multiple snowboarding trips to the Pocono Mountains, my son’s basketball season ending (and soccer about to begin), and finishing off the renovation to our home office, it was extra challenging trying to complete this month’s song release! As a lot of things go, especially recording, things seem to advance by taking little steps forward and backward until you get to the end. This song was no exception.
One of the best parts of writing songs and playing music for me is collaborating with other people when creating a new song. With our band, usually I’ll bring a song to the table after I’ve already got the guitar chords and lyrics figured out. From there we’ll just sort of feel it out and let everyone experiment with what they think might sound good. I like to leave things loose and open to creativity. That way, everyone can feel comfortable to try things, which may work and may not. Sometimes this process comes together pretty quickly, other times it can take a very long time to reach the point where you really feel like you’ve found the sound and personality of each individual song. Some musicians may prefer the songwriter or leader to direct things more clearly with a full vision for what they want in a song. But my style (and personality) is to give each person more ownership of their respective part, maybe with a few suggestions as we head down the road of developing the song together. I find that this approach leads to everyone really feeling included and connected to the song. They are able to contribute a true piece of themselves into it, and the end result can reflect a full picture of the whole group.
The song for this month in particular is one that really does this for our band. It’s a simple song, consisting of basically just 2 chords for the majority of the song. I can remember the first time playing it for the band, and it seemed, almost naturally that everyone else just instinctively played their own parts of what you hear now in the recording. I will say that this definitely does not always happen! And there are plenty of other songs we are still trying to find their sound, and we may never find it!! But every once in a while, things come together almost as if the song was always there before we even played it.
When I was writing the lyrics to the song, they came from a place of reflection about being a father to our 2 kids, Adley & August (pictured above). But then as I got deeper into writing the lyrics the focus shifted to that of our Heavenly Father, celebrating the love that He has for all of us on this earth.
Musically, I love how the song trods along to Paul’s drum beat, rolls along to the rhythm of Josh’s bass, countered by the high end lead of Alex’s mandolin, all glued together by Dakota’s organ. Then with Gabby & Alex’s vocal harmonies as the icing on the cake, this song really captures the Thriving Seas sound. I really hope you enjoy – “Children of the Father”
Please click on the link to download the song, share the post and feel free to leave a comment on my blog!!
Special thanks to Najee Ravenell for helping us with the drum tuning and microphone configuration. Also a big thank you to Josh Bonanno for taking things to another level by mixing the song, and Sam Moses for mastering!
Cover photo by: Beau Ridge Photography.
