Lumberjacks and Frozen Yogurt

We pulled up to LifeWay's headquarters a week ago, excited for the Girls Ministry Forum. It was a great event!

While staying at a hotel nearby, we noticed many trailers and large vans parked outside. Most of them said "log homes", "taxidermy", and similar things (but, those things aren't similar). Then I was asked the first morning if I was kept awake by noise coming from the Lumberjack convention. Thinking this was a joke, at first, but it ended up being totally true. The road is never a boring place...

We had a great time tracking in Franklin this week. Recording is not the easiest thing in the world (for me, at least). It stretches me, shows me my weaknesses but encourages me at the same time. I see how I've grown since the last recording. I am seeing these songs take shape, and it's like building a house. Each step is important, and the process requires a lot of patience!

Something I realized is that it's very common here for every other house to have a studio in their basement. It's like every other house having a pool in Texas.

This is our last night in Franklin. We're staying at the house of wonderful friends we knew in Colorado. Their dog "Snuggles" has become my favorite, but I must say goodbye in the morning.

Franklin is also home to "pinkberry", my new favorite frozen yogurt in the world. And since they are opening a location in the Springs, I can enjoy it on a regular basis. That makes me happy.

Now I'm off to prepare my bass

guitar for TSA and pack to head back to high altitude and freezing temperatures. Home sweet home.

-Becca

Hello Nashville!

It's Sunday afternoon. The birds are chirping outside, preparing us for a new day of tracking! The CD is underway, and it's going to be a fun process this week as we focus on guitars, bass and drums. Chad and Elissa are nailing the guitars, and I will handle the bottom end.

Right now we're at Kent Hooper's house doing guitars. He is also mixing the project, but not yet...first thing's first! We got to pull the song together and add instruments, vocals, and probably other things as creativity sparks.

Yesterday we finished a conference called the Girls Ministry Forum at LifeWay. Downtown Nashville is a great place, but we mainly saw a few square blocks of it walking to and from our hotel to the venue. I learned so much this weekend, it almost felt as if I was attending and not leading worship. But the times of gathering for worship together were incredible. God's presence was real and tangible.

We met so many girls and adult women who had a great calling for ministry, simply normal people serving and volunteering at their church. They were all about giving - not getting. Serving is only through giving. I learned that in a fresh way from these women.

I'm so glad God gives us opportunities to grow even as we lead worship and "give" out. I enjoyed going to church with the Hicks family and just absorbing this morning. Now for some music...

Becca

A Day at the Studio

Check out some photos from our rehearsals and recording sessions at Matthew "Fallenti" Fallentine's studio! We cranked out bass and drum tracks to 3 songs, managed to have lunch at Chilis and took breaks watching funny YouTube videos (which somehow make us better musicians).

The bass cabinet was put in the bathroom, the secret to a great sounding amp. I think the tones we got were as smooth as Garnier hair products. -B

Update on the Songwriting Process

Well folks, the songs have come together. This week we start rehearsals, tracking throughout the months of February and March, and I'm excited just thinking about it. Here are some snapshots that Chad took while we co-wrote with Don (producer) at the Tipps' house here in Colorado Springs!

Do you think there are enough Apple products in this room?

Don rockin' the piano...lets face it, he plays better than me.

Thinking deeply (I look mad, but I'm really not!)

Stay tuned! :) - Becca

Monday Morning Songs

How does a song come about? Every song has a different way of arriving. The most important thing is that a song begins with inspiration and that we let the inspiration ride as far as it can go.

Today, Becca came over to my house with the purpose of polishing up a couple songs for the new album. It was majorly cold outside. Everyone says we are expecting a blizzard, but so far just a few flakes of snow have shown up. This is good songwriting weather.

We gathered in my little home office. Okay, not much inspiration here besides the Compassion International calendar I have hanging and my iTunes folder. I have demos of all the songs in progress and we listened through a couple times. Becca suggested we write a bridge for this song which is currently called “In You Alone”. With the theme of the song in mind, the bridge needed to communicate something that the rest of the song wasn’t already saying... Something that maybe we haven’t said yet in any of the other songs for this upcoming album... Or even the album before! Here is where a lot of songwriters hit a wall. It has to be something new! Well, thankfully, something new came. It was new for me. I can’t tell you what it was exactly in this blog, but I wanted to sing it over and over again. This is a good sign.

Becca was jamming on the guitar, changing the chords around a few times. I was interjecting thoughts. How about... No, what about... Thankfully, we are the kind of sisters who can handle each other interrupting and tossing thoughts right and left. This is a creative process we have down! I sang the melody and Becca brought a sweet harmony that engaged the lyrics.

What fun we are having! Becca and I haven’t always written together. I used to be a solo songwriter, but now I’m much happier writing with someone so I can bounce ideas back and forth.

More songwriting will happen on Wednesday or Thursday I imagine. That is, if we don’t get that blizzard everyone is talking about.

-Elissa

(the pic above is from our time with our Producer, Don K., songwriting for the new album a few weeks ago!)

Off to the races!

Our new CD project is underway. We just spent 3 days co-writing with one of our producers Don Koch. He's a great writer and producer, and we're excited to work with him again. It's going to be a great journey. I'm eager to see how these songs take shape and sound through speakers. I feel so ready to have a new album out this year.

Songs and albums have a way of representing where an artist is at their present season. If we're going to remain true to artistry, we have to reflect the current place we're at. We sense God is leading us in a direction into more worshipful songs. Yet we aren't preparing to make a normal worship record. It's not going to look just like a CCM record, either. We've always had our feet in both worlds, so to speak. Maybe that's just where God has placed our feet. I find such peace in letting God plant us where He wants us.

We are also "indie" artists. Many definitions are made for the word "indie", but I see so many different types of independent artists. Some are part-time, and some make a living out of it. We happen to love being independent right now, and have experienced the label side of things before. There have been many seasons since we started this 11 years ago...

Whatever the case is for indie artists, people shouldn't validate their artistry based on record sales or numbers attending a concert. Some artists are never meant to fill stadiums. I much prefer some to sing for me in a small venue where I can chat with them afterwards, wouldn't you agree? There is great purpose to that.

If you're an indie artist, keep up the good work and don't give up. If you're doing what you love, and see the positive effects of it, don't let petty things like MySpace friends numbers discourage you. Keep making great music and try your best to perform it everywhere possible...

Becca

Download Compassion Compilation FREE!

We proudly support the work Compassion International is doing around the world. They are releasing children from poverty in Jesus' Name! Check out the latest Compilation they've released featuring one of our songs, "My Heart is Alive"...

This month only, get a free download of our song and 17 others from fellow Compassion artists. Go to the link and sign up for NRT membership, then download! By doing this, you're supporting Compassion's ministry! New Release Tuesday will donate $0.25 to Compassion every time someone downloads this album.

Here is the link. Please pass on the link to all your friends!

http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/freemusic_compassion.php