NOTEBOOK: Oh Love DivineThis song sat unfinished for several months. The song was inspired by reading Psalm 33, Psalm 13, and “The Sacrament of The Present Moment” by Jean-Pierre De Caussade (chapter 3, specifically). It originally had completely different verses, and the chorus was written, “Oh Divine Love.” After re-working the chorus, completely re-writing the verses, speeding it up to the current tempo, the final song came to the surface. Bush, Jimmie, and I spent many hours in the Ivey Casa studio hacking away at lyrics of verse 1 and 2. Finally, one day in the van, the final lyrics to verse 2 were finished. Wanting a sort of pulsing feel in all the verses and first chorus, we tracked a sort of 808 sounding kick drum to be used as a 1 measure loop. Tracked in a very tight isolation room using a very small kick drum, the sample was then chopped up and created the 1 measure loop that you hear in the open spots without the big live drums. Guy Roberts played drums on this song. Using a combination of DW kick, Gretsch toms, the kit was a combination of several of the best drums we could find. The piano I used to track this song was a vintage acoustic/electric hybrid upright piano at Wire. Much like a CP70, this Lesage Electric Piano has a direct output to an amp (which was then mic’d up), plus Joey Benjamin mic’d the inside of the piano to catch the actual sounds of hammers hitting strings. Hard-panned left and right, these two sounds from the piano create a very distinct personality in this song. There are quite a few textures and layers of pads, strings, and organs in all the breakdown sections of the song. Layering digital Reason samples with a real Hammond B3 created the sounds in the verses and breakdowns. Lead vocals were tracked using the U87a through the Langevin. I didn’t do much background vocal work to leave room for the gang vocals which were tracked in the Ivey Casa living room. We moved all the furniture out and set up 2 Neumen condensors + a Peluso stereo ribbon mic. 30 people from Austin showed up and sang their faces off in all the choruses. It was such a fun time with old friends and new ones! Jimmie’s guitar hook used the Dusenberg through the Divided by Thirteen head and the 65’s cabinet. Pedals used were Fat Boost, Sparkle Drive, and the POG (with a lot of upper octave added to give a sort of keyboard sound). For the rythm guitars, a Telecaster and Dusenberg was used through the same amp/cab setup. On the Telecaster, Jimmie used a 70’s fuzz pedal to give a fat rather than transparent sound. On the Dusenberg, Jimmie used a Love Pedal Cot50 for a more transparent sound of the two guitars. The verse guitars were created by using the Dusenberg through the same amp config with a Fat Boost and DD20 delay. Bush used a P Bass with a pick to get an aggressive tone that cut through the mix.
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BETWEEN THE BEAUTY & CHAOSAvailable now!
The new full-length album centers around God’s faithfulness and beauty, and the church's response to injustice, poverty, and orphans. The 10 song album reflects a heart for the Kingdom of God here and now, between the beauty and the chaos.
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