Continuing with the 'Story Behind the Song' series…
I recently released a live video for my song REND THE HEAVENS *check it out!*
Rend the Heavens was the first song written for this record, so the musical style was very experimental. I had a lot of writers block after finishing my first record simply because I wasn't quite sure what kind of an artist I was yet. But once I realized that artists are always growing and evolving my mind was opened to try new things and to stretch myself and push my own lyrical and melodic boundaries.
The first writing venture of a new batch of song-children is always exciting, a little scary, and certainly unknown.
My writing has always been and will always simply be just what comes out of my heart and what's going on in my life, so I decided to start at the beginning and write about my personal longing to have more of Jesus, and my desire for this generation to be changed.
Further inspiration struck after reading Isaiah 64:1.
"Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence."
REND : to tear violently.
The mental picture of God 'rending the heavens' was just too much to pass up.
A lot of the heart behind this song is recognizing that we can't draw close to God. We can desire to, but God draws close to us/draws us close to Him. So I wanted to convey that in the verses. Its describing the desperate longing for God to reveal His glory to me. And the chorus is a request for God to violently shake us awake and to change us. And the bridge is the real key here..
I believe God speaks to us through His word, therefore If we have the desire to be changed we should go to the word, for it contains His very breath, and let Him come in and make the necessary changes.
On the production side of the story… here are a couple fun facts.
My favorite thing on this recording is that we got really creative with different percussion things and thought way outside of the box. We had lots of fun. :) We used lots of metal objects and weird things like that. It was so fun to experiment with the production just like I experimented with the writing.
Rend the Heavens was also the first song we recorded! So this is the eldest child, if you will.
Thank you so so much for watching these videos and reading these blogs and buying my music. Your support means the world to me! More story behind the song blogs coming soon!
