full disclosure on the ‘feedback’ worship project
ok, i know i’ve joked about it before but it crystalized today and i’ve decided. seriously. i’m making a worship record this year.
8:45 PM Dec 28th, 2009
my announcement on twitter of nearly a year ago might have caught some of you off guard. even some of my closest friends were suspicious when i first told them that i had decided to make a “worship” record. but i also realize that some of you might have no idea why.
the very idea of “worship” has become a complicated one. arguably, it’s what we all do, 24 hours a day (regardless of what we’re worshipping). but in some christian circles, some of which i feel as though i move in and out of, there have been very rigid guidelines regarding what qualifies to be called “worship,” especially in art. it can typically be identified by a particular sound or look, narrow subject matter, and an uncomfortably predictable and yet mysteriously expected response of those who consume what might be called “worship product.”
so these are troubled waters to wade into as an artist. and i have happily and naturally avoided them. but near the end of my last creative season, including touring ‘stockholm syndrome,’ i decided that this might be the moment to contribute to this tangled conversation. and it wouldn’t be consistent with my creative ethic to record a collection of corporate-ready choruses for local churches to sing, nor does there seem to be a general need for that. there is plenty of modern “worship” music and are certainly many other artists who are more appropriately gifted and positioned to provide those songs. i wanted to do something that would be challenging to both me as a creator and to those who might engage with what i make. make no mistake, there is a deeply spiritual component to getting in way over your head.
so i got together with my great friend/collaborator josh moore (co-producer/creator of ‘stockholm syndrome’) and my wife/collaborator sandra mccracken, and dreamt up ‘feedback.’ it was immediately conceptual and ambitious, so much so that i genuinely wasn’t sure i could do it. but again, this seemed to be the perfect posture in which to create something worthy of being called “worshipful” as a piece of art.
these were our coordinates:
we would seek to make a worshipful, instrumental (containing no lyrics), electronic music recording, classically composed into three movements, based strictly on the structure and content of the ‘lord’s prayer’ (which has three major sections, reflected in the three movements of the composition).
and that’s what we’ve done. we studied, meditated, struggled and prayed our way through this creative process, and it’s easily the most difficult thing i’ve ever done in my creative vocation. but i believe it’s been worth it, even just for the ways it’s stretched both my creative process and my faith as a follower of the Way.
in order to engage the listener as fully as possible, i also commissioned two abstract artistic works from two great visual artists. one is 9 paintings (one for each line of the prayer, the same structure as the songs on ‘feedback’) from my friend and painter/performance artist scott erickson. the other is a series of 9 abstract photographs (again, one for each line in the ‘lord’s prayer’) from my long-time friend and acclaimed photographer jeremy cowart. and these works will all be available with the release of ‘feedback,’ and an essential part of the meditative experience.
which brings me to the release. ‘feedback’ will be available on november 2nd, exclusively at http://derekwebb.com. it will be available from itunes, etc. sometime after the first of 2011.
lastly, a story. we decided that since the central context of the ‘lord’s prayer’ is that it is corporate (our father, not my father or your father), we should take it out publicly before the end and field record the last track, which would contain the only lyrical singing on the album (a traditional ‘amen’). so yesterday (wednesday, september 29th) josh moore and i showed up to a coffee shop in houston (where we’re finishing/mastering ‘feedback’) with only a few hours warning on twitter and played the last movement of the album over the speakers for a roomful of vigilant fans, then live-recorded the ‘amen’ flash-mob style at it’s conclusion.
so now the recording is finished, and this strange creative detour is finding its way back around to the paved road. and only god knows where we’re going next.
