Sunday, September 28, 2014

NEW ALBUM BACKSTORY - PART 3

Although I released it as a single earlier this year, FAVAH is one of my personal FAVAH-rites. (not funny... ok, sorry).

I co-wrote the song with one of my music mentors, Jor'Dan Armstrong. Jor'Dan's music has influenced me for a few years and being able to work with him on three of the tracks on the RUNWAY album was quite amazing. He and his production partner, Tedy P, were amazing to work with in the studio. Jor'Dan likes to sit with a track and just wait to see what God gives us for melodies and improving lyrics. I usually write out lyrics to a song and then when working with Jor'Dan, we get in the vocal booth in the studio and just see what happens. It's kind of weird at first because it really isn't singing actual words into the mic, but more like "Da da da" or "La La La" or some vocal mumbles that are similar to words but not really words.

It's the same process used by a lot of famous artists and I'd never known it until one of my producers in Nashville shared this Michael Jackson studio session for his song Billy Jean. Notice how the verses have fragments of words but mostly just gibberish in place where words would go eventually. It's the process to learn a melody or experiment with a melody. It's odd when you first do it, but since I've done it, it's how I actually work best in the studio with my songs. A lot of times I end up changing a lyric or entire sentence in the lyrics after playing with melodies like this.



I have some video footage of us doing this in the studio with Favah and Song For Love, but nothing I can share (unfortunately).

Anyway, this blog was to share a little insight into how I recorded Favah and we developed the melody and words. It's like I knew what I wanted to have initially, a song about how thankful I am to God for giving me favor and blessings all the time, but how we actually wrote the verses and chorus was something different than I'd ever done before. I ended up using the same method on Song For Love and Runway with Jor'Dan in the studio and I think it just gives a lot more authentic artistry than having a sheet music or just working out a melody on a keyboard. It's like how I get creative in writing new music and songs.

So now you know.