So this new album has 5 songs never released until this album and 5 songs that had previously been released as an EP before.
Two songs, SONG FOR LOVE and RUNWAY, were the most Pop R&B sounding that I released. However, there are two other songs I've not really talked about except at concerts.
SPEAK LOVE
This song is actually a cover song that was originally released in 2010 and written by the great producer Chuck Butler (who also recomposed the song for me and recorded with me at Sony in Nashville). The lyrics seem to be obvious if you listen, but they were impacting to me because I know a lot of people use words to hurt one another or to get back at each other in arguments. Especially on the internet, I find a lot of times when people comment or post words, they can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. I think it's sad that we don't choose to find words of encouragement and try to use our ability to speak LOVE instead of hate. Martin Luther King Jr. has been quoted a lot recently with his official holiday and also the movie SELMA that came out the past month. He used words to encourage, challenge and bring light to injustice. But sometimes people use words to bring about harsh judgment, hatred, insults and things that are not from a place of LOVE. I like this song for a few reasons. It's music arrangement is pretty good to dance to and the lyrics actually are important to me to share with other teens and young adults. Our words can either be fruit or poison, we can always choose what we say. Nobody but us is in control of our words.
HEART LIKE YOU
This song is the first one I wrote that was intended to be more of a worship style and has lyrics that talk about how easy it is to get so caught up in your own life that you forget there are people around you that may be going through something equally or worse than you think you are. Having a heart which is focused on others and their well being is something we should all be focused to do. Our choices should be to care and love on others versus being self focused. The bridge of the song lyrics is my personal prayer about having a fire inside of me that takes over and oozes LOVE toward others. That's where I want to make sure I don't get so self-focused that I overlook the hurting ones around me. I like this music arrangement because it is still pop R&B but more laid back.
This album has been helpful to build my confidence and skill as an artist and song writer, but I always want to make sure that the reason why I choose to include certain songs or lyrics in my music can be something I share outside the paper sleeve in the CD case which has them printed out.
