The Christian Music Blog Podcast: Christian Music | Songwriting | Worship | Creative Productivity | Music Business

In the 12th edition of the CMB Podcast, I speak with worship pastor and songwriter, Daniel Renstrom. His latest album, Jesus Wants My Heart, is designed to serve families in their worship together. I was really challenged in this area as I heard Daniel's story behind the record. As a songwriter myself, I can forget that the audience (if I can call them that) in front of me each day is my family. They're watching me. They're watching my example. I model something each day whether I'm realizing it or not. So... Write a song for your spouse. Write a song for your kids. I'm not saying it has to be about them necessarily, though that would be good too.  I'm saying you and I should be thinking of them when we're writing the song. Write it for them... Need some inspiration? Get Daniel's album at iTunes here. The Local Church At the end of the episode, I mention Mark Dever's book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. If you listened to session 9 of the podcast, you'll remember this guy's name. Us musical types have a lot we can learn from the non-musical types. (Mark is actually musical though... just as an aside). You just probably wouldn't call him an "artist". He's a teaching and preaching pastor who has a heart for serving and resourcing the local church. Why are guys like this crucial to learn from? Your mission as a musical person of faith is inseparable from the mission of the local church. Don't think you can separate the two. I understand that this can be subject with a lot of potential land mines, but here's the big idea: Us right brain people need to be plugged into the life a community that loves God's word. Don't miss this. Get the book here. Alright... Enough paragraphs. Here are some bullet points of the things mentioned in the podcast, along with links for further information... Liberty University (you can study online here) Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Dr. Leiderbach (awesome) Providence Church in Raleigh Nathan Nockels (producer) Project based songwriting Evernote Songwriting Method (download the document at freemusicgift.com) Col 3:16 - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly Lady Antebellum Transition to 1st Baptist Church Durham Segregation of musicians in the church is more harmful than helpful Don't be a recluse... Your gifts are primarily for others - not yourself. A Gospel Primer - grow in your daily understanding of the gospel. So good... Family worship and Deut 6:4-9 Get songs in your kids hearts and minds... Daniel's albums and other links: Adore and Tremble On The Incarnation Jesus Wants My Heart (Daniel's latest release) http://danielrenstrom.com Twitter - @danielrenstrom Other CMB Links Facebook group Twitter - @cmbpodcast Please rate and leave a review to the podcast at iTunes here.  

Dale Baker, former drummer of Sixpence None The Richer, has quite the resume as a drummer. He's played with the following people (just to name a few): Emmylou Harris Michael W. Smith Buddy Miller But that's not what makes him so cool. He's a humble, accessibly guy, that loves people and loves making great music. No matter who you are, he'll look you in the eye and value you as a human being. So many celebrity musicians forget that they're human. But not Dale. He loves God, loves his family, and, even though he's done some pretty awesome things, he's just a regular, down-to-earth dude. In this session of the CMB Podcast, Dale and I sat down at my place and talked about his upbringing in the church, his journey with Sixpence None The Richer, how he stays focused in his walk with Christ, and some sound advice to musicians who are thinking of going full time. Dale's Info: http://dalebakerdrummer.com http://durhamdrumlessons.com Dale on Twitter Dale on Facebook Links mentioned: City on a Hill (book) City on a Hill (records) Matt Bronleewe (music producer) Steve Hindalong (music producer) University of North Texas (where Dale studied drums) Nicole Witt (Nashville songwriter Dale mentioned) Steve Taylor Squint Entertainment Christa Wells (North Carolina singer/songwriter) Christa Wells' song performed by Natalie Grant (song Dale heard on K-Love Radio) Stephen Claybrook (North Carolina singer/songwriter) Nashville Songwriters Association:  http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/ Berklee Music Online Walter Cizek:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Ciszek:  The first book Dale read of his was his second one: He Leadeth Me. The Sacredness of the Present Moment can be found on Amazon -though the one I read I got through inter-library loan and didn't have a commentary attached to it:    

Discovering new music that is fresh and innovative is a great way to be inspired in your own music making. I know that whenever I'm listening to something great, it helps me think of new ways to write and make music of my own. In this session of the CMB Podcast, I speak with Stephen Bradley, founder and editor of The GCM Blog. His site is dedicated to exposing great artists who are people of faith. As an artist myself, I have found that it is crucially important to understand what makes music fans tick. Why do certain artists get so much of a buzz around them? What makes their YouTube video go more "viral" then the next guy? I decided to reach out to Stephen and talk with him about his perspective as a music fan who listens to a lot of different music. If you're an artist, you must understand what keeps your listeners, fans, people in your church - whoever they are - engaged in your music. And not only that, but also eager to share it with their friends... Stephen is the kind of music fan that knows what people like and want to hear more of. And his blog proves it... What's so cool is that his blog name is similar to ours: thegoodchristianmusicblog.com Rather than being all weird and competitive (like some bloggers in Christendom unfortunately are...) I decided to promote the site instead. In fact, we're going to be partnering together on several things as time goes by, and have him swing by the site and the podcast regularly... ...We have much to learn from him. In our conversation we talked about the following things: The story and mission behind GCM Being challenged by music you might not normally listen to Stories of artists being discovered through GCM Making unique music that is your own What Stephen is currently listening to Submitting your music for the GCM YouTube channel Important artists and links to check out: Kings Koleidescope Lecrae Shai Linne Strahan Steph Macleod Jeff Schneeweis Propaganda Humble Beast (record label) Beautiful Eulogy Citizens Mars Hill Music (also see CMB 007 with Joe Day) Want to submit your music to be reviewed or highlighted? http://thegoodchristianmusicblog.com/submissions/ GCM Links: Twitter- @theGCMblog Twitter- @pray4sbradley (Stephen's personal twitter) YouTube Facebook  

In this session of the CMB Podcast, I speak with pastor and songwriter Matt Boswell. Along with leading worship and writing songs for his own church, Matt is also an author and published songwriter with Lifeway. You can purchase his new book, Doxology and Theology: How the Gospel Forms the Worship Leader, at Amazon here. The book, speaking from what has recently been coined as the "gospel-centered" movement, is an important voice for worship leaders and musicians across the globe. Here's just a short excerpt from the introduction of the book that gets to the heart of what it's all about: This is a critical time in the life of the church. The church is in desperate need of worship that is biblical, theological, and pastoral. May God use this book to equip you as you seek to understand doxology, theology, and the role of the worship leader. In our conversation we touched on the following things: Matt's personal story of coming to faith in Christ His early musical influences in songwriting The vision behind the new book The first Gospel Coalition worship album Should worship leaders go to seminary? Leading your family in worship Things encouraging and things concerning about the "Worship Music Industry" Music and the mission of God Does the world really need your new worship song? Music making in its proper place under God's word Web Links: http://doxologyandtheology.com/ The Conference Songs For The Book of Luke (Gospel Coalition album) http://thegospelcoalition.org/ Matt Boswell on iTunes Twitter Links: @doxandtheo @mattboswell Wanna win a free copy? E-mail me (nate@christianmusicblog.com) before May 31st with "Doxology and Theology Book" in the subject line, and I'll enter you in the drawing!

Why does this podcast exist? Why should we have a conversation about music making through the eyes of faith? In the 8th session of the CMB Podcast I go into what I call the 3 Pillars of CMB. But first... Soundcloud Some of you are on soundcloud. What a great tool! If you are writing songs and recording music, Soundcloud is a fantastic way to get the feedback of others, have people share your music, and meet other people… It's social technology meets music making… I love how you can comment right in the wave form. What a cool way to interact with people's music and sounds… So CMB is there… ...and I record what I call Soundcloud exclusives; short little snippets of me talking with you raw and unedited. And, from time to time, I may even post a little song idea I'm working on to get your thoughts on it… So if you're not on Soundcloud… just sign up for a free account and you can find us at... soundcloud.com/cmb-podcast An Update on The Site The website is scheduled to launch mid June, and currently, we are on schedule… Lord willing things will continue to run smoothly behind the scenes, while we get the design finished and all the web development things that go with that. In fact, this last weekend I was with Robert Poveloness, the web developer who I've been working with… and I was getting so excited about getting this site up and going for you guys….. really excited. I can't wait to have this up and have a home for all that we're talking about. It will be a place for you to interact with the things I'm saying and a place to interact with each other… Did I mention I was excited? (In fact I say the word stoked like 50 times in the episode...) Let me share with you now a few things that you can expect from christianmusicblog.com… (1) The podcast Lord willing it will keep going, and you can listen to a new episode every Friday. By God's grace, there will be a season of weekly podcast episodes. And along those lines let me just say how stoked I am about some of the future episodes that are coming… I have some more great interviews and conversations coming soon on the podcast. But more on that later…. back to the upcoming site. (2) Your music I'm going to promote you, the subscriber, right here at the site… Already I have been talking with some of you about sharing what God is doing in your context on the new blog. So, in articles, videos, interviews, and more, I'll be promoting you the person of faith who makes music. This gets me going just thinking about this. Selflessly promoting others is huge to me... But... I will have some kind of process of selection…. but I will be as open as I am able. There is a tension between promoting as many people as possible and protecting the value of CMB's content which is honestly for your sake… I can't just endorse everything. I want to earn the trust of my subscribers and listeners, but I want to promote as many music makers as I am able. (3) Resources Over time, as content is being created, there will be an archive of resources for you. An example would be ESM. That is a resource… It's meant to equip you to grow in your music making. I have some other ideas that I'm currently working on…. I'll give you a sneak peak of this one; coming in the future: A manifesto I'm calling: How I Write A Bad Song - which is really designed to show songwriters what not to do… more on that later... (4) Music Reviews You can expect me to write reviews on current music that is being released… I've actually reviewed a few albums before and I really enjoyed it. I'd like to share with you my thoughts on various albums that are being released… This includes secular music as well as CCM and worship music… but I'd like to comment on music that is being made today. The good, the bad, and the ugly... All of course my opinion! This leads me to the 5th and final point on this list, as far as things you can expect…. (5) You Contribute

In this episode, I spoke with worship pastor from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Joe Day. Joe is a family man, a songwriter, and he oversees the worship ministries at two of Mars Hill's campuses. He has a lot on his plate, so I was grateful for the time to sit down with him. As I mentioned in the session, I have a few more notes than normal for this particular episode. We talked about a lot! I bolded the primary things that jumped out to me. Clarity Over Creativity I think this is so important. It certainly applies to you if you're serving as a worship leader in a collective, congregational context. If you're writing songs for Church gatherings this is huge... What's the point of the gathering? What's the big idea? Is it Jesus? The point is this: ...Make it obvious. Here's my best shot at highlighting a few of the things that were said: Joe's songwriting story in the Seattle music scene: His old Gibson LGO and considering the lyrics Joshua Tree experience Played drums in bands first Had no intention of being a pastor Bands as a ministry, but not a part of a local church….. freedom?? Nope. The need for pastoral oversight Visited a church and kept going The band almost signed a contract, but he felt called to the local church 1998, the first Acts 29 church plant Songwriting as a pastor…. Does it change?? Every song is a worship song? Worship songs according to Mars Hill: Crist centered, congregational, and musically accesible Their desire is for people to meet Jesus…. Their music serves that desire The distinction between congregational (or "church worship") vs. non-congregational Clarity over creativity Paul in 1 Cor giving up his freedom for the sake of others Don't think less of creativity, but rather, employ it to clearly communicate Jesus.... So…. lyrics that are clearly Christ centered… Not leaving things hanging in the air, but seeing things resolved… in Christ Gospel being the center and not leaving much to abstraction…. Avoiding buzz phrases that sound good but don't say much The flip side of this is thinking of the people who are unchurched Wanting people to know Jesus…. experiencing his love and grace Art for only art's sake is dangerous…. (but art should be highly valued…) Is Jesus higher than everything else? Band in the club (non "worship music"): What are you trying to accomplish? What are your convictions? Leading worship in the church teaches you how to arrange music that helps people respond, which helps you when you're playing music "out there" At the same time…. have a space for experimentation His album Grace Currently, pastoral ministry is taking up time and giving him a full plate Joe's songwriting process (and EVERNOTE) Pennies in the Bank… (ESM!!!!!!) Writing lots of verses… then picking the best!! WRITE A LOT… don't stop at just your first three four verses His co-writing experiences - Death to Life (Tooth and Nail… Nate Garvey) Writing in solitude vs co-writing Mars Hill Music Encouragement in the Great Commission (make disciples, plant churches) Jesus is with us!!! He should be the vision Work backward from there….. Location > Tulsa? > How do people in the city respond to music… what are they responding to? There's nothing sacred about a "worship team" Elevate the vision, and people will sacrifice their time and comfort If people are energized with what you're doing then, burn out is the last thing on their mind…. All the forms that we employ are tweak-able!! Nothing about the forms are sacred... Joe's Links http://joedaymusic.com Twitter - @joeday  2013 Mars Hill Music Tooth and Nail and Mars Hill Music is getting the music and message out... Here are some of the bands: -Citizens -Ghost Ship -Dustin Kensrue -Kings Kaleidoscope And make sure to visit the music site here - http://marshill.com/music Twitter - @marshillmusic Other Things Mentioned

In the 6th session of the CMB Podcast, I speak with worship leader and songwriter, Matt McCoy. Matt has released 4 albums, and is currently working on his 5th. His latest release "Shine" is available at iTunes here. For more info on Matt's music visit his website link below. Here are some of the things we talked about: his story growing up in the Vineyard Church movement looking for churches instead of schools… should young guys should make their local church their worship school? the story of loop community [dot] com Ableton Live in songwriting how Matt keeps writers block away how reading your Bible daily, and writing songs are similar take the pressure off and just let life happen (and write more songs) stop trying to write songs that are fresh and new and start writing songs that are honest co-writing with Vertical Church Band at Harvest Bible Chapel two minds are better than one instant feedback vs being alone in your bedroom "Shine" album and Campus Crusade the story behind the song "Only You" Links to check out http://mattmccoymusic.com Follow Matt's musical journey, follow him on Twitter and Facebook, and get his latest live recording, Shine, at iTunes. http://loopcommunity.com Worship leaders! If you're itching to jump into a new adventure of music creation awesomeness... then learn about Abelton Live (more below), and dive headfirst into the community over at Matt's site loopcommunity.com for loops and resources on augmenting your band's sound. http://verticalchurchband.com The blog for the broader worship ministry of Harvest Bible Chapel, with other artists such as Meredith Andrews and Andy Rozier. Ableton Live So what is Ableton Live anyway? Here's the best description I can think of: It is software for music creation, both studio recording and live performance. It's like a studio is its own instrument for musicians. I personally LOVE IT. Click here for the Ableton site. Final Thoughts In the beginning of the show I mentioned James 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”   May all of our planning, writing, recording, jamming, podcasting, and whatever else you can add, be submitted to the Lord. If all of this is done in our strength, than we've really missed the boat... Let's learn to "play the background" and joyfully point to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And, Lord willing, we will go do this or that... :-)  

In this episode of the CMB Podcast, I speak with worship leader and songwriter, Noel Richards. Noel and his wife Trish have been writing songs for over 30 years. You may have heard songs like All Heaven Declares, You Laid Aside Your Majesty, and By Your Side just to name a few. He's also known for finding and exposing great songs that he didn't write. Remember a little song called I Could Sing of Your Love Forever or We Wanna See Jesus Lifted High? In this session, he goes into the stories of how he discovered these songs and helped to see them go "viral". Here are some of the highlights from our conversation: his story of how he got started the days of Christian music before "worship leading" how open tuning inspired All Heaven Declares understanding the nature of "right brain bursts" how his writing has changed over the years youth and creativity the husband and wife co-writing dynamic writing truth in a fresh way melodic dynamics, and what makes a good song work stop trying to write a song and rediscover your love for your instrument writing songs for corporate worship how the kaiser capo can break writers block musical evangelism Important Links to Check Out http://www.noelrichards.com/ http://www.thehudsontaylors.com/ Noel mentioned Kaiser partial capos to spark creativity- (google search link) I mentioned his "Champion of the World" event at Wembley Stadium (1997) Love Songs From Heaven I didn't mention this in the podcast, but if you haven't checked out Love Songs from Heaven: The Songs of Noel Richards, I suggest you click here now and check it out. On this particular album, some of worship's most well known artists, including Matt Redman, Darlene Zschech, and Graham Kendrick (to name a few), sang on new recordings of Noel's best known songs, to honor him as a writer who has contributed so much to the advent of the "modern worship movement". Click here to view it at iTunes.

In this episode of the CMB Podcast, I speak with singer/songwriter and guitar player Will McFarlane. Will has personally been a mentor to me over the years with regard to music and ministry. He is a prolific songwriter and has been playing music for over 45 years. He's been inducted in the musicians hall of fame, and played guitar with people including Bonnie Rait, Jackson Browne, the Pointer Sisters, and even worship leaders like Paul Baloche and Don Moen. Here are a few of the things we touched on: being honest with where you are in your skill musicianship keeping your songwriting simple what makes My Girl such a great song The importance of a song's "composition factor" Co-writing and getting over your insecurities... Will has greatly helped me as a guitar player, which in turn, has had a direct impact on my songwriting... So, for all you guitar players, check out Will's YouTube channel and his 30 second guitar lessons. Enjoy... http://www.youtube.com/user/Willmcfarlane1 You can also find out more about Will at his site below. www.willmcfarlane.com

In this third session of the CMB Podcast, I speak with lead singer of The Autumn Film and Page CXVI, Latifah Phillips. Here are just a few things we discussed: Unique ways of generating ideas The value of learning from your mistakes How to get "unstuck" as a songwriter The significance of the name Page CXVI   Important Links To Check Out: Links for Page CXVI and The Autumn Film http://theautumnfilm.com/ http://pagecxvi.com https://twitter.com/theautumnfilm https://twitter.com/pagecxvi The Autumn Film Covers Coldplay.... (another post I did on them last year at my nf site) Ira Glass Do you ever feel like quitting? Every creative person at one point or another deals with this... Ira Glass, producer of radio show This American Life, brings a great encouragement to never stop creating, but to keep pressing on - writing more and more as you keep living... Find out more in these videos that Tifah mentioned...  

In this session of the CMB Podcast, I speak with singer, songwriter, music publisher, and bass-player-extraordinaire, Rick Cua. It's an awesome conversation... Rick was one of the main reasons I moved to Nashville back in 2000. He is truly a man of God's word. He loves Jesus, his family, and the people God brings into his life each day. He has much wisdom for young musicians, seeking to "go for it". He brings a strong, yet gentle reminder of what it should always be about. Important links to note from the episode: For Songwriting BMI has put together a great list of writers' associations according to your state. Check out the page at this link: http://www.bmi.com/associations/listing Rick mentioned the Nashville Songwriters Association as well. Check out their site here. For Learning Rick mentioned the importance of being a reader. I couldn't agree more... ...In fact I wrote a blog post about it at natefancher.com: 5 Books Every Songwriter Should Read. MORE ON RICK CUA rickcua.com bluescounsel.com    

Session Number 1! This is the first of, Lord willing, many more episodes of the CMB Podcast. In this episode, I simply cast a little vision about http://christianmusicblog.com, the podcast, and my background leading up to CMB. I've been meeting a lot of people I would have never met had it not been for the internet and this whole CMB idea. And these aren't just random people I'm meeting. They're people of faith who make music. They're just like me! Well not just like me, we're all each uniquely created and made to compliment each other, but we have these two primary things in common. 1) We like Jesus a lot… and 2) We like the process of music making. And all of us would probably say that our relationship with God and our music making are significantly connected. So I've met these people from all kinds of places… South Africa, England, Texas… There's a real example of meaningful connectedness through blogging… and that's the hope for this new blog. There are a few things I'm hoping to make clear through the new blog: christianmusicblog.com is not only about the CCM phenomenon. "Christian contemporary music" I want to challenge people to think differently about what Christian music is…. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not going to throw stones at the CCM industry. There is a lot of good that has come out of it. But I want us as music makers to put on our thinking caps, and explore what it means to make music Christianly. Herald Best wrote a book called Music Through the Eyes of Faith. I'll be talking a lot about this book once the site goes live. It has really helped me a lot in understanding these things…. We can swing the pendulum one of two ways: We can do the sacred/secular divide We can flatten it and call all music equal Both are wrong. With CMB I want us to hit the nail on the head, striking the right balance of how to view music making from a Christian perspective. In order to grow in our music making we must get highly practical and actionable I think too often in christendom we don't have enough of the practical… I believe in solid theology and the amazingly transcendent doctrines of scripture, but I think there must be a place to talk about real life ideas and help each other in the smaller day-to-day things. I believe that right doctrine and correct views of scripture and theology if applied correctly will result in a very practical way of living… So in our case music making, is a great example of how these two things can meet. Music making is technical, it's nuts and bolts and craftsmanship, it's systematic, structured, and strategic. It has meter, it has form… Yes it's filled with inspiration and can certainly be spontaneous and unpredictable… But think for a second about what is actually happening in these moments of seemingly free-spirited unstructured-ness? …. You learned a skill somewhere down the line. Your spontaneity isn't without form. You are applying skills that you learned at one point or another to launch from. I'm not talking about being rigid. I'm referring to a perfect union of inspiration and preparation, into one integrated whole. A life giving practice of doing, living, and breathing, creativity. So in order to see that happen, I want to add value to people of faith who make music with practical ideas ways of being more creative, resulting in being more prolific AS WE'RE GETTING STARTED I'm wanting to specifically serve songwriters. There's a reason for this. Everyone knows when you start out in music. You usually learn other people's music. Which is important. If you play on the WT at your church. Not everyone needs to be a songwriter. You might be called to be a great bass player or keyboardist that supports great songs written by great songwriters, but you ought to at least know what makes for a great song and what makes for a bad song… ...And if you've never tried to write a song,