that says , “ God inhabits the praises of His people ,” the word for “ praises ” there actually means spontaneous praises . He inhabits those new songs that we make up ; there ’ s something special about those . So , I ’ ll just sit at my house and make stuff up . The cool part about it is there ’ s no pressure . Nobody cares if the words rhyme . Then , something might move and work outside of my home . I ’ ll take that and maybe try it out at church . Especially serving in the same church all the time , you can easily slip stuff in and they are willing to go with you . We ’ re talking only like thirty seconds or a minute and just try out a new chorus and see how they respond . hole pickup and I ’ ve also got a K & K system under the bridge with a stereo out . So , if I use a tip-ring-sleeve cable , then I can access both of them . But , I really never do that . I just end up using only the Baggs . I don ’ t run it through anything , I just run it dry . On that old guitar , I never change strings ( I laughed ). If I break a string , I just change that one string , which is normally the G or D string . That guitar really needs a fret job right now ! I ’ m pretty old-school rock-n-roll . If it was up to me , we ’ d be using floor wedges still and everyone would be off click . I just hate that stuff . You know , in Jesus Culture , we use tracks on the road a lot , but at my church , we don ’ t use tracks . I ’ m definitely old-school . I ’ m like , floor wedges … let ’ s just make some music together . Let it be raw and fun !
WM : Do you play any other instruments ?
CHRIS : Yeah , I play keys . I do a whole lot of writing on keys . I prefer real pianos when I play . I have a little upright Yamaha that has been amazing . I ’ ve probably written a ton of songs on that thing ! It was an anniversary gift from my wife . I do play a little electric guitar , but not much . When I do , I have a little slim-line Tele that I play .
For a while I have been collecting vintage drums . I played drums in high school , by that I mean in marching band ( so never cool !). But , I love drums and started collecting … me and
my brother-in-law have built a round-badge Gretsch kit and a ‘ 60 ’ s Ludwig kit , and now I have a Rogers kit I ’ ve been working on . I really love old stuff !
WM : Can you give advice on developing the “ hook ” for a song ?
CHRIS : The way that I write often comes directly out of worship times . So , if we ’ re in worship at church and we get to the end of a song , sometimes I ’ ll just keep playing the same chords over and over and I ’ ll sing like the “ cliffnotes ” version of whatever we ’ ve been feeling in the moment . So , for instance on “ Your Love Never Fails ” we got to the end of “ This Is The Air I Breathe ” and there ’ s this little vamp at the end where you just play these same chords over and over . I was thinking about how desperate we worship God and I just began to sing , “’ Cause You make all things work together for our good .” We sang it over and over for a long time . It was that little nugget or “ hook ” that I took and wrote a song around . I knew it worked because we just worshiped with it . On the latest record , there are a few that happened like that . One was “ Beauty for Ashes .” I don ’ t remember what exactly we were playing when that happened , but we got to the end and in the moment just sang , “ You give us beauty for ashes .” It was powerful and I decided to write a song around that . And , now what I ’ ll do is just do that at home . Where I ’ ll just start worshiping and sing a new song . The scripture
WM : Tell us more about your writing process .
CHRIS : You know , just take something that inspires you . Like a little hook or something you feel that is a new discovery . It ’ s those that you really work around the craft of songwriting . I ’ ll go through seasons where I write every day , even if I don ’ t feel like it . It is a genuine skill-set like carpentry or anything . So , I ’ ll go through seasons where I just try to hone that and get better at the crafting of songs . Then , hopefully when the inspiration comes , I ’ ll write better songs .
WM : Last January you were part of the Night of Worship at NAMM . I was so moved by “ God of Miracles ” that I wrote about it in the March issue of WM Magazine . Tell me about that song and the rest of the new project .
CHRIS : Yeah , that song in particular … I mean , I feel like everywhere I go I ’ m meeting people that are in tough places . Maybe they just lost a loved one or they just found out that they have cancer or their family member has cancer . It ’ s tough . How do you have the right song that gives people hope for the fact that God is able to move and do things that are outside of our understanding and the fact that God does care about us in the little things ? How do we sing for people that need hope and are not patronizing to people who have just lost someone to cancer ? So , I sat down and just kept trying to
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24 Jul � Aug 2016 WorshipMusician . com