A Bamboo's Life

Over a month since checking in for real. They are redoing our roof today at the house so, no recording and no listening. A Blessing in disguise. I wanted to take a second a write a little update about what’s been going on in my world, and all the lessons hidden in everything around. Some big. Some small. I turned 26 this month. What a thought to be closer to 30 than I am to 20. I still feel 22 in most ways, just with more responsibility and less safety nets. Less people who are checking in on me, less people pushing me to grow. The world grows bigger and less attentive to my problems. Old things dying, pushed into their graves by the new and the unknown. It’s almost as if over the last three years, I’ve set out on an adventure of my soul… learning about what’s really in there, and figuring out who I am when no one’s looking/watching or caring. It’s a terrifying journey, but such a crucial one. As I’ve unturned the stones in my own heart, I’ve found more treasures and more bugs than I could have ever imagined… and am thankful that I’ve uncovered those dark places. Because it is true what they say… what is brought into the light loses its power. The Album I am continuing to work slowly and carefully on “Never A Waste”. I looked at my google calendar and saw my original release dates for everything. HA! What was I thinking?! I was hoping to have this out by late March of this year, but as it turned out, I am needing much more time and space to create this work the way I want. I have finished one song, which I believe will be the single, and am exploring the master now. I am finishing tracking on the second “batch” which I will have mixed in Knoxville and Nashville. Next week, I’m going to spend a week up in Nashville mixing a few of the songs from the record with my friend Kevin Dailey, who I look up to very much. I can’t wait for this week of exploration and growth. The others are being mixed by Garrett Sale who is killing the game so far! Originally, I was going track, perform and mix everything, but I have realized the value of letting it go and letting some fresh ears hear the songs at that point. As I’ve already experienced, it is easy to get overly obsessive with small details of the process and you can easily start to feel like you’re going crazy. It’s like trying to put together a puzzle where if you move one piece, all other 999 move slightly too… and eventually you realize it will never be truly done. Sounds fun right? Making an album is both the best of and worst of times. But all that aside, I am learning how to wait and how to be patient during this process. I always want things to happen overnight, but am being forced to slow down, work slowly and faithfully, and not rush the end product. What’s hard is that I’m just so excited for everyone to hear this album. I believe in these songs and what they might mean to some people out there! So, thanks for waiting with me yall, I think it will be worth it. Bloom Sounds The studio is boomin. I have a lot of incredible projects on the horizon that I am excited to work on and so far in 2019, I have been blown away at the specialness of this place. I’ve gained some of my best friends through this studio and have had some incredible moments with my artists. The house has become a little cocoon of creation. I’ve spent hours and hours and hours in this room, mining into new things with my friends, discovering sounds, discovering new thoughts and new ways of creating. I am watching the people around me blossom, take risks, and really go for it with their music and it is such an honor to be a small catalyst in those steps. Extra Credit: Ups & Downs In the spirit of vulnerability, sharing life, and sharing lessons… my extra credit as always. (If you’re new to the blog, I try to include little extra credits at the end of each post, as a reward to the readers out there). I had an experience last week where I broke in half. Right in the middle of everything going seemingly “well,” I had a moment where all the things I had taken on and said “yes” to, overwhelmed me and brought me to my knees. I woke up last Thursday, went to the studio as usual, and then my mind began unraveling. I began to think about all the things I had to get done, all the people I had to answer to, all the things I was dropping the ball on, and all the people I would eventually disappoint. And in that moment, all of these things I hadn’t tended to in my spirit came in all at once and I felt like I couldn’t breath, think, or wrap reasoning around my worries. It was like a tunnel was coming in around my mind and I was paralyzed. This was such an awakening moment for me, as I realized, I had given every last inch of myself away to the people around me, to planning things, and to the tasks at hand. I was burnt to a crisp. So from there, I took some time away from work and from my phone and computer and tried to understand what was happening. This never happens to me…I’m not an “anxiety” person. I’m a happy person. I can handle all things… and on and on and on… trying to run from the truth about what just happened. And I’m still doing that. But, all this to say, I’m in a process right now of learning that more is not always better, and that if I don’t rest, I will crash. And in a larger sense, being at peace with the Ups & Downs of life. It is just inevitable. This is a part of it. Sometimes we get broken down. It happens. But these are wonderful opportunities to take steps back, re-evaluate, and adjust. It is actually a good thing to come to the end of yourself, to be brought to your knees, to realize your inability and your limits, because it is there that God meets us in a really special way. The journey of growth is a see-saw between being shattered and being pieced back together. It’s as if the same pot needs to be shattered over and over again, the shards growing smaller and smaller, to increase its resolution. This is the process that we are in, the tearing down and the building back up. I’ve learned to have grace for myself in these times. When I find that I’m not all that strong or wise or awesome as I thought I was. When I don’t have control. When I get overwhelmed and when I get frustrated. These times are the soil for something stronger to grow. I am learning to not despise the ugly and desperate parts of me, but to pay attention to them and to be attentive to the ways they leak out of me or in this case, break me down suddenly. I commit the breaking of my life to God and trust that He, as He always has done, will work through me. There is so much fear surrounding the reality of who we are in our present state: in process. It is every person’s reality. It’s yours, and it’s mine. Learning how to live, learning what’s good, learning who we are. I’m terrified of what you might think of the confused, weak, and ugly parts of me. I’m terrified of seeming like I don’t know exactly what I’m doing. I’m afraid that if I have weak moments like I did last week, that that’ll become what you think of me. I’m afraid to admit, even to myself, that I’m not so perfect after all. But as I take a moment to remember where I was was, where I am now, and where I hope to be going, I am comforted because I see the process of my life and how everything has led me here, which helps me understand that every difficult thing before me now is also leading me forward… and that’s how it all ties together. So whether it is I am up or I am down, I move forward regardless. God moves me forward. The river moves me forward. And this is how it goes.

Hey everyone! I’m playing a couple places throughout the spring. Some new places and some familiar ones. If you are around these places, come on through and bring a friend! Here’s where you can find me singing my songs over the next couple months! I’m excited to play more. 3/21 - Jams For Justice at Legion Field (UGA) https://bit.ly/2UJXvDd 3/22 - Backyard Boogie (Athens)https://bit.ly/2Jl4Jft 3/28 - Emma’s House Show (Dahlonega) *message for details 3/29 - Tour Stop UGA: Branding Panel Guest (I'm speaking at this one!) https://bit.ly/2TRUpAR 4/5 - Hydrolove Concert @ The Pit Barnhttps://bit.ly/2uhpEWI 4/19 - The Chapel (Sheffield, AL)

Forcing myself to sit down and write. The last few weeks have been jam packed with so much. Leading worship with my friends, a lot! Producing… a lot! and working on the album… a lot! It’s been so go, go, go that I wanted to take a second away from the studio and all that and just write about the deeper things I feel like are happening in this time. I have such a sense of God’s guiding and nudging right now, and have been observing Him move all around me in my friends and community. As my friends and I have gathered often recently to share life, whether it be eating dinner, making cheese boards, leading worship, or recording music… this theme of humility seems to be on the forefront of our conversations, and seems to be a thread that connects all of us right now. I am trying to unpack it. A couple weeks ago, we were celebrating my friend Blake’s birthday. And we forced Blake to tell us what he was proud of in his own life, and he said “I’m proud that I never took the easy way out.” And this sentence has been following me, stirring deep inside me, and filling me with so much hope and gratitude, all at the same time. This sentiment woke me up to something, and I felt like it shook me a little bit… and it was in that moment I began to realize the value behind that choice, and how lucky I was to be surrounded with friends like Blake. Since that time at dinner, I began to look at all my friends and community that I have here in Athens - and have really just been in awe of what God has done and what He continues to do in our lives… and how one things binds us all… the choice to take the hard way through. None of us are perfect by any means, but, we are committed to figuring things out, working through our own pains and messes, and surrendering more and more to God as time goes on. I’ve been thinking, humility can be defined in so many ways and has many facets, but what I am observing and feel like God is showing to me and my friends is that a lot of humility is the willingness to throw everything you once thought you knew to the wind. If we aren’t aware and constantly humbling ourselves, we can begin to cling to ideals and thoughts about God, ourselves, and the people around us as absolute truths. Then, when our lives and experiences challenge those ideals, instead of being open to change, we discount them. In our pride, we begin to build our walls. To keep the uncomfortable out and to keep the familiar in. And sometimes, we start putting those people or ideals into a category that is “beneath us.” And this is a really scary place to be. In any moment that we think we know the entire answer about a person or situation, humility has left us. In any moment that we find ourselves thinking, “I’ve already learned this” or “I am better than this,” humility has left us. When we stop asking questions. When we stop serving. When we stop learning. Our humility is gone. As I’ve grown into my mid twenties, I’ve seen enough people give up already. I’ve seen so much compromise. I’ve compromised. I’ve seen friends lose hope. I’ve seen friends close their doors forever. I’ve seen friends walk away from God. It’s hard to see that. It’s hard to realize that I’m right there too a lot of the time. But, after thinking about this and observing it over the last few weeks, I’ve come to realize the common denominator between all my friends who’s lives are dynamic and growing in depth, character, and genuine impact. It’s not their strength, charisma, prestige, or platform or anything like that… It’s simply their humility. It’s their awareness that they themselves are the least of these, that they don’t and won’t ever have it all together, and they still have much to learn. It’s their willingness to go through the process of life patiently, even when they can’t see results every day. It’s their slow growth in the same direction, inches at a time. It’s their resolve to do the right thing when no one is watching. It’s their unwavering commitment to hope, even as the tides of life continually try to rip it away from them. I am not sure all of this fell together quite as clearly as I had hoped but, I think at the end of it, I just wanted to share this beautiful realization: Just keep going. Don’t give up. It will be worth it. I’m in a position right now where I can just see really clearly all the fruit that comes from not giving up. All around me, and all around my friends who have prioritized serving God and following God above everything else, through thick and thin. If you could see who they are becoming, you’d see that it’s worth it. Don’t get me wrong: It’s really hard. like really really hard. And sometimes you look around and go, am I an idiot? But man, if you could see just what kind of young men and women I know and I get to go on adventures with and live life with, you would know it’s worth it. Our time is spent serving, exploring creativity, laughing until we can’t breathe, loving each other, leading our community, making meaningful memories… making histories… we’re not just wasting time or filling our moments with nonsense waiting for the next season to save us. We’re alive, we’re being changed, we’re moving forward. We’re being formed into who we were meant to be. In so many ways, my friends are saving my life. Watching them grow with God through every season has given me a hope to do the same. In this moment I can perceive two paths. One of continual humbling, bending, breaking, and renewal - all happening simultaneously, which leads to a broken heart’s revival that pumps life into emptiness that surrounds it. The other path: one of bitterness, confusion, constant striving, constant reaching and ultimately leading to a life where possibility, light and love are choked out and change is no longer possible. Would we be so brave as to continue to submit ourselves to the hand of God, the invitation to a childish dance, and to the idea that we have yet a ways to go but even then, we are in motion. Would we continue to choose the hard way through - loving justice, committing to truth, and yielding to the gentle hand of Jesus that molds us as we continue to soften our hearts. Would we grow in wisdom but not in pride, yielding the lessons we learn along the way as gifts, that we never earned, to be shared with the world around us. Would we learn to be quick to forgive, quick to hope, and quicker to love, taking the first step towards the people around us. Would we no longer wait for the our fractured environments to suddenly heal themselves before we offer ourselves fully to become a part of the solution. Would we choose to live in a downward direction, knees buried in the ground as a symbol of the position of our hearts towards each other, honoring each other above ourselves. How wonderful an opportunity that awaits each person - to trade yourself for something greater. To lay down your life in thought and deed so that something greater might come from it. Would we continue to believe. Would we live in humility, taking the hard way through.

YES YES YES. Here we go! I am excited to announce that I will be playing a FULL band show in February. Joining be on this bill will be my good friends Zac Crook and Conner Brooke, who are both doing incredible things. I am really looking forward to working through new material with the band and playing my original music again. Thursday, Feb. 21. Doors at 8PM, Show at 9PM. Tickets are on sale now and you should buy them in advance! Maybe we can pack this thing out. Tickets are here!   Caledonia Tickets!

We’re already almost through January. Man, time is flying. I just wanted to give everyone an update about what’s been going on recently, what I’m learning and what I’ve been up to! It’s been a second since I’ve taken the time to write and update, so here we go! Bloom Sounds In producing world, I’ve been off to a busy start in 2019. This month, I’ve been working on Zac Crook’s new single “Waves,” The Little Strong’s single “We All Need Loving,” and Elijah Johnston’s first studio EP, “Wonderful.” I am so thankful to be able to work with these people I get to call friends. Their music is honest, meaningful, and are going to do some real good out there. I am encouraged as I continue to dig into the art of producing, engineering, and mixing. I feel like with each project, I grow just a little bit more, gaining new insights and experience into the craft. It’s sometimes frustrating because I wish I could apply the things I learn retrospectively, but this just isn’t the case. Always the next one. A good reminder that I keep telling myself is that the road to being able to master a craft is a process, and that all I can really ask of myself is to be teachable, humble, and improving with every project. And the process is also supposed to be fun and wonderful (full of wonder). So, I continue to remind myself to enjoy the ride no matter what. Anyway, Zac’s single has already released on all platforms. You can stream it here! I feel like I was able to hit a new level in the mixing game with this one, and am super proud of it. As far as future projects, God is providing just the right opportunities in just the right time, as he always does. I’ve got some really exciting things lined up over the next few months that I can’t wait to share. Here are some photos from this month! Making of “Wonderful” Making of “Waves” Making of “We All Need Loving” Album Update The album is coming along. Slowly as ever, but surely too. I’ve been really busy producing other projects, so I feel like I haven’t had too much time to continue working on the record. But, I chip away at it most chances I get. Yesterday, I finished a new song that I think will make the record. I’m really excited about this song, as I feel like I’m saying something worthwhile that hasn’t been said in this fashion too much. I am continuing to stick to my mission as an artist and as a person - the share the truth no matter what, and I think this new song “Reasons Why” does that for me. I can’t wait to start digging into this song and its arrangement. There’s something different about this album I’m making. It just feels different. I think there is just a little more weight to this one than the others for some reason. I am typically a really quick worker. I like to throw things down and not mess with them too much after that. But I find myself really thinking deeply into every detail and every facet of this project. I am considering each word and part. I haven’t struggled too much in the past with releasing music and being afraid that it isn’t me, but for some reason, I’m really struggling with this one. But, if there’s anything I’ve learned is that resistance often proceeds something really important… so I’m just going to stick with that and keep grinding. EXTRA CREDIT Again with the extra credit. This is the section at the end that I like to share some of the things I’m navigating and learning through. Learning is hard. Lessons are hard to learn, but they’re so worth it. Today’s extra credit has a lot to do with the song I wrote this week. The song is called “Reasons Why” and was birthed out of a pretty frustrated place. Sometimes, I get really down about people - our hypocrisy, our weakness, and our inability to do completely good. I am sure to emphasize that I say “our” because I’d consider myself first on the list. But it happens from time to time for me - where I see another person I look up to fail, or I hear of yet another divorce, or I see people being deceived or abused… and it just makes me wonder about all this hope, love and faith stuff. All this God stuff. Like, is He even real? is He even there? How can He be real if Christians look like this, or if the world looks like this? Wake up Stupid! Or is faith one big illusion I live in? Like some weird joke played on the gullible and childlike parts of my spirit? The pain I experience makes me want to throw in the towel and stop trying, cause why even hope or try when I know I’m going to fail, or the world is inevitably going to fall short every time? These are important questions. We shouldn’t be afraid of these conversations. I’ve come to learn that my faith grows deeper as I process these doubts and fears and actually, grace and love grow on the other side. One of my prayers recently is for a pure heart - one that is far from bitterness, envy, or dishonesty. And as I’ve pursued this, I feel like it has forced me to face all the loose ends in my life and in my past, forcing me to forgive them. I think the trick is, to be free to enter these questions, doubts and pains, while remaining hopeful and open to how God wants to move in them. What I’ve observed is that people tend to identify problems without offering solutions, and this just makes them bitter and closed off. I think it’s easy to point out whats wrong with life, with people, and our societies/cultures, but it takes true strength, courage and love, to offer solutions and work through those solutions. And what I was trying to process through the writing of my song “Reasons Why,” is the resolve to continue to have faith, hope and love, no matter what darknesses I experience, and no matter how many illusions of “good things” are shattered in my life. One of the ending lines, I sing, “I’d rather be a fool, than bitter and afraid, I’ll stumble through the gates.” And this, is my current course, to keep my head up, work through the issues around me through a lens of belief, even if it kills me - and not letting brokenness dictate my views. One thing I’m learning for sure - when we are broken, God draws near. He’s really close in those times, and it’s our shattered lives that have the most potential to be used. Keep your head up, AB

A little look into a day at the studio!

Here’s some more process in the studio! I’m recording Humility again to be on the album. I was interested in recording it in a special space versus a traditional studio, so I was exploring what I was able to capture at Wesley. Love this chapel. Enjoy the video!

The first of January 2019. I have just got back home. In the last week I’ve played music in St. Louis, Marietta, and Atlanta, making some incredible memories doing what I love with people I’m falling more in love with. My entire back hurts from sitting in a car, driving, playing guitar, and jumping around like a crazy person last night with Family and Friends. But, with that,I feel so incredibly blessed. I am sitting even now, remembering to be deeply grateful for this amazing life and these special opportunities that I hope I will always perceive as gifts. I wanted to share a few thoughts as we head into 2019. It is almost impossible to escape reflection and dreaming on the new year, as the renewing of the calendar beckons an invitation into the possibility of change, second chances, and a renewal of our very lives. My mind has been exploding with hope for the future, despite all of the uncertainties and pains that, I realize now, will always be a part of living. As I have been reflecting and taking an honest look into my own life, I thought I would share this one idea that I desire to pursue as I continue growing and living. I thought that this might be a beneficial contribution to the focussing in on forward movement, goal setting, and resolution that confronts us every Jan 1. And here it is. I am coming to terms with my own deep brokenness. I am absolutely wounded. There are things that I simply cannot do. I limp through my life, and I always have. There are things about myself that I can’t look at. There are so many things that I wish were better. I have thoughts and desires that scare me - the kind that might make you scoot a few feet down the pew away from me at church on Sunday. And for so much of my life I’ve been running away from the mess I have created out of my life. I’ve been trying to shove all of the deep pain I experience into a closet somewhere, hoping that it might die on its own. But when you live a life constantly on the run or in hiding, you become numb to it all, and then you forget who you are. But somewhere in the recent weeks, my legs gave out. I couldn’t run anymore. It was like I had tried to run so far from who I really was that I found myself all alone, without any idea of how I got there or how I’d get back. And this is the revelation of the band-aid. If we are not intentional in our lives about facing pain, sitting in it, accepting it, and surrendering it, we will develop a lifestyle that will cling to the nearest possible fix, no matter how cheap, temporary, or damaging the fix is. We’ll cling for dear life to illusions of freedom and anyone or anything who might ease the pain of our inner worlds. We start taping band-aids over the giant wounds we all have in our souls. And as we continue to replace the band-aids over our lives, the true injury only deepens, and before we know it, our lives cease to function as they were designed to. As I come to a clearing in my own woods, I am able to identity my own band-aids that I’ve been using to mask the deep pain that I have. I will busy myself to all ends, from sun up to the moment my head hits my pillow, avoiding all silence and solitude - knowing that in those moments I will need to wrestle with my loneliness and many insecurities. That’s also why sometimes I drink my way to a different version of myself, because he’s a little more free, funnier, and happier on the surface. That’s why I look at Instagram and criticize people for trying too hard or not trying hard enough. It’s all because I’m afraid to take an honest look at myself. It’s much easier to live in denial. But, I feel like there came a point in my life where the pain of pushing everything under the rug became greater than the pain that was deep inside. The shame of secrets and the shame of being one person in one room and different person in another - it all caught up to me. The truth had to find it’s way to the surface. As I reflect on what I’m going through and think ahead to what kind of life I want to live, I have decided to renew my commitment. I’ve made a promise to myself to square up to the reality of who I am - all that is good, and all that is ugly. I no longer get to look at some things about myself and ignore the parts that I don’t like, because I know no more than ever that things don’t just fix themselves. I’m learning to love it all and have grace for it all. It’s weird, the more I’ve come to accept who I really am, the more I love myself, and the more powerful I feel over my vices. Grace is the most powerful asset I have. And as I’ve processed, I’ve begun to identify my band-aids and peel them off. Not in the slow, careful way - but in a fashion that screams, “just get it over with.” This has looked like some hard conversations, goodbyes, new habits, and a lot of patience. It’s been silence - observing the beauty outside my window instead of watching Netflix, or driving without music, appreciating the sky or just the feeling of movement of the car. It’s been relationship - spending time with people and enjoying it for what it is, not needing every relationship to produce some sort of utility. It’s been taking a crap and leaving my phone in the living room and just being a normal, human being, who craps in silence without needing to be constantly distracted from my own life. Now, when I hear someone say something that makes me feel insecure or jealous, I take time with it after and seek the truth, not bullying myself for having those feelings in the first place. It looks like opening up space in my life to commune with God, hear His voice, listen. Like, really listen, as if my life depended on it. And I believe now that it does. I’m identifying and exposing my wounds - ones that were left by my family, my failures, and my own dumb decisions. I’ve stopped hiding and trying to find the temporary fixes to my pain. And in the first moments of the wounds being exposed, the pain is tremendous. It’s uncomfortable, it’s shameful, as you are naked. But as I’ve continued to walk in that way, the wounds have slowly begun to heal. Truly heal, from the inside out. I feel like I have a second chance, yet again, to decide who I really want to be at the end of the day. I feel like a new creation. I feel the beauty in all of life and feel hope deep inside of me. The thesis is: God cannot heal what is kept in the dark. This is more true for me than it ever has been. So, going forward - may I live with a heart wide open with nothing to hide, no matter what it is. There is so much comfort knowing that each and every one of us is truly screwed up from the core, but what keeps me going is remembering the great journey, and that there is hope for a runaway like me. Hope for a joyful ending, a fruitful and worthwhile life, the possibility to change and grow, and the complete redemption of all that I have destroyed. Here’s to the future, without band-aids.

Hey everyone! I wanted to check in quickly, give an update on how the album is coming, and share some photos! I just came back from a beautiful trip to Portland and California. I was so happy to be reunited with old friends and family. Out there, I filmed a couple of videos of the new songs in some really special places with some really special people. It’s taking so much self control to not leak any photos, but man it was so perfect. This week’s mission has been to work on my songs “Whenever You Want” and “Changes” at my friend Andrew Ratcliffe’s place. Andrew is opening a recording school in Athens and has become one of my closest friends and mentors in town. He’s really opened my eyes to the power of community within music and has challenged me to grow more open-handed with my life. Andrew has been instrumental in the making of this recording, allowing me to play with some amazing gear and providing some state-of-the-art tools that I get to use and house in the home studio. On Sunday, I joined forces with Andrew once again, along with Tom Ryan (Panda), to track the rhythm sections for the two songs. We met up at Andrew’s place and discussed arrangements, sounds, and drum parts. I wanted “Whenever A Waste” to be a force, combining electric guitars, electric basses and acoustic instruments with some synth basses and drum loops. What I’ve got is pretty cool, I think. Or maybe its too crazy. Im in the process of reducing the arrangement down to the most important parts. For “Changes,” I’m thinking its going to come out pretty straight forward, influenced a lot by The Head and the Heart and The Lumineers type sounds with acoustic guitars and bent out pianos. I’m excited about how these are coming out. Panda laid some incredible bass parts under all the songs that really anchored them. Here are some more photos from our session!   Extra Credit: It’s short and sweet today cause it’s 6:30, I’ve been working all day, and all I want to do right now is go play basketball. So I’m going over to the gym of ages (YMCA) to get this bread. But the thing I’m wrestling with and realizing more is the power of charing and creating a community. There’s so much in me that is adverse to giving away to others - whether its my resources, time or efforts. It’s so I protect myself from being used. But I’m slowly learning, and I’ve been learning this my whole life, the joy of weaving my life with those around me. I want to learn the joy of giving freely, I want to make room for family to happen. And it goes against all of my fears and my knee-jerk protection modes. But, the more I think about it, the more I really come to realize that nothing is my own doing. I’ve earned nothing, I don’t deserve the many blessings I have, and I’ve never been my own provider. With this mindset, I am free to give and give generously. I am walking head first into this because I believe it’s the better way to live… burns and all. So the extra is incredibly simple - give it all away. best, Andrew

Last week I got to travel some and met up with my best bud Bobby in Portland. He was kind enough to sing this song with me in the coffee shop that Bess (Bobby’s wife) works at. It was such a special time to hang and reconnect and play some music together. No fancy mics or anything, just for fun. Hope yall like it!

OK! Got to record with some of my favorite musicians in the world! Here are a couple of recap videos from studio time in Knoxville working on the new record with Will Reagan and Brandon Hampton. Love these guys, and had such a great time. Special thanks to Gray Hauser for making these videos!

The following is an account of the previous two days spent tracking in Knoxville with Will Reagan and Brandon Hampton - as best as I can remember. We worked on two of the new songs that are going to be on the album, one being “My Time Will Come” and the other “Never A Waste,” the title track of the record. I am still trying to process everything that transpired in those two days in eastern Tennessee, as I feel the depth and worth of what the experience was cannot be contained in words - much less written. I am trying desperately to remember and document each moment of the trip, because I think, and can only guess, that these two days will live on in my life forever as one of the most critical moments in my history. No pressure, haha. So here, the account: THE CREW Gray and I leave Athens around 6pm on the evening of Wednesday, 11/28. I am extremely caffeinated because the heater in our house is broken so I’ve spent the better part of the day hopping around to different coffee shops in town, where I buy a drink at each place because I feel bad using the WIFI without ordering anything. I have two coffees and a hot chocolate - and that amount of hot excited drink goes a long way for my bamboo-shoot build. I play Fortnite at Gray’s house before we leave because quite frankly, I miss having it. But I’m thankful the temptation doesn’t live in my own living room anymore. I get so much more done now! I get killed really fast because I’m more garbage now than I ever have been. After the five second silence and deep passing anger that takes place after each and every Fortnite failure, we hit the road. I’m so glad Gray is on this trip. He is one of the most special people I know, and is truly a salty man in the biblical sense. He brings flavor to any place he is in. Gray is joining us this weekend to film some footage of the studio process and how these songs grow and take shape. Gray and I stop at Upbeet in Atlanta for the most coveted Aloha Bowl, and then we pick up Abe Choi. Abe Choi is about 2,000 years old in our estimation, but looks about 27. I met Abe in Nashville through Common Hymnal, and I’m so glad to have someone in that group so close by. Abe is interested in life itself, and everything it contains, and while he works in software (I think?) he values art and the creative process so much and sees life in a beautiful way - it’s contagious and inspiring. Abe is along for the ride, just to support and hang out and shed knowledge about literally any interesting thing that has ever happened or is currently happening. We roll into Knoxville around 11PM and meet Will at the apartment where we will be staying. The plumbing is broke so we decide to stay at Will’s house in his basement. The crew meets up with Brandon at our guilty pleasure, the Jig & Reel in downtown Knoxville, which boasts “one of” the largest selections of Scotch in the world. We catch up, grab some grub, and head to Wills house to get a good night’s rest - for the next day, we begin recording. DAY 1: MY TIME WILL COME We wake up and head to the studio. Will was kind enough to have the new studio ready to record for these could songs. It’s impossible to express how much of an honor it was to be the first artist to record in the new studio. It was beautiful. magical. impossible to understand the meaning of. Going into this weekend, I was so nervous. I even felt self-conscious around Will and Brandon, like I was being super careful of what to say or do. Nervous energy. I think it’s because I respect their work so much and feel so honored that they would even agree to work with me and I put a lot of pressure on myself to not let them down. I felt like a kid in high school trying to make the jump from JV to Varsity. One thing that I realized immediately was that the pace was going to be different. One of the appeals of working with another producer, for me, was to be able to be submerged in someone else’s creative process - to get out of my own pathways and ruts and to be challenged. Something that I appreciated was how Will took his time and allowed his curiosity to guide him in the recording. It’s easy to get wrapped up in efficiency and to ignore the pull to wander and explore, and that’s something that I was challenged to do by observing him. After all, making music is a creative and organic process, so it’s ok to go a little slower and try a bunch of things that don’t work. We would spend hours moving microphones, trying different settings, moving rooms, trying different guitars, and manipulating sounds - all to learn, explore and experience the expression in the music. We would create, mix, and track along the way as if each step of the process would grow and inspire the next idea. I enjoyed working this way and it challenged to me shift some of my own approach to producing. We begin recording “My Time Will Come.” After determining the tempo and direction, we decide that a live performance of the song would communicate best, as it has a lot of feeling. So I perform the song live singing and playing at the same time. Will uses some incredible vintage microphones to record it, including a Neumann U67 and a RCA 44. The room sounds killer and acted, in this particular case, as a reverb that we were able to tuck under everything. Then, Brandon laid done some incredible lead acoustic parts and tracked the hook of the song, which is a repeated riff that loops over the chord changes that I do on the original guitar. We played with pitching sounds up and down, throwing guitar lines into funky plugins and delays, and in the end had a really textural and unique sounding guitar line. I can’t share too many of the chef’s secrets here, but man was it saucy. The song took an incredible shape that our collaboration was able to pull out of it. Will, Brandon, and my vision joined to make something none of us could have made on our own. Will and I ended up layering some background vocals to create a makeshift choir that helped lift and push the chorus along. We worked through lunch and ended up going to Barley’s to snag a plate of their legendary chicken fingers, officially dubbed “fingies.” I bypassed the fingies and shared a delicious pizza with Gray. But man… did those fingies look both delicious and deadly in every sense of the word. We return to the studio after eating Fingies and continue to layer and explore. We are all zonked by the end of day 1 and return to the house and are in bed before midnight. DAY 2: NEVER A WASTE In my experience, no longer how many days of recording there are in a row… start times and general urgency to work always diminishes at an exponential rate as a session goes on. So, even though we were only recording for 2 days, the second day was the last and therefore we acted the same as a group of artists might act at the end of a 5 day recording. Will asks me what time we should get going and I shrug, “10?” So, we get a great nights sleep and head to breakfast at my favorite spot, Olli Bea’s, which serves up some delicious breakfast. I don’t think we even got to the studio until noon. I loved the pace though. It was refreshing to just enjoy relationship and enjoy sluggin’ along and easing into create-mode. On the second day, we took a crack at “Never A Waste,” the title track to the album. The challenges of this song turned out to be its length and its dynamics. I was so used to playing it with just me and the guitar that I tried to filled every space in the arrangement with playing. But what I feel like I was able to grow in was the ability to restrain and leave more space. To not overplay and to let some moments rest and breathe. Just as with the first song, we spent a good chunk of time dissecting the song and finding the right tempo, feel, and arrangement. I had an idea of adding some sort of heart beat kick drum sound, which Will suggested we create by softly tapping the bridge of the guitar. It was so cool, I love when that happens. We were able to record and manipulate me hitting the guitar and create a sound that sounded like a pulsing drum beat. We later recorded Brandon and myself slapping our knees to create a backbeat. So, that’s how the percussion was created. After a few hours of layering and tracking some acoustic guitars, Brandon laid down an incredible harmonic acoustic guitar line. I was amazed at how Will interpreted certain sounds and was able to manipulate and morph audio into something completely different. We ended up reversing certain guitar chords and forming them into a swirling, evolving pad that helped lift and lower certain parts of the song. I was so inspired. Things are coming along. After a late afternoon hot Tamale lunch and an additional coffee break, we return to the studio for the last leg. I don’t know where time went in that space because before we knew it, it was almost 9 oclock. The last thing we did was the main vocal. The performance of a vocal can make or break how it feels. When music moves us, it’s not cause it’s perfect, it’s because it’s real. The reason songs take you to a certain place is due to its humanness and its communication. All music is, in essence, is communication. So, I’m learning, that the more vulnerable and myself I can be, the more that people will be able to connect with what I’m trying to say. It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. I think with music, especially in today’s day, there is a tendency to make things too perfect. We have the technology to correct, autotune, fatten, and virtually eliminate all mistakes and dynamics, but when we do that, we kill the humanness of the music. Something I was stretched in when singing “Never A Waste” was to let go and sing with my heart, not worrying about singing perfectly. Will was able to pull so much out of me and give me a runway to be myself and dig deep into what was inside me. I am so excited about how the song is sounding. I can’t wait to continues working on it! tectonic movement Here’s my extra credit. It’s incredibly difficult for me to even understand, much less communicate. But how I view November 29 and 30th of 2018 can be best be described as the slow convergence of deep tectonic plates, that have been in motion since the beginning of time, going in a specific direction, destined to meet and shift our landscape from the inside out. The coincidences are far too specific to ignore. There is a plan that has been set in motion for my whole life and just when I began to believe I was drifting aimlessly in the dark, God opened and door and reminded be of his incredible intentionality.Plates began to meet and form something. The extra credit is this: the present always feels normal, shallow, and stagnant. We are unable to see beneath the surface in our every day lives. Our perspective is limited by our humanness and unbelief. But, our history will reveal the depth of what God was doing beyond what we could see in our small moments. I don’t know why its designed this way, or what this means exactly, but I think my response is simply to live in faithfulness. We are tempted to live in fantasy about our lives, like it should be marvelous and speculator and shiny - but everything in history that we perceive as a “big” moment was actually someone’s everyday, simple, life. We do not know the extent of our influence every day - good or bad. We do not understand the tectonic movement of our lives - how things converge inches at a time in a specific direction. But history will reveal our faithfulness. Will our plates converge to form mountains or valleys? Will how we lives our lives in the most minute areas compound to create a marvelous landscape or a sunken hole? How are we holding our days? History will reveal the authenticity, love, and care that we plant in the Earth every day. Do you care for the life that you’ve been given? Do you live on purpose or on accident? Do you believe that things are happening for a reason? Are you persevering? Are you hoping? Are you faithful in the dark? History will tell us later on.