Why this name? Well, I think it really fits with the musical themes and the heart behind the album.
Several years ago, I had written a song and sent it to my friend to check it out. It wasn't a good song, in fact it was bad, not musically, but the lyrics were angry, I was angry and sad and depressed.
My friend said something about the song that really stuck with me, he said: "You're a really funny guy, why don't you show that in your songs, you know? Like, make happy music?"
I liked the idea, and I gave it a shot. But I couldn't find any happiness to pull from. I was depressed, and the lack of being able to write something funny, witty or happy deepened that depression.
So for a year I really didn't make music I was ok sharing with people.
Then two things happened, one I met and started dating Allison. Through my relationship with Allison, and having someone to pour love into, I began to surface from the depths of my depression.
The second thing that happened was my friends and I started Hepafilter, a super weird, non serious hardcore band.
Playing in that band I learned that I could make music without necessarily having something to say. See, I had been weighed down by the thought that my music HAD to say something. That if the song didn’t have a specific message, it was no good.
This was a little odd since the band that had sparked my interest in making music was Relient K, and the album that I first heard of theirs was The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek which features a song about the ThunderCats
Nevertheless, I learned the joy of making music “just because.” Hanging out with good friends and making silly ridiculous music were some of the best times of my life.
Fast forward to just after graduation, I was beginning to make music for myself again. I was living about an hour away from my closest (distance wise) friends and in the evenings, I didn’t have much to do. So I made music.
Unfortunately some of those recordings were lost when I dumped a whole cup of soda over my laptop (entirely unintentionally), then I got married and stopped for a while.
At this point I still had trouble writing lyrics, I was happy, and the music was happy, I just didn’t have words to say.
Then in the fall of 2012 I started working on this silly little acoustic album, it started off as just a few songs but then I kept at it and it coalesced into an “ok” acoustic album about Zombies. Yes Zombies.
The lyrics came easy and even though the songs weren’t very good, I had a blast making it.
After releasing the album, to virtually no applause (entirely my fault since I had no idea how to market an album, and I hadn’t yet learned the huge benefit of having someone else mix and master your music), I got busy with other projects, and went at least a year without making music.
In early 2014, I came across some final bounces of a few tracks I had recorded before the laptop massacre of 2011 on an old hard drive. I had loved those songs and put them together with one new song I had just recorded. That song was the first song I had recorded in about a year.
It was an instrumental song I called “The Launch.” The song was built around a central guitar lead line that was born out of a Wednesday night worship service.
I loved that song, and in a way its the grandfather of this entire project.
Then, several months of creative dryness went by until September.
I had gotten home from work before my wife did and I had a chance to sit at my computer with my guitar and I laid down the scratch track for the first song I wrote for this album, "Victory Us."
I put a lot of time into this track, once I laid down the scratch guitar recordings I built the remaining elements using software instruments. I was consumed with this song, I loved it.
I would take my laptop to and from work, tweaking things on my lunch breaks and on the bus.
I showed the track to my pastor, and he dug it. The title comes from something he said while listening to it, "It's victorious."
There was the name for the first song for my second album.
Alright, one down, 9 to go!
This project has been one of the most exciting pieces of art I've ever worked on. I have loved every minute of it.
Sitting in my little studio at home I was filled with joy being able to express myself musically, without the burden of having to write words I wasn't happy with, or sing melodies I couldn't hit.
That's why I came on the title No Worry, No sorrow.
It’s both a prophetic declaration over my life, that with worry comes sorrow, and depression, and a true reflection of my outlook on life.
Luke 12:25 says “And with of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?"
Now, I’m not talking about some “power of positive thinking” self help type of thing, but rather. In tough times, to remember that worrying and fretting over those hard times doesn’t do any good.
Instead, give it God. With a foundational trust in God, comes comfort and joy.
Notice I said Joy there, not happiness. Joy is a lifestyle a state of being, happiness is fleeting.
This past year has been one of the most challenging of my life. Allison and I have faced big problems, and we still do. I’ve felt exhausted, run down, and questioned the trajectory I had so boldly marched forward in. I have had plenty of excuses to not be joyful.
However! This year has also been the best one of my life, I have never felt and lived out such Joy as I have in the last year. I feel confident in the direction I am moving towards, I truly feel like I have direction in my life. God has awoken dreams I had when I was younger, and put the plow back in my hand, and said get to work.
In that spirit, I am moving forward, without the burden of Worry, and without the burden of Sorrow.
1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."
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