American Music's Idol

I was listening to an eclectic music mix in the car today, and I guess I was in a philosophical frame of mind, because I suddenly found myself thinking about the focus and worldview of different types of music. It's a fascinating thing to think about while driving!

The focus of most modern music is ourselves or other people. Think about a typical love song. The lyrics usually talk about how amazing the main character's love interest is, and then transition to talking about how sad they are because they can't be together, something has negatively affected their relationship, etc. Other lyrics speak of how the main character "needs" his or her love interest, how they'll "only be happy when we're together," and so on. This kind of attitude and worldview tends to cause listeners to focus on other people for fulfillment and happiness in life. This does not make love songs evil. I believe that these kind of emotions and desires have been given to us by God, and that there are legitimate situations for these kinds of things. However, the fact that there are so many love songs and ballads being written every day is evidence that our culture has made relationships and "love" into an idol. We have set these things up as the ultimate fulfillment, instead of God. I enjoy listening to some of these types of songs, but if I listen to too many "lonely" or "unfulfilled" love songs I start to get lonely and think that maybe I need some kind of romantic relationship to make me truly happy. It's amazing how much music can affect your mind and worldview, even temporarily.

Writing songs that focus on people is not bad in and of itself. It only becomes a problem when we put people and relationships above God.

Homecoming!

No, it wasn't my homecoming. I went to visit my brother at college during their homecoming weekend. The main purpose of the visit was to go see Jon Foreman in concert! We got seats in the middle of the venue about four rows back :-)

Brooke Waggoner opened and she was pretty cool. I hadn't heard much of her stuff before, but it's kind of similar in style and lyrics to A Fine Frenzy/Alison Sudol. So mostly light, kind of artsy music. :-) She is also a very good piano player!

And here's Jon Foreman! Along with Keith Tutt (one of the best names EVER!) on cello, and Anne Marie Calhoun on violin/fiddle ("depending on your political views" according to Jon)

This shot was at the end where he played "Your Love is Strong" (inspired by the Lord's Prayer) as an encore and we all stood and sang out! :-)

Here's a video someone took of "Only Hope" during the concert:

~Mac

The Thin Red Line

This soundtrack has been my study companion for a week or so now. I really enjoy its quietly majestic string and brass layers. This is one of my favorite cues:




~Mac

23:59 Part 1 Online!

I know many of you have requested a link to "23:59", the movie that I scored recently. Well, the producers have just uploaded the first 12 minutes to YouTube! Enjoy! (the video is pretty low-resolution compared to the DVD)



If you like what you see and hear, I can see about getting you a DVD copy with the movie, a behind the scenes feature, bloopers, and interviews. They're selling for $5 at this point. I am also working on releasing the soundtrack (at this point, it'll be selling for $5 as well), so if you're interested in that please let me know!

~Mac

Red Carpet!

The movie that I scored - "23:59" - had its world premiere last Friday night!

^ The "23:59" cake at the premiere!

It opened to great critical and popular acclaim, and definitely lived up to the hype :-) Everyone really enjoyed the movie, and the music as well! Now we'll see how DVD sales go ;-)

~Mac

What's New - Projects

What else is new? Hmmm . . .

Well I have a new music project: composing the score for a movie my friends made! (http://godswarriorintraining.blogspot.com/2010/07/lights-camera-action.html) I have till March 5 to finish it, and I'm writing about 12-18 minutes of music, so it's a bit of a crunch. I'm doing well so far though - I've written close to three minutes of music over the past four days. God is giving me lots of good ideas and the skill and creativity to flesh them out! I think it'll turn out very well!

I also got started on a job opportunity - doing slideshows and videos for events. I did a slideshow for a wedding rehearsal dinner last week and everyone loved it :-) Now it's only a matter of people showing interest in having something like that done for them. We'll see where it goes!

More new stuff (hopefully) coming up!

~Mac

What's New

Well, I haven't really had anything to blog about lately, but I have gotten several new things recently, so I thought I'd post about some of them. First up, I traded my old amp for a like new, Dunlop CryBaby wah pedal!

It's a limited edition, pepto pink model! :-) Maybe I'll post a video of me playing it and my new map sometime in here.

Also, we have three to four more inches of snow. This has been a crazy year for snow! My brothers also just blasted an invading deer with their full auto airsoft guns.

L8r.

~Mac

New Music Gear!

Well, I got a new amp today!

It's a Vox VT20+. It's a 30 watt amp with an 8" speaker, and man can it get loud! It sounds amazing too! It has 33 different amp models and oodles of sweet-sounding effects :-)

^ The secret to the VT20+'s amazing sound and feel: it's a real deal tube amp! There is the tube glowing with happiness :-)

^ Gotta love those retro "chicken-head" knobs! :-)

I played it for about one and a half hours after I got it and I almost forgot about studying! It's gonna be a great addition to the gear stash.

~Mac

Rockin' Christmas Evening

Last week, we got to see the most rockin' Christmas concert ever - The Trans-Siberian Orchestra! Three hours of music, lights, lasers, fire, etc. 'Twas quite epic! :-)

^ Just a sample of the amazing light and video show

^ Lights, video, orchestra and vocal choir

^ One of my favorite parts - LASERS!

^ Yes, they did light the stage on fire - and we could feel the heat from our "nosebleed" (high up and far away) seats! They also beat-synced the fire on several occasions.

~Mac