Skillet News
PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 10:33 pm
Got this in an email from the skillet email list.
Hey Skillet friends!
It's been so long since I've sent anything that I'm afraid this e-mail
is going to be a book! Skillet is doing well, playing concerts,
releasing a new album, seeing people come to the Lord, and going through
many changes. We have seen tons of you guys at festivals this summer,
and some of you are aware of things that are going on. For those of you
who aren't, I'm going to attempt a recap!
First of all, my daughter Alex is 11 months now! Being a father is
amazing. Some of you have seen her at shows, and I'm sure you can
agree that she is the cutest ever. Also, no one is quitting the band
right now. "Duh", you may say, but for Skillet, historically, two years
with the same members is pretty impressive. I should say, also, that
this is part of the reason that skillet is doing so well. We have
really become a team. Starting last September, we began taking more
time off from the road so we could have time with our families, and
also to spend some time in local church ministry. Korey and I had
been leading our youth group until about a month ago. We absolutely
did not have time to do that, but neither did anyone else! God did
many great things during that time, though.
About a year ago, we were discussing when we were going to record,
and with whom. We knew that after all the extra time off, a new
album needed to be in sight, along with the need to tour our booties
off! We prayed and prayed and felt like God was leading us to record
with producer, Paul Ebersold. Paul co-produced our first album in
1996. Since then, however, he's produced bands such as, "Three Doors
Down", "Sister Hazel" and "Spacehog"! Point being, we don't make
enough money to have him work with us. God, of course, works in awesome
ways! Through a lot of prayer, stress, and scheduling, Paul said that
he wanted to do the album for less than half his normal cost because
he liked the songs.
I should explain the reason that I was so stressed. I've known that
it's been time to redefine Skillet's sound for quite a while, and
that I needed a producer that I trusted could tell me which of my
songs were good and which weren't. I also knew that I couldn't be
that producer. By the time we really started recording in April, I had
about twenty songs written, with a goal of recording only ten that we
all thought were good. Ten good ones. No bad ones. (That's always the
idea.) After that first week of recording, something fell into place
and the outcome was surprising! We knew that we were steering away
from our industrial sound, and that this album needed to be
smack-your-mama heavy. I also knew that on this album I couldn't be
ashamed of my raspy voice and that I needed to scream louder! While
we were finishing that week, something clicked in my song-writing and
I felt I'd found a missing key. It's hard to explain, but I told our
producer, Paul, that I was going into the other room for a little while.
About ten minutes later, I told Paul I’d written something that I
thought was pretty cool. I played him the chorus for a song called
"Savior". Paul said, "That's the best thing you've written yet!" I
found his response to be a little bit annoying because I usually spend
about five hours writing a chorus. But, it worked and I proceeded
to write another five songs, all of which are on the new album.
These songs were better and had more direction and passion than my
original twenty songs.
Back in January of this year, we recorded a three song demo, two of
which are on the record. Some people have heard "Energy" which was
released exclusively on the internet. We released the song because
it was done several months before we really started recording the
album. Some people liked the song and some didn't. Well, “Energyâ€
Hey Skillet friends!
It's been so long since I've sent anything that I'm afraid this e-mail
is going to be a book! Skillet is doing well, playing concerts,
releasing a new album, seeing people come to the Lord, and going through
many changes. We have seen tons of you guys at festivals this summer,
and some of you are aware of things that are going on. For those of you
who aren't, I'm going to attempt a recap!
First of all, my daughter Alex is 11 months now! Being a father is
amazing. Some of you have seen her at shows, and I'm sure you can
agree that she is the cutest ever. Also, no one is quitting the band
right now. "Duh", you may say, but for Skillet, historically, two years
with the same members is pretty impressive. I should say, also, that
this is part of the reason that skillet is doing so well. We have
really become a team. Starting last September, we began taking more
time off from the road so we could have time with our families, and
also to spend some time in local church ministry. Korey and I had
been leading our youth group until about a month ago. We absolutely
did not have time to do that, but neither did anyone else! God did
many great things during that time, though.
About a year ago, we were discussing when we were going to record,
and with whom. We knew that after all the extra time off, a new
album needed to be in sight, along with the need to tour our booties
off! We prayed and prayed and felt like God was leading us to record
with producer, Paul Ebersold. Paul co-produced our first album in
1996. Since then, however, he's produced bands such as, "Three Doors
Down", "Sister Hazel" and "Spacehog"! Point being, we don't make
enough money to have him work with us. God, of course, works in awesome
ways! Through a lot of prayer, stress, and scheduling, Paul said that
he wanted to do the album for less than half his normal cost because
he liked the songs.
I should explain the reason that I was so stressed. I've known that
it's been time to redefine Skillet's sound for quite a while, and
that I needed a producer that I trusted could tell me which of my
songs were good and which weren't. I also knew that I couldn't be
that producer. By the time we really started recording in April, I had
about twenty songs written, with a goal of recording only ten that we
all thought were good. Ten good ones. No bad ones. (That's always the
idea.) After that first week of recording, something fell into place
and the outcome was surprising! We knew that we were steering away
from our industrial sound, and that this album needed to be
smack-your-mama heavy. I also knew that on this album I couldn't be
ashamed of my raspy voice and that I needed to scream louder! While
we were finishing that week, something clicked in my song-writing and
I felt I'd found a missing key. It's hard to explain, but I told our
producer, Paul, that I was going into the other room for a little while.
About ten minutes later, I told Paul I’d written something that I
thought was pretty cool. I played him the chorus for a song called
"Savior". Paul said, "That's the best thing you've written yet!" I
found his response to be a little bit annoying because I usually spend
about five hours writing a chorus. But, it worked and I proceeded
to write another five songs, all of which are on the new album.
These songs were better and had more direction and passion than my
original twenty songs.
Back in January of this year, we recorded a three song demo, two of
which are on the record. Some people have heard "Energy" which was
released exclusively on the internet. We released the song because
it was done several months before we really started recording the
album. Some people liked the song and some didn't. Well, “Energyâ€
