Behind the Songs

We always like to open an album or find song stories and hear a little more about each song than just what is on the disc. So here are the stories along with the lyrics to the new album.

Stand Up

This song reflects the idea that our failures and brokenness seem to have a voice that tells us we're nothing, incapable and worthless. Hopefully the melody will motivate listeners to stand up to such nonsense, realize our worth, and live like we can overcome …because we can. We don't have to remain fallen; we don't have to remain broken - our failures can't hold us down.

Why do our failures seem to have a voice

They say we're lost and we don't have a choice

They're telling us that we're not capable

They say our prison's inescapable

Stand up now

They can't hold us down

Stand up now

Get up off the ground

Why does our brokenness keep whispering

It's telling us that we're not anything

I say no fall is going to keep us out

This fear is something we'll forget about

Chorus

bridge:

We're fallen – it can't hold us down

These failures – they hold us down

We're broken – they can't hold us down

We're fallen – get up off the ground

Daylight

The theme of the album lives in this song most powerfully. When it seems like everything we count on is letting us down, when the brightest stars are falling from the darkest sky, hope is on the horizon. For me, the song is personally meaningful because I wrote it at the time of my daughter's birth. My wife was in the middle of a relentless labor from midnight to 6:00 am. Through the night we were just waiting for relief, for the site of morning. When the sun rose, our daughter was born. Quite epic I think.

Has everything you've counted on

Left you right here with no warning

Have your dreams become invisible

Wait with me dear till the morning

Light will make the night burnout

Hold on - daylight is coming

Daylight is coming to break the dawn

Daylight is coming

The brightest stars are falling down

Is hope lost in the black skies

The darkness must precede the dawn

Hold on till the sunrise

Light will make your night fade out

All Along

Our human existence isn't validated by the cars we drive, cards we carry, or jobs we have. Is there anything in the universe that can sustain the need of my human heart? We spend our lives looking for something substantial - something valuable and permanent. But we end up with normalcy, marginalized again, consumed by our own consumerism. This song, written with Jason Ingram, sings in unison with every heart crying out for something more - something bigger.

It's not everything it seems - the world and its dreams

Slipping like water through my hands tonight

All the things I thought would fill me up inside

Left me empty here - and now I know why

All along I was looking for something else

You're something else

All along I was looking for something more

You're so much more

I finally found what I could never see before

You've always been the one that I was looking for

All of my castles in the sand - washed away again

And I'm left back where I began tonight

The only thing that can ever fill me up

Has been right in front of me all the time

bridge:

I won't miss you - I won't miss you this time

I say I want you - yeah I want you in my life

Hope

When I look around, it seems as if everything is falling apart. Every day there's another hurricane, earthquake, coastal fire, war, sickness, divorce or a tornado ripping the heart out of our dreams. In the most desperate of times, hope - the beautiful sight for the worn and weary eye- stands in the rubble, digging through the ashes, helping us get back on our feet. She doesn't leave; she is our strength when we have none.

What a beautiful sight for the worn and weary eye

The glimmering light in the corner of a broken sky

Hope sweet hope like a star burning bright

When the sun goes down and the fears begin to fly

Hope's not giving up

Hope's not giving up

In a cold dark night she's not giving

Not giving up

Hold on tight this city's about to break

In the middle of the night lying there wide awake

Hope sweet hope how much more can she take

Being our strength when our hearts are out of faith

bridge:

Hope is with me in my time of trouble

When it all comes crashing down she will stay

By my side digging through the rubble

She's not giving up - not giving up - not giving up

What Happens (At the End)

Paul and a friend, Doug McKelvey, worked on this song together for a long time before the whole band started playing it. This song, out of all the songs on our record, features some of the most impressive production. Both Ian Eskelin, our producer, and Aaron Shannon, the projects engineer, brought a lot to the table with cool ideas and sounds. We have a drop out part with a bunch of harmonies which is really fun. The verses are a new direction for us as a band, and Dan adds quite a unique rhythm on the drums. The electric grand piano also sets a nice tone on this one.

What happens when the song I sing doesn't seem to mean a thing

And everything I have to bring is borrowed and rehearsed

What happens when the music ends and I'm too tired to pretend

That who I am and who I've been could ever get along

Now's the time for letting go

I surrender all - can you hear my call?

When I'm at the end of myself

Is this where you begin when I'm caving in

When I'm at the end of myself

What happens when the motion stops - staring at a broken clock

When what I am and what I'm not are perfectly reversed

Something Made to Last

I hear a kingdom's coming that won't stop running, a kingdom that doesn't depend on foreign oil. I hear the economy of grace doesn't go into recession. I hear there is something that is made to last - something that won't wear down, burn out or fade away. This something is more real then rock music, more real then the bright screen burning a hole in my soul, more real then happiness or success. We want something substantial - not the artificial, fabricated, plastic paradise we keep on building. I wrote this rock song with Ian Eskelin about the expectancy of what's to come.

Everything's so artificial

A fabrication of what's beautiful

I won't be satisfied in my plastic paradise

Give me something made to last

I'm fading fast

Something to hope in

'Cause everything is broken down here

Something made to last

Something made to last

Rock and roll - happiness - diamond rings

These are the best of the temporary things

There must be more for us

'Cause it's all turning into dust

bridge:

A kingdoms coming

And it won't stop running

It won't fade away

Belong With You

Phil and Paul spearheaded the writing of this song with our friend Jason Walker. So often, we try to mask our loneliness with smiles and laughter, but even in the comfort of company, it's still easy to feel like a stranger. This song speaks to the realization that our belonging is found in God and no one else. This track started out as a piano balled but turned into a rock tune when Paul began hitting the opening piano riff on guitar, and we bumped it up a few clicks to make it faster.

All alone in a crowded room

No place for me to fit into

Empty face with a painted smile

I don't know why

But when you find me in my busy streets of emptiness

Remind me I'm not ever on my own

I don't know how you love me like you do

It's so good to belong with you

In all the places I'm a stranger to

It's so good to belong with you

Still the same even if I try

I'm in the middle but I'm still outside

Can someone tell me where I went wrong

I don't understand at all

Is it really worth it in the end

To try time and time again

Looking for what has always been right there

Heartbeat

One of our favorite recording moments was crowding into the vocal booth with Ian and all four of us singing together the 'oh, oh oh' part on this song. This is another one of those tunes that makes working and writing songs with Ian so much fun. Ian brought in some of the cooler production ideas of the album on this song. I like the idea of a rock concert acting like a defibrillator. When we're writing together, it's our goal to create a song that might revive a waning heart beat.

This is a draught

Been living without

The one thing life requires

What a mess

Passionless

Somewhere I lost the fire

Oh my my

Where has it gone

Can anybody turn this beat back on

My heart is fast asleep

Dreaming it could bleed

For something that's real

My desperate appeal

God I'm getting tired of the way I feel

When I would rather be alive

I want to wake up

I want to restart

Put the drumbeat back in my heart

I need to be revived

Bring me back to life

Coming on slow head to toe

The pulse is back again

It's grace in my veins - replacing the pain

Bringing me back from the dead

Oh my my now I can see

You heard me cry emergency

Screaming out for help

You saved me from myself

The fires returned I'm letting it burn

There's nothing better in the whole wide world

It feels so good to be alive

Get To Know You

On this song we experimented with Paul singing into a bullhorn. The electric grand piano swelled through infinite delay alongside some new synth sounds and Dan's drum beat. Paul brings a rocking lead vocal on this tune. "Get to Know You" is one of those that's fun to play live, and people leave our concert with the chorus stuck in their heads.

I heard so much of you I wrote a book

Thick with thoughts of you that I heard were true

The critics read my work and they reviewed

He wrote of things he'd heard but never really knew

I'd say it's time that I get to know you

More then just what I've been told

I'd say it's time that I get to know you