A Deeper Look at Owl City
Last week I posted about Owl City’s – Meteor Shower song possibly being the future of worship music. I could tell from many of the comments that some didn’t quite get why I thought he (Adam Young) may be on to something in the realm of worship music.
Yes, I love seeing laptops on stage and I love using loops in worship, but that’s just scratching the surface. What makes that song special is the space that he leaves in it – the room to breathe and reflect. There are plenty of moments when he’s not singing anything. THAT I think may be a glimpse of the future. Actually, it takes us back to Biblical (Selah) times of worship. Funny how things come back around isn’t it?
This week I’ll be writing primarily to worship leaders. If you’re a techie or pastor, please forward my blog on to your worship leader. I hope you’ll read it as well, as we all can stand to learn something new, but please make sure whoever leads worship at your church reads my blog this week. Thanks!
February 1st, 2010 at 7:16 pm
I'm so glad to hear you use the word "breathe" in describing the music. I'm constatnly telliing the musicians I get to play with each week that we need to let the song "breathe". Too often, musicians suffocate a song because they want to throw down a killer guitar lead (or bass, or keys, or drums, etc…). Let it breathe, man. Let it breathe! Thanks for you insight, Greg!
February 1st, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Thanks for sharing that, Michael. I think you'll dig tomorrow's blog post.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:48 pm
I should have included this in my original post, but one ot my favorite quotes on this subject comes from Keith Richards…
“A painter starts with a blank canvas, and as a musician, your canvas is silence. You don’t want to cover it all up. So if you know what you’re doing as a musician, you play the silences. You can’t fall into that trap of trying to get everything in and playing so fast. You have to take time and pace yourself. Otherwise, technically you may make people go ‘wow’, but it doesn’t make good music.”
… okay, I'll put my soap box back out of reach.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:05 am
Love it! Well said.
February 8th, 2010 at 3:07 am
[...] 6 minutes there are no vocals – just instruments building (this is what I was referring to in my post about Owl City and the future of worship music – Selah [...]
February 17th, 2010 at 2:03 am
[...] thinks the song Meteor Shower by Owl City represents the future of worship music. Check out his thoughts, and then — ONLY if you live in the U.S. — check out the song at [...]
February 17th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
[...] thinks the song Meteor Shower by Owl City represents the future of worship music. Check out his thoughts, and then — ONLY if you live in the U.S. — check out the song at [...]