Beloved: About the Album

All about the process of creating the Beloved album, from the project as a whole, down to each song's inspiration track by track, including which bible verses I pulled from to write the songs.

About the Album

I began writing the album “Beloved” long before I knew it would become an album.

The first song of the album that I ever began writing was the title track “Beloved”. It came spontaneously in a time of worship when I was supposed to lead people in worship and didn’t know what to sing. The lyrics and melody came to me in a way I can only describe as the Holy Spirit giving it to me to sing.

I then sat with it and wrote verses that I felt surrounded the chorus well message-wise. The rest of the songs came in similar ways but not the same.

After the COVID lockdowns began and most of us were spending most our time inside, I had a lot of time to sit down and produce. While producing, some of the songs came to me like very peaceful reminders of the character of Jesus. Other times while producing I’d be reminded of past times of worship where the spirit had brought songs out of me, and that happened to fit with what I would be producing. Then there’s the song “Gratitude” which was completely in the moment, both lyrically and musically.

It wasn’t until after I had finished these songs that I felt led to name to album “Beloved” (at the same time as when the Lord’s led me to read through Song of Solomon and learn what that even means) which was when I remembered the song “Beloved” and after wrestling with it, decided to add it to the album.

My hope and prayer is that these songs reveal to you the truth of God’s love and heart for you in a way that maybe it’s never been shown to you, or in a way that you haven’t been able to see it in a while for whatever the reason may be.

We are his Beloved, and he is ours.

Beholding

Scripture References - John 1:29, John 14:6, Hebrews 12:2, Psalm 145:1-3, Psalm 22:3, Matthew 6:9-13, Romans 8:16-17

The words and melody to Beholding came from a time when I was walking around my apartment.

I was thinking about what it means to “behold” Jesus. At some point it caused me to sing the melody that’s now the melody to the song.

At first it was just something that was happening in the moment. It felt very much like a hymn. I remember the lyrics “I am beholding the lamb of Jesus. My one salvation. My solid rock.“ also coming out when the melody came to me. Then “I have a father high up in heaven who comes to dwell with his precious child. There is a kingdom I will inherit, for i and heaven are reconciled”. That was when I began to feel ministered to through it, and that it was a song I personally wanted to hear again, and something worth meditating on to see it become a full song.

The more I thought through who I know Jesus to be, the longer the song became. It sort of ended up becoming this song of just listing off scripture purely about who God is, which is my favorite thing about it.

Once I felt as though the lyrics said what they needed to say, I looked for a drum loop, played what felt like pretty traditional chords since the song felt like a hymn, and also left it to verses only, for the same reason, and the song was finished.

The beginning part of the song was actually intended to be a completely separate intro track, but being that the goal of the intro was to prepare for the “beholding” it seemed to make sense to put them together.

So that’s how the song came together the way it did.

Waited for Me

Scripture References: Romans 8:35-37, Luke 15,11:32, Philippians 4:19, 1 Corinthians 2:12, Revelation 1:16, Matthew 17:1-8, John 14:15, Acts 9:1-6

Waited For Me was easily the most humbling song to write on this album, as well as the one I least expected to put on an album while writing it.

This song came about through a songwriting exercise I did with the students in Worship Track in DCLS (Dream Center Leadership School, where I have the honor and privilege of working).

The exercise was to write down the first word that came to mind without knowing why, then to write a song about and/or inspired by that word. The goal is to get out of the habit of overthinking what to write about and to be able to write about whatever it is that needs to be expressed in that moment.

I ended up doing the exercise too, and my word was “dog”. It’s in a 6/8 time signature and sort of sounds very acoustic with finger-picking and a bit twangy the way it does at the beginning because the only genre of music I could think of where anyone would write about a dog was country music. Some of the melody is a bit country-inspired also, especially in the bridge. This was before I had even had a dog, but my wife and I had someone staying with us for a while who had a dog, and the first thing that came to mind was how excited she would get when any of us came home. It was nice of course, but I never thought more of it than that until this writing activity. It immediately reminded me of the story of the prodigal son. Dogs don’t care where you were or what you were doing, they’re just glad you’re back. It’s seemingly unconditional.

Funny enough, lyrics like “You are the life in my bones” and “you brought me out of the cages” were initially just sort of plays on words that ended up actually sticking with me, and bringing me back to very biblical truths (Ezekiel 37 with the story of the Valley of Dry Bones, and Psalm 23:2). “You took off singing and running” was sort of a coming-together of the memory I had of our roommate's dog getting so excited the second she saw her owner coming home, the story of the Prodigal Son, and Zephaniah 3:17 where it says the Lord rejoices over us with song.

Before I started the second verse, I remembered reading the story behind how Jess Ray (an incredible songwriter who you should give a listen if you haven't), wrote the song “Dimensions” after her dog watched her leave for second, and I started to then think about in what ways a dog’s role is similar to mine in relation to God. The obvious thing being that all I need is found in dwelling in his presence. In his house. When I make him my home, I don’t have to go looking for anything anywhere else. “You are my provider. I am so delighted. All that I have need of, it is found in Jesus.”

The “I am so delighted” came from looking from my perspective as the one who delights in seeing Jesus, as apposed to the first verse where the focus is his delight in us.

The bridge mostly focuses on the inclination to bow before the majesty of Jesus when we truly start to understand and see how good he really is, and the first line “In all of your brightness you caught my attention, comes from Acts 9 where Paul is blinded by the brightness, and his life changing from then on. The inspiration for that honestly came from how quickly dogs will turn their attention toward shiny, exciting looking things. It’s sort of our nature as humans also to get distracted by flashy things, and I wanted to highlight that when we really see the heart and the character of Jesus, and when we experience and become aware of his presence, how much more bright it actually is than all flashy lights and things we design for ourselves.

The “In all of your beauty I fall to my knees” and “when I behold it I bow at your feet” was a parallel with the way Dogs sit intently in front of their master, and the realization that Jesus is worthy of my intent, and to be waited on a bowed to because he is the master of my life, in that he provides for it, directs it, and sustains it.

The last thing I think is worth mentioning is the “With love so amazing how could I not give you everything.” being inspired by the way a dog might bring you their toys or things they’ve found, either as a sign of trust/ respect, or as a request to interact with you through that thing in some way. As insignificant as it might sound (and as much of a stretch as it may seem like) He’s worthy of that kind of sacrifice, trust, and desire for relationship.

Come On Through

Scripture References - Psalm 42:1, Deuteronomy 8:3, Ephesians 3:18, Jeremiah 33:3, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Job 10:12, Luke 15:20

This song simply came out of having extra time on my hands and wanting to make a really smooth sounding beat with two chords.

I started with the drums, then the more I listened to the drums, the more drums I wanted to add, so it ended being a very percussion-heavy songs.

There’s electric drums, bongos, conga, shakers, cowbell, snaps, claps, different snare sounds, and agogo.

After a while of having it on loop with no plan for it in particular, the melody and lyrics “Come one through” came to me, and with that it became a song about simply desiring to encounter the Holy Spirit.

There’s not really anything more to it than that. Just an expression of desire.

Beloved

Scripture References - John 6:37, Isaiah 43:19, 1 John 1:5, Colossians 2:10, Psalm 23:6, Song of Solomon 6:3, Ephesians 1:9, Song of Solomon 1:4, Colossians 3:15

This song coming to be is actually one of my favorite memories of leading worship. At the end of a chapel service we were having at the Dream Center, I got called to go back up on stage and do one last song for an altar call. I generally pray for direction throughout a sermon that the Holy Spirit will make clear to me what song to sing. Generally a song everyone in the rooms knows relatively well. This time though, the more I prayed and tried to listen for the Holy Spirit, all I could hear was “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all my days, for I am your beloved.” exactly how it's sung on what is now the song, Beloved. Note for note, word for word, even as far as how many times to sing each line. I tried to ignore it and think of a song everyone knew, but the message was over, the speaker had prayed into the altar call, and it was time to start, so I began to play and sing what had been placed on my heart. From then we ended up worshipping with that song a few times after, and it became a pretty significant song for that year.

Then eventually I sat down and prayed about what the verses and bridge could be should there be verses or choruses. Not long after that I wrote 2 verses, and a bridge (which was not included on the album, but is included in the live recording from a DCLS chapel service, which is on the acoustic album.) and from then did it a few more times. It was absolutely not the plan to put this song on the album, even after deciding to name the album “Beloved” but it became clear that it should be on the album, so I sat and again, prayed about what that would sound like in context with the rest of the album. It had always been a very acoustic song, so to reimagine it.

It was a process I very much enjoyed and will always value.

Gratitude

Scripture References - John 4:14, Deuteronomy 4:24, Psalm 25:4, Revelation 1:14-15, Psalm 136:1

This song, much like Come On Through, was a song where I had the inspiration to create the beat before I even cared whether or not it would ever become a song. As far as writing the chords, there wasn’t much of a plan. I threw a drum loop on, cut it up the way I wanted it to be, then sat down and decided the song would be in G♭, then basically played whichever black keys felt right. The only consistent chord is the A♭minor and it happens every other count of 1, which is why that’s mostly the only time the bass comes in aside from the few runs.

After making it and letting it play for a while just to enjoy it as music (and freestyling along to it here and there), I started to sing along to it. Maybe it was the initially somewhat dark sound of the chord progression, but I felt inclined to a certain innocent curiosity toward the character of Jesus. An almost hesitant desire for him that I’m sure most believers have felt either when opening our hearts to him for the first time, or when allowing him to tear down and rebuild our previously sacred perspectives of life or even Jesus himself.

Rather than write any of this down, I turned on the microphone and started recording whatever would come out while thinking from a place of intrigue toward Jesus, mostly centered around seeing him, and Revelation 1:14-15. After listening through to that, I added the background vocals, and the song was done.

Gratitude was all-around one of my favorites to make, and one of the songs I was most excited to release. It was almost the album single but I ended up going with Singing Over Me.

Robe/Temple

Scripture References - Isaiah 6:1, Matthew 9:21, 1 Timothy 3:16, Revelation 4:8-11, Psalm 66:4, Psalm 19:1, Revelation 5:13, Revelation 14:2-4, Song of Solomon 5:10, James 2:13, Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 15:11-32, 1 Corinthians 6:19

Writing this song started off as just playing the piano.

Once I played a few pretty chromatic chords on accident, and truly just thinking about music and how abstract and vast it is, it brought me to a certain reverence for God.

After sitting in that reverence for a bit, I started to sing “There is a Robe that fills the temple of the Lord”.

Then I spent a few hours meditating on the word and thinking about the Glory of god and how a robe relates to royalty, and finished the first verse.

The rest of the song was finished over the course of a few weeks, after spending a lot of time praying about what kind of thing I thought was urgent to say about the glory of God.

I think my favorite part of writing the song, was starting on the idea of his Glory filling his temple, and being taken on the journey of it being brought back around to the story of the Prodigal Son, and us being wrapped up in the authority of the father. His Robe, clothing the temple, and us becoming his temple. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Singing Over Me

Scripture References - Romans 8:38-39, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 3:18, John 3:16, Matthew 27:51, Zephaniah 3:17, Deuteronomy 33:26, 1 Peter 5:7, Psalm 66:4

Singing Over Me came out of a long time of worship I had in my alone time.

I used to like to turn on my voice memos whenever I would have my private time of worship, because I liked to listen back to what God was doing in me during those times.

One time in my room I sat down and listened to one of those records, and part of it where the words were “Nothing stands between us. We are one. You died to make us one, then rose again to be with me in eternity.” stuck with me.

I honestly couldn’t tell you whether or not the beat was made before then or if it came after, but during that time the idea of him singing over us and delighting in us was a truth I had been having a lot of revelation on, and something I was holding onto tightly at the time, as well as trying to learn what it even looks like to hold onto that as truth.

This song is the one that’s been intended to be on the album since it’s been done, I knew I wanted it to be the first one to be released (except for when I considered putting out Gratitude first) , as well as the last song on the album, because the first and last thing I knew I wanted to communicate with the project as a whole, was that there’s a God who delights in you and has a heart for you.

If you read through all of those, or even any one of those, thank you so much for taking the time to see the heart behind this album. I hope you enjoy the album if you haven't listened to it already, and if you have and you enjoyed it, I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Thank you!