Driving an Acura, Infiniti, Subaru or Volkswagen is a sign of high intelligence. Driving a Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford or Hummer is a sign of low intelligence. Listening to Bjork is a sign of high intelligence, while listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd is a sign of low intelligence.

Now I’m not one to brag (actually, I’m terrific at not being boastful), but it would seem to me that anyone who was into a certain soul/pop band that blends jazz, funk, r&b, rock and hip-hop music must be terribly smart. So from now on we should put a label on our CDs that read:

WARNING: The music contained in this album may confuse Hummer driving, Lynyrd Synyrd fans.

Read more about the book at NPR’s Monitor Mix Blog.

Every once-in-a-while you’ll meet someone who really doesn’t care what people think.  Not in an arrogant or middle-finger-up at the world sort of way, but in a good way.  The problem is, people who truly have this attitude don’t necessarily fit the classic American definition of the “cool kid.”  They aren’t up on the latest trends, hang in the most popular circles of friends, or have the best clothes, and so the “cool kids” don’t see what this person has to offer.  I have to admit I haven’t known too many of these kinds of people, and when I have encountered them, I’m guilty of writing them off as well.  But I’ve had the rare pleasure of getting to know a couple of folks that I’d say fall into this category, and they are always the greatest people you ever want to meet.  They aren’t the most popular with the girls, smartest in the class, captain of the football team kinda people, and you’d never see a role created for thhis type of kid in High School Musical. But they have a lot more to offer me than I have to offer them.

That’s sort of the back drop of this song.  It’s a story about a fictional dude who fits this mold.  In fact, he’s oblivious to the fact that he’s not cool… he’s so comfortable and content with who he is that he’s completely convinced he is cool, even though everyone around him thinks he’s just weird.  Sometimes the ones we tag as “losers” end up being the most interesting people.  As we get to know this guy we begin not only to discover things about him, but about ourselves as well.  In the same way he doesn’t care what people think, we begin to discover how much we do care.  We care way too much.  In fact, most of the things we put in our life to make us more socially acceptable are really just shallow attempts to convince people of our worth… and boy do we care about those stupid things.  How insecure are most of us?  For real.  If we took a lesson from the few people in the world who couldn’t care less about status or fashion or trendiness we’d be much better for it.

I think we assume that the uncool kids in life all want to be like the cool kids.  That’s the ironic twist in this song.  As we watch this guy and how he chooses not to live his life for other people, we realize that we want to be just like him. Because when you think about it, we’re really not comfortable with who we are.  We make so many daily attempts to convince people we’re way cooler than we are.  We’re afraid to show our true colors for fear of looking like a total nerd.  But could you imagine how free you’d feel if you didn’t put the pressure on yourself to impress everybody today?  If you realized your personal self worth wasn’t based on the compliments and reactions you get from other people who see how well you perform or how good you look today?

Don’t you want some of that?  There’s a lesson here for all of us.

My oh my, don’t you wanna be just like him?
Walk, talk just like him?
Looking so comfortable in his skin
Why oh why couldn’t we all be just like that?
I wish we all got that
Looking so comfortable in our skin

*On a side note, FE’s new T shirt reads “Future Hall of Fame,” a quote from this song.  It’s been a very popular item.  You should get one or no one will think you’re cool.

C’mon, that’s funny.

We can only fight the fire with fire so long, baby

‘Til it all burns down, ’til it all burns down

Soul music has always been heavy with socially conscious and political songs, and I’ve always admired artists like Sly & the Family Stone, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and even Arrested Development for their ability to deliver thought provoking commentaries on the world around them, all laid on top of a great groove.  That’s what we set out to do with this song.  Really, I think the undertaking of this tune turned a new leaf for FE, and I can even see now how writing lyrics has taken a different direction since this tune was written, especially with songs that we’ve written after the release of The Cycle We’re Living In.

The groove for this song is very similar to I’ve Got To Be Down, the lead track on Robin Thicke’s record, The Evolution of Robin Thicke. This was very intentional.  At the time, FE was listening to that record a ton, and something about that groove smacked heavily of that old school Marvin Gaye, What’s Goin On?-type vibe.  We started jamming on a similar groove at a soundcheck at a venue in Greenville, SC called The Carpenter’s Cellar.  It was clear this was going to be a politically driven song, but for the longest time there were very few lyrical ideas – just some melody and chords, so the song sat in our iTunes labeled “Cellar Groove.”  As it took shape, we were also intentional about making sure this didn’t simply become an anti-war song, but delivered something a little more close to home.  The thoughts of reacting to violence and injustice in the world are so often connected to global issues, but as we discussed the concept we kept coming back to the headlines of the day, which at the time were school and courthouse shootings, and violence within households.  We wanted to address that as much as any thoughts of Iraq or the Sudan and remind our listeners and ourselves that we are all not only affected by injustice, but we all have a responsibility to respond to it.

The message of the song is simple.  It encourages us as members of society to look for alternative ways to respond to acts of injustice.  We often see two possible reactions: 1.) fight back, or 2.) do nothing and get crushed.  This song challenges us that maybe there is a third way, a better way.  A way that promotes peace instead of fighting violence with more violence.  The mental picture was strong with me: if we fight fire with fire, we end up with twice as much fire and everything will go down in flames (which is, as my beloved voice instructor used to say, “like a pissing contest: no one wins and everybody gets wet”) .  And all in the name of fighting for justice?  There’s got to be a better way.  But we didn’t answer that question.  The focus of the song was not to hand you the answer as much as it was to make you think and consider how you interact with the ugliness of the world around you and promote peace and justice.

Once written, we sort of got stuck with taking this song to the next level.  It seemed to be an arrangement thing, and some parts really needed to be worked out.  This was a job for the best of the best, so we called up a good friend, Jorge Casas and presented him with the opportunity to help us finish the song, arrange it and eventually join us in the studio to produce the track on the album.  For years Jorge has been the band leader and bass player for Miami Sound Machine, and is a genius with this kind of work.  We figured if Gloria Estefan, Santana and Carole King thought we was good enough to hire, he might be up for the task.  He sat in on some rehearsals, dove right in and did his magic (and added some latin percussion) and brought the whole song to life.  It was a pleasure getting to work with such a seasoned veteran and respected musician (not to mention the Grammy’s), and needless to say, working out this tune became a highlight of the making of this record.

Right after Al Gore invented the internet, he wrote the song “Asking Myself.”

About the Song
So the opening sentence of this post isn’t completely accurate, but I would say that he did have a bit of influence on the song. In the Summer of 2006 Al Gore made big waves in the popular conscience of America with the release of the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” It seems like everyone was talking about things like global climate change and human over-consumption.

Fast forward 6 months and we were messing around with this slinky little R&B riff that I had come up with and started trying to write a love song around the music. I remember Russ coming up with the line, “I keep asking myself, have we gone too far,” referring to the way that our heart can pull us into unhealthy places in relationships. That’s about as far as we got on the song before we got stuck.

A few weeks later Russ and I were having a discussion related to the topic of over consumption in America and what our responsibility as people of faith should be. That conversation led me to rethink the direction of the song we were trying to write, because in a way the same emotions that get us stuck in unhealthy relationships with people can also get us stuck in unhealthy relationships with the stuff we consume (e.g. food, clothing, houses, toys, etc). You see, I’ve never met anyone who started into a love-type relationship with another person thinking, “I really hope this ends badly and I get my heart broken.” Similarly, I don’t think that any of us make our purchasing decisions by first thinking through the full implications that our mass-consumer mentality has on the world when it comes to issues of environmentalism and social justice. However, the truth of the matter is that our consumption does have many negative effects on the world around us that we need to consider.

It was that line of thinking that led me to rewrite the verses of the song to include lyrics like:

Stop the music I need your attention before the skies turn gray,
I don’t think it was ever our intention for things to end up this way.
We just took till we had our fill, and never thought we’d have to pay the bill
So get your head straight before it’s too late

It’s hard to look in the mirror and ask ourselves tough questions like these, but I think it’s important for us to stop and reflect occasionally so that we don’t end up several years down the road wishing that we’d been more content with the things that we had.

People ask us all the time about our song writing process:  Who writes the music and lyrics?  Is it a group effort or an individual bringing a song to rehearsal?  One of the great things about making this record was that songs came together in about every way possible.  Some were products of “jam sessions”, some were collaborations between 2 or 3 members of the band, some started as just a riff or groove that someone came up with and a song was built around it, and some were well on their way to being finished by one of the members before the rest of the group even heard the idea.  It’s great to be a part of a team that is so talented that everyone has a significant role in the creative process.  And it’s cool that everyone owns every great idea on this record.  More on that in a minute.

Enter “Nobody But You.”  It’s a pretty self-explanatory track.  We’ve all had a friends that get tripped up in life and head down a destructive path.  It’s tricky because we all make mistakes, and part of being a good friend is loving each other through thick or thin.  But then there are the times that mistakes become habits and habits become lifestyles, and before you know it they’re in a downward spiral and need help.  It’s here that good friends have to take action (and saying nothing would be not loving them well), but sometimes that’s not well-received.  You never want to see a friend’s life come apart.  Sometimes, however, that rocks the boat and the friend becomes distant and withdrawn.  And sometimes, as they say, if you really love someone, you have to let them go.  It’s tough to get to a place where you realize you can’t control the situation and you just have to let go and pray for the best.

In many of the songs I have a hand in writing, the bridge serves as a place to sum up the message of the song, and the same is true here:

You only think about yourself, friend, I just don’t understand why you do what you’re doing and
I hate to think I’d have to let go and say “I told you so,” but I guess that’s how it’s got to go

This song really reflects a couple different relationships I’ve had on different levels, and I’ve tragically seen some really great people hurt and seen some incredibly gifted people throw a lot away.  Friends that I really cared for but had to let them learn hard lessons because they shut everyone out and wouldn’t heed warnings and advice from the ones that love them.  That’s basically the heart of this song.

But one of the most interesting points about this song for me goes back to my first paragraph, and that’s how the song came together.  Our drummer, Luke (also an extremely talented guitar player) came up some guitar riffs, threw them down in his home studio, and built some grooves around them.  He shot me an mp3 and asked me to take a listen and see if it inspired any ideas.  It actually inspired a lot of them.  I dropped it in my iPod for days and would drive around town singing in my car, spitting out all sorts of ideas.  At the time I was working a part time job working in a stock room, and one morning driving to work, Guatemalan coffee in hand, it hit me.  The words just kinda came out as I was singing in morning traffic, and as I got to the parking lot I realized I couldn’t stop.  I hummed and “freestyled” a few lines into my phone so I’d remember them later and went in to work.  But I couldn’t get it out of my head.  It just so happened that no one else was scheduled to work with me that day.  Perfect.  I threw a pencil and a scrap piece of paper in my back pocket and clocked in.  There I was, processing shipments and unpacking boxes, all the while freestyling and singing in the back stock room, occasionally stopping long enough to jot down a line or two.  By the end of my shift the song was done.  All in a days work.  Literally.  I went home, sang it back into my computer and emailed it back to Luke.  Later we put it together with the band, tweaked some parts and arrangements, and the rest is history.

A handful of our newer tunes have come together that way… someone gets a great idea, throws down some really cheesy loops and ideas on Garage Band, and emails it around for the guys to shoot ideas at it.  At this moment my iPod and iTunes are full of really funny demos of songs waiting for the perfect idea to strike during a traffic jam.  Sounds like a concept album in the making.  Thank you, technology.

This video of a guy starting a dance party at the Sasquatch Music festival has been making it’s rounds around the internet this week. The video is interesting because it shows how one person can create a movement that affects a whole group of people.

In the music world, this example can obviously be compared to the way that as people find music that they love and share that music with the people around them a small group of fans becomes a huge fan base. We are very thankful for those of you who have been fans of the band for several years and shared our music with the people around you, but that’s not the main thing I wanted to share today.

Today I have 2 challenges for you:

1. If you there is something creative inside you that needs to be let out today DO IT. Even if you’re afraid that you’ll look ridiculous (like the first dancing guy), you’ll never know how your act might affect those around you.
2. If you see something that inspires you today either share it or join in the cause (we recommend checking out Mocha Club). Don’t wait for the movement to happen before jumping on. Remember, guy #3 in the video had almost as much to do with starting the dance party as guy #1 in the video.

Track #2, “That Girl”

Several people know the secret behind this song, but for those who don’t it might come as a surprise to find out that the song “That Girl” was written for my daughter, Elle. I believe I started by coming up with the first line of the chorus to the song while I was in the shower. I hadn’t decided that the song was going to be about my daughter at that point, but once I made that decision the rest of the song fell into place pretty quick. I emailed a demo to the rest of the guys that just included everything but a bridge (which Russ wrote later).

I had just joined the Fundamental Elements a few months earlier and we were starting to write new songs for what would eventually be “The Cycle We’re Living In.” I wanted to write an acoustic song to fit with the style of the stuff the band had written before I was a member. I always tend to write my best songs out of my current life experiences, so the thrill of being a new dad was a natural creative catalyst for me to write about.

One thing that I’ve always loved about a good song (or any art for that matter) is when you can read in your own story and make the song have special significance for yourself. I can think of several songs that I love that have special meaning to me because when I heard the song it was like the writer was able to capture my own emotions better than i could articulate it myself. With this in mind I intentionally tweaked the song so that the it could be interpreted as a song about any new love relationship even though the original sentiment was from a father/daughter perpective.

For example, the second verse originally started:

Her eyes are water and I’m drowning in the view, my only daughter and a deeper shade of blue.

But was changed to:

Her eyes are water and a deeper shade of blue, now that I got her I’m just drowning in the view.

It’s At the end of the day I’m super happy about how this song came out and is probably the song that I’m most proud of on the whole album. Especially when the girl behind “That Girl” asks me if I can turn on Fundamental Elements and play “her song.”