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| I (Whitney) have a habit of doodling while I record. Don't tell my Producer.
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They’re fun, they’re talented, and they are REAL. Meet our newest guest bloggers: Whitney, Soni & Brooke of Mercy River. We’re so excited to share the inspirational music and crazy adventures of this popular trio of stay-at-home moms. Join them on TOFW.com each Thursday as they take you behind the scenes and into their lives. Don’t miss their first post all about the making of their new album, Higher.
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| Here is Baby Luke giving Producer Scott some pointers. (If Scott had known that "engineering with one hand while holding Whitney's spit-uppy baby in the other" was in the job description, he probably wouldn't have agreed to produce the album. Which is why we didn't tell him beforehand. |
The three of us have always compared "making an album" to the last weeks of pregnancy. You're exhausted, you don't sleep well, and your emotions are all over the place. One minute you're on cloud nine and the next you're sobbing into your hands. Oh, and your house is a mess and you serve mac and cheese for dinner a few too many times than you should. It's hard to believe that you will EVER give birth (that the album will EVER get finished)...but then one day, it happens. And you realize that somehow, you've made it through alive.
That day came for me last week when I held our brand new album in my hands. I mean the official "shrink-wrapped in a case" kind. I ripped open the packaging (aka I spent 10 frustrating minutes trying to get the dumb sticky part off the top) and cranked it up in my van. And although I had heard every track hundreds of times, I bawled the whole way through. Not because every track made me cry, and not even because it was finally all "over."
I cried because I was beginning to see the whole picture.
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| Isn't she adorable?? We love Brooke. |
For months we have been obsessed with the teeniest of details: Who should sing which "ahh"? And should it be "ahh" at all?? What about "ooh"? Which instrument should be added to such and such chorus that doesn't feel "finished"? Should one of us sing the entire song or should we break it up? Was that extra note cool or distracting? Should the harmonies be pulled back on this song or more present? What KEY should this be in? (Oh the agony of picking keys.) I have been so wrapped up in these tiny details, that that's what each song had become to me--a pile of details. Even after they had been recorded, mixed, and stamped as "done," I would still listen to each song and think, "Ugh, I wish that note had been turned down," or "Shoot, we should have added a harmony there" or "Man, we should have extended that violin solo."
But last week when I listened to my first "real" copy, I listened as though I was hearing the songs for the first time--as someone else would hear them. It was as if I was stepping back from staring at hundreds of tiny strokes on a painting--to see the entire work of art completed. And it was breathtaking.
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| A classic "Soni pose" |
Truly, we received more-than-subtle hints from Heaven that we needed to learn something from this journey. And although what we learned was a little different for all three of us, there are two words that sum up our combined experience: "LET GO." Over and over, we felt the Lord encouraging us to let go. Of our pride, of our plans, of our control-freak-grip on every detail (me), of our fear, of our self-doubt, of our inhibitions. We actually wanted to title the album "Let Go" because of our experiences, but we decided that felt too negative. Instead, we settled on "Higher," which is where the Lord brings us when we DO let go.
So. The "baby" has arrived, and I don't even have to sit on a plastic "donut" OR wake up for a 3am feeding! It’s awesome. We hope you find our "new" one as beautiful as we do.
Love,
Whitney xo
P.S. Here is a little behind the scenes video in the recording studio:
TOFW is giving away copies of Mercy River's new album, Higher, all week! Leave a comment below and you could be chosen as today's winner. Check back later for more details about this week of giveaways!