Day 1 in the studio to start tracking our album. This is the first studio album that we’ve done as a band (previously we’ve recorded two live albums), so it’s exciting to be doing something different this time. Although I love the atmosphere and passion that you get from live worship albums, they can sometimes be a bit stifling when it comes to musicality and creativity. Being in the studio gives you the freedom to play around a bit more with the music and the songs. Having said that, tracking 11 songs in two weeks means that you need to stick to a tight tracking schedule.

Today was drums, and we had Chris into track 4 songs: ABANDON, MORE OF YOU LESS OF ME, WE ARE CHAMPIONS, & COME. I’m loving the variation that we have on this album. There are some great driving upbeat songs, some poppy catchy songs, some darker intimate songs, and some indie folk songs. A great mix, but hopefully it will all come together nicely to form a cohesive set.

It’s also great working with Darran Muller (Muller Creative) again. We worked with him previously on the new version of ‘From Ashes To Beauty’ for the Worship Central Lifting High album. He’s a great guy to work with and has a ton of experience both playing in bands and recording bands.

A great start today. Spirits are high and the morale is good - let’s hope it stays this way throughout. I’ll be blogging daily on our progress so check back often.

- Tom

Day 2 in the studio - still working on drums. Today Edgar came in to track 5 songs: OUR GOD REIGNS, HOPE STANDS STRONG, RELENTLESS GRACE, TO BE NEAR YOU, NEVER BACK DOWN.

If you have never met Edgar before, let me do a little introduction. Edgar, otherwise known as ‘Egay’ (pronounced “eh-guy”) is from The Philippines and has just finished a 5 year stint as a professional percussionist at Hong Kong Disneyland. He wanted to be Mickey but that position was already taken, so he ended up playing drums everyday to thousands of mainland tourists who have most likely never seen a djembe before, or a man with massive dreadlocks… and definitely not a man with massive dreadlocks playing the djembe!

Anyway, Edgar has been with the band for about a year and a half, and it’s awesome having him play drums on the record. He’s a machine, and he tracked his five songs in about 5 hours which is pretty good, especially for someone who’s never played in the studio before! Darran worked him pretty hard today, which we are loving as he is pushing us all to be better musicians. Over dinner Darran gave us all a verbal lesson in drumming… which was probably fascinating for the other 3 drummers at the table, but made no sense to me at all. I’ve tried to play drums but my feet and hands are linked and will only do one thing at a time (If you only needed your hands to play drums I’d be amazing!!).

Day 2 done and dusted. Drums are almost finished - just one more track tomorrow and then we move on to bass and electric guitar tracking.

- Tom

Day 5 in the studio - I’m starting to get cabin fever… 15 hours a day in the same room will do that to you! Today we tracked mostly guitars including acoustic, bass, and electric. I did some acoustic guitar parts in the morning on COME, SING WITH THE ANGELS, RELENTLESS GRACE. I think people might be quite surprised when they hear this album as some of the songs are quite different to anything we’ve done before.

Silas Lee and Joshua Wong both came in to track their parts. Joshua was playing keys on a song he’s written called ABANDON. Great track, but unfortunately he couldn’t remember all the chords, or exactly how to play it… that seems to happen quite a bit with songwriters and their own songs!

Did I mention that this studio we are in has one of the nicest toilets I’ve ever been in? Seriously, it has a full on shower and everything… with mirrors!! I’ll take a photo tomorrow and show you. I think I’m going to have to take a shower here just for the experience.. no photos of that though!

- Tom

Day 6 in the studio - still recording guitars. Today Ephraim Bano came in to record guitars on WE ARE CHAMPIONS, OUR GOD REIGNS, RELENTLESS GRACE, MORE OF YOU LESS OF ME.

In my mind, if you are looking for someone to give your song some serious ‘cool points’ there is no one better than Ephraim. He hears guitar parts in his head that are quite different to what most other people hear. The first time I ever met Eph was at a Micah68 gig about 12 years ago. I reckon it must have been the first rock show he’d ever been to because both him and his brother went nuts moshing and playing air guitar at the front. It was a sight to behold. The next time I saw him, he played me note for note every single Micah68 guitar part.

He’s probably pretty embarrassed by that now, but it’s very cool that 12 years later we are still playing and making music together. There’s something special that comes from playing music together for a long time. Non-musicians probably won’t understand, but it means a lot to me, and I’m honored to still be standing alongside these guys after all these years, worshipping together and glorifying God with our music.

And now as promised - here is a photo of that toilet. The photo doesn’t really do it justice, but you get the idea. It has one of the shower heads with multiple nozzles so that you get sprayed by water from every direction. Awesome.