Joel

I picked the King James Version (KJV) to find inspiration for melodic material for my work. This translation is a personal favorite of mine because the challenging nature of the language leaves me filled with a sense of awe, which I felt especially in the first 11 verses of Joel 2. However, the New International Version (NIV) helped me conceptualize a sense foreshadowing in this passage. I formed the lyrics of my song from a blend of the KJV and NIV. So, once I created an arch to join the two versions of the first 11 verses, I fit the words to the melodic and rhythmic structure previously established from my work with the KJV.

Personally, I have the most fun developing the harmony of my music. A few nights one week, I went to the local university with my four year old son. There, I messed around with the piano to see what might come out of my improvisational playing in association with the melody and lyrics. After I developed some ideas, I populated them into a digital audio workstation (DAW). There, I built a simple beat to help me rap-sing out the lyrics before doing a final recording over the finished beat in studio.