When Travis Swan and Katrina Stone collaborated for the first time in 2005, it was unlikely that anything would come of that four-hour songwriting session. Facing differences in musical influences and disparate upbringings, they penned the first track of their new album The World Will See. “When we wrote Only By Your Grace, I had no idea it would spawn into an entire album, ” says Stone. And nearly 5 years later, it finally has.

Putting differences aside, these two musicians found some middle ground by fusing elements from their musical preferences to create a fresh, new sound. Swan’s background in rock/punk and Stone being based primarily in pop music allowed an unlikely sonic landscape that shakes up the average worship music setting. Katrina cites the influences of Jason Mraz, Blue October, Ingrid Michaelson, and Norah Jones while Travis has been molded by the likes of U2’s The Edge, Steve Camp, Angels and Airwaves, and Skillet’s Ardent Worship album. “Musically speaking, Katrina and I come from opposite ends of the spectrum,” says Swan. “I think my favorite part of making the album in a musical sense was coming up with ways to finger all the ridiculous piano-oriented chord progressions on my guitar.”

The album’s central theme comes primarily from the track Almighty, an upbeat yet powerful song that pushes traditional music boundaries. The collaboration of progressive arrangements, soaring guitars, and Swan’s vocal range make this song a central track as well as define the vision for the whole musical endeavor that is The World Will See. “God has chosen the frail and the weak (his church) to display him to the rest of the world through their lives, their service, and their surrender to him – these concepts pop up all over the album,” cites Swan.

As the album progresses, the familiar hymn Nearer, My God, to Thee opens new doors with a not so familiar arrangement. Utilizing a full spectrum of instrumentation like bells, strings, and organ, they made an older song accessible to a new generation. “When we were working on that track, we really wanted to convey the peace that comes with knowing God. We tried to create that in the track, the vocals, everything, ” says Stone.

Closing out the album is the inspiring and moving He is Risen. Backed by a choir from their home church in Fort Collins, Colorado, He is Risen displays the lyrical aptitude of these two writers. “What I love about this song is its sense of unity,” says Stone. “We wanted to write a song that would create a community when a church would sing it.” Hitting their mark with such lines as ‘where there once was ruin, there is now redemption’, and ‘let us come together, all who have been made new’, they have concentrated their lyrical aptitude on creating biblically sound theology as well as personal experience. “My favorite part of the writing process was literally plagiarizing the Bible as we battled through writing song lyrics!” claims Swan.

More than merely music, these two musicians desire for their music to touch the hearts of worshippers and inspire other musicians. “First of all, as with the title, I hope that this is one more witness of God’s glory for the world to see,” says Swan. ”Secondly, I distinctly remember the lyrics of songs; the slightest suggestion of one of my favorite songs can get it stuck in my head for days on end. I really love it if the lyric is an encouraging one.  I hope one of these songs gets stuck in someone’s head for a few days and helps change someone’s life.”  Though their differences may be many, their vision for the music has always been the same: for the world to see Christ.

1. The song is not public domain!
2. Some good thoughts on the flow of music in worship
3. Good thoughts about instrumentation and arrangements in music for worship.

Give it a read.

All in all, so far, the experience has been wonderful. We have tracked the main guitars and the drums. I layed down some scratch bass parts tonight and we workshopped the vocals last night. I am really pleased with the lyrics to the song and feel like they are worthwhile. I don’t want to betray anyones trust and post the song yet but as soon as we get a go ahead, I will post and I would love to hear thoughts or questions. It definately is written to be played at our campus service or at our downtown church.

In other news, to keep developing our skills, we are going to be recording our downtown church live this weekend into an 8 channel protools rig. Then add more parts and give it to a bunch of guys to “Remix” then get together and talk about it and the decisions mixing we made. It should be fun to see how each of our sound guys mix. kind of fun eh?

well. peace. I hope that this finds each of you well!

be encouraged. -j

I found questions 4 and 7 to be particularly good.

If a young musician felt called to become a lead worshiper for their church, what advice would you give them to help in their preparation and education?

I’d want them to be theologically astute and culturally tuned enough to explain their song selections on a biblical and practical basis.

I would also hope that they would understand that their service itself is worship, even if they sometimes don’t “feel” God’s presence etc…’

I also encourage all of our guys to write songs. Sometimes the songs aren’t that great and we don’t use them, sometimes they work out well, but I try to get at least one song out of every band each year and some bands end up with 6-10 songs which is great.

Worship is sometimes a contentious subject in the church, what key factors from a leadership perspective have helped the elders and congregation of Riverview get beyond this?

We unapologetically target young here. This means that the music sometimes is weird and loud and we ask that people who don’t like this, to sacrifice their preferences for the sake of our mission. It’s not much of an issue anymore. If your 50 years old and your 18 year old kid is into church, you’re usually pretty happy. Of course we do have an old timey folk gospel band (Folksplosion) that plays, and we get complements from the olders and youngers when they play. Targeting young means trying different things now-there’s not just one kind of music that people like. Go on myspace and you’ll see people that love Willie Nelson and Death Cab for Cutie too. I think things would be more stale if we just stuck with one kind of music like a Chris Tomlin (love the guy) cover band, which is what I did for quite a while.

Editor’s Note: In the latest issue of RELEVANT, we got the chance to ask seven leaders about seven big questions facing the Church. Here’s an excerpt from their responses. To read more, be sure to check out the January/February issue of the mag.

What trends in church and worship styles do you see? Are they positive or negative?
Mark Driscoll: I’ll be happy when we have more than just prom songs to Jesus sung by some effeminate guy on an acoustic guitar offered as mainstream worship music. Right now most worship music is still coming from the top down through such things as Christian radio and record labels. But the trend today in a lot of churches is writing your own music to reflect your culture and community, and I pray this trend of music from the bottom up continues.

The prom-song to Jesus may be a bit harsh, but it’s not inaccurate. He’s right, most music used in the church is coming from the top down, I think mostly because a lot of worship leaders in local churches cough don’t have the time or the skill to write their own.

Everyone has different methods of writing – when I’m by myself I tend to do the “walk around the room playing my guitar and sing random stuff” thing a little too much. Writing in community helps my productivity – I actually prefer to do the majority of my writing with other people – although too many people will just turn into a big non-productive jam session!

Methods change from song to song, but generally I start with a concept and a chord progression. I’ll often sit and do an extended study on the concept with a concordance. The song I’ve linked to at the bottom of this post started with a conversation I had with one of the pastors here – discussing believing God and being able to rest in Him, regardless of the circumstances. He suggested I look up Psalm 116. I already had a songwriting session scheduled for the day with one of my band members, so I took the chapter in, and this song ended up coming out. I especially liked verse 10, “I believed, even when I spoke, ‘I am greatly afflicted.’” That verse became the line, “even when I’m broken hearted, though in pain I still believe.” The music came quickly, as did the lyrics, and a few hours later we had a song.

Immediately after writing a song I record it. Otherwise I’ll forget it completely. I’ll just record a simple acoustic track on my computer and lay down a vocal track, not trying to be perfect or anything, just enough to get the gist of the song. Later I take the recording to the rest of the band, who then critique it, help adjust awkward parts, and come up with a whole band arrangement to introduce the entire church to.

Here’s the mp3 file of “At Rest.” Feel free to use the song however you like, the chord chart is here.