Dear Steven Curtis Chapman,
First of all, I love your music. Always have, in fact. Even at your goofiest, I've stuck by you, because I knew I was getting stellar songwriting in spite of the random clunker on an album or two. Truth be told, while Paul Baloche was the guy who inspired me to use my guitar for worship, you're the dude who inspired me to pick up a guitar to begin with.
Lately, I've not followed you as closely as before, but I still think you're a stellar musician and songwriter and powerful voice for people of faith.
But I just have one message for you - as one who still thinks you're pretty awesome...
Not Every Song Has To Be So Stinkin' Big.
You write fantastic, epic tunes, but it's time for something smaller, man. How about a record of tunes with just you and few other musicians with songs that don't swell to massive proportions by song-end? What about a record with no string section? I'm not saying it has to be unplugged or anything, but I think your songs are good enough to stand on their own without a lot of extra production.
Sincerely,
Todd Wright.
Anybody else think SCC's tunes get way too big these days? Anybody else feeling me on that "simple album" idea?
First of all, I love your music. Always have, in fact. Even at your goofiest, I've stuck by you, because I knew I was getting stellar songwriting in spite of the random clunker on an album or two. Truth be told, while Paul Baloche was the guy who inspired me to use my guitar for worship, you're the dude who inspired me to pick up a guitar to begin with.
Lately, I've not followed you as closely as before, but I still think you're a stellar musician and songwriter and powerful voice for people of faith.
But I just have one message for you - as one who still thinks you're pretty awesome...
Not Every Song Has To Be So Stinkin' Big.
You write fantastic, epic tunes, but it's time for something smaller, man. How about a record of tunes with just you and few other musicians with songs that don't swell to massive proportions by song-end? What about a record with no string section? I'm not saying it has to be unplugged or anything, but I think your songs are good enough to stand on their own without a lot of extra production.
Sincerely,
Todd Wright.
Anybody else think SCC's tunes get way too big these days? Anybody else feeling me on that "simple album" idea?
13 comments:
I haven't heard any of his songs...at least not since "Dive". hah.
I love him. I think he's great. You're just jealous.
Who is Steven Curtis Chapman?
That's like asking the Passion guys not to sound like Coldplay, isn't it?
He was the Phil Wickham of my generation, Blake.
Have really grown to appreciate his music. I'll be honest...I really used to consider it "oldie" music...BUT, honestly, it's some great stuff for the most part. Not very constructive to the conversation, though.
No, Romack...I think you're right on track. That's essentially what I'm talking about (although my wife thinks I'm a big meanie...)
I think he's one of the great songwriters of our time. That's entirely personal opinion, of course. My trouble is that lately, I keep "losing" his songs in all the production. I wish he'd scale back a bit so that his lyrics and melodies would be a bit more central to the songs.
It's like the CMA version of Martina McBride. We all know she can sing like nobody's business, but it used to show up in a verse or in a bridge. Now a days she belts out the entire song from start to finish. Does that make it a bad song? Not quite, but the escalation effect could implode later.
Elaborate production is a hallmark of the "adult contemporary" market. Even moreso in the CCM world. It's required for mass appeal, which is the apparent artistic goal.
Johnny, you're probably the one guy around the blog who's had experience in both the "independent" and "label" sides of the game.
What's it like? Do producers sit around, here a full song and honestly think it needs more or is there an assumpiton like, "We're almost done. Now let's add our traditional junk on top of the tune."?
My limited label exposure has been with mostly self-produced projects.
If we're talking larger budgets and higher priced producers, I believe most of those guys go into a project assuming their job is to fit the artist into their paradigm. See what I'm saying? It's not a question of adding the "stuff" to the artist's song, it's adding the artist to the "stuff." Big-time producers are hired to deliver their proven "brand."
You're very fortunate to have worked with a producer who really tried to deliver you.
And you're very fortunate to have recorded with ME.
Did he just use the word paradigm?
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