Here’s some photos from our day at the Rivers Ranch:
The setup at the Rivers Ranch Studio
Derek playing his guitar, Cliff inspecting his guitar.
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cliff feeding the camel
todd feeding the camel
Jon and Sherry Rivers with (most of) the band.
what you already knew…
Track Number: 6
Author(s): Sandra McCracken and Derek Webb
what you probably didn’t know…
…regarding the guitar solo in this song, Andy O said, “[this song has] one of my favorite guitar solos I’ve ever played.”
…Sandra had written the verses a couple of years ago but didn’t know if she would ever record it.
…Derek and Sandra went back and wrote the chorus when they knew they wanted to demo it for Overdressed.
what you already knew…
Track Number: 5
Author(s): Andrew Osenga and Randall Goodgame
what you probably didn’t know…
…this is the first song that the band is releasing as a single. (you probably already knew that actually).
…the inspiration for this song came from Andy thinking about different phrases that we can use as christians that have started to lose their meaning because of overuse. He set out to prove that it wasn’t just a cheesy cliche.
…there’s been a bit of controversy over the line “the continent whose blood becomes a traitor” with folks not really understanding what it means. Andy said that he was referring to countries like some in Africa where, because of AIDS and other diseases, so many folks are dying from the diseases in their own bodies as if their blood has turned against them.
(”hey what’s up”…that was jeff miller typing on my computer when i walked away)
what you already knew…
Track Number: 4
Author(s): Andrew Osenga and Randall Goodgame
what you probably didn’t know…
…this song was written as 1-part of a 5-part “bohemian rhapsody-esque” song that Andy and Randall were working on.
…Some of the demo parts that Andy originally worked on for the song remained a part of the final recording.
…part of the motivation for writing this song was the smiling family on Church Billboard (Lakewood possibly?) While we’re all sure that there are many smiling families at Lakewood, there’s probably a lot that are smiling on the outside and hurting and hiding stuff on the inside…just like anywhere else, of course.
what you already knew…
Track Number: 3
Author(s): Andrew Osenga and Randall Goodgame
what you probably didn’t know…
…the idea for this song actually came from Danielle, who called up Andy with it after hearing a sermon by Cliff’s brother Ben.
…The music to the song is intentionally faster paced because everyone in the band was sick of Danielle singing slower songs.
…Randall and Andy used their wives as sounding boards throughout the writing process on this one to make sure their lyrics were mom-approved.
…When asked about the “Holy, holy, holy” breakdown in the bridge of the song, Andy said “…that was Randall’s genius…”
We had a blast at the Rivers Ranch today. Todd summed it up best by saying “This is the most fun I’ve ever had at a radio station.”
After being on the air off and on for 3 hours, the band closed the visit with their new radio single “There is a Reason”.
I’m sure the audio will be quite terrible on this clip, but there weren’t any speakers in the recording room (for obvious reasons).
More than the audio though, it’s just great to see the band performing a song when noones watching (you’ll notice derek nodding over to Carrie Buell at the beginning of the clip to help Cliff get some lyrics in front of him because he’s not sure of the words yet…Carrie (Garett’s wife) comes to the rescue in the nick of time)
what you already knew…
Track Number: 2
Author(s): Andrew Osenga
what you probably didn’t know…
…this song has been tapped as one of the singles that will release to Christian Radio.
…Andy built this song around a groove he had in his head before Overdressed was even a twinkle in the band’s eye.
…much of the imagery in the song is intentional in comparing the love between us and Jesus with the love of a married couple, specifically the bridge: “you can change my name/you can make me someone new/love is always a promise/and your promises are true”
…Todd had the idea to name the song “When the Earth Around Me Shakes” after the last line in the song, and the band loved the idea. But (and there’s always a but) the label thought it was better to be intentional with the name of the song since it would be a radio single…so they went with “Need Your Love”.
what you already knew…
Track Number: 1
Author(s): Derek Webb
what you probably didn’t know…
…Derek actually wrote the chorus and first verse of this song for his first record (She Must and Shall Go Free) but it didn’t end up getting recorded (obviously).
…Derek was flipping through an old notebook when he started writing for Overdressed and discovered the song and thought it would be a great fit for the record, so he finished it up.
…Cliff was the one who had the idea to pull the word “overdressed” out of the first pre-chorus and use it for the title.
so we’re here at the Rivers Ranch and it is amazing. We drove in before morning had broken so we couldn’t see the entire property, but it was light enough to see the horses and camels. Yeah, that’s right, camels. As Andy said, “I think we took left turn at Egypt”.
The studio space is amazing. There’s the area where Jon and his wife Sherry are doing the radio show, and then off of that there’s a larger area with ample space for the band to spread out and setup. There’s even a room off to the side where the percussionists are.
Here’s some footage of the band setting up in the studio.
Not sure if Share the Well qualifies as old-school these days, but i thought this song came across pretty well in the stripped down, outside set they played yesterday.
submitted for your approval…