The Making of Radiant - Josh Fox
The Best Production Is A Great SongMaking a record is a labor of love. There are hundreds and thousands of hours that go into the writing, engineering, tracking, producing, editing, mixing, and mastering. There are thousands of dollars spent on production and marketing. But all of this time and expense will not yield much without great songs to begin with. A producer I met last year by the name of Pete Kipley told me the best production is always a great song. This idea became the guiding principle in the making of Radiant.
The Radiant record includes songs I have been working on for the past four years, inspired greatly by a worship songwriter named Brian Doerksen. While spending time with Doerksen at his house in Abbotsford, Canada, he challenged me to focus in on writing, to open myself up to group critique, and the idea of co-writing with others. This challenge is what gave me the impetus to work hard on the songs for this project.
The final work on the songs took place in Nashville in early October, two days before tracking would begin. Jason Ingram, a long time friend, served as the songwriting yoda (but a young handsome yoda) and helped me with the final process. I came to Jason's studio with 25 completed songs and seven nearly finished. Jason and I spent the first two days writing together, and came up with two more songs, bringing the total count to thirty-three. Coming into a project with more than thirty songs immediately increases your chances of having something solid for a final product. The last project that Coldplay recorded began with over forty songs to choose from! Doerksen has always said, ‘Write many. Play some. Record few." Without many songs to choose from, you're less likely to have a great one in the bunch.
Kicking the Kids Off The Life Raft (narrowing the song list)Once I had the total song count, Jason and I began the painful process of selecting the strongest songs from the bunch. Paul Mabury, producer and drummer on the project, provided his intuition as well, and was a big help. Seeing the first sixteen songs let go was a bit jarring, but having to eliminate the other songs from what remained was downright painful. It felt like all these songs were my kids and I had rescued them from a sinking vessel and we were all huddled in a life raft together. I could see each song staring at me like a small child, excited that they had made it on the raft, but realizing something had to be done as water was coming in due to the excessive weight of the crew. Strangely, Jason enjoys this process. He seems to take great pleasure in eliminating the weakest links, but his motivation cannot be argued with. When it comes to a record, quality always wins over quantity. If you choose to have fewer songs, the entire project can be that much stronger as a whole. The best songs will only have the opportunity to get better with production focus. Knowing this was true, Jason grinned as he marked the songs that he felt were non-negotiable and asked me to eliminate five more songs from the bunch. I pushed three more songs off the raft, bringing the total survivor count to thirteen, with two more to eliminate.
The Power of FocusWith two songs to eliminate, Jason began a discourse on the power of focus when it comes to a record. If a record is cohesive in its focus, it has that much more chance of standing out and sticking around longer term. When it came to this project, I had been very intentional with outlining the focus and goals on the front end. I wanted this project to be for the church, with songs that believers could easily engage with and encounter God through. I wanted the theme to be primarily about mission, making the project fuel for the church in action rather than a means to insular apathy (happy holy huddle). With the 13 remaining songs, there were two songs which I love and really wanted to record, but which did not fit the focus. Having to eliminate these songs was hard to do, as I knew they were stronger than the others, but they were like baseball players and I was making a hockey team, and so they got the boot.
Making The Perfect ScrambleI love breakfast! Arranging and recording the final song list was like making a great breakfast scramble - bacon, sausage, eggs, cheese, onions, bell pepper, avocado, tomato all combined to create a savory explosion in your mouth. This is where Paul Mabury came in to play as the producer. Paul put together an all- star cast of musicians and engineers and chose Quad Studios as his kitchen. These musicians combined to create a sonic delicacy for the ears. I was lucky to have Paul as the top chef. Paul brought the songs to life in production, and helped showcase their unique personalities and strengths. Hearing the final mixes made all the work of writing, eliminating, and focusing well worth it.
I truly hope people connect with God through these songs, and trust Him to take them wherever He wants them to go. Now its back to work, striving to write a great song that pleases God's heart and inspires the church.
Josh Fox leads worship at Vintage Faith Church. For more information on him and his new CD, Radiant, visit joshfoxmusic.com.
