‘Declarations’ Story
Writing & Background
‘Declarations’ was one of those songs that almost didn’t happen. I was already in bed – perhaps for as long as an hour or so, and just wasn’t able to sleep. I also had that ‘sense’ – the one I get when I know I ‘have a song.’ So, I decided to get up at about 1:30 A.M. and retreat to my downstairs office, where I keep an old acoustic guitar. After only a few minutes, Declarations was born.
I consider this to be my first true psalm, in the sense that it uses a repetitive refrain as a tool to connect thoughts which are seemingly unrelated. King David wrote many psalms in this vein – with references to his inadequacies, God’s goodness, and vengeance over enemies – all in the same song! ‘Declarations’ is similarly holistic.
This was a relative late-comer to the recording sessions. For the project, we cut Dan’s drum tracks from the beginning of November through mid-December of 2008 – a couple of evenings per week. Our time together was so limited that as I would ‘get songs,’ Dan and I would work them out in rough cut along with Tim Conrad, and then lay down the finalized drums – even before the song was fully written! With this song, it would be a couple months later that I would return to finalize its message.
The title ‘Declarations’ was a way for me to justify having random ‘God thoughts’ in one song… they were just declarations of His attributes, therefore not requiring a cohesive story line.
The opening lyric (“When I look up and I consider the stars”) was written in the dead of cold winter, but was actually inspired by a summertime event. The church where this was recorded is located amidst many acres of open grassy field, high atop a mountain. One night the previous summer, I had been at the church late, and noticed that 2 of my friends had come up to the mountain just to lie in the field and gaze up at the stars. To me, the heavenly expanse bears witness to the magnificent glory of the Most High God. It was my own smallness in that experience which defined the song.
The chorus of “Amen” is just an affirmation to what was previously declared.
While writing this, I had a great mental picture of standing in vast but empty courtyard before a large throne. Suddenly, angels began flying in… THOUSANDS at a time – from every direction, filling the expanse and, in unison, bowing low before their King as He ascended the throne. Then came their shout of glory!!! When you go back and listen to this section, can you picture it all?
NO! I am not describing a ‘vision from God,’ nor any interpretation of scripture… merely a mental picture I had. So I translated that image to lyrics… “In the courtyard of the Almighty.”
This song closes with the whimsical notion of being “captured” – as we return from the journey of having imagined the height, depth, width, and breadth of the glory of our God… back to that place of smallness.
If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, PA on a hot summer night with clear skies, why not grab a blanket and your iPod, and lie back and gaze up at God’s expansive creation… and crank ‘Declarations!’ I trust you’ll be blessed…
Production
When this project began, I had determined to leave my voice completely out. Frankly, I’ve never been a fan of my own voice – and at this stage of recording, I had still not completely recovered from my vocal problems of the previous year. So my thoughts were always that the AWEband would be a 3 girl band, with me very much in the background. But we encountered an issue with this song’s register…
Originally written in the key of G, I transposed it to A with the intention that Cathryn would sing lead. But it proved too low. Then I tried Denise. But in this register, the female voices were simply not able to generate a certain grit or edge I felt the track needed, to be convincing. Reluctantly, I laid it down, with Denise taking the harmony above me. In harmonies, Denise can match me so closely that many believed I harmonized with myself!
The chorus marked the first time I paired Cathryn’s voice with Natasha’s. The result was simply angelic. They also combine well on the verses of ‘Scream.’
As a production philosophy, I pictured initially one singer/pianist with his guitarist alone in the rehearsal room. Then one by one, the musicians would come into the room and pick up their instruments and join in, until they all come together on the final chorus. We intentionally mixed the opening piano/guitar piece so as to appear as one instrument.
One production aspect that Tim & I were aiming for was a highly ‘organic’ feel to this track. We wanted percussion, scratch, chiff, and lots of it. That’s why, beginning with the second verse, Cathryn actually played the acoustic with her finger nails, and knocked the wood of the guitar with every strum – very percussive. Tim’s conga track gave this a ‘coffee house’ feel. He was particularly pleased with the sound because it rendered more ‘tabla’ than Latin.
To me, the percussion was going to be the hero of this recording… which made the mix very tricky. Not only did they need to ‘scratch’ the track, but there needed to be a ‘transfer of energy’ from one section to the next, or the song would ‘drop.’ The congas handed off to the military snare, which handed off to the tambourine, then off to the drums… seamlessly. Tim had an old World War II era vintage jazz snare with reasonable depth. Using 3 mikes, Tim laid it down (as well as the congas) in the small bathroom adjacent to our storage room. We ultimately picked the type of tambourine Tim would use (he showed up with 5) because, in the track, we wanted it to sound like crickets at night – a tie to the initial ‘looking up at the stars.’ The egg shaker was recorded at point blank range, and BARELY moving it back and forth… really gave a sandy, gritty feel.
This song marks my first time playing cello on a recording. No, I am not a cellist. But I do know how to edit. The big thing I labored over was the chiff. I wanted it to really dig the string, or it wouldn’t cut. In the beginning of the second section, I originally wanted an Australian didgeridoo. Something rough, odd, and completely ‘manly.’ So that is what the initial cello is attempting to mimic. But when the angels gathered, it needed to be a royal coronation! Thus the majesty of the strings and the stately military procession.
The most fun part of this session came the night when Tim & I were trying to ‘make’ a hammered spike sound for the second chorus. We stayed in the studio until nearly 3AM until we got it just right. We were literally running around the church with a multitude of strikers, hitting everything we could find…. Pipes, doors, tables, cabinets, a multitude of surfaces and timbres. Eventually, I believe we ended up using a combination of 3 tones… a hand-muted cowbell struck with a drum stick, finger cymbals, and a metal door. With a little pitch manipulation and track alignment, we produced something that may be reminiscent of the spikes driven into our Savior’s hands and feet.
The breakdown needed to introduce tension and uncertainty. Two more players to enter the picture – Dan & Jason. As the breakdown meandered to the bridge, the instrumentation gets sparse – just bass and Jay’s electric guitar (Les Paul & a Marshall Amp – no pedals…) – purposely to make room for the toms. I loved the rolling ‘outs’ that Dan came up with. Then the build as we enter the third phase of the song… the final chorus.
This had to be all-out ‘arena rock’ – a good old pedal-to-the-metal, bring-the-crowd-to-their-feet anthem! That’s why we used big reverbs on both Jason’s entry and the drum tracks.
The conclusion reprises the opening, but with resolution and wonderment at remaining “captured.” To reinforce this, the key bass anchors the final chord of the song. Listen closely to the ‘breath’ at the end of Denise’s trail-off harmony. Can’t get any more organic than that!
Michael Warner, songwriter and producer