VIRB

So maybe you are asking yourself..."why is the album called Still Frame?" Or maybe you don't care. Either way I am going to tell you now.
The album has become a representation of where I am at in life right now. What I am thinking, how I am feeling, my relationship with my wife and kids, pressures from life, losses I have endured in my short 28 years, and the things I have achieved. The song Still Frame, after which the album is named, is about losing loved ones. A friend I lost in high school and dealing with that, as well as losing my grandmother about a year ago now. Even though I wasn't particularly close to my grandmother I could see the effects of that loss on other people. Losing a friend in high school was a devastating experience to go through, but one that made me grow up quickly and learn a lot about myself, as well as point me down the path towards God and the way He taught us to live through the example of Jesus Christ His Son.
The rest of the album reflects this journey. It is a reflection of me trying to move towards God, sometimes falling away, and attempting to move towards Him again. I love Psalm 42 because it represents to me my spiritual life in a nutshell. I know that God is calling to the deepest part of me. He wants me to move towards Him, but it is such a struggle to keep that faith. To trust in Him when it sometimes feels like He is not there. When you see a world that is seemingly caving in on itself. All the doubt this world creates in my mind is in a constant struggle with the desire to live a life completely surrendered to God. This desire to live in complete abandonment to God in the way of Christ.
A few songs are about those things that way me down. Free Lands is a song about looking forward to a time when I am completely free of all the stresses of this life. Work, marriage tension, money, worry, fear, anger, stress, etc. All these things way me down and I look forward to a time when I am not encumbered by them. Hold Me In deals with anger, fear, and stress issues I face on a daily basis. For whatever reason I hold a lot of these things in and eventually the start to take over my life. I let them rule how I interact with others, my mood, and even my health. Come To Me is a song I wrote about dealing with these issues. Jesus said to come to Him, and we would find rest. So this is my goal when all this world starts tearing away at me.
There are other songs as well that celebrate in the blessings that God has given me. Fireflies is a song I wrote for my son Derek. We occasionally during the summer months will go outside at night as the fireflies start appearing and collect them in a jar. Then we place the jar next to his bed and night and he gets to watch them light up and fly around as he falls asleep. I love spending time with my kids, and this song celebrates that time and is a way for me to remember him being young and so innocent and beautiful.
Bittersweet End is a song that I wrote for my wife. It is a song about those rare moments in our marriage when we feel like everything is perfect in our world and we can openly and very honestly love each other for who we are, faults and all. Neither of us is perfect, but there are moments when we see God's original intended desire for marriage between a man and woman reflected in each other.
There are more songs, but I will let you listen to those and come to your conclusions. If you would like to hear more about other songs feel free to email me with any questions. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the album.