Koa’s blog about life

November Live Album - to be released in 2010

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 09:00:59 +1100

Last night our church gathered at the Syndey Entertainment Centre to record the 2010 Hillsong LIVE worship album. In recent years this recording has been done in March in conjunction with the Colour conference, and released in July at the Hillsong Conference. But this year they’ve decided to try something different and give themselves a lot more time for post-production. For one thing that will probably make some people’s year a lot more sane!

My Highlights:

- KEKOA...he just loved it. He’s come such a long way as a little person. Where once he was a very clingy toddler especially around crowds, this night he had his pretend guitar strapped on and was standing, singing and raising his hands, fully engaging for much of the night! So cute, and so cool.

- FOREVER REIGN / the voice of the CHURCH: The night opened with several praise songs that were completely new...it’s amazing how quickly a group of people who WANT TO can engage in songs they’ve never heard before. But then we finally hit a worship song that has grown through the body over the past few months, probably at it’s fullest, ripest stage right now for our church: “FOREVER REIGN”. The worship team could hardly be heard over the roar of the crowd’s singing (mind you, the sound system is really loud!). I think I have never heard a crowd of believers sing with that much unity and heart before in my life (and I have been at some pretty big amazing worship gatherings...). I was part of the congregations singing my heart out, and I was also almost having an out-of-body experience observing the beauty of the Church, when she sings together in unity. It was the sound of many voices, but really it was the sound of one voice, one unified heart-and-soul-cry. For most of the choruses the band backed off their mics and just let the congregation lead the song. And then came the bridge, with it’s haunting chord progression and my favorite part of any song at this moment: “My heart will sing, no other name, Jesus, Jesus”... the Bride of Christ singing to her Love. Overwhelming.

- WITHOUT DARLS - One of the most significant things for a student of worship & Hillsong about this night is that Darlene wasn’t there (she was off ministering in America somewhere I think). Darlene’s new book released in 2009 talks about making the Great Generational Transition, and this night was evidence that she’s written about what she has successfully done! The church didn’t skip a beat. When Darls wasn’t on stage for the beginning of “This Is Our God” you could feel the uneasy question in the crowd ‘where is she, will we be ok without her’. But here, 1.5 years later, you could feel the peace and strength... either people didn’t notice, or there was the feeling of ‘oh, Darls isnt here...she’s missing out =)’. The church flowed with passion, power, and ease through the music and had a wholehearted response to it’s other worship leaders (Joel, Reuben, Brooke, Jill). Also by Darlene’s absence, I think those leaders had a greater opportunity to shine and lead the soul of the entire church forward.
... But don’t worry, Darlene should be on the next album as well... besides this night they recorded 2 other worship nights (one at the City and one at the Hills campus) with Darlene on the team and I’m sure they’ll be pulling songs and footage from those as well.

All in all, an incredible night. I’m so glad they decided to move the album earlier...must’ve been just for us so we could be part of another album before heading back to Hawaii!

Hillsong UNITED new album hits #1 on the Mainstream iTunes store

Thu, 28 May 2009 01:08:06 +1000

What an amazing thing, to click on the iTunes store and see there, just below Eminem’s new hit record, a self-produced church band made up of home-grown talent at the #2 spot on iTunes. Then, amazingly, it hit #1!

Does anybody appreciate the gravity of this?
- It flies in the face of the entire music industry...this is not an industry-created success, it’s guys who have literally grown up learning to play within the church self-producing, releasing, and distributing an album that is at the top of the charts!
- It represents the breakthrough that CCM is having on the music world and therefore on the world in general. Even a couple years ago it would be unheard of to think that worship songs could ever compete with other music on the market. Can you imagine “Shine Jesus Shine” being played & bought alongside Eminem, U2, etc? Unheard of...and yet increasingly a reality.

I was there at the album recording night for UNITED: [a_CROSS//the_EARTH]:Tear Down The Walls (the length of album title alone completely defies commercial success!), and it was off the hook...but also just another day in the life of the church. It was like many other crazy youth rallies where people are really having fun in His presence and really going for it in worship.

That’s just what it’s like when God’s favour is poured out on something. It supersedes all the rules and breaks through. May God put His favour on more and more Christian music!

LIVE Album Recording "Faith+Hope+Love"

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:54:35 +1100

For this album recording I got to be in the choir on stage...what an awesome experience. Similar to the year before I was struck at the ease and relaxedness of the team going into album night. At the prayer meeting beforehand, Joel blurts out, “I think we’ll start with that new song instead of what we originally planned, and as you know there’s no second verse yet, but I’ll be singing something so just sing along”. One could take offense in moments like that wanting to defend their holiness, but I love that there is such a freedom here to be sensitive to the Spirit and take a risk believing that He’s going to do something great, something new.

My Favorite moments this year were:
- It’s Your Love - what a monster song! Mia Fields wrote it...and Darlene and the team took it 120% of it’s potential...such a massive moment of declaring the simple truth that it is His love and His blood that saves us.
- Yahweh - This was the last song of the night. Being on the team I had seen the run sheet and it wasn’t meant to be the last song...they were meant to sing a whole nother set at the end. But there was something about this moment as the church declared with one unified gut-wrenching cry “He Shall Reign Forever”, it was like, what else is there to say. Pastor Brian stepped into that moment and simply ended the meeting, leaving us all feeling like we wanted more, and yet there was this profound sense of completion.

I can’t wait for the album to come out, just 1 month away!

Meeting Famous People

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:40:28 +1100

I must admit I was a bit naive when I came here about who these people are. It took me a while to figure out who Reuben and Marty were...and I was so surprised that Reuben was so young because he wrote “I Give You My Heart” which seems like such an old song. Meeting the Hillsong team and rubbing shoulders with them has been amazing because they are just normal people. And around the church and the team especially. They make fun of each other all the time...they call each other nicknames as a regular matter of course. “Darls” (Darlene) and “Joeley” (Joel Houston) and “the Droff” (Nigel Hendroff) are some of my favorites.

I’ve gotten to sing in the choir on stage with most of them, shaken their hands and ‘had a chat’, and I am ever-blessed by how humble, authentic, and normal they are. It’s not celebrity talent that got them this far, it’s being part of a House, a church that is amazing, making them all have larger-than-life impact while remaining simple and down-to-earth.

Winning a Hoku

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:17:38 +1000

The first call came from Sarah’s mom...hysterical over the phone...”You won! Weren’t you watching?” I could hardly understand what she was saying...then when I got it, that I had won “2008 Rock Album of the Year” for Where You Are I could hardly believe it. Then again, I had a sneaking suspicion God had something like that up His sleeve. (Now, obviously I know God didn’t vote for my Hoku...I just like to look for His hand in everything...).

When the idea for the Where You Are album started growing within me, the heart of it was to reach past just the Christian music world and speak to real people in a range of life’s situations about where God is in those moments. My dream to see this album reach it’s potential was beset with struggle after struggle, sometimes money problems, sometimes me losing focus, and even when we completed the project in 2007 I felt like it was the best we could do, but still only about 50% of the true potential of the music.

And just when I got going with promoting the album and seeing a small measure of success, I felt a nudge from God to move my family to Sydney and take on a whole new adventure. So I did exactly that, and exactly what I SHOULDN’T DO if I was trying to make my music succeed. If you want to have a shot at a Hoku, you should be touring, promoting, reaching people, getting on the radio—everybody knows that. I felt as if I was sentencing that album and my music to an early death as I stepped onto a plane bound for Sydney. But I also knew the deep truth of Jesus’ words, “Seek first God’s Kingdom...and all these things will be added to you as well”.

Well, what can I say? He did it. With hardly any promotion, radio airplay, and only small-time album sales, there it was live on Hawaii TV—my song “I Thrive” playing as they announced that this Christian guy had somehow pulled out the “Rock Album Of The Year” award.

Someone said recently that you have to write your music from a pure motive—for the sake of the message, the cause, or whatever your true inspiration is. The minute you start writing just to try to get ahead, to sell more records than the next guy, it will pollute your music. I can’t say I haven’t been tempted...or have always had the purest motives, but I’m doing my best to keep my heart set on the one who rescued me. And I am amazed once again at how He blesses and rewards me with things only He could do.