Normal Rockstar

downhere Wins 3rd JUNO Award

If you missed all the Twitters from the JUNO Awards a couple of weeks ago, here's the official announcement: we won our third JUNO Award, this time for "Ending is Beginning". (For the uninitiated, the JUNO Awards are the Canadian equivalent to the Grammy Awards here in America.) The awards were held in Vancouver, BC this year, and we were able to go up and be a part of the weekend thanks to the Radio Starmaker Fund. Here is a press picture right after we won the award (unfortunately we were all looking at different cameras!).

"Ending is Beginning" from downhere Releases Tomorrow

The day is nearly here - tomorrow marks the release of Ending is Beginning, the new studio project from my band downhere. I am personally really excited about this project. When we went into the studio in January to start recording in earnest I was really concerned that we didn't have the right songs yet. As an artist you always want to be improving in your craft - we felt like our last studio project Wide-Eyed and Mystified was the absolute best album we had recorded up until that point, and I wasn't sure we had material that would result in a stronger project this time around.

Well, I was wrong, and the Lord showed is faithfulness to us once again. I can confidently say that I feel like this new album is our best album yet. The musical variety, lyrical depth, and overall accessibility of the 13 songs collected on this project are second to none in our repetoire. And we've already seen great response to some of the new songs that we've been playing live as well as to the current radio single called "Here I Am" which is in the Top 10 and climbing.

We would love it if you would take a second this week and either download the album from iTunes or go visit your local Christian bookstore and pick it up. We're excited about what the Lord's got in store for us next - even though not knowing can sometimes be a scary thing.You can listen to some of the songs on our MySpace page if you want to preview the record before you buy it. Hope you enjoy!

Rural Week in Montana

This is where I am - internet is not easy to come by! But the views are breath-taking... We're leading worship at a camp this week as a band. I'll have lots to talk about when we get home next week. Until then it may only be pictures here... Enjoy!

First downhere Single "Here I Am" at Radio Today

Consider this a shameless plug for downhere and the new album we've got coming out in September. Today is a big day for us as it's the official "add date" for the first single from Ending is Beginning called "Here I Am". All that means is that this is the day we are asking as many radio stations as possible to start playing the song in hopes that the more times it gets "spun" (i.e. played) the higher it will rise on the radio charts.

You can listen to the song below - the lyrics are also attached. Enjoy... and thank your local radio station for playing the song when you hear it!

HERE I AM

Sometimes your calling, comes in dream
Sometimes in comes in the Spirit's breeze,
You reach for the deepest part of me,
And call out for the things of eternity.

But I'm a man, of dust and stains,
You move in me, so I can say,

CHORUS:
Here I am, Lord send me,
All of my life, I make an offering,
Here I am, Lord send me,
Somehow my story, Is part of your plan,
Here I am

When setbacks and failures, and upset plans,
Test my faith and leave me with empty hands,
Are you not the closest when it's hardest to stand?
I know that you will finish what you began.

These broken parts you redeem,
Become the song, that I can sing
(chorus)

Overwhelmed by the thought of my weakness,
And the fear that I'll fail you in the end,
In this mess, I'm just one of the pieces,
I can't put this together but you can.

Single Parent Event: Ministry in Action

Last night my band played at a single-parent family retreat put on by New Life Media, a network of radio stations in Illinois that includes WIBI-FM 91.1 in Carlinville, WBGL-FM 91.7 in Champaign, WCIC-FM 91.5 in Pekin, and WCFL-FM 104.7 in Morris. It was an interesting evening - the crowd was not our target market (the age range was from 2-15 and then 26-60 - college students were absent) and because one of the lights blew up right at the start of the show we had to do the rest of the set under florescent lights (which REALLY is not an ideal situation when you're trying to put on an entertaining, dramatic event!).

But they could have cared less. For an hour and a half last night, I got to watch a thing of beauty - single parents who generally live their lives stressed to the max having a good time with their kids. The weekend was highly subsidised by the radio network - from what I gathered the registration fee they charged each family barely covered their meals for the weekend. The radio network planned on losing investing over $40,000 in the weekend, giving these parents an opportunity to come out to a fun place and have fun with their families without being stressed about how they were going to pay for everything afterwards. As we signed autographs after the show, each parent and child were genuinely thankful and apreciative of the night. I felt privileged to be a part of something more significant in their lives than just another night of "entertainment".

Way to go, New Life - great job. You are living out the gospel, taking care of the widow and the poor. Thanks for the privilege of serving alongside you last night. Press on!

Normal Rockstar Interview

Hey all - just wanted to direct you to an interview I did recently for a fellow blogger up in Michigan. He asked some great questions - I hope my answers did them justice! Click here to read the interview... Thanks, JVo!

Download downhere's "Wide-Eyed and Mystified" For Free!

In anticipation of our September 23rd release "Ending is Beginning", my band - downhere - is giving away our current studio release, "Wide-Eyed and Mystified", as a free download through the month of June. This isn't the first time a band has given away their music for free - but it's definitely the first time WE'VE done it, and it's a little scary to say the least. The goal is to help current fans share our music with their friends to hopefully help promote our upcoming release, and to partner with MusicChristian.com to introduce us to their customer base. Click here to get the download - if you'd rather just have the link to cut and paste into an email to your friends, here it is: http://www.musichristian.com/downhere/download.

Thanks for your help getting the word out! We are looking forward to sharing this next record with everyone!

Back on the Road with Shawn McDonald

It's time to get back on the road. My band has spent the last couple of months in the studio working on our next studio release which is sounding KILLER (I'm a little biased, but I think you'll like it). So it's been nice to be home and do regular 'home" things... however, the coffers are empty and it's time to get back out on the road and sell some t-shirts!

And we're hitting it pretty hard... In the next 37 days we've got 27 shows (and 4 of those "off" days are GMA Week) from Florida to Washington State, Montana to California, and many stops in between. We're supporting an artist named Shawn McDonald and will be joined by a good friend of ours, Jason Gray. Along with drumming, I will be road managing the tour, so it's going to be a busy next few weeks for me. I will do my best to blog consistently, but if I disappear for a few days, you know what the deal is - it's called self preservation! I'd love it if you came by one of the shows and said hi though... Or just sign up to follow me on Twitter and keep tabs of me that way. Thanks - time to get back to work!

downhere, music, shawn mdonald, Twitter

Humble Pie: What NOT to Say to an Artist

This past Sunday morning I found myself having one of the more humbling conversations I've had with someone in a while. I will do my best to transcribe for you below the gist of our conversation. The whole conversation lasted no more than 4 minutes, and all the way I was thinking, "This is going to make a GREAT blog post!!" Please understand - I really don't believe there was anything malicious about this conversation... I'll just chalk it up to cluelessness. (Names have been changed to protect the identity of "Clueless Joe".) I've included some "What NOT to say to an artist" tips for those of you who may not catch them...

JT: "Hi, I'm Jeremy."
CJ: "Hey - I'm Clueless Joe. Do you play with downhere?"
JT: "Yeah, I do, actually."
CJ: "That's cool! My wife and I just picked up your album last week."
JT: "Oh, that's great, man! Thanks!"
CJ: "Yeah, we were in Lifeway and are suckers for that $10 discount rack." (Tip #1: Don't tell the artist his record is in the discount bin!!)
JT: "Oh, wow. Well, that's awesome man - I'm glad you got it."
CJ: "Yeah... my wife doesn't like it." (Tip #2: Don't tell the artist you don't like their record!!)
JT: "Oh..."
CJ: "Yeah - I guess I'd better listen to the album this week now that I've met you." (Tip #3: Don't tell an artist you feel obligated to listen to their record!)
JT: (Trying not to act too bewildered and deflated) "Yeah, I guess so!"
CJ: "I think it's in my car right now... right beside David Crowder. And if it's between you and Crowder, you know he's going to win every time!!" (Tip #4: This one's stinkin' obvious!!)
JT: (Attempting to bow out of the conversation and find a corner to lick my wounds and swallow the heaping serving of humble pie just shoved down my throat) "That's nice... Well, great to meet you! I hope you enjoy the album!"

"How Many Kings" - update

The most frequently visited post in the history of my blog was just posted in the last couple of months. Back in early December I talked briefly about a new Christmas song called "How Many Kings" that my band had recorded and released to radio in time for the Christmas season (you can read the original post here and actually listen to the song if you haven't heard it yet). I'm STILL getting hits from people via Google who are looking for more information on the song. Well, here's the update from our standpoint: "How Many Kings" went as high as #4 on the radio charts which makes it our highest charting single ever (before that our highest was #8). It was so successful at radio that we are already in talks with various artists and agencies about doing a Christmas tour in an effort to share the song with even more people.

So if you have found this post and my blog via a Google search for this song, thanks for your help in getting this song so much airplay! And stick around for more updates on things downhere related and not.