Thoughts on the Album
"Learning to breathe felt like we were beginning to hit our stride as a band. Two albums and five years of touring had maturated us as a band. This was the most prepared we had ever been before entering the studio. These were songs we'd been playing live as a band, trying out new ideas. There was a sense of confidence upon entering the studio that we'd never felt before at the beginning of a project. This was an enjoyable album, recorded in six weeks with long-time friend/producer Charlie Peacock and newcomer Jaquire King. This album felt like we were tuning the corner--we had finally demystified the recording process, and we were no longer intimidated by it."
--- Tim Foreman
Story Behind the Album Cover
"My idea behind designing the cover (and the dots) began with the idea of dots representing particles of air (for "Learning To Breathe"). The cover began to take form after that, and here's what it means to me now. The large "bubble head" (as I call them) in the background represents the atmosphere of God's grace. The three guys are Chad (the tallest), me (the short one), and Jon. Unfortunately, this was BJ (before Jerome), otherwise he would have been the other short one. Our "bubble heads" represent the idea that we are learning to breathe that atmosphere of God's grace, a very central theme to the album. The fact that there are 15 dots had no significance to me when I designed it, but that's not to say it can't mean something to you. The same goes for the whole cover in general."
--- Tim Foreman
Song Stories
I Dare You To Move
The song is fairly straight-forward. We have been given a new day. Our eyes open and our choices begin. Will we live half asleep? Or will we change our world; will we be Christ's hands and feet, the salt and the light of the world? I sing this song to myself and all others on a planet where complacency reigns supreme. - Jon
Learning To Breathe
I've been through a lot of growth this year, learning of my deep needs and of my human depravity. But deeper than all of this is Christ's love for me. "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is His love for us." This is the spiritual world that we have been called to and the kingdom of the heavens is here. We are learning to breathe in the atmosphere of grace. - Jon
Poparazzi
That whole "get it this time" thing at the beginning of the song is from the demo. Chad was having another go, saying, "I'll get it this time!" when I hit record. But I thought it sounded pretty cool so I kept it. The "tune" bit was me practicing for the line, "tune for the poparazzi." Again, maybe artistic choice, maybe laziness! I like things like that though: they give albums personality.
We are surrounded by the noise of pop culture. Radio, TV, billboards, magazines: pop will never leave you alone. How we filter through all of it is extremely important. What will you give prime billing in the space between your ears? What are the tunes running around inside your head? - Jon
This song is a lover's quarrel with pop culture. I'm not sure if this song contributes more to the solution or the problem, because I just can't get it out of my head. Last year we toured this great country continuously, most often in a van with no CD player. Not having any good mix tapes, we spent a lot of time listening to the radio. What bothers me is the similarity of all the Pop stations, same songs, same format, and same commercials. A shame? Maybe... but then again, how else would we sing along? - Chad
Innocence Again
Somehow, all the songs I write to others, I ended up singing to myself sooner or later. This is no different and I end up with the question, "who will it be?" This song is a sister of "I Dare You To Move." Both songs are really driving at the same point: if God's redemptive movement is at work around us, we are called to respond. Indeed, whether we act or not, we have made a response either way. - Jon
'Grace is high AND low.' The simplicity of that truth always speaks to me. This is the nature of God's grace. This is found in the highs and the lows – on the peaks and in the valleys. This truth is so difficult to accept in it's entirety: that fools like us have been 'given innocence again.' - Tim
Jon and I have talked before about how impossible it is to share the truth of God's grace in a three-minute pop song, to me this one comes close to capturing the essence of it. - Chad
Playing For Keeps
Our first album (Legend Of Chin) had quite a few songs about girls and relationships. Our second album (New Way To Be Human) didn't really have any songs that fit that description, but we still felt that song about love and the struggles there-in were important for us to write about. This is the one song on this album that deals with the often-used-but-never-exhausted topic of heart-ache. Eventually I think everyone experiences a time when he meets someone very special or just grows tired of the dating game, and he doesn't want anything to do with someone that he's attracted to unless that someone is reasonably serious about creating a lasting relationship. He would rather have that person tell him "it's time to move on" than to be strung along only to have his heart broken. This is what it's like to be 'playing for keeps': to be looking beyond the present to a meaningful and lasting friendship. - Tim
The Loser
That's a fun song. It originally was a lot more Reggae and we had to kind of tone it down a little for the album. We came to the conclusion that we were white, very white. The song itself is about the upside down aspect of the kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, how the last will be first and the first will be last. Blessed are the people who are on the bottom because they're gonna be on top. That's what "The Loser" is about. - Jon
Living Is Simple
The crazy circumstances around recording matched the context of the song exactly. The song is trying to express the tension between the amazing complexity of a life of grace and the simple faith to which we are called. The first verse is tongue in cheek; entropy and gravity represent the tougher aspects of life. And the life of a human is so much more complex than breathing. In the contrast to the turmoil in the first verse we hear an angelic, churchy choir singing that "All shall be made well." Is this fiction? Could it be that in our frantic, fallen world a simple salvation has come?
We wanted to produce the song in a way that matched the content: busy and complex moments standing juxtaposed against the simpler, naked parts. The end is the same: simple melodies breaking down and falling apart and getting distorted until... ahhhh! a simple chord to end it. The footsteps are to signify completion. This was the last song recorded for the project and we knew that it was going to be the last one on the CD so we gave the whole thing a bit of closure. - Jon
The irony of the statement 'living is simple' stings a little...we just look at the world around us, and the contradiction is painful and clear: living is not at all simple. In fact, living is very difficult and complex, and truth is stranger than fiction. We catch the humor, but it's not that funny. But wait-- even amidst the confusion of life we see God's redemptive plan at work. In fact, his plan is far stranger than anything else that we have ever encountered. "Is this fiction? Hope has given himself to the worst. Is this fiction? Or divine comedy, where the last of the last finish first. Living is simple" - Tim
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