me and Dustin Kensrue wrote a melody together

This blog turned into more than i expected, haha. if you want just the part the title suggests to, skip down to the all caps first sentence paragraph. :)

For those of you who don't know, i really like song writing, my favorite lyric writing. I write songs for myself and others all the time. When i was in middle school, i formed a band called Alteration 64 with some good friends of mine (Peter Klemm, Matt Ingram, Beau Medas, and Tristan Dougherty) and i was the lead singer/rhythm guitarist. I got in the band because i really wanted to write songs, i absolutely love lyricism. I loved those songs, and even submitted them as a project for school! Cause i submited our songs for school we even got to play at one of my school events! All of my friends and loved ones like Keith and Joni Garrison and the Ingersoll's came! I love you guys so much for coming, i will never forget that night! Especially cause Jim reminds me monthly how horrible of a singer i was, and that i should never sing solo again, haha. Thanks Jim, i promise, i won't ;). I feel like none of the other guys really cared about or even like our band as much as i did. No, me and Peter both loved that band, Matt could care less, Beau might as well not of been in the band, and Tristan cared but was too good for us/didn't like our style. I really appreciate Tristan being in it for as long as he was, cause he helped us play a battle of the bands, i'll never forget that day. Peter's mom drove us up there in her van (cause we were too young to drive), with our little guitars, practice amps, no pedals, soooo ghetto. Gosh, Mrs. Klemm has done sooo much for me over the years, i need to send her a thank you note. So we're like 13 year olds, everybody else is 18 and up, and have such nice rigs. We were a mix of embaressed and hype all at the same time. We did the battle and were judged, and placed dead last by like 20 points! haha, man, i still have our scores you guys! Remember that! I'll never forget that day, so thanks Tristan for being in the band to make that happen for us, i really appreciate you. One of the judges's only good comments was "YOUR BASS PLAYER ROCKS!" Props Tristan. But the band definitely didn't like my singing. I'm not bitter at all, but i'm loosely quoting Matthew Ingram: "your voice is so bad Jamal, that it will be the reason people don't like our band". Haha! crazy right? i guess i was/still am a super bad singer, but i hope/think everybody liked my lyrics ok.

Lyricism is one reason why i love rap and hip-hop so much. The bests rappers are above heads and shoulders better wordsmiths and lyricists then the best rock song writers, i would say that to anybody and any band. Since i'm not in a band writing original music right now, i guess this is a good place to post all of the song lyrics i write and have no real use for.

Me and Maria both love rap, and writing rap songs. Maria Moore is a rapper yall! she even has a video out! haha, it's on youtube, i might even put it at the end of this post. Maria always thinks up clever lines, and soon we're gonna start writing them down to compilate into the greatest rap song EVAH! Hey Maria, maybe we can post and keep track of your lines on here? haha.

ANYWAY, TO WHY I NAMED THIS POST ME AND DUSTIN KENSRUE wrote a melody together. I've fallen in LOVE with this band. Props to Callie G. who handed their entire catalog, i'm loving my life right now. But anyway, i came across this one song, "Daedalus", and i hadn't even heard the lyrics yet, but the end melody struck me. So freestyled, i sang out

"Oh! These words don't mean anything to me

If all these words are real, then what's in between?"

They don't even really neccesarily make sense, but after i sang em, i wrote it down. They kinda explain how i've been feeling recently, but am in a way coming out of. A lot of the time recently, when i've sat down to read the Bible, i finish the section and have learned or realized nothing. The verses i read were just words on a page. i'll sit and think, but nothing will make sense or have any meaning. That's a problem right? If this is God's living Word, and i'm praying for guidance and his messages, then why am i not getting them? There are a million different reasons why i wouldn't, and i know that sometimes that's just what's gonna happen when you read the Bible. But it was happening so often, that it was frustrating me. After reading the bible every day for 2 weeks and got getting anything out of it, it makes me wanna just stop reading all together. Which i know is wrong, but that's just how it makes me feel. I'm pulling out of it now, which is good, God's speaking to me through his Word more and more. Which i think is a causal relation to my increased serving (which i will save for another post). But yeah, that sums up those lyrics

Here are the lyrics that Dustin is singing in that same section:

"Oh God! Why is this happening to me?

all i wanted was new life for my son to grow up free

and now you took the only thing that meant anything to me"

I promise, i didn't have a clue what he was really singing, but we kinda came upon the same concept. The story he tells on that song is heart wrenching, and beautiful. Dustin Kensrue is a top class rock lyricist, he grabs at my emotions and forces me to feel what he feels. Him, Sujfan Stevens, Jesse Lacey of Brand New, and Matthew Theissen of Relient K, and Claduio Sanchez of Coheed are my top rock lyricist. The most important thing to the Character of Dustin's song was his son, and he lost him, and now he's pissed at God. The most important thing to me are my revelations from the Bible. It has been for a long time, a little bit of that is rooted in pride, but i'm trying to tone that down. But in the same type situation, when the revelations stop coming from God, i kinda turn and get pissed at Him. Which is lame, and dumb, but that's kinda what i am at times, lame and dumb, haha.

I love God, and he's always faithful, so he does, has, and always will bring me out of those dry spells. He did for Moses, David, and Joseph, so he will for me and he will for you. Amen? Amen. thanks so much for reading!

here are the links to the Thrice song Daedalus, listen to it and try to find "our" melody refrain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgbOUVJbNA

Thrice is soooo good, talented instrumetalists, beautiful vocals and lyrics.

p.s., i am a HORRIBLE speller, and am way to lazy to fix them, spell check doesn't seem to be working. so i apologize for all my errors, there are many i'm sure. please no spelling edits, haha.