Carefully crafted Christian chamber pop-rock like no Christian music you have ever heard before. A seamless hour of sonic exploration showcases eminently relistenable layers of engrossing musical interplay supporting tightly written lyrics. Impeccable.

13 MP3 Songs in this album (57:58) !
Related styles: Pop: Chamber Pop, Rock: 60's Rock, Christian

People who are interested in Brian Wilson Queen Radiohead should consider this download.


Details:
About Physick and Songs for Friends

MICHAEL: When Phil Hodges was twelve, he came with his family to Chalcedon Presbyterian Church, the same church I had attended since conception. Both Phil and I attended the churchâs school as distant acquaintances, becoming closer friends in our senior year. After we graduated in 2000, Phil went to Columbus State University on a scholarship for Classical Guitar Performance, and I went to Georgia Tech to study Chemical Engineering. We lost touch.
After Phil dropped out and I failed out, we both, in our separate ways, pursued a musical education. Phil learned theory and perfected his instrumental technique on the piano and guitar while I taught myself rock instruments by jamming in various bands, the whole while learning through experimentation how to record music. It wasnât until 2008 that we got back in contact at a birthday partyâa dance party in Atlanta. Though we both love music, neither of us like
dancing. After obliging our wives (both big fans of dancing) for an appropriate number of tunes (with admirable enthusiasm), we both found our way outside, independently seeking the same objectâa breath of fresh air and some quiet. God had other plans. I already knew of Philâs musical prowess and had been hoping to recruit his talents for the Nehemiah Foundation, an organization I had just started with my father. But I had nothing really to offer Phil, and I reasoned that Phil, with considerably greater training and skill, would have already started some musical endeavor of his own. On this muggy August night, though,
I got up my courage and sat down on the under-sized city bench Phil was already occupying. I asked, âSo, are you recording your music, or playing in a band or something?â Phil replied simply, âNo.â Before I could think myself out of it, I asked, âDo you wanna play with me?â âSure.â And thatâs how it started.

PHIL: When Michael approached me about joining his Foundation, I was ecstatic. I had been stuck at an office job since 2004 and had no other prospects of becoming a recording artist, a life-long aspiration of mine which was fading in probability with every passing year. Not long after our discussion, Michael and his brother-in-law (the adressee of Battling Cancer) started talking about building a studio. I figured it was just another one of those things that people talk about and never do, but I soon learned that when Michael plans to do something, he does it. So Micah and Michael finished the studio and my first work there was as a session musician on Micahâs first album, Without Reservations, released posthumously. After a short time of working with Michael, it became clear that we had almost exactly non-overlapping skill sets. Michaelâs focus was on rhythm, recording, and lyricism and he played the drums, bass, and a little guitar. I was drawn to melody, musical composition, and arrangement. I played the classical and acoustic guitar, piano, melodic bass, and knew almost nothing about drums or recording music. As for lyrics, I had been keeping a little black book with me at all times, and I would scribble lyrical ideas in it whenever they came to me. Many times these lyrics were just placeholders for melodies, and I was never very satisfied with them. Once I fully adjusted to Michaelâs direct style of lyricism, I felt a huge sense of relief. I didnât have to struggle over lyrics anymoreâI could dedicate myself to the music.

MICHAEL: The real breakthrough for the album came with Pained by Withdrawal. One night, Phil was playing the guitar part for Pained on my back porch, and I started to envision a seedy bar populated by shady characters. Recently, one of our close friends struggled through a serious heroin addiction, and we started to think this music was a perfect framework to speak about the âwasted wonderlandâ of drug abuse in which our friend had almost been lost completely. I had already written Song for a Friend Battling Cancer for Micah (who was able to hear a version of it before he died). So we thought, âWhy not make a whole album of songs for friends? We could call it [drum-roll] Songs for Friends.â From that point it was a matter of writing lyrics, organizing songs, and recording.

PHIL: Since I had already written melodies for these songs, writing lyrics was challenging. Michael didnât want the lyrics to feel like they were being imposed on the song, and I had spent years fine-tuning many of these melodies, so I wanted them to remain mostly unchanged. The first step in the process was getting the mood of the song right. I would play it on guitar or piano, and we would discuss what kind of images or feelings we got from the music. Sometimes this was more obvious than others. For instance, the original title I gave the instrumental that, six or so years later, became Waiting in Prison was Lagging Behind. Once we had a general idea of the direction the song was already going, Michael would sit next to me on the piano bench with a pen and a pad of paper, and he would scan the melodies for number of syllables and stresses while I sang them in vowel form. When Michael had the melody charted, he would begin filling it in with
words and lines, having me repeat small sections of the song over and over until things started clicking. It was laborious at times for both of us, but it was also really exciting to see these songs develop. When we finished the lyrics, we came up with a song order that would create a seamless album experience. Then, with everything laid out and fully organized, we finally started recording.

MICHAEL: Recording and mixing took almost a year and a half. Throughout the process, God orchestrated little serendipities to signal his favorable presence. On Harboring Sin, the transition between the end of the bridge and the outro was giving us some trouble. Phil wasnât happy with the way his voice sounded on heart and the transition to the outro seemed rushed. I decided to put a delay effect and a filter on heart to give it a corroding sound, but I could never have predicted what would happen. The low frequency oscillator setting on the filter created a thumping sound in Philâs vocal⦠it sounded like a heart beat! It was perfect and entirely unintentional, and it set the stage for all the other wierdness that happened in that transition, which we both agree was much improved (though it is strange). This is just one example of Godâs provision throughoutâthis album could not have been finished without His aid. We would leave you with a prayer, prayed by Increase Mather during a Lordâs Supper some three hundred years ago, that summarizes our prayers throughout this process:

Lord, we have one Argument to Plead with Thee; and it is a great one; yea, it will be a Prevailing Argument. It is, Thy own dear Name, and the Glory of it. If Thou will give us much of the Spirit of Christ, Thy Great Name will then have much Glory from us.