Newest song 'I am your Peace

 Today, I finally finished what I consider to be one of my top 3 songs. It is a song called 'I am your Peace'. Here's the story behind it. 

In 2004 or so, I had been going piano/keyboard crazy. My friends Jason and Chris from church were roommates, and both were piano players as well. Both could read music, and also knew how to play from chords, and both knew a lot about music theory. I hung out with them for much of my early 20's. We talked music, girls, songwriting, and whatever. I played string effects on my keyboard in the worship band at my church's youth group, and either Jason or Chris would lead it from the piano. At that point in my life, I was all about writing music, discovering new chord progressions, and recording music. The songs I wrote then were what they were (rushed, lacking depth with the music and lyrics). I just had so much fun trying to write them that I overproduced them, with stacks of paper of lame songs that I eventually weeded through and ended up putting 3/4 of them in the trash. With all of those songs, I had written on (what I thought was) a lot of topics. One day, I stupidly expressed to Jason that I had written on just about every topic and couldn't think of any more to write about. Jason asked if I had written a song about peace. Of course, I hadn't. I thought about that for a few weeks, and came up with some lyrics about peace. Meanwhile, this guy named Joe started coming to our church that year. He was a decent guitar player who had written some songs, and he got a band together, and we started trying to practice and perform song of them. He graciously allowed me to play piano in the band, and I'll give it to him. He let me play without really any reigns on me. I played 100% as hard as I could except for the few times he told me to drop out for dynamics sake. It allowed me to grow as a piano player by not having to give up much control, and I had a ton of fun trying whatever was in my head with that band. We named ourselves 'Broken', and Jason played drums for the band (he is probably BETTER at drums than piano, and he is an elite piano player). Eventually, Joe just up and left Florida and moved to Kentucky, leaving the band to have nothing but memories. One day, Joe showed me an idea for a song that he had, with a basic D, A/C#, Bm, A progression for the verse and an Em, G, D, A progression for the chorus. He didn't really have lyrics to it, and he played it for me a few times, and I came up with a nice little piano riff for it, which Joe thought would be the main draw of the song. Unfortunately, the song never came to anything because Joe left. I did, however, enjoy playing that piano riff, so I used both of them in my song about peace, which was starting to take shape. When I wrote it, the lyrics to me kind of echoed the fact that in times of trouble, God was my peace. Now that I am grown up 20 years or so, the song takes a little different meaning. While God has always been there for me during troubles, sometimes it's not that simple. When we miscarried, while God was always there, it didn't always feel like He was, and it was more friends, some family, and my wife who were my peace. Sometimes, I get to be Karen's peace when she is recovering from a surgery or something, so the lyrics almost tell of being someone else's peace during a difficult time now that I'm older. However the lyrics speak to you, I hope you can take something from this song and connect to it. 

I am really proud of it, and if I were ever to make an album, this would be either the 1st or 2nd single released. It is one of the few songs I have ever performed in person. The first time was at the church with Jason during a music service. I did it at the grand piano, may have had Jason backing me on drums, and after playing it, some of the girls in our youth group came up to me and said 'Jeremy, that was so good'. Made me blush a little. In 2008 or so, my college Bible study in Montgomery, Alabama had a talent night, and I did the song. I got good comments, and after doing the song, our leader Ryan presented me with a shirt that had a picture of someone that resembled me and the phrase 'Jeremy Rocks'. I still have the shirt. 

Later in the year, another place I led worship at had a concert, with the band Thalon. Thalon was supposed to be the only band playing, but I talked with the youth leader, and they were ok if I opened for them, doing a 3 song set. I cobbled together the best band I could find, getting JP, a great bass player to do guitar for me, Jeff, a drummer who I had never played with, and Scott, a kid in the youth group who played bass. JP and Jeff weren't available to practice with me, but were good enough that I never worried about it. Scott practiced a few times with me, but wasn't into it, so he was good on probably 1 1/2 songs. Thalon was there and ready to go, and I was waiting on JP and Jeff. They finally came, and we spent like 10 minutes going over everything. Thalon was kind of getting annoyed with me, but they didn't really show it. Classy guys. I did my 3 songs that night, the last one being 'I am your Peace'. Scott didn't feel confident in it, so he didn't play on it, but JP and Jeff did great (JP even adding some transitional chords in the first song we did that I never thought of but added a nice touch). When Thalon finally went on, they did great, and thanked me and my band before their final song. Hope I can be like that to some younger kids.  

The last time I did the song was in 2010 when my friend Whyna invited me to her church for their music talent service. They had it like once a month. Her church's band was amazing. I did the song once or twice there, and the band played along with me like they knew the song, even though their first time hearing it was when I started playing at the service. Talented musicians. 

I hope I get to play it again maybe, but if not, I hope this video makes its way to as many people as it can and that you can connect with the song in some way. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy