What it truthfully feels like to record an album.

allie_inbooth

In short recording an album is the most exposing process a musician could go through.

Standing in front of an expensive microphone that will reveal your best and worst qualities is a frightening process. And recording with the intent of a finished product is nothing but nerve wreaking. Knowing that what you lay down will be what you hear of yourself forever is enough to stress anyone out.

And what I initially thought would be a process of sounding the best we could. I now know it is a process of learning to be happy with our own imperfections.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

And yet those weaknesses revealed in the exposed nature of recording one’s self is the beauty of the process. Because without those weaknesses one wouldn’t have a song to sing about. In full strength one doesn’t have need of a savior to lift up in praise. And one would be left to surmise that one’s own glory is the true necessity to recording an album, or doing anything great for that matter.

But this is simply not the case.

To glorify God in our process of recording and sharing music is to recognize that we have something worth sharing despite our own imperfections. Or more truthfully that we have something worth sharing BECAUSE of our own imperfections.

Maybe it’s because it’s our first official recording process. Or maybe it’s a feeling that never truly goes away, just like that heart pounding feeling after performing a song that never really goes away no matter how many times we step foot in front of a crowd.

In full confidence I now hope this feeling of insecurity never does go away. Because without it I am left honoring my own flesh and blood. In my youth I thought I would arrive and feel sure. But now I know better.

I no longer want to arrive and feel sure. First, because I recognize this is not my home and I won’t feel a true sense of arrival until the new heavens and earth. Secondly, because I understand more fully now that my weakness enables my savior to shine more brightly through it. And if being weak makes Him stronger, then I shall continue.

One thought on “What it truthfully feels like to record an album.

  1. Love these words! They are encouraging to us in other walks along the pathways of life. I have always wanted to “arrive and feel sure”, yet this must not be my goal. Very thought provoking.

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