Kim Gentes

Today was the second day of recording on the new worship project. The day started better than day 1, because I learned that getting lots of sleep is much better for recording music in studio. Per the direction of my producer Brian Thiessen, I slept in late and came in to the studio around 10:30am.

Another smart tip from Brian T was to drink lots of water and stay hydrated during recording process. So I made sure I had a couple of bottles there as the day went on. For energy during they day, he brought some apples, muffins and bananas. A quick bite of fruit was a great way to perk up the energy without sludging down the stomach. When I got tired later in the day, I took a bite of an apple to keep me going. Being in a recording studio, even bites of apples can get captured.

Apple bite sound- here is a audio sample of biting an apple. Lots of energy in those apples!

Today, we recorded 4 more songs for the project. Most of them were upbeat songs, all of them were written or co-written by myself. The songs were: In Your Presence, Let Everything, Run To You and Kingdom Rain. During the process, lots of creative decisions are made.   Brian T sits here thinking about one of those such decision.

The day ended well, as I went to have a good dinner at the Canadian restaurant Swiss Chalet, a fun chicken eatery.  I love the dipping sauce they have for chicken. If you ever get to Canada, try Swiss Chalet chicken meal.  Fairly affordable and tastes good.

Today I drove to Surrey, BC (near Langley) where I met producer Brian Thiessen to start with tracking vocals and guitar for the project. To be honest, I was pretty nervous on this first day and I woke up early because of that.  It turned out to be a good day, but I was exhausted earlier than in the day because I had gotten up so early. 

We worked on singing the vocals for a new song "All Of Me For All Of You" that was the first "hymn" I have written.  A new original song, it has some co-writing with Don Moen who helped with some of the lyrics.

After that we had a great treat when Andy Park arrived in the studio to track vocals for the song "Holy Holy".  Andy has been a friend and mentor for many years, and he graciously agreed to contribute guest vocals to this new song of mine, written as a script and melody to express the worship described in the book of the Revelation throne room scene of chapters 4 and 5.  Andy laid down some great vocals and really expressed worship in a wonderful way.

After lunch, we moved on to the vocals for the song "I Was Made To Worship" an upbeat song about our lives being living sacrifices and God's purpose in making us living praise to His name.

The day ended with tracking vocals for the pensive chorus "Only Jesus", the only song on the new album that I did not write.  I added my guitar to layer some soft acoustic sound into the song and we were done for the day.  By this time it was after 6pm and I was exhausted.  It was a fun, tiring and good first day of recording.

Over the months of March, April and May, producer Brian Thiessen and I have worked on song selection, writing, arrangements, reference tracking and musician selection for the recording project.  Most of the work was done remotely via phone and internet with myself in Arizona, and Brian in Langley, BC, Canada. 

Recording of drums was with Calum Rees, drummer originally from UK.  Calum has been involved in some wonderful worship projects, including Hungry, Dwell and many others.  Brian T recruited Calum to track drums for the project and we are very excited to have him contributing.

Working on lyrics for a co-write.

UPDATE (May 11): We will be recording vocals and guitar on May 25-27 in Langley, BC, Canada for the project.  Song selection is completed and arrangements are well on the way. Most  tracking has already been done for drums. We are very excited to be moving forward on this. Producer Brian T. has enlisted some excellent musicians and worshipers on this project.

We have begun creative process, song selection and arrangements for a new worship project.  The project will include original, new songs including some co-written songs.  The album is being produced by Brian Thiessen, veteran musician, arranger and producer in BC, Canada.  Brian's credit's include the guitarist for Brian Doerksen, and producing for recent albums from both Andy Park and Brian Doerksen.  The album will be recorded in Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada.

Since Kim is originally born and raised in Canada (and lived there until he was 20), this album is something of a "coming home" in many ways.  We will be keeping things updated with album progress on the Facebook artist page at : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kim-Gentes/24717218449

We'll let you know as things move forward.  One surprise will be a couple of Kim's worship leading friends who will contribute guest vocals to a couple of the songs.  Stay tuned for more...