Worship Musician Magazine August 2023 | Page 9

[ Franni ] Yeah . I also feel like live albums ( for me ) you can go back to the seventies and feel like you were there . And some of my favorite live albums I ’ ll turn it on in my car or in my room , my house , whatever … and I feel like I ’ m back in that moment . And I think songs have this really beautiful way of surpassing the boundaries of time and doing that . And especially the live ones . ‘ cause you know , you hear people cheering and you ’ re cheering . And so I just think it ’ s sweet to be able to offer people that maybe weren ’ t able to come or who live far away or whatever . I ’ m excited to make people feel like they ’ re included in the room .
[ WM ] Well , you know , when I was in the ninth grade in 1971 , I went and saw Led Zeppelin at the Los Angeles Forum . And I was dialed into the guitar solo work . And then I went and saw a couple weeks later Eric Clapton with Derek and Dominoes before “ Layla ” was out . And there was a lot of guitar solos that night . So I just wanna thank you guys for bringing back guitar solos . It ’ s just that in worship music , they don ’ t really exist . There are a lot of good atmospheric tones I like , but for me it ’ s like , “ Please gimme a solo ” ( laughing ).
And of course you want to play to the song and serve the song . Mike Campbell was so good with doing that with Tom Petty ’ s music . The guitar solo isn ’ t just , “ Look at me , look at me . I ’ m great ”. He plays to the song . So tell me how you work out your guitar solos ? And Martin I ’ m sure they give you time for a drum solo here and there . How do you guys approach solos in general ?
[ Martin ] That ’ s a great question . So when we first were working out our arrangements , when we were kind of starting to go on the road probably four years ago now , we brought a guy named Tom Jackson in to help .
[ WM ] I know Tom Jackson well , the Live Music Producer . Yes , I ’ m his hair coach . ( laughing )
[ Franni ] ( laughing ) I can see .
[ Martin ] You know him personally ?
[ WM ] Yes , Tom has come to our Christian Musician Summit conferences several times . We have done these training conferences for over 20 years and he comes and will take a local worship band and in one hour that band is several times better than when they walked in . He increases your presentation skills and is definitely really good at what he does . onstagesuccess . com
[ Andrew ] He ’ s brilliant , and he helped us learn and start getting our minds thinking in a way of like , “ Okay , we ’ re just totally in a different sphere here and like now we ’ re community , a live audience ”. Because we were all more behind the scenes of music before the band started . It was just such a huge step when we were first playing . It was just worship music , which is a little different approach . And I think all the music we play today is actually as much or more worship than it ever was ‘ cause it ’ s authentically how we express ourselves to the Lord and worship Him . And so in that it , we did find some freedom . Wait a minute … a guitar solo can be worshipful ? It doesn ’ t have to just be a voice melody that is worshipful . A guitar solo can just be as much worship as anything .
And so it was just a process of finding what ’ s authentic to the song and engaging . Especially on “ Child of Love ”, there ’ s this moment where the three guitar players , me , Scott , and Ed , are all playing a solo together . It ’ s
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