were the initial seed of what Eden became . I was going through my voice notes and that ’ s eight years ago now . I was going through my voice notes , my Apple notes on my phone .
I find those lyrics and it is the first thing that talks about the trees and the three trees . Then “ Eden ” existed in multiple forms . We tried to finish it for , I think three different United records and it just never really felt right . But I always knew there was something in it . I ’ d always thought if I was to do a record , this would be one of the songs that I ’ d want to try and be for it . I ’ m really grateful for the guys that came on at the end to make that a reality .
Hank Bentley especially , put a lot of time and effort and did the journey with me . He ’ s the producer on it . I ended up writing that chorus with Aodhan King , Dylan Thomas , who was already a part of the song and Brandon Lake . I think because there ’ s so much narrative in the verses , that I think the simplicity of the chorus acts as a bit of a counter-balance to that . Anyway , I ’ m excited to have the song finally in the world .
The thing that I ’ ve always really identified with it , is the way that the story has those moments where they almost talk straight to death and say , you no longer have a grip on me . You no longer have a part of me . “ Beautiful Name ” does that really well . Sorry , I ’ m maybe rambling . But that was one of the things that , especially when I ’ m leading it , that ’ s one of my favorite things to do when we get to that part . Especially in a room , there ’ s a lot of passion that gets rallied when you do start making those statements of overcoming . Especially in something like that .
[ WM ] As we age , we hopefully arrive at some different conclusions . Maybe even things we never even thought about at a younger age . You mentioned “ Hold Onto Your Hats ”, and that was my next question . You begin the project with the that song . You write … “ I haven ’ t written in forever At least something I would sing Cause I ’ m so scared of the authentic
I ’ m just not saying anything ”
What a brutally honest lyric ! And the rest of the song reflects this as well . What can you tell us about “ Hold on to Your Hats ?
[ Benjamin ] Yeah . I really did endeavor on this record to overshare almost . Because I think one of my struggles in the process was , I was having all these thoughts in my head . I was wrestling with what I thought about God . Who I thought God was . I was really , really grappling . I was grappling with Him . I was praying every day . I was trying to . He was very involved in the conversation , but it was very much like , I ’ m trying to figure out who you are . There were moments in that where I ’ m still a part of United and we were traveling . We were in South America . There were these moments where we ’ re doing these worship nights to thousands of people , like 30,000 plus .
I ’ m really actively pursuing God in the truest sense , and I ’ m pursuing you in the unknown here . I ’ m exercising faith . But I had this , in the middle of that , had a full imposter syndrome . Because I ’ m like , if these people knew what was going on inside my brain right now , they would throw me off the stage . Much of the record came from that wrestle . I thought , well the only way I can combat my imposter syndrome in this sense , is to just to try my best