The Return of JSB?

Back at the end of June, I got together with my Jeff Somers Band-mates for a BBQ and “state-of-the-union” address. Basically, we wanted to re-evaluate where we were as a band and get a feel for everyone’s intentions for the band and where its importance lies in each of our lives. After some good food, good laughs, and a few memories, we sat down and discussed “what’s next for JSB?”

Without getting into too much detail, we thought it prudent to go back to the roots of what JSB was/is all about: worship. JSB grew out of a monthly worship gathering called The Spot where our sole purpose was to lead others into a place of intentional, spirit-lead worship. We all expressed our interest in re-visiting that and making the priority. Not that that purpose ever left us, but there was a time where be might've taken our focus off of the local church and try to take it elsewhere on our own accord. then again, we were blessed to have never pro-actively make things happen for ourseleves; God blessed us with many things: oppurtunities, gigs, relationships, finances, etc.

When our first record, The Origin of Moonlight, gained a bit of steam from local and national radio, we tried to push ourselves to really make thigns happen. But, after a few band-member changes, failed attempts to gain funding for another record, and committment/priority/family/vocation changes, we never fully got to feel the full effects of Origin's momentum (despite being nominated for a few CGMA Covenant Awards in 2006).

So, back to our BBQ discussion, we thought it might be wise to try and “start over” form where we began and focus back on the worship scene in our local church scene. And, hey, if that leads us to other places, venues, and experience then so be it. Also, we thought it’d be fun (and quite possibly necessary) to express ourselves creatively by writing and demoing for a new album. Sunny has quite the home-studio now and it will be our goal to use that space to demo some songs and take the journey to try (again) to make a record we’re all creatively, spiritually, and influentially responsible for. That excites me.

It's been about a month or so, and we've written about 3 or 4 songs (or song ideas). I don't have any capable recording devices so I've been using the mic on my iPhone to jot down some ideas and song-snippets. It's been fun for me because I feel that I've been so creatively drained over the past year or two that I've got plenty of ideas for possible new music. I'm not saying they're any good, but ideas none-the-less. While I also admit that I don't have as much experience/ability with writing as Jay or Sunny do, it's been nice to spread my wings and get some input from them on some ideas (and vice versa). I imagine it'll be a long process, but just the thought of writing another record excites me immensely. There's no pressure, no due-date, and nobody pushing us to get something finished, so I believe that really gives us the freedom and time to make great worship songs we enjoy playing and sharing. And while we'll use our rehearsal times to practice for The Spot (and any other worship oppurtunites that come our way), we don't have to put any pressure on ourselves to "make something happen" for JSB. We can let the spirit lead us wherever it wants to take us. I think that's an exciting thing.

Stay tuned and I'll keep ya'll posted on any updates on JSB-happenings.

http://www.jeffsomersband.com