The Same Brand New Moments: the Stories Behind the Songs (Part Three)

The Same Brand New Moments
a song about life

The writing process for this one was interesting in that I had the melody before I had an idea of even what instrument it would be with. I ended up going with electric guitar so I could truly utilize all my instruments on this album. 

In the earliest stages of this album, my thought was for there to be a song for every holiday (I had Thanksgiving, Christmas, and graduation already covered). It went from holidays to moments very quickly, but this song started out as a New Years song. Every start of a new year is a time to reflect on the years past in my mind, and as one does that, it becomes very clear how much of our lives are just reiterations or repetitions of the same moments. I wanted to reflect that in a song.

In the first iteration of this song, it was missing the last verse/chorus, and in some ways, was a bit depressing... Sisyphean, some might say. But, there is truth in that last verse/chorus. If we are, as humans, going to keep making the same mistakes and feeling the same feelings, we should put our trust in the one who makes no mistakes, but also went through life just as we are. He's been here before.

The more I've thought about it, our lives are made up of these same moments, presented each time in this brand new way. That's not a bad thing, though. We grow. We learn. Some moments get easier with practice and some get harder with frequency, but that is how this life on Earth is. And, until I get to heaven, I want to keep living these same brand new moments. 

Special thanks to my dad for tracking drums on this one!

Let Us Give Thanks
a song about thankfulness

Just like Departure, some of you may have already heard this song! I wrote this back in 2021, recorded it in my room and then posted it to my YouTube channel with a cool lyric video before sharing it with my friends and family. It was my first real toe-dip into song writing: I had a cool guitar part and a message that I thought was important, so I made a song. 

I have been inspired by so many singer-songwriters over the years. Now, some of my biggest inspirations are Ben Rector and Matthew West. Listening to a lot of music and growing up in an encouraging and musical household helped me have the confidence to write and record this song and ultimately this album.

The story of this song has actually already been written for the most part in my blog here about Christmas not being celebrated before Thanksgiving has happened (other than Christmas in July (on July 25)... I'm cool with that. Thanksgiving truly is my favorite holiday and, while I'm glad it already had a couple songs, I'm happy to add to that small collection.

A Basic Christmas
a song about simplicity

This song is short, it is relatively simple musically, and it is to the point. This song was also written and self-recorded before the album, but not too much before. "a BASS-ic Christmas" is a collection of Christmas song covers over on my YouTube channel. Over the past four years, I have recorded five songs (making them appropriately "bass"-y) every December to add to this collection. In 2022, I wrote and recorded A Basic Christmas to be an intro of sorts to my other four songs that year. 

Stemming from my views about Thanksgiving, I believe Christmas is overhyped. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but all the decorations, all the hubbub and travel, and all the commercialization has taken away from Christmas being about family, a break from worldly things, and ultimately about our savior being born. When I sing "a basic Christmas, a simple Christmas like the ones before" I'm not just talking about Christmases when I was a kid. I'm talking about the very first Christmas and Christmases that truly model the simplicity of the holy celebration of our savior's birth with loved ones. 

Maybe you're like me and you're not going to listen to this song until December or maybe on July 25th, but when you do, I hope it instills a sense of peace in simplicity.

Special thanks to my dad for tracking jingle bells on this one... it wouldn't be a Christmas song without them.

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At the beginning of part one of these stories behind the songs, I said that this album represents me. Yes, a country song, a rap song, and a pop song don't typically all belong on the same album. Nor should there necessarily be a Christmas song or a Thanksgiving song on an album that came out in September. But, on my playlist of around 300 of my favorite songs, there are songs that do not belong on the same playlist together. That playlist actually only has one song from any given artist. Musically, my album is representative of that: my tastes in many genres. 

I think the greatest tie between all these songs as an album, however, is a life. In this case, this life is mine, but the moments are not. Every life has moments of leaving, celebrating, praising, mourning, loving, losing, thanking, wanting, and having. Every life sees multiple variations of these moments. I wrote these songs over a year before they were released and I don't think they are any less applicable and emotionally-tied to my life, and I hope some of you that listen see the ties to moments in your life as well. 

These three blogs are meant to accompany the songs, not substitute for them, for in the very nature of music, more is communicated emotionally than anything I could ever explain in writing. "The Same Brand New Moments" is available wherever you stream music. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening, and go live the moments.

One final special thanks to John McJunkin (recording engineer), Ryan Buckland (mixing/mastering), and the whole team at GCU for helping me bring these songs to life, to my dad for tracking drums and percussion, to my uncle for letting me record his song, to all my music teachers past and present for teaching me how to play and sing, and to all my friends and family that have encouraged and supported me along the way. Y'all are the best.

The Same Brand New Moments: the Stories Behind the Songs (Part Two)

I Mean It
a song about love

While I am aware that I am no Johnny Cash, I am a bass and this is a country song, so he was my musical inspiration for this one. I love the spoken style of some of Cash's storytelling songs, and who doesn't love a country song with a catchy chorus with the story in the verses (ie. The Gambler, A Boy Named Sue, etc.)? So, with all that in mind I sat down with my guitar and wrote myself a country song. 

For those of you who know me pretty well, the autobiographical nature of this song was probably apparent, but for the rest of y'all, I'm Cooper in this song. It is so strange to me how some people, when they get broken up with, say that they never loved the person anyway. I know this is a coping mechanism, but I don't think it's a good one. Of course, it is very fair to not love them anymore, but in my life, I have meant it when I have said "I love you." I just have grown in the maturity of what that love is. It seems paradoxical, but I've found it true in my life that I've heard, meant, and said it before, but can still say I love you and mean it fully, no asterisks. And, since writing this song, I am grateful to have found someone to say this chorus to. 

Special thanks to my dad for tracking cajon and kick drum on this one!

If We Could Know
a song about courage

The second song in the kind of "love song trilogy," this song starts out about doubt and ends about courage. I believe that in every relationship, there are points of fear and doubt. No one wants to pour their heart into a relationship if things aren't going to work out. I certainly don't, but there's often no way to know. If we could know, it really would be easier to give someone all my love. Obviously, though, we cannot know what the 30-year future holds, but I still want to be able to fall in love if I believe it is at all possible that it will stay her and me. That's what courage in a relationship looks like, I think. When those doubts and fears come, to go forward despite them, together. 

I had the great opportunity to record this on an acoustic Yamaha grand in the GCU studio instead of the electric piano. I think that rawness adds to the integrity of the song. As I've continued to mess around with the chord progression, even after recording, my urge is to add so much more, but I value the meditative space that the song in its recorded form provides. 

This might be my favorite song on the album. I love the wordplay I stumbled on, the acoustics of the piano, and that super fun run in the piano and voice that took me way longer than it should've to master. 

It's Been a While
a song about retrospecting

So what does retrospecting mean? It means to look back in thought. This song looks back in thought very personally. The song is a cappella to represent my joining of an a cappella choir in my early high school years. It's topic is one that truly cannot be described in the present, but is still a milestone in my past. Even saying "it's been a while" sticks the speaker in retrospect.

I don't like breakup songs. They whine, cry and blame or ask for her back. There is a time for tears, but the moments we should remember are the benefits of the relationship as it was. Like it or not, a person was a part of your life for a while and to dismiss them is to dismiss the growth you had in that time. I am lucky to have had all my relationships end relatively amicably. Of course my first relationship was the hardest to lose, but it showed me how to move on, to acknowledge the importance of that person in my life, and care without wanting her back. It sometimes takes a while, but it allows for peaceful and growth-minded retrospecting, and for that, I'm grateful.

Special thanks to Ryan Buckland for mixing and mastering all the songs, but especially this one — I know it was probably tough trying to blend a bunch of "me"s together.

The Same Brand New Moments: the Stories Behind the Songs (Part One)

"The Same Brand New Moments" is, on a surface level, a hodgepodge of topics and musical genres. In many ways, the "album-ness" of this collection of songs is questionable. Ultimately, however, all aspects of this album are representative of me.

Apart from a few exceptions, I wrote these songs in a practice room at Texas Christian University my second semester of freshman year (Spring 2023). Over that summer, I recorded all the songs at Grand Canyon University. And now, you can listen to the whole album on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, or from wherever you stream or buy music. What follows is a glimpse into my motivations for writing these songs: my moments.

Departure (I'll Go)
a song about leaving

This, the first song on the album, is one of the aforementioned exceptions: I actually wrote this song before my spring semester. I actually wrote it even before I moved into my freshman dorm. This song, for me, is about leaving for college.

It was the week before I left Arizona for Texas with my dad to drive all my stuff out to school. I sat down at my keyboard and was just playing around with different chord progressions and GarageBand sounds. The next day, I had a song. That is still the quickest I have ever finished a song. I found the piano part simple and meditative, and the words were just a pure expression of what I was feeling at that time. When I made the decision to enroll at TCU, it seemed so clear, but when I got closer to actually going, I saw everything that I'd be leaving behind and I began to question my choice. These were my feelings.

Now, as a proud Horned Frog in his junior year, I can safely say I made the hard but right and God-ordained choice. Change is always a little (or a lot) knee-knocking, but through God's grace, I was able to grow through it. I made TCU my home away from home, I kept my relationships with some really good Arizona friends, and I found incredible relationships with people at TCU. It is truly still difficult to be miles away from home and I still sometimes think I'm crazy, but my God does still love me, so whatever my next departure is, I'll go.

All Year Long
a song about friends

I had tons of fun writing this one! I don't think anyone could've predicted me rapping, and some might still argue I shouldn't rap, but here we are. My main priority for this song musically was to explore—to do something different than my "norm." And yes, this song has the same vibes as Fireflies, but no, it's not the same (it doesn't even have the same chord progression). The genesis of the song was the loop behind the rap. The high pitched voice singing the title? Yeah, that's a clip of me singing from 2010 with a couple effects thrown on it. I wrote the music around that. 

I love my friends, both old and new, so I knew if I was going to write a song about moments in my life, I have to incorporate all those times just chilling with friends, whether it be at school, at my buddy Miguel's house, or in my college apartment. To me, "summer" in this song is all the time to just be with those people. So, the idea of summer lasting all year long, is possible. Through all my busyness, I strive to make time to be with my friends to do nothing important. That in it of itself is important enough. I am very grateful for my friends.

If There's a Heaven... There's a Heaven
a song about loss

In December of 2022, my grandfather, who I have always known as Papa, received his ultimate healing after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was a truly incredible man who lived a truly incredible life walking with such faithfulness and humility. He was an example to everyone who knew him and I was grateful to have him around as a big part of my life for so long. 

The pain of loss is real, but I didn't think I could write a song as insightful and true to what loss is as my uncle did. Here's what he said about this song that he wrote:

Too few know a man like my dad. Even fewer have the privilege of walking with one for more than 40 years. And precious few are able to call such a man “dad.”  

I wrote this song in his final weeks, as I wrestled with the process of moving my faith from head to heart (and vice versa) in such a moment. 

The conclusions... God is good, heaven is real, cling to truth. 

There’s real vulnerability in admitting those doubts that can creep in, but more importantly, there’s real faith in the comfort found in the truth we know to be true. 

Special thanks to my uncle, James Gottry, for letting me record this personal and profound song.

Promised
a song about praise

Worship music has always been a big part of my life inside and outside of the church. Bob Kauflin, the Director of Sovereign Grace Music, said that a good worship song should be easy to learn and hard to forget. I agree, so as I tried my hand at writing a worship song, I followed the formula I'm used to... with my own flairs here and there. While there are CCM songs that are more technical or poetic, perhaps even more interesting or cool, I love the simplicity and clear purpose of this kind of worship music. 

There are many great worship songs out there about the promises of God and how he keeps all of them. I wanted to write something that spoke to that as well, but also spoke to the power and love of the God doing the promising. It's a beautiful thing to know all things will work out for the good, and we know that God keeps all His promises that are in the Bible, but how much more comforting it is to know He can promise that, because He knows everything that will be!

The starting point for this song was Psalm 16:5-10, from which is much of the chorus. That scripture was my grandfather's testimony to God's faithfulness. In that is the great promise of the gospel, that, if we believe in Him, God will not abandon us, but instead provide a way that our sins may be forgiven and we may have life. And for His great character and all His promises, it seems only fitting that we praise and bless His holy name.

Special thanks to my dad for tracking drums on this one!