Music is a huge influence for my writing. The songs and bands I listen to every day seep into my subconscious and work their way into my projects. This is especially true for my fiction–I have playlists in my iPod for several different projects.
While creating the poems in Forgive Us Our Trespasses, I often listened to mewithoutYou, one of my all-time favorite bands. So, here’s a list of their songs that, to me, connect to the vibe of the poetry collection.
“Carousels” is a chill jam that I connected to The Legend of Korra in this post a few years ago. If you pay attention to the garbled back vocals in the verses, you’ll hear, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” At church, we had a period where we’d end our monthly communion/spiritual formation nights singing this line, and I made use of it in the poem I shared last week.
“My Exit, Unfair” is hard yet soulful. It’s reflective and sorrowful yet somewhere in there are admiration and questions for God, which is characteristic of all of mewithoutYou’s music.
“The Sun and the Moon” has some more overt allusions to Biblical figures (Daniel, Peter, and Job), yet also blends the speaker’s own experiences of shortcoming and desire for forgiveness.
“In a Sweater Poorly Knit” feels like a journey from earthly concerns to God.
“Seven Sisters” is yet another song that addresses pain and shortcomings at God.
I referenced “Paper Hanger” a couple times in the sermon I preached at my church. In addition to being one of my favorite mewithoutYou songs in general, “Paper Hanger” plays with Biblical imagery to create a new, powerful message.
“Four Word Letter pt. 2” transforms “Down in the River to Pray” into something that blends doubt with togetherness in God.
“Messes of Men” has this vibe of navigating doubt, vice, and insecurity while God is still present anyway, somewhere. It’s honest and real, which is how vibrant faith life is, in my opinion.
I hope you enjoyed listening to some awesome music–Forgive Us Our Trespasses comes out NEXT WEEK. Buy it here.