For this years life@opwekking I produced 2 tracks. Same as last year, I was asked to make the songs pop. I wanted to give the songs an identity, not only in the arrangement, but also in terms of sound. Almost all sounds are either recorded with real instruments, or sampled sounds.

First thing I did was having my lead-vocal (Amanda Lock) over. She sang both of the leads and from that point on I started arranging.

For both tracks I really wanted to give a feeling of both impact and depth. For me chords and groove are two big ways you can influence that. Often for pop your chords shouldn’t be to complicated, but at the same time you want to keep things interesting. Just listening to the melody often helps me to feel what chords are essential and which chords might work better with the new groove in mind.

I tried to really capture the feeling of the lyrics of “wat de toekomst ook zou brengen” in the music. Moving forward without fear, but with a sense of it’s not just a disney movie. In terms of arranging the last part was especially challenging as the melody is essentially an old hymn. Doesn’t groove much by itself, but with some help I think it does:)

I really wanted a epic/ethnic sound for verheven so I went hunting for a sound/texture that has that feeling. It did cost me the most of an evening, but I think it was really worth spending time on:)