This song was recorded acoustically in one take without stopping or editing. The reverb on the track wasn't added in post, but comes from being recorded in Lunar Manor's echo chamber. The studio is located in the basement of Oklahoma City's Valliance Bank Tower. Originally built as a radio station, Lunar Manor has been converted into a full scale recording and production studio. The "echo chamber" was originally meant to be a racketball court for employees of the tower. 

This is a song about beauty without addition. It's a song written about someone incredibly special to me who I find beautiful always. Beyond that it is an homage to the glow of women in which us men bask constantly. It is an affirmation of the immeasurable worth the women in our lives have simply at face value. Strip away the makeup, the clothes, the expectations, the social standards, and what you have left is all you could ever need. Strong, invaluable, beautiful women.

Makeup (Acoustic)

This was the only "concept song" on the album. This general subject of the song is trying to pick up a girl in church. This isn't really about anyone specifically, but I think the concept of wanting something you can't have or shouldn't have is very relatable. Sometimes what we want isn't bad or wrong, it's just not the right time or place. Maybe we want a serious relationship, but haven't really matured enough to love someone other than ourselves. Perhaps it's a person who we know damn well is a completely toxic presence in our lives, but we just can't help ourselves from reaching out and chasing him or her.

The bridge should hit home to anyone who has impulse or self control issues. Some of us have wild hearts that want everything all of the time. And to be honest, often times its the pursuit of these things that can be just as satisfying as actually obtaining them. The older I get, the better I have gotten at keeping my impulses and vices in check. But I don't know that I'll ever grow out of all of them.

Holy Roller

This was a tough song to write. I had to write this song with an upbeat tempo for the same reason Advil is sugar coated; the medicine underneath is incredibly bitter and hard to swallow on its own. It was written as a reflection of the hardest single year of my life. If I'm being completely open book: I was getting divorced, dropping out of seminary, and leaving the church that I loved. I was wrestling with questions of the highest order and coming up with answers that I just didn't like. In the spirit of honesty, I'm still ruminating on a lot of these issues and what they mean to me.

Good Good News, to me, is more than a classic "departure from religion" song. It's a narrative written in the spirit of hopelessness. It's not an explanation of who I am or what I think, but rather a snapshot of a very specific time in my life. It was written to poke at very fresh wounds and expose a very private struggle. I spent the better part of a decade in ministry living my life in front of people. I figured why stop now? It's a look at the version of myself who was desperately trying to figure it all out in the bars and pubs of Waco, Texas. It wasn't a fun time, but it was a formative time.

Good Good News

This song is pretty self explanatory. I think this ended up being a song for songwriters. Almost like an anthem for those of us who strive to create at all costs. I think if you are really going to take a run at it musically you're going to pick up some bad habits and new vices in the name of art. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that in order to make good music you have to fully embrace the sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll mantra. But for me, whiskey makes for a hell of creative lubricant.

More honestly this is the unsung anthem of those who love us anyway. As musicians, if we are lucky enough to find someone willing to put up with our eccentricities, our vices, our late nights, and our general shittiness, we should hold on to them with everything we've got. "Creative Process" is a shrine built to the saint that is loving, encouraging, supportive, and endlessly patient with my insecurities, carelessness, anxieties, self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies.

Creative Process

Born in November was written for me to find a roundabout way to talk about the musician's experience. I wrote this song in Waco while I was being heavily influence by various Texas Country and Red Dirt bands. As I explored this new genre I began to image musicians and their striving for greatness akin to cowboys forging new territories. I know this sounds a little corny but I couldn't help see this picture manifest as six shooters became six strings. This song makes way more sense if you listen to it while driving through Texas hill country at dawn.

On a more tangible level this is a song written about the driving force that keeps me chasing this stupid dream. There really is a voice in the back my head that is constantly reminding me that time is fleeting and with it, life. Greatness and glory are out there waiting to be seized. There are an infinite number of great songs that are just floating in the ether disembodied. At 30 I probably should give up, but I can't. I want to be the one pulling down those great songs and putting them together. I want to make music. For you. For me. For music's sake.

Born In November

Akron>Waco>Oklahoma City. These are the stories I picked up along the way.

Mike Rae