From Superchick's new album RECOLLECTION

He dances at the bus stop
People look, he doesn't care 
It's 'cause he knows he was born to dance
And maybe they were born to stare
We call him Mister DJ
He does what we wouldn't dare
His heartbeats turn streets to discos
Mister DJ take us there

So Mister DJ, come on start the party
Let your beats drop so we can dance
And no nobody can rock like you rock
And no nobody can dance your dance
Everybody dance

He dances at the bus stop
A superstar in his own way 
And we write songs of the ones who dance
And let the critics fade away
So tell us Mister DJ, how you're free to live this way
He said, 'Follow your heartbeat to freedom
Let your heart be your DJ'

Someone needs to be the first to dance
The world stops without DJs
You can move the world if you take a chance
And let love shine fear away

RECOLLECTION

Mister DJ

Life is hard, but it's been a little harder than usual lately
I wish I knew why I am struggling through this
What makes it harder is the lack of understanding on my part
Could I have changed this, why am I fighting life so hard

How long can I survive this? I'm losing the strength to try
Tell me how am I supposed to live through this? How do we get by?

We take one breath and let it out
We take another and maybe somehow everything will work out to be just fine
We take life 5 minutes at a time

Life is hard - it didn't turn out like I hoped it would be
And I don't dare to dream if dreaming leads to this
'Cause when it's left to me, it's hard to see past the sky becoming dark
If it makes no difference, why am I trying to do my part?

I've climbed back from that fall again it feels like a hundred times
How do I believe in a hundred and one when we stumbled the ninety-nine?

To go on living when all you've lived for is gone
To find faith when everything you know about life might be wrong
To find hope in the dark, to still believe there's a dawn
This is the courage to make a life, it is the strength to go on

5 Minutes At A Time

Into each life with the joy comes some pain
And I have crawled through those times, I learned to stand in the rain
And I learned to rise higher when the waves rose each time
And when there's nowhere to stand, I learned to swim towards the light
But when I fear I might drown, I lay my burdens down

'Cause I believe in hope
Believe if I let go I'll float
And I will see that the water carries me
Living water carry me

Sometimes it feels like it's always hard times
And when it's all falling down, I try to hold up the sky
And the hard times seem harder when there's no end in sight
But know the hard times will pass, just as the sun's sure to rise
And when I fear I might drown, I lay my burdens down

When the dark is all you see
Light light light up with belief
Live your life each day you're down
Like you're found
Even through the darkest night
Reach reach out to find the light
Live your life each day you're down
Like you're found

A note from Superchick about Hope:

When the waters of life rise above your head and you've swum until you can't swim anymore, when you are well past exhausted and there is no land in sight, the trick is to learn to float. Floating requires that you stop struggling and swimming. You lie back and rest and somehow you stay above the water. To float you have to believe that something you can't see will hold you up. 

I had to learn that lesson. When the monsters of my anxiety lurk in the darkness, I shut the gates of fear with action. Working harder was always my answer, but some things cannot be worked around. At some point we all fall. And when we've believed all our lives that we fall because we don't work hard enough or because we weren't good enough, the fall strips away our pride and we lie broken and shamed. I've always believed that God had a heart for fallen people - I just never thought I was one of them. 

That is what the song "Hope" is about: that at the end of it all when we can hold on no more, we can let go and God will carry us.

Hope

From the album RECOLLECTION

Every day is Christmas
When every day is Thanksgiving
I can find the sunshine
If I count my blessings
I got love
And a brand new day

I don't have the best, but I make the best of what I've got
I can see I'm blessed if I don't obsess on what I'm not
Knocked down to the bottom, but I'll start it all over again
You can steal my songs, but you can't take away my pen

I've got nothing but love and a brand new day
I'm living a brand new way

If I miss, I don't cry - I change it up and try again
Every day I'm shooting, every day a chance to win
Easy to be hard, hard to let the light shine in
I love like a child, I never let the critics win

I got lint in my pockets
I got everything I need
Radio's broke so Imma make my own break beats
I get up when I get down
I never draw the perfect line
I got 99 problems
I knock 'em down one at a time



Note from Max:

I'm a grinch.  I'll admit it:  I work on Christmas day.  The song One Girl Revolution Battle Mix was done on Christmas while the rest of the world unwrapped presents.  I have forgotten my birthday more than once. I invented a holiday called Thankmas in which I visit family between Thanksgiving and Christmas to avoid holiday travel.  If it's after December 25, I call it Chinese Christmas.

I think it goes back to college.

I was a 16 year old freshman and my parents were overseas for four years of missions.  I had no family or friends in the area.  When most people went home for the holidays, I had to find somewhere to stay when they closed the dorms.  I once considered hiding in the dorms with canned food.  It didn't seem like that big a deal at the time, but I think I closed a door to my heart to protect myself from the loneliness.

As Brené Brown's research has shown, when you numb yourself to negative feelings, you numb the positive ones too.  We come into the world full of joy and enthusiasm, but as we get hurt, we build walls around those places.  We build up calluses to protect our hearts. Eventually, we lose our sense of wonder and trust.  We become like Chicken Little, believing the sky is always falling.  

And the sky does fall.  Bad things do happen.  But when we are around actual tragedy, it shows us what's truly important.  To walk through the children's surgery center at Vanderbilt is a lesson in what matters. To see the hopeful smile on a bald 11 year old as she is wheeled off to chemo is to know what it is to face your challenges with courage and grace.  

Every day is our chance to choose joy.  To celebrate the gift of life, the gift of time.  To unwrap whatever presents the day brings.  It's been my New Year's resolution for the last few years to live in gratitude.  I have to redo it every year because I haven't learned it yet.  I still let myself fret and freak out, but it's my hope that with enough practice and determination, someday it will be said of me that I lived my life like every day was Christmas. 

Happy holidays,
Max

Sunshine

Rock What You Got

Breathe

Alive

Hey Hey

Beauty From Pain 1.1

It's On

Pure

One More

We Live

So Beautiful

Barlow Girls

Reinvention

Rock What You Got (Fight Underdog Fight! Mix)

Regeneration

One Girl Revolution (Battle Mix)

Hero (Red Pill Mix)

Cross The Line

Beauty From Pain

One Girl Revolution

Wishes

Crawl (Carry Me Through)

X2005

Bowling Ball

Stand In The Rain

Get Up (Heelside Mix)

Suddenly

Anthem

Me Against The World

Legally Blonde

Last One Picked

Hero (Last One Picked Album Version)

So Bright (Stand Up) (Last One Picked Album Version)

Courage

Lyrics:

This is the story of your life
A movie starring you
What's the next scene have for you to do?
Leave the dishes in the sink
Leave your fear there too
Live the story you would write for you

Say Hey! Hey! Wake your heart!
and break break apart, the walls that keep you from being you
And walk, walk towards the light
And don't stop till you live your life
Like someone died for you.

This is the time, to try
Step out, your life is waiting
and as you fall, you'll find that you can fly.

You can find a million words
To build a wall of fear
Safe behind that wall, imprisoned here
Take that someday step today
To who you're meant to be
And turn your dreams to plans so you can breathe

Ask anyone whose time is up
What they'd give for what you got
And how they'd live your life
Live like your life's worth dying for
You just walked out that prison door
and you'll know how to live your life.

Note from Max:

Recently I read of Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who volunteered to die for a stranger at Auschwitz.  After discovering 3 prisoners had escaped, the camp commandment chose 10 men to be starved to death.  When one of the selected men cried out, "My wife! My children!,"  Kolbe volunteered to take his place.  The man he saved lived another 53 years.  That man knew what it was to live in gratitude for "the gift of life."

My friend Chase who played drums with us lost a battle with cancer at a young age.  I've lived many more years than he had.  If I had been able to take his place on the hospital bed I would say to Chase: 

Here is the rest of my life, live it well!  Use it up!  There is not time for worry or fear or doubt.  Try everything you want to try!  Love without reserve.  Commit yourself fully.  Live with purpose.  Do the things today you were waiting to do because I don't know how many days I can give you.  I ask nothing in return, only that you live in a manner worthy of the gift.   

Instead, because I cannot give those years to Chase, it is I who must live "like my life's worth dying for."  

Thanks for listening,
Max

This Is The Time

SUPERCHICK

New album RECOLLECTION in stores 10/29/13

Popular tracks by Official Superchick