Flap Your Wings (Choir album)
Encyclopedia
Flap Your Wings is the tenth studio album by Christian alternative rock band The Choir, released in 2000. It earned the band its first Grammy Award
nomination in 2002.
, the members of The Choir had decided to move onto other things. Lead vocalist Derri Daugherty
and drummer and lyricist Steve Hindalong
began producing a variety of other Christian artists
, along with the highly successful City on a Hill
worship music series and related tours. Hindalong released an independent solo record, Skinny. Bassist Tim Chandler
returned to his computer education position in California
. Saxophonist Dan Michaels created a new record label, Galaxy21 Music
, and quickly became a respected music executive. The Choir still got together once a year to play at the annual Cornerstone Festival
, but the band had gone on extended hiatus, with no indication of when or if they would ever record again.
During this downtime for the band, Michaels decided to create an officlal website
for The Choir, where members could interact with fans directly, as well as sell older, hard-to-find merchandise. What the foursome didn't realize at the time was that the internet
was becoming the new paradigm for indie artists like themselves. A band with an established fanbase like The Choir no longer needed to tour relentlessly to keep their listeners eager for new music. Not surprisingly, this eagerness soon became persistent demand.
Even so, it was a one-off concert at a music festival in Albuquerque
during the summer of 1999 that finally convinced the members of The Choir that they missed playing with each other and still had something to offer musically. So, on Thanksgiving
weekend later that year, Chandler flew out to Nashville
and sat down with Daugherty and Hindalong, and the result was five new songs. In May 2000, Chandler returned to Nashville, and the band wrote five more. Without any grand plan other than the enjoyment of playing music together, The Choir suddenly had an album's worth of new material.
The second recording session took place only mere weeks after the death of Gene Eugene
, lead singer and songwriter for Adam Again
, who had died suddenly on the floor of his recording studio
, The Green Room
, in Huntington Beach, California
. Eugene, a prolific producer and engineer for literally hundreds of albums, was a close personal friend of The Choir, and had worked on a handful of their releases, including the seminal Chase the Kangaroo
. Only 38, his death came as a shock, and as a result, the song "Hey Gene" was birthed during this period, incorporating lines from Michaels' eulogy
at the funeral. It would eventually be released as the first single from Flap Your Wings.
It was also on Flap Your Wings that The Choir's twin strands of worship-minded songs and confessional lyrics about love and loss finally came back together, after diverging during the early 1990s with Kissers and Killers
. To that end, "Beautiful Scandalous Night," originally recorded for the worship record At the Foot of the Cross, Volume One: Clouds, Rain, Fire, was re-recorded to close out this album. Other God
-focused songs on the record include "Flowing Over Me", the title track and "Mercy Lives Here," written by Daugherty after he visited a club in Akron, Ohio
filled with a strange assortment of characters.
Hindalong's family life is once again the subject of much of the rest of the album. "I Don't Mean Any Harm" is written as an apology to his wife and kids, while "A Moment in Time" is about Hindalong's first date with his wife, Nancy. "Shiny Floor" is a metaphorical song about the band's fractious relationship to the music industry, based on real incidents in which Hindalong spilled a drink on a friend's kitchen floor, then tripped over a microphone
cable in the studio a few days later. Finally, Chandler added a track of his very own, "Sunny," which attempts to find hope in even the most tragic of events—an ongoing, trademark theme of The Choir.
Because the band viewed Flap Your Wings as an independent release for their most avid fans—using the Cornerstone Festival
as the launching pad for its release—The Choir created a raw and unvarnished sound for the album, more akin to Speckled Bird
than Circle Slide
. As a result, the band was as stunned as anyone else when they learned that Flap Your Wings had been nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award
for Best Rock Gospel Album, the first for The Choir after almost 20 years of recording. Although the band was the front-runner in an online Christianity Today
poll of readers about which album they'd like to see take the Grammy that year, The Choir eventually lost to the multi-Grammy winning group dc Talk
for their EP
, Solo. Still, the overwhelmingly positive reaction from both critics and fans to Flap Your Wings was enough to convince The Choir to continue recording new music.
and all music by Derri Daugherty
, unless otherwise noted.
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination in 2002.
Recording history
After the band's "To Bid Farewell" tour documented by Let It FlyLet It Fly
Let It Fly is the first live album from Christian alternative rock band The Choir, released in 1997. It was recorded on their Free Flying Soul tour.-Enhanced CD - Audio tracks:...
, the members of The Choir had decided to move onto other things. Lead vocalist Derri Daugherty
Derri Daugherty
Derri Daugherty is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band The Choir....
and drummer and lyricist Steve Hindalong
Steve Hindalong
Steve Hindalong is an American drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer best known for his work with the alternative rock band The Choir...
began producing a variety of other Christian artists
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
, along with the highly successful City on a Hill
City on a Hill (series)
City On A Hill is a series of praise and worship music compilations performed by Contemporary Christian musicians and produced by Steve Hindalong, Derri Daugherty, and Marc Byrd, who are current members of Christian rock band The Choir...
worship music series and related tours. Hindalong released an independent solo record, Skinny. Bassist Tim Chandler
Tim Chandler
Tim Chandler is a bass guitar player, best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and The Choir....
returned to his computer education position in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Saxophonist Dan Michaels created a new record label, Galaxy21 Music
Galaxy21 Music
Galaxy21 Music is a record label founded in 2001 by Dan and Lisa Michaels.Galaxy21, based in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, started as a "family label", composed entirely of bands that had been friends and had worked and toured together for many years....
, and quickly became a respected music executive. The Choir still got together once a year to play at the annual Cornerstone Festival
Cornerstone Festival
Cornerstone Festival is a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around the 4th of July near Bushnell, Illinois. In a given year, many artists that play at Cornerstone also play at other events such as Creation Festival and mainstream festivals and tours such as the...
, but the band had gone on extended hiatus, with no indication of when or if they would ever record again.
During this downtime for the band, Michaels decided to create an officlal website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
for The Choir, where members could interact with fans directly, as well as sell older, hard-to-find merchandise. What the foursome didn't realize at the time was that the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
was becoming the new paradigm for indie artists like themselves. A band with an established fanbase like The Choir no longer needed to tour relentlessly to keep their listeners eager for new music. Not surprisingly, this eagerness soon became persistent demand.
Even so, it was a one-off concert at a music festival in Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
during the summer of 1999 that finally convinced the members of The Choir that they missed playing with each other and still had something to offer musically. So, on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
weekend later that year, Chandler flew out to Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
and sat down with Daugherty and Hindalong, and the result was five new songs. In May 2000, Chandler returned to Nashville, and the band wrote five more. Without any grand plan other than the enjoyment of playing music together, The Choir suddenly had an album's worth of new material.
The second recording session took place only mere weeks after the death of Gene Eugene
Gene Eugene
Gene "Eugene" Andrusco was a Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musician. Andrusco was best known as the leader of the funk/rock band Adam Again, a member of The Swirling Eddies and as a founding member of the roots music supergroup Lost Dogs.-Acting:Andrusco was a child...
, lead singer and songwriter for Adam Again
Adam Again
Adam Again was a rock band founded and led by vocalist Gene Eugene, with Riki Michele on vocals, Paul Valadez on bass, Jon Knox on drums, Greg Lawless on guitar...
, who had died suddenly on the floor of his recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
, The Green Room
The Green Room
The Green Room was a popular recording studio located in Huntington Beach, California. The Green Room was owned and operated by musician Gene Eugene and Anna Cardenas...
, in Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...
. Eugene, a prolific producer and engineer for literally hundreds of albums, was a close personal friend of The Choir, and had worked on a handful of their releases, including the seminal Chase the Kangaroo
Chase the Kangaroo
Chase the Kangaroo is the fourth studio album from Christian alternative rock band The Choir, released in 1988.-Recording history:Chase the Kangaroo was a radical departure from the upbeat, alternative pop sounds of Diamonds and Rain, and quickly proved to be a seminal work—not only for The Choir,...
. Only 38, his death came as a shock, and as a result, the song "Hey Gene" was birthed during this period, incorporating lines from Michaels' eulogy
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
at the funeral. It would eventually be released as the first single from Flap Your Wings.
It was also on Flap Your Wings that The Choir's twin strands of worship-minded songs and confessional lyrics about love and loss finally came back together, after diverging during the early 1990s with Kissers and Killers
Kissers and Killers
Kissers and Killers is the seventh studio album from Christian alternative rock band The Choir, released in 1993.-Recording history:Rather than renew their recording contract with Myrrh, The Choir decided to create their own record label, Glasshouse, through which they could release their future...
. To that end, "Beautiful Scandalous Night," originally recorded for the worship record At the Foot of the Cross, Volume One: Clouds, Rain, Fire, was re-recorded to close out this album. Other God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
-focused songs on the record include "Flowing Over Me", the title track and "Mercy Lives Here," written by Daugherty after he visited a club in Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
filled with a strange assortment of characters.
Hindalong's family life is once again the subject of much of the rest of the album. "I Don't Mean Any Harm" is written as an apology to his wife and kids, while "A Moment in Time" is about Hindalong's first date with his wife, Nancy. "Shiny Floor" is a metaphorical song about the band's fractious relationship to the music industry, based on real incidents in which Hindalong spilled a drink on a friend's kitchen floor, then tripped over a microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
cable in the studio a few days later. Finally, Chandler added a track of his very own, "Sunny," which attempts to find hope in even the most tragic of events—an ongoing, trademark theme of The Choir.
Because the band viewed Flap Your Wings as an independent release for their most avid fans—using the Cornerstone Festival
Cornerstone Festival
Cornerstone Festival is a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around the 4th of July near Bushnell, Illinois. In a given year, many artists that play at Cornerstone also play at other events such as Creation Festival and mainstream festivals and tours such as the...
as the launching pad for its release—The Choir created a raw and unvarnished sound for the album, more akin to Speckled Bird
Speckled Bird
Speckled Bird is the eighth studio album from Christian alternative rock band The Choir, released in 1994.-Recording history:Largely a remixed and reworked version of the independent Kissers and Killers project...
than Circle Slide
Circle Slide
Circle Slide is the sixth studio album from Christian alternative rock band The Choir, released in 1990.-Recording history:Even with all the popular success that greeted Wide-Eyed Wonder and the band's relentless touring in support of that record, the circumstances that surrounded the creation of...
. As a result, the band was as stunned as anyone else when they learned that Flap Your Wings had been nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Rock Gospel Album, the first for The Choir after almost 20 years of recording. Although the band was the front-runner in an online Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
poll of readers about which album they'd like to see take the Grammy that year, The Choir eventually lost to the multi-Grammy winning group dc Talk
Dc Talk
DC Talk , is a Grammy-winning Christian rock music trio. The group was formed in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1987 by Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait, and Kevin Max Smith. They have released five major studio albums together: DC Talk , Nu Thang , Free at Last , Jesus Freak , and Supernatural...
for their EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, Solo. Still, the overwhelmingly positive reaction from both critics and fans to Flap Your Wings was enough to convince The Choir to continue recording new music.
Track listing
All lyrics by Steve HindalongSteve Hindalong
Steve Hindalong is an American drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer best known for his work with the alternative rock band The Choir...
and all music by Derri Daugherty
Derri Daugherty
Derri Daugherty is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band The Choir....
, unless otherwise noted.
- "Flap Your Wings" (Music by Daugherty, Hindalong) – 3:15
- "Shiny Floor" (Music by Tim ChandlerTim ChandlerTim Chandler is a bass guitar player, best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and The Choir....
, Hindalong) – 4:23 - "Mercy Lives Here" (Lyrics by Daugherty) – 3:33
- "Hey Gene" (Lyrics by Hindalong, Dan Michaels; Music by Daugherty, Hindalong) – 4:31
- "Sunny" (Music by Chandler) – 3:39
- "Flowing Over Me" – 3:52
- "Cherry Bomb" – 5:12
- "I Don't Mean Any Harm" (Music by Chandler, Hindalong) – 4:47
- "A Moment In Time" (Lyrics by Hindalong, Daugherty) – 2:54
- "Beautiful Scandalous Night" – 3:51
The Choir
- Derri DaughertyDerri DaughertyDerri Daugherty is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band The Choir....
- Lead vocals, guitars - Steve HindalongSteve HindalongSteve Hindalong is an American drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer best known for his work with the alternative rock band The Choir...
- Drums, percussion - Tim ChandlerTim ChandlerTim Chandler is a bass guitar player, best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and The Choir....
- Bass guitar - Dan Michaels - Saxophone, lyriconLyriconThe Lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first wind controller to be constructed.Invented by Bill Bernardi , it was manufactured by a company called Computone Inc in Massachusetts...
Additional musicians
- Julian Kindred - Ring modulator
- Christine GlassChristine GlassChristine Glass is an American singer-songwriter, married to Marc Byrd .She has released two solo albums, Human and Love & Poverty . She formed a duo called GlassByrd with her husband and they released Open Wide This Window in 2003...
- Background vocals. - Emily Hindalong - Trumpet postlude to "Sunny"
- Phil MadeiraPhil MadeiraPhil Madeira is an American songwriter, producer, musician and singer from Nashville, Tennessee. He was raised in Barrington, Rhode Island and attended Taylor University, which he graduated from in 1975....
- MellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
flutes and strings - Jacob Lawson - Violin
Production
- Executive producer - "Buckeye" Dan Michaels
- Producers - Steve HindalongSteve HindalongSteve Hindalong is an American drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer best known for his work with the alternative rock band The Choir...
, Derri DaughertyDerri DaughertyDerri Daugherty is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band The Choir....
, Tim ChandlerTim ChandlerTim Chandler is a bass guitar player, best known for his work with the rock bands Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and The Choir.... - Additional production - Julian Kindred, Terry Scott TaylorTerry Scott TaylorTerry Scott Taylor is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies . Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternative music group, Lost Dogs. He is currently based in San Jose, California, USA.Taylor is highly regarded for...
- Engineer - Daugherty
- Additional overdubs - Kindred
- Mixing - Kindred at Earful and Dark Horse
- Mastering - Ken Love at Master Mix
- Front cover painting - Michael KnottMichael KnottMichael Knott is an American singer-songwriter and frontman for various bands, many of them Christian. He has released some 35 albums, including solo albums and with bands such as LSU and Cush....
- Layout, photography and design - Andy Conant