I remember when I was a little guy, I was going to be a famous keyboard player for Petra.  At the time, Petra was in their heyday as the foremost Christian Rock band in existence.  I learned every one of their songs on the keyboard, and if I couldn’t play them, I programmed them so I could pretend that I was playing them. This could have been the catalyst that started Midiboy.

I remember daydreaming that I’d be so famous.  Everyone would want my autograph, I’d have trouble going in public without people following me, asking me how life on the road is, or what kind of keyboards I recommended, or if I could teach them how to play.

Of course, none of that happened.  I’m actually rather glad, honestly.

There is nothing wrong with dreams.  In fact, it can be said that our dreams can spark reality.  While I’m not keyboard player in a big time band, that dream did launch me into what I am today.  I have played in several  local bands, and not just average run-of-the-mill bands either.  Just about every band I have played in contained at least one member that is a recognized figure in the local music scene as being at the top of their class.  My last band, Unique, was no exception. Our singer could give just about any winner of American Idol, America’s Got Talent or <insert your favorite music based reality TV show here> a run for their money.   Our bassist was also phenomenal .  He has played in some of the best bands around as well.

Same with previous bands too.

Before all the bands came, I had recorded several synthpop albums as well.  One of them actually did fairly well on indie radio.  I got “hooked up” into the Christian electronic music scene, had just about every major player at that time as a contact either on MSN Messenger, AIM or Yahoo Messenger and actually had good friendships with several. One such friendship was (and still is) with the man behind Jagged Doctrine. I remember meeting him for the first time, I was so excited.  I had every one of his songs and couldn’t wait to meet him in person.  Know what I found out?  He’s a normal guy.  Just like me (Normal being the subjective term here, of course).  Seriously though, while he had what I considered to be “quite the following”, he didn’t have the typical star ego, or the obsessive need for recognition. He is a very humble person.

Anyway, I said all that to say this.  Not every one of those situations was something I would have wanted.  Some of the people I had played with and some of the bands I had contacts with also had ego problems. (None that can read this, so if you are one of the people reading this, I am not referring to you).

I learned that the need to become a renowned expert in our fields so that we might become a recognized authority on it, be it music, writing, journalism, film making,  or what have you, really is fertilizer for ego, being controlling and is a recipe for a miserable life.  Our desires will fester until we are no longer happy with anything unless we have our hands in it. And if someone does or says something that we don’t have a part of, we will be miserable until we become a part of it, hoping that our input makes us out to be expert in whatever subject is at hand.

In short, I have learned it is better to keep my eyes on my own goals and projects and bring them to fruition. Things will happen as God sees fit.   Not saying we shouldn’t offer our help and assistance to others, we should, but we don’t have to have a controlling interest in everybody else’s goals.  That was hard for me, especially with music. I’m a natural arranger and composer, and love to arrange other people’s music.  Now, I have learned I can offer suggestions, and if they are accepted, great, if not, that is ok too.  Move on.  It’s their song or project.  If it fails, they’ll recover.  If it fails because of my suggestion, then I’m responsible for their failure and I don’t have to have to be the bane of their failure.

The same can be said for every field of interest, really. From teaching, preaching, writing, singing, etc.  We tend to be very passionate about our art, work and interests and somehow some of us feel that our self-proclaimed expertise is the ultimate authority.  I really believe that the reason we feel this way is that we want others to recognize us for being a foremost authority.  I have personal experience with knowing that this leads to less friends, a lack of respect from people you want to respect you, and ultimately, misery.

My challenge to you, if you read this far (and to me, since I wrote it), is to evaluate ourselves and see if this in any way applies.  If we offer our advice, and it isn’t taken, move on.  Continue with our own fields of expertise.  Let the others continue on theirs.  Who knows, we might learn something from THEM if we allow ourselves to.

Last, but not least, let’s remember what Galatians 6:3-4 tells us:  ”If somebody thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions so he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else.”

—

Dear Pepsi,

I am an avid fan of one of your products, Diet Mt. Dew.  I am writing to inform you about the near tragic accident I almost had with a can of your product.

You see, on weekends, I excavate old tombs and burial chambers.  I take three cans of Diet Mt. Dew with me on every trip into a tomb.  I take two to drink (one for the way in, one for the way out), and one, of course, to use as a weight as it happens to be the exact same size, mass and density as the obligatory crystal that lies on a pedestal at the very end of every ancient burial chamber.

Of course, as luck would have it, the first one I picked out of my backpack was as I would have expected it to be: cold, refreshing and full of the required amount of caffeine needed to spelunk further into the chamber.  The second one didn’t fare so well, unfortunately. Let me tell you what happened.

As I approached the pedestal with the beautiful, glowing crystal just waiting to be placed in our local museum so thousands of people could take in its glory, I removed the second can of Diet Mt. Dew from my backpack.  Something wasn’t right.  I have partaken in literally hundreds, if not thousands of cans of Diet Mt. Dew in my extensive career of crystal liberation, and I could tell that something was amiss.  Unfortunately, in the dark, damp and dank cavern, I couldn’t place just what was out of the ordinary.  So I said a quick prayer and carefully removed the crystal from the pedestal with my right hand while placing the can of Diet Mt. Dew on the pedestal with my left hand.

All seemed ok.  I placed the crystal in my backpack when I heard it:  the unmistakable sound of stone against stone.  I knew it was too late.  The trap had been sprung.  I looked up and the ceiling, complete with the required cliché life puncturing spikes was coming down to stick it to me for stealing the artifact.  I reached behind me to grab the can off the pedestal and was fortunately able to dive through the small hole back into the previous passage before I was skewered like last night’s shish-ka-bob.

Fortunately, I noticed that my fedora hat, which I have treasured since my pops gave it to me as a young child, had fallen off my head in the process and I was barely able to reach back in and retrieve it from the holey fate of Swiss cheese.

Thinking I was in the clear, I started to make my way back out of the cavern, since I had my treasure in hand when I started to feel the very ground underneath my feet rumbling.  Panicked, I looked behind me and would you believe a giant boulder the size of a small building was rolling towards me.  Needless to say, I ran.  I ran hard.

I honestly believe that if it wasn’t for my above average coordination and my uncanny ability to use a whip to swing across ravines and climb up the very face of a cliff, I would have never made it out of there alive.

Would you believe that when I made it to the light of day, there were locals waiting for me?  Apparently, me setting off this trap alerted them of my presence, and just in case I made it out, they were there to take the very thing I treasured most from me.

No, not the crystal, but my third and final can of the precious nectar of the gods, my Diet Mt. Dew.  I tried to hand them the crystal and they just laughed at me, muttering something that I was able to roughly translate as “That old fake crystal?  We put that in there to lure you so we could get a can of this heavenly concoction that tempts our very senses every time you come near.” At least, I am pretty sure that is an accurate translation.

They then demanded that I supply them with a large quantity of said concoction or they would make me very sorry if I did not.  I am hoping that somehow, you might be able to help an old explorer out.  My wife and two beautiful daughters will feel safer at night, knowing that the vicious head hunters have been satisfied by your product and forever converted from cannibalism to Diet Mt. Dewism.

Once they finally let me go under threat that they are watching and waiting, I took the time to examine the can that almost did me in.  I kid you not, the thing was sealed and there were no visible holes in it whatsoever, but it contained mere drops of dew rather than the 12 plus ounces it was supposed to contain.

In the meantime, I would suggest you make sure none of these head hunters have infiltrated your bottling lines and perched themselves under the machines that are supposed to fill cans with their mouths open wide.

If you find it in your hearts to keep me safe from an angry mob of cannibals, please contact me at [email addres removed for privacy] or traditional mailing address of:

Gregg Hart

[mailing address removed for privacy]

Thank you for your time, and I do hope my story made you smile and inspired you to live for every moment and remember the truly important things in your life other than corporate pressures.

Sincerely,
Gregg “Indiana” Hart

Me?  I’m preparing for the end of the world on May 21st by planning on going to church on May 22nd to worship the Lord.  Like every week.

I’m actually looking forward to May 22nd, to be honest.

I’m sure you have all heard of Harold Camping’s latest prediction that Jesus is returning on May 21st, 2011.  Keep in mind, this isn’t the first time he has predicted Jesus’ return.  He was wrong the first time, he will be wrong this time as well.

Many people have “reminded” him of Matthew 24:36 or Mark 13:32 that states that no man knows the day or the hour, not even the angels or the son above, just the Father.

Harold Camping claims that Jesus said that TO the people of that time.  That nobody alive at that time knows the day or the hour.  He claims that that statement was only true for those people and does not apply to people in future times.

Consider this, however.  I could almost “buy” that if the verse simply said, “No man knows the day or the hour.”  Better yet if it said, “Nobody alive today knows the day or the hour.”

But that’s not what the verse says.  It says that no man knows the day or the hour, not even the angels or the son above, just the Father.  Therein lies the problem in Harold’s logic.  The angels and Jesus are not bound by time.  By including that in the statement, Jesus was showing us that not even we can know because if Jesus Himself doesn’t know, then it is not possible that we can know, since, when Jesus said that, He was already aware of what was going to happen in our time. I can’t think of any time that Jesus said anything that only applied to the people of His Earthly time specifically. Everything Jesus taught applies to all generations. In fact, some of what Jesus taught overrode Biblical law in the past that was specifically for the people of those times.

So, where did Harold get this date?

According to him, Noah’s great flood occurred in the year 4990 B.C., “exactly” 7000 years ago.  Where he gets that date is beyond me.

At the time, God said to Noah he had seven days before the flood would begin.

Taking a passage from 2 Peter 3:8, in which it is said a day for God is like a thousand human years, the church reasoned that seven days equals 7000 human years from the time of the flood, making 2011 the year of the apocalypse.

In its second “proof” the exact date is revealed by working forward from the exact date of the of the crucifixion – April 1, 33 AD. Again, where he gets this date is beyond me.

According to their reasoning, there are exactly 722,500 days from April 1, 33 A.D. until May 21, 2011 – the alleged day of judgement.

This number can be represented as follows: 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500.

It’s amazing what you can do with numbers, yes?  I mean really, what does 5, 10 and 17 repeated twice have to do with anything?  And what is 722,500?  Why is that significant?

Anyone able to shed some light on that?

Another problem in this prediction, is nobody at Family Radio (Harold’s radio station) knows exactly what to do to be SURE we have a place in Heaven.  He claims that God has already predetermined the 2 to 3 percent of all of us that will be whisked away on May 21st to live in Heaven for eternity.  The rest of us are doomed.

Didn’t Jesus say “…that whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) should not perish but have eternal life?”

Now, I’m not a Calvinist, but I still don’t think there are any true Calvinists that will say that if someone believes in Jesus (and by believe I mean the Biblical meaning of following and serving), that they won’t go to Heaven when they die.  They will just say that if God didn’t predestine someone, they wouldn’t want to believe.

Another issue I see with this, is that there are people that are leaving their houses behind, leaving their cars behind and leaving behind all their bills with no intention of paying them since they won’t be here in a little more than 3 weeks.

I don’t know how many people are in Harold’s camp, but if it is significant, that could cause a LOT of issues with the economy.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Comments?  Thoughts?

In these three albums, he explores his personal faith quite openly.

“The Last Temptation” is a redemptive story with a final song, “Cleansed By Fire” that goes down in history as being my favorite Alice Cooper song of all time.

Check out the lyrics:

Cleansed By Fire

I don’t know but I’ve been told / The streets of hell are paved with gold
Crazy, crazy
You told me that nothing’s free / Except my own insanity
Crazy, maybe
Wake me, shake me / Wake me, shake me

You offer me the world and all its wealth / All for myself
You promised me a life eternally / And drink to my health
I may seem only half-glued / But I can see right through you

[CHORUS]
Burn it up, burn it down / Burn this sucker to the ground
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Going, going, going, gone / There’s a party going on

Do you think I don’t know who you are / A fallen star
When I feel my soul scream out at night / I know you’re not far
You need a better disguise / This one won’t win any prize

[CHORUS]

Cleansed by fire, cleansed by fire / I may seem only half-glued
But I can see right through you

What about dark / What about light
What about wrong / What about right
What about death / What about sin
What about the web you’re trying to spin

What about truth / What about life
What about glory / What about Christ
What about peace / What about love
What about faith in God above
What about war / What about hell
What if I stumble / What if I fell
What about blood / What about greed
And all of these things you’re offering me

Yeah, what about me, little me / You lose and I win
You couldn’t suck me in / It’s over, you have no power
You’re lost / And I’m found
And I’m Heaven bound / Go back to where you belong
To where you fell / Go to hell

I absolutely love that song.  It’s the perfect close to an incredible story of coming into faith in Jesus Christ.

His next album, which came 6 years later has some great lyrics on it as well. While not a story, nor are they “outwardly Christian”, each song deals with an issue that is plaguing us today like racism, gluttony, nihilism, gossip, greed, domestic violence, as well as sitting back and not doing anything about the problems other than complaining about them. Certainly all things that we as Christians should be doing something about.

Following that album is Dragontown, which continues the trend Brutal Planet and has some of the best lyrics from any Cooper album, only with a little more of a direct approach of stepping on our toes.

Dragontown is a fictional representation of Hell. (Get it?) It’s like each song is sung from somebody spending an eternity there and serves as a warning.

For example, a song called “Sex, Death, And Money” is all about hypocrisy among Christians.  It talks about a Christian who is claiming to be upset about nudity and violence in the movies, yet sits for three hours taking it all in. For brevity, I won’t share the entire song. Some of the lyrics are:

I was so offended / As I sat for three hours / It was mental cruelty / I was so shocked / Just a little more flesh / Just a little more blood / Little closer to the edge / A little deeper in the mud / I’ll never be the same

Later in the song, it goes to talk about going to a strip club and spending hundreds of dollars, yet telling others how offensive it was.

The chorus pretty much sums it all up:

Sex, death and money, sonny / Makes this wicked world go round
Sex, death and money / It’s the Gospel here in Dragontown
Sex, death and money, honey / Grease the wheels and make them fly
Sex, death and money, sonny / That is why we all are gonna fry

One of the funniest songs Alice has done in a long time is called Dis-Grace Land.  We finally know where “The king of Rock and Roll” now lives.  He even sings it like “The king” Check this lyrics out:

Dis-Grace Land

I wanna tell you a story / It happened long ago
About a redneck boy / Down from tupelo
I got the slick black hair / I played a rock guitar
I liked to shake my hips, man / Then i went too far

He ate his weight in country ham / Killed on pills and woke in disgraceland
Dis-Grace-Land / Dis-Grace-Land / Dis-Grace-Land

I had a lot of girls / I had a lot of guns
When they found me dead / The whole world was stunned
Went to the pearly gates / Said, “I’m the hippest thing”
And Peter said “Well son, / We already got ourselves a king”

He finished his short life, / Sweaty and bloated and stoned
(A-Hey-Hey) He ruled his domain and he died on the throne
No “Yes-Men”, no colonel, he went……all alone…

(Hey, man, that looks like me down there on the floor)

I heard the devil cry / Real loud and clear
“You were the big man, there / You’re just a sideman here
Well, I know your face / And I’ve heard your name
Looks like heaven’s loss / Is gonna be my gain”
(I’ve got plans for you, man)

Well, I woke up, right here / In dis-grace-land
Thank ya. Thank ya very much

The clincher song on this album though is “It’s Much Too Late”

It’s Much Too Late

I never kicked a dog, / A child or my wife
I never looked at pornography / I swear it on my holy saint mother’s life
But somehow she’s down here with me

The road to hell is littered / with nice guys with good intentions
But once you’re there, you’re there / It’s much too late
I can cry and scream it’s just not fair / To leave me here like you don’t care
There must be some mistake up there in heaven

Now it’s much too late / My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late / To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late

I never stole a thing / A toy or a kiss
My conscience is a clear as can be / And when I was a teen
All the sex that I missed / Was an abstinence blessing to me

The road to hell is littered / with nice guys with good intentions
But once you’re there, you’re there / It’s much too late
I can cry and scream it’s just not fair / To leave me here like you don’t care
There must be some mistake up there in heaven

Now it’s much too late / My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late / To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late

Anyway, he has released several albums after this series, and while lyrically they may contain one or two songs about his faith, they are typically just really good rockers, usually of a darker theme, but this series of three albums he decided to publically talk about his faith.  I am glad he did.

While the lyrics were sound before with the line “I’d be damned if you did not save me / I’d be damned if You did not die / I’d be damned if on the third day / If from the grave you did not rise”, I decided I didn’t want my kids going around saying I’d be damned.

The new lyrics are mostly the same other than everywhere it used to say “I’d be damned” it now says “where would I be?” I think I actually like it better.

I redid all the vox today and really like the way it now sounds.

Here are the complete lyrics.  Stay tuned for a sample of the song…

Where Would I Be?
(C)2006 / 2010 Midiboy Music
Words: Gregg Hart

It isn’t about what I deserve, because if it was, I’d have no chance
Sometimes I’d run away if I thought I could, given the right circumstance
But I can’t, no I can’t, so I won’t, no I won’t, because I would not get too far
Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, every time of day, right there is where You are

Where would I be if You did not save me
Where would I be if You did not die
Where would I be if on the third day
From the grave You did not rise

If I were to get what I have coming, I couldn’t complain, justice would be served
But Your mercy, Oh God, and your grace, Oh Lord,  are never ever ever ever deserved
When your amazing grace came down, it saved me from my destiny
To You, oh Lord, my praise belongs, for you have made me see

Where I would be if You did not save me
Where would I be if You did not die
Where would I be if on the third day
From the grave You did not rise

The last song I recorded, “Nameless” about 7 months ago was not actually a new song, but one that I originally wrote 3 YEARS ago. Joe Flint wrote the lyrics to that one maybe 2 years prior to that while in Iraq. I had it all recorded and when going through “cleaning” up my files on my hard drive, I found that gem sitting there. It was HORRIBLE. Production quality was nowhere near my standards. It was generally a big hunk of cheese disguised as a song. I almost archived it once and for all but something inside me told me to give it another shot. So I did.

It’s found a home on the upcoming “one:nine” project “North Flew South For The Winter.”

Anyway, last weekend I was getting ready for the day on Saturday, taking my shower and all at once, the new melody hit me. Now, when I come up with melodies, I usually insert random lyrics just to work out the melody smoothly. Usually those random lyrics are some sort of nonsense or the lyrics to Amazing Grace. (Since those lyrics work with just about any tune imaginable). The lyrics probably started out as nonsense, but they were fun. I had this “heavier guitar” riff in my head and started singing about making a choice on what kind of song to write…a rock song or a pop song. Then I realized that as much I thought Midiboy was “done” that I missed doing that project.

I started asking myself….”Why is Midiboy done?”

Originally, I thought Midiboy was done for the following reasons…

1) Traditionally, Midiboy was 2 people. Myself and Joe. Joe got really busy with his duties in the Army, and now with his duties at the hospital.
2) Midiboy implies just one person. It’s not Midiboys.
3) Midiboy is an electronica project. People don’t seem to care much about electronic music any longer. I didn’t want to be locked into doing just electronica. I figured with “one:nine”, I could still experiment with programming and electronica treatments, since quite a bit of modern rock music incorporates that now.
4) I don’t really use MIDI much, if at all, any longer. Haven’t really since Synthpops, and even then only very little.
5) I felt that if I wanted to bring in guest musicians I couldn’t because that doesn’t fit the “spirit” of the style of Midiboy.

Then I asked myself one more question…

So what?

While Joe is still busy, there is no reason Midiboy can’t continue to exist. I just talked to Joe a few days ago, and while he hasn’t had time to write, it doesn’t mean he won’t. He is also still hoping to be able to do artwork and such as well.

So what if Midiboy implies one person. When has Midiboy ever been one person? My wife even sang backup on one song and she’s not even a boy. And that’s ok. Alan Parson’s various projects always featured many musicians. In fact, he’s had whole songs that he didn’t even write, sing or in anyway perform on other than producing it for the album. So, Midiboy at this point, is a brand name that people recognize. In fact, I’d bet that just about any electronica band in the Christian music genre that is over 5 years old probably knows who I am. Granted, there aren’t a lot, but Midiboy has been on quite a few compilation CDs and remix CDs / contests to where as a brand name, it’s recognizable by a small number of genre specific people. Of course, my association with Ted Dekker is probably more widely known, but that’s fine because everyone that knows of my association there is also aware of my musical background as well.

As far as the electronica aspect, I know it’s not the most widely appreciated music by the general listening audience, but you know what? I don’t like a lot of the music that is appreciated by the general listening audience. I can only take so much Top 40 music before I start to feel my IQ dropping. While electronica isn’t widely appreciated, those that enjoy it tend to enjoy intelligent music. I want to keep providing that.

As for the MIDI aspect, oh well. I get asked almost daily what MIDI stands for. Ok, maybe not daily, but quite often. I recently upgraded from Sony’s ACID Pro 5 to version 7. It has some very good Soft Synth features which I will likely start using, That’s MIDI folks. Heh.

As far as guest musicians, again…so what. Many “solo” artists bring in guests. Why is that a problem? It’s not.

So there you have it.

If you stuck with me this long, first let me say “Thank you” for reading. I think I’m just rambling at this point. Keep your eyes here and I will put up a link to a downloadable version of “Rockstar” in a day or two.

Also, I thought it would be fun to do an updated version of a couple of past songs. Anyone have any votes on what songs they would like to hear redone? Preferably from Midi-Life Crisis, STO or Synthpops. Maybe some of you long time fans know of a song never released that you’d like to hear updated and released.

Let me know. Sound off. Be heard. And stuff.

Don’t forget to check out the samples I have by clicking on the Listen link over on the right.

Still waiting for some guest vocals and guitar to be laid down on a few tracks as well.

People are very busy this time of year.