In traveling so much these past 5 years, I've begun to realize the goodness of the Love of Jesus for me and everyone else. So before I share some things with you guys that have been on my heart, let me just start with saying that Jesus loves you. He's not afraid of you or your mistakes and failures. He doesn't look at you as a complicated problem or a dysfunctional case. When He sees you, He sees His own daughter or son and His love for you will never run out or fail.

The first mistake I made was to base my relationship or view of Jesus off of past relationships with people in my life. But He isn't like us. Unlike us, Jesus is perfect. Perfectly good. He doesn't give up or quit on others like we do. He doesn't fail or sin. He doesn't criticize or tear down. He loves. He IS love! As a matter of fact there is a wonderful passage of scripture that describes His character.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."

Now I want you to read this passage again but every time you see the word love insert the NAME Jesus. Remember love is not a feeling or emotion or even an action; love is a person. And that person is Jesus! When you come in contact with the person of Love, you are transformed at the core of who you are and you can't live life the same anymore. The more you spend time with the person of Love, Jesus, the more His character rubs off on you. They say, "You are who you surround yourself with.". Well, surround yourself with Jesus! When you keep your heart centered on knowing the person of Love, Jesus, then life becomes enjoyable and his character enables you to love others the same way he loves you. With that said, go fall in love with Love!

Leeland

Usually Leeland is the one that brings most of the song ideas to the table in the beginning. He's the kind of songwriter that pretty much comes up with an idea every day. You'll be in mid-conversation with him, his eyes will glaze over a bit, and then he starts humming something to himself! Haha! We're used to it by now, but it works well because he usually has about 50 good song ideas at the start of the recording process.

"Unending Songs" was one of the few ideas that I added to the pile. I know three chords on the guitar. Yes, three chords is all you need people! I was in my living room badly strumming those three chords, and was all of a sudden overcome by a moment of true worship. You know, it was one of those times where I didn't have to conjure something up, or force myself to praise God. It was just a simple response to feeling the reality of His love in that moment. That's what worship should be!

I brought the song to Leeland and Paul Moak, and we sat down in the big tracking room to finish the lyrics and melody. The verses to this song are probably my favorite lyrics on the record and I remember there was real reverence as we wrote them that day in the studio.

I think this song tells the story of why we worship. Why would we be motivated to sing unending songs to God? It's because He's big & powerful, right?

Well, that answer doesn't quite cut it for me.

In order for us to actually sustain a life of worship, it needs to be a genuine response that comes from experiencing God's love. Then worship becomes a relationship and not forced head knowledge thing you do on Sunday morning.

What's the story of His love in your life? Did He save you from a total mess? Did He love you when know one else would? Did He die on a cross for your sin and rise again three days later? Did He say He would never leave you or forsake you?

Don't know about you, but that's why I sing.

Of course it's not really possible for us to walk around singing to God every second of every day. But did you know that you can keep your heart in a continual state of worship? That's what an unending song is. Our thoughts, our actions, our life ALWAYS worshiping God.

-Jack

We've never really had a predetermined "Theme" for every album, going into
the studio. Usually, we just record the songs that are from our hearts and
as we listen, a theme or single message begins to naturally develop. For
this album that point came when we were about 11 songs in! We were sitting
in the studio talking through all the songs we'd recorded the past three
weeks and trying to figure out what was missing. We really loved all the
songs but there still wasn't that one song that holds the rest together.
Jack told me "Leeland, go through your computer and phone to make sure we
haven't forgotten about any good song ideas. Now is the time to find them
if we have any." We were only scheduled to record 13 songs so these last
two spots were very important and we didn't have any time to waste either.
So as I was sifting through these song ideas on my computer (which can be
very monotonous, because there are plenty of ideas that at the time might
have seemed great but in hindsight are just ok.) and about 45 min later I
came across the idea for "Great Awakening". Then it all came back to me
like it was yesterday. I had recorded it at my brother's house on his
piano in the living room. He had a book he was reading at the time called
"The Patriots' Handbook" written by a friend of ours Doctor Grant. The
book has a lot of really cool stories about different Godly men and women
in American History. I came across a chapter about the Great Awakening
revival in the 1700's. In the chapter they talked about George Whitfield
and Jonathan Edwards, the two preachers of this revival. Then right there
in the middle of the chapter was a poem about the Great Awakening by
Lawrence Tribble, written in the 1700's. The words just jumped off the
page to me. So I immediately ran to the piano and the melody just fell
out. It probably was one of the easiest melodies that I've ever written.
The lyrics were so good that they just inspired a great melody that
quickly! It was cool. I jumped up, ran into the studio, sang the idea for
everyone and they loved it. At first I thought the song needed more than
just the poem's lyric over and over but Paul Moak, our producer, said "No
guys, it could be a really cool A,B type of format. Just write a cool B
part that we go into and then back into part A with the poem's lyrics."
And that was it. We figured the poem was so wordy that all we needed was
an anthem chant that people could sing out. It worked! The song ended up
becoming the title track because it just says in one song what all the
other songs are saying but in a more over arching way. I believe God is
resurrecting 200 yr old lyrics because America is ready for another move
of God in our nation again.

-Leeland

In preparation for the recording we all met up in Nashville. I live there
now, so Leeland, Mike and Shelly flew up. Michael and Debbie Smith were
kind enough to let the band stay in their house. (We've started to call it
"Hotel Smitty")

We relished the opportunity to get together in a room on our instruments,
get creative, and just see what happened. So we crammed into Michael's
basement studio in his house and "All Over the Earth" was one of the songs
that came about.

I remember Leeland had this cool, looping melody line that I loved. I
started playing it on the piano and the whole band joined in. We just
started singing different lines and the lyrics started to form. Pretty
soon, it just turned into a worship time and all four of us were singing,
"OOOOH we give you praises!" really loud, and it was probably pretty
annoying to everyone in the house, but we couldn't help it! haha

When we went in the studio, we had a pretty clear vision for the song. We
wanted it to feel like a live worship moment. So that's basically what we
did. We all set up on our instruments and recorded everyone at once.
Originally that song was supposed to be about 4 minutes, not 9! But when
we hit the last note of the first take, Leeland kept going with this
little guitar line. We got caught up in the moment and kept worshiping. We
finished that first take, and Paul Moak (producer) said, "I don't think we
should try to duplicate that one!". So we just kept it. It's pretty cool
because the last half of that song was completely spontaneous!

The lyrics to the song are pretty straight forward and simple, and that
was on purpose. We wanted it to be a plain declaration of how holy and
awesome God is. As a band, and as a ministry, we are desperate for His
kingdom to come in our lives. We long to see the church live victorious in
this final hour. And we've noticed that praise and victory go hand and
hand.  We are only victorious when He is put in His rightful place in our
hearts and our lives!

-jack

Jack Mooring Vs. Machu Picchu from mellowtown on Vimeo.

Here is a quick blurb from the article:

From practicing in a funeral home in the Houston suburb of Baytown, Texas, to sharing the stage with Michael W. Smith, alt/rock/worship band Leeland continues its unlikely rise to prominence.

Led by band namesake Leeland Mooring and his brother Jack, the band had no aspirations for a record deal or radio airplay when it first started writing music and playing around town. In fact, the band’s original purpose was to lead youth worship for Celebration of Life Church.

But when Leeland Mooring’s writing prowess garnered the attention of EMI Publishing in Nashville at the age of 15, he was able to parlay a solo gig into an opportunity for the band. Now with its fourth album The Great Awakening making waves across the nation, Leeland has been given a larger platform for accomplishing its original mission.

Read more: http://features.beliefnet.com/wholenotes/2011/09/a-conversation-with-leeland.html#ixzz1YoGfrpKS

Hopefully you've been following our Facebook updates over the past couple months. We've been slowly posting content from the new record there. But we're so excited to launch our new and improved leelandonline.com for a couple of reasons in particular:

1) Band websites are still awesome. And we want to make sure this is a place that is, well, awesome. We'll use this space to go deeper, with everything from devos, acoustic worship times, guitar tutorials from Lee, epic randomness from our bearded drummer, etc.

2) We'll be posting some exclusive things here that won't be on Facebook and Twitter. So, bookmark the page and check in every once in a while! We'll also be giving away special little presents for faithful fans that connect here.

Also, have you guys had a chance to check out the EP on iTunes? It should get you nice and prepped for the full-length release on Sept 20th. Tell us what you think about the new tunes!

Love you guys!

Talk to you soon.

-lee, mike, shelly, & jack