Write-ups and commentary download coming soon.
Released in May of 2006.
"Things I Meant to Say" is Derek's second solo-release.
Darker in tone and theme than "Grounds" and with less overtly "Christian"
material, it represented a new milestone in his writing. Though Christ was not
absent in Derek's lyrics, He took on different forms (ie "Jesus Doesn't Care" -
where Derek speaks very boldly of grace and political equality). Derek's writing
moved deeper into the personal and gained focus that had earlier been lacking.
More electric-driven, Derek shows off some of his more intricate musical
abilities and brings a harder edge to the material, amidst touching ballads like
"Off My Feet" and the heart-breaking title-track, born out of the death of some
of Derek's friends. An intense, yet fun listen, this record comes highly
recommended--by the writer, especially.
Says Derek: "So far, this one's
my favorite. That takes into account ALL of the other work I've done. I really
loved the experience, and I really love these songs. You know how sometimes
you'll go to a gig for someone you don't really know and you like it, so you go
to the merch table and ask the person behind the table which CD they'd
recommend? I always hope they'll say they recommend "Things I Meant to Say."
That's what I'd do.
I think I did a good job of creating a "world" on
this one. The songs relate to one another--in some cases they actually REFERENCE
one another. There's a focus there that I definitely didn't have on "Grounds."
Plus, I got to break out my electric. I'd been playing bass in a punk band
called Uncle Dick leading up to the "Grounds" record, which is probably why so
much of that one ended up acousticy--a sense of separation from my band. That
band broke up and I put my electrics to work on "TIMTS" in a way I hadn't done
before. I let my brother (the singer in the aforementioned band) listen to it
before it was available to the rest of the world. I asked him what he thought
and he said, "Well...thanks a lot for making an Uncle Dick record without me."
That's when I knew I did it right. (But don't be fooled...the record really
isn't "punk." It's got a rock-edge, but there's some acousticy stuff on there,
too.)
This record was deeply personal for me, too. I wrote the title
track shortly after five friends of mine were killed in a car accident. I'll
talk more about that in the write-ups that I'm doing that will be
posted--uhh--somewhere on the site at some point. Needless to say, though, it
kind of hung over my head for the duration of the recording process. It made me
want to get more and more personal in my work. So songs like "I Was Born,"
"Scars," "Off My Feet," and "Being There" really flowed out of that. This one
captures my mind frame at that time. It's happy in places. Sad in others.
Intense, too. It's me. And I liked doing it a lot.
It was also important
to me to work with people I cared about on this project. I enlisted the help of
Time Heeley (drums) and Becky Outlaw (vocals). They're both really good people.
I've know Tim for like 20 years...there's a lot of history there. He was a great
fit. Becky, I'd not known nearly as long...but we had a chemistry at that point,
as singers and as friends. We'd been singing together in church for a couple of
years. You come to trust the people you sing with--but I'm not really sure how
to explain why that happens. Maybe the closest I can get is to tell you that a
bunch of people at the church kept telling me that they thought the two of us
should start dating. Becky didn't, though. So...yeah.
Anyhoo...
It was a great experience, and it kind of set the tone for what I'm doing
now. It opened the door for me to do some really serious, personal
writing--which you're going to get a LOT of on "Out from the Light." It was a
lot of fun in the studio, and I still pop it in my player about once a month. I
just really like it."
