the story of chunkfest

hot news: we got into 'chunkfest' after two rounds of auditions this past weekend.

we get to record a song as part of a Ben+Jerry's CD, and get "$500 worth of B+J's ice-cream and merchandise" o.O

to recap the b+j's audition a bit, we could have easily taken the easy way out. sing sarah mclachlan's ice cream, do love+water again (which we did in the first round and got us through). work on 'sarah' instead of spending countless hours on a new one.
it just seemed that as we examined the 'peace, love + ice cream' theme, there was so much of an opportunity to address things that really mattered. things that speak of the coming, here and now, Kingdom.
so with no less than 20 different words and phrases scribbled around a sheet of rough paper, we started carving out a song, deep into the night. and morning, and lunch the next day.

---
the taste of life

oh isn't it a worn-out city
where tired sighs + petty lies
+ bitter vines grow
a people of broken memories
we turn aside, desensitized,
smother the child inside

what's so golden about silence?
why should songs of hope be hidden?

come awake and feel alive again,
the things that matter
free the child inside
to love again
the taste of life

acquainted with the ordinary
a nine to five
don't recognize who you are anymore
surrendered to secondary
yet on this earth your life is worth
more than you know

we all need a stress-reliever
be unashamed to share your flavour

wide awake, bring to life again
the dreams that matter
----

the next day, i was zonked, grouchy and our lack of practice was incredibly shameful.
i feel like this is where sayings like "God loves to stack the odds against Himself" come in. we messed up badly a few times, and the sound system was awful. jack+rai (they are the alpha and omega, our beginning and end.. the ultimate STALKERS) looked less than thrilled. probably the only good thing they said was 'beautiful lyrics'.

trudging home to sleep, i felt kinda stupid and ashamed that we even did that. knew the odds of us getting in were pretty slim. if they judged based on performance eloquency, we were goners.
nevertheless, in my sleep-deprived state, i mused that i wouldn't have traded this for an easier audition.
dude, imagine the day before, i told rach to write a song about a guy who tries to get his gf back with ice-cream. there you have it- making peace, cause you love her, and with ice cream. she refused.
i understood. that was cheap. and a complete waste of the stage, if i may put it that way.

i didn't want to do l+w again either, because.. what's the point.. they've already heard it. we're not gonna score anymore points than yesterday except maybe with matt's add-on (yay matt!). either way, cathay's already heard it. it's been released there.
when we started practicing 'taste of life' all together, the sheer rhythmic craziness of the song came to light. there was no way we cld fit in a 2nd guitar part convincingly, and real decent djembe part would take.. more than the 1-2hours we had to work out.
and we were probably the only band who needed to see our scores, since we couldn't remember how it went from memory, a song we finished at lunchtime.

'sarah' was nearly as big a risk as the new one. it wasn't yet tested or refined, and we pretty much made up a djembe and 2nd guit part in the hour before.

but yeah.. as i went home i decided that i wouldn't mind if we didn't get in.. cuz we had done songs that were important to us and meant something deeper than ice cream and looking/sounding good/confident.
perhaps the key is that we never want to shortchange ourselves+our audience (w.r.t. song content at least), or take 'the path of least resistance' + compromise on what we're here for.

at 9pm, when i am dropping off to sleep, turns out that we didn't get into top5 (naturally). BUT they decided to give 2 more bands a chance, so in the end we are in.. the Top 7.
haha.
so my facebook status that nite was "God is officially funny." it's like He 'die die' must let us get in.. i don't get it.
all i know is we were small fries among big fish ('david + goliath' as rach says) + getting in had hardly anything to do with us.

so we stumble around + into the sept 12 event (oceans of ice-cream and ice-cream-eating people), as puzzled as ever why we will be there..