Singled Out Classics: Thy Will Be Done's 'Was And Is To Come' Feat. Jesse David Leach (ex. Killswitch Engage, Seemless)

I'd have to say the roots of "Preserving The Sacred" started on the set of the movie 'Outside Providence" in 1997. The movie, which starred Alec Baldwin, was set in Rhode Island and also filmed in various locations in and around Providence. Jesse and I are both in the film, though he's got a substantially larger role than myself. The both of us were, at that time, residents of Rhode Island. I knew of him, but didn't know him personally. Both of us were involved in the local music scene; (he was in Corrin then while I was in Kobalt), though I didn't recognize him with the "long hair weave" they had given him for his role because he had a buzzed head at the time.

Filming had been occurring for much of that Fall/Winter and the ice was broken when we were on lunch and I was at a table using the floor as double-bass with my feet and doing blast-beats with my index finger on the edge of the table. Jesse asked if I was a drummer, I told him I wasn't and immediately started talking music. Thus the proverbial flood-gates were thrust open.

Fast forward to Jesse leaving Killswitch Engage. I remember the phone call and him telling me the news, as well as suggesting I audition for the vacant spot. (And yes, while I was invited as one of 9 or 10 people by the band to audition, that's Another Story. Back to the issue at hand) After his departure from the band I got to spend my more time with him and his wife doing backyard cookouts and such. Around the same time KOBALT were going to be recording some new demos, and he was just getting involved with Seemless (I think they were using the name Driven or The Drive or something like that at the time), he and I had been talking about doing a collaboration.

Jesse and his wife came to a KOBALT rehearsal one night to hear this song that our guitar player at the time and I had written and arranged. I had already written most of my verse parts and had the pre-chorus we would trade-off on completed. We both sat in the middle of the room around a milk-crate hovering over some paper. We finished the lyrics that night and even hashed out some takes. I'll tell you what, there was a certain energy in that room that night. Every one's faces turned towards the two of us as we roared through the tune. I remember Jesse's wife getting goosebumps and showing us after we ended the song. The original recording (analog on 2" tape) appeared on a Kobalt demo, but we rerecorded the song years later for Thy Will Be Done's national debut release through Stillborn Records. I remember asking Jesse if he wanted to do it again, his reply, "I was hoping you were going to ask".

The song is special to me in the sense that it is a collaboration with another artist that I don't just think of as my brother, but an inspiration as well. It needed to be on the Thy Will Be Done debut because it recaptures a point of both our separate lives and where it intersects; reflecting our unbridled passion for music as well as serve as a reminder of why we make it.