Becoming The Archetype Singled Out Week: The Sky Bearer

When I first entered the writing process for this album, most of the songs had already been completed, at least from a compositional standpoint. Daniel had created some fabulous pre-production tracks that he sent to me in Nashville, which I was using to learn the songs and write my drum parts. At that time, there was only one song that had yet to be fully fleshed out. "The Sky Bearer."

Although the song was hardly half-finished when I received it, I could not stop myself from playing it over and over again. I had a feeling early on that it would become one of, if not my most favorite track on the record. I just love the vibe of the song. It flows in a really interesting way right from the beginning, and has a great chaotic feel that suddenly tightens up at the first "breakdown" section.

I remember hearing that part for the first time, and having to rewind it right away to hear it again. From a drummer's perspective, talk about fun!

To say the least, I was very excited to see how the song would progress from there. A few days before we entered the studio, I went down to Georgia to meet up with everyone for final rehearsals and, of course, to finish "The Sky Bearer." Daniel and Seth already had some things in mind for how the song might develop. They knew it should change gears and move into a softer middle section, so with that in mind, the three of us began hashing out ideas and trying to put something together.

It's interesting to me how certain songs reveal themselves differently during the writing process. Some songs just come out all at once, almost spontaneously, while others almost need to be coaxed into existence over a longer period of time. "The Sky Bearer" seemed like a bit of both. It sat unfinished for a pretty long while, and during that time didn't change at all. Once we started working on it again, however, it almost seemed to write itself. It didn't take long at all before the rest of the song began taking shape, and within a day "The Sky Bearer" was finally constructed.

Because drums were the first thing to be recorded, we mainly just focused on the structural and rhythmic aspects of the song at that time, so when the vocals, keyboards, harmonies, and guitar solos got added into the mix, the song really took on an exciting new life! I believe this song is a really great combination of new and old BTA sounds, and hopefully listeners will pick up on that as well.

After everything was said and done, "The Sky Bearer" definitely became a personal highlight of the album. So I suppose my original feeling was correct!