Get ready for another great tune to add to your New Year’s workout playlist! Although the month of January is almost over, I know from personal experience that it’s good to be continually reminded of our goals and the prize that we’re striving for at the end of our race. I’m super excited about today’s free song because it is one of my personal favorites from The Afters. It’s called “Start Over,” and I hope that it will be a good reminder to you about how every day is a new opportunity to start fresh! We’ve also got a special behind the scenes interview with front-man, Josh Havens, about the band’s new single. So, scroll down to see what he had to say about “I Am Yours,” and get your free track!
The Afters’ Josh Havens Tells The Story Behind The New Single, “I Am Yours”
God is the only answer that you will ever find that is fulfilling, and that covers everything. No matter how much you look in life, no matter how confused we get, to know that we belong to the God who created everything is such a comforting thought. Because of that we can face anything. -Josh Havens, The Afters
First God made heaven & earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
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Our God is a God of wonders. He created everything: heaven, earth, sky, and sea. He even created us! When I stop to think about the beauty of it, I am left incredulous. How could God make us so unique and complicated? How are our bodies perfectly created to compensate for injury, to learn new things, and to function automatically? How do our brains, structurally so similar, create different personalities and minds?
We are so used to our environments that we often take for granted what’s around us. The sun rises every morning and sets in the evening. We see the stars at night. It happens every day and it has happened every day that we’ve ever known. What’s so exciting about that?
But then there are days when we feel our need for God more. We feel alone, we might be scared, and we’re definitely lost. Where do we go and how do we get there? It’s so hard to figure out. Yet, even through these trials, and ironically sometimes because of them, we see that God is with us always.“I can’t deny that you are right here with me.You’ve opened my eyes so I can see You all around me.”
God is in everything and He is everywhere. When the sun rises, God is revealing His presence. “You light up the sky to show me You are with me.” When we feel alone, all we have to do is look at the sky to see otherwise. We’re not alone, for God is with us.
On our life journeys, there are many times we feel we don’t know which way to go. “When stars are hiding in the clouds, I don’t feel them shining.” It’s dark, and we can’t see what’s up ahead. Through these times, we should remember that God will send His light to guide us. Just as He turns the night’s darkness into morning light, He will turn our darkness into bright light. ”You’re the bright and morning sun.” No matter how dark it seems at the moment, we know that if we wait a little longer, the sun will rise again.
Check out The Afters on iTunes here and scroll down to see what Josh says about the song and read the lyrics. Don’t forget to leave your comments!
Lyrics:
When I’m feeling all alone with so far to go
The signs are nowhere on this road, guiding me home
When the night is closing in
It’s falling on my skin
Oh God will You come close
CHORUS:
You light, light, light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me, You are with me
And I, I, I can’t deny
No I can’t deny that You are right here with me
You’ve opened my eyes so I can see You all around me
You light, light, light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me, You are with me
When stars are hiding in the clouds
I don’t feel them shining
When I can’t see beyond my doubt
The silver lining
When I’ve almost reached the end
Like a flood You’re rushing in
Your Love is rushing in
CHORUS
So I run straight to Your arms
You’re the bright and morning Sun
To show Your love, there’s nothing You won’t do
Here’s part 2 of our “Hometown Heroes” series. This time we’re hanging out with The Afters, as they take us to their favorite spots around their hometown of Dallas, TX.
Check it out.
Have you been to any of those places? Let us know what you think!
Well, ladies and gentleman. I’m excited to announce that our countdown to some super-amazingly awesome new music is nearing an end. The Afters’ album “Light Up The Sky” is only 7 days away from being available to the world, BUT the band is giving us a special treat this week- a Free Track From The Record!! As I’ve mentioned before, I love this album and don’t want you to miss out, so go get your free song now
The song is called “Life Is Sweeter” and Josh told us a little bit about the meaning behind it below-
“Life is Sweeter” was the first song that Matt and I wrote with our new bandmates, Dan and Jordan. We lost some people really close to us last year. Our manager and friend David Lipscomb passed away after a 2 year battle with pancreatic cancer and our drummer Jordan’s lifelong best friend Ron McClelland passed away unexpectedly of unknown reasons. Losing the people that we love is one of the harder things in life. Writing this song and looking at the other side of life and death was a sort of closure for us. It’s comforting to know that death is not the end, but rather the beginning. -josh
Also, in case you missed it- here’s a little glimpse behind the scenes with The Afters
Next week we’ll be celebrating the release of “Light Up The Sky” with a full album stream, so be sure to check back on Tuesday to hear the rest of the record!
Laura
P.S. We sent out some copies of “Light Up The Sky” to our lucky “Win It Before You Can Buy It” contest winners last week, but we’re also drawing a couple more today so be sure to check your email to see if it’s you!
The Afters came out with a song most of you probably remember called “Myspace Girl.” It turns out that the song is actually a true story about their former bass player and a fan of theirs. I know it sounds crazy! We were able to track down this Myspace Girl and interview her speaking about how it all happened. Today we are going to let a fan tell you the story behind a song, so check it out below. Oh, and don’t forget The Afters’ new CD is available to pre-buy on their website now with 3 instant downloads, an exclusive t-shirt and more!
Any one have any questions for Wendy or maybe a similar experience? Leave a comment and let us know.
What’s so special about this day you ask? Well, I will tell you…
On this very special day in August I am finally able to share a new love of mine with the rest of the world. A love that I’ve been forced to keep to myself because it involves music that’s not actually out in stores yet, and it would have been pretty bad for me to put it out there. These are songs that have hogged my music player for the past month, and still echo against the walls of my mind on a regular basis even after the iPod is turned off. I mean, I literally will find myself bursting into song with these tunes out of nowhere- they really seem to enjoy camping out in my head. Lucky for me and everyone else around (except my husband) I’m able to refrain from doing so in public.
As you may have picked up on before, I am a big fan of The Afters new album- it’s pretty stinking good if you ask me, and now you guys get to experience the awesomeness for yourselves.
The band is previewing songs off the new record this week on their site, and they kicked it off with one of my favorite tracks on the album. The song is called “Start Over” and it definitely has the highest repeat count on my iPod out of every song on there. Maybe it has a subliminal message hidden in it that makes you want to ‘Start Over’ again after every listen?…Or maybe it’s just really really good.
The beauty of grace and redemption is that we never have to be weighed down by what’s in the past. Everyday is a new opportunity to live with meaning and be the person we were made to be. –The Afters
I know there are some fans of The Afters out there, so just wanted to make sure you knew about their brand new exclusive presale that just launched at TheAfters.com! You can get an INSTANT DOWNLOAD of the 3 song EP right now on their site, plus some bonus acoustic tracks and a t-shirt with the full album on September 14th! I’m super excited about this record (in case you can’t tell) and can say with everything that I am- absolutely no reservation- without a doubt- that you don’t want to miss out on this record.
We’ll have more cool stuff coming soon from The Afters, but I just wanted to send a quick update to make sure you heard the good news.
P.S. On a slightly different note- but still in the same general topic of conversation- I’m interested in finding out some info about your music listening style…
So I’ve got a very serious (but not really) question for you:
Do you ever pre-order albums? If so, which artists have you done so with, and what made you do it? Tell me everything! Thx
I’m not from Nashville and I must say, ya’ll have some confusing weather around here. I mean, it will be a scorching 99 degrees outside and then start pouring rain within a 5 minute span. Weird.
Anyways, Nashville makes up for it by having some pretty awesome sunsets. Recently, every time I’ve seen a sunset, or the unfortunate times when I’ve been awake early enough to catch the sunrise, I’ve thought of The After’s new song, Light Up The Sky. The chorus says “light, light, light up the sky, You light up the sky to show me You are with me.” I think it’s a great reminder that just like God faithfully provides a sunrise and sunset everyday, He is faithfully with us always, through good times and bad.
As a major photography lover, I try to take as many pictures of sunsets as possible. After all, not one is the same, right? Here are a couple of my favorite sunsets:
The first picture I took on an airplane from Peru, the second picture is off of my deck at my house in Austin, Texas, and the third picture is on a beach in Peru. All of this being said, I want to see your best pictures of a sunset or sunrise and the place where you took it! Email them to me at FreeCCMcontest@gmail.com.
In fact I’ll even randomly choose 5 people to win The Afters’ new album, “Light Up The Sky” before it hits stores! Not a photographer? That’s ok- you can still enter to win by simply leaving a comment on this blog post about your favorite song from the band. Sound good?
And by ‘this’ I mean the most wonderful sound your ears will hear all day. That’s right- it’s new music from The Afters, and once you hear it you’re going to want to hit repeat, tell all your friends, and get your very own copy because it’s just that good.
The guys have a full length album in the works for September, but they have decided to bless us with a 3 song EP now to hold us over until then. We’re excited to let you listen to the songs right here on our site right this very minute, so don’t wait any longer- click the play buttons below to see what I’m talking about. I’ll be quiet until you’re done so you can get the full experience…
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….Finished? Ok, now that you’ve heard it you’re probably asking, “How in the world can I get my hands on these songs Laura?”
Also, in case you missed it in our previous post, Josh from The Afters sat down to talk about the meaning behind the single “Light Up The Sky” so watch that as well to hear all about it. We’ve got more coming this week from The Afters, so stay tuned. I don’t want to give anything away, but you might have a chance to win the full length album before it hits stores in September …oops, it slipped out!
Josh sat down with us to talk a little bit about the story and meaning behind the song:
“Light Up the sky is a song about how God is with us when we need him most. Whether it was God leading the Israelites through the night guided by a pillar of fire, or times in my own life when I felt like I was alone and I wondered where God was. Every time God would send a sign to show me he was with me. No matter what we’re going through, no matter what we’re facing in our life. God has a path for us, and if we focus on his word and focus on him he will lead us to that path, and lead us along his way.”
“Another thing that I was thinking about just the other day is how every morning the sun rises, and that’s a tangible reminder that God is with us, and created us. So, every morning when you see the dark give way to the light of the sun- that’s a reminder.”
Watch the video, and hear more from Josh about the song
