Mighty King Steve Angrisano

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Lyrics

You are the spirit bringing us light,
igniting the fire of faith in our lives.
You are the Lord; you are a mighty king.

You are the river washing us clean,
giving us life, setting us free.
You are the Lord; you are a mighty king.

We shout with joy; you're the rock of our salvation.
Let our hearts all your praises sing.
We lift our voice to the one who made the earth, the sky, the sea.
You are a mighty king.

You are the voice ancient and new,
speaking with courage, proclaiming truth.
You are the Lord; you are a mighty king.

You are the savior, God become man.
Love became real when you stretched out your hand.
You are the Lord; You are a mighty king.

Artist Reflection

For this reflection, I thought I would do something a little different. One of the most frequent questions people ask me in emails and on the road, particularly musicians, is "How do you write your songs?"

Well, there is no one answer to that question for any musician but I thought I would share a little about how I wrote this song. "Mighty King" was written especially for the Live It! CD that would be released at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Houston. It might sound kinda weird, but musicians, like students, sometimes do their best work when there is a deadline hanging over their head!

That's true for me quite a bit. Whenever I'm working on a new CD, no matter how much material I have to put on it, there are always a few good songs that we write at the very last minute and say "Wait a minute! Let's use this one!" You can probably guess what my study habits were in school. So I wrote this song with a deadline to include on that CD. I wrote the music first which is what happens most of the time for me. I'll just play the guitar and hum along until I like the way it sounds.

OK. Not very scientific but it works! I usually start singing a few random words or phrases that rhyme and although most of those don't end up in the song, some do. Those are usually the later ones that are actually making sense and helping me decide what I want the song to be about.

For all you guitar players out there, "Mighty King" (as well as many of the songs on Set Free) was written in an alternate tuning. Rather than the regular way a guitar is tuned, EADGBE, some of the strings are tuned down to DADGAD. It makes for a rich open sound, but you have to learn different shapes for the chords you play. It's worth a try to spice up your own playing. The different sound helps me to think differently about the music I'm writing and hopefully be more creative. Just Google "DADGAD" and you'll get loads of information.

I knew I would be singing the song several times at NCYC so I wanted it to have a good driving beat and be fun to do in concert. The idea I had for the lyrics was to represent in some way how many different ways there are to relate to God. Like that poster that shows all the different names for God in the Bible; I wanted to say "You are a wonderful, amazing, powerful, gentle, awesome God!"

Because the theme of NCYC was "River of Life" and because water is such an important symbol in our church, I wanted to include a reference to water. In fact, the first complete line of the song that I wrote was: "You are the river washing us clean, giving us life, setting us free. You are the Lord. You are a Mighty King."

Because I liked the way it sounded when I sang it, and because this gave the song a certain rhythm and flow, I tried to write the other verses in a way that stuck to the pattern of this one. You'll notice when you listen to songs that you like on the radio that there are some songs that are unpredictable and you never know what is coming next, but most songs find a sort of rhythmic grove and, for the most part, stick with it.

Here's an example. Trying to figure out what else to say in the song, I decided to try and write three more verses that "named" God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm not the first person to think of this. :)

The second verse that I wrote, trying to keep the rhythm of the first verse going but name God as Holy Spirit, I wrote: "You are the Spirit bringing us light, igniting the fire of faith in our lives. You are the Lord. You are a Mighty King."

If you say both of them out loud you can feel how the two verses have the same feel. I thought YEA!!! Two down, two to go!

The chorus of the song was pretty much just me trying to pray out loud. I played it over and over (and over and over) and tried to just sing my praises to God. I really think most of my best songs are, at least in part, my own prayers.

I think this gives the Holy Spirit room to work. That's the funny thing about writing songs. It is both craft and inspiration. If you want to write music, you have to work at the "craft" of songwriting. I continue to learn how to write better songs every time I write one. There are some "rules" that just make songs sound good. The more you know how to use them, the better your songs sound, even when you choose to break the rules, because you are aware of when and why you are breaking them.

At the same time, the songs that mean the most to me are songs where the writer found a way to get out of the way and let God just say something that speaks to all of us. It is the Holy Spirit that can take a dozen or so words and give it meaning bigger than just a song. You know what that feels like when a song stirs something so deep in you. No mater what kind of song it is, I always think that I am hearing God try to say something to me. Some songs just seem to cut through and really speak to our hearts. I don't think you can write one of those on purpose. I think God chooses a time and place and knows that the people who are gonna hear that song need to hear it.

Anyway, more than you wanted to know about how I look at songwriting! My prayer today is that some of the music here at spiritandsong.com will reach into your heart and help you to allow God deeper into your heart and life.

As Rich Mullins, a great songwriter, often says: Be God's!

-- Steve Angrisano