April - A Busy Blast!

We had some wonderful times in April. We did some cool stuff. We started on our worship record w/Ed Cash (wait, that was the last few days of March. oh well. same thing). We did some writing with some other artists in efforts to help try & launch the careers of other up & coming acts. We even shot a music video with Christian Hip Hop legends The Ambassador & Da Truth (our boy Mali was also apart of it). Really cool song called, "Misfits". Be on the lookout.

Right after we finished up with the video shoot we made a stop at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA for the 42nd Annual Dove Awards. That was pretty fantastic, not gonna lie. Our new friend Chris August swept the night (along w/Francesca). Pretty awesome night. Afterwards we had a heck of a good time w/Scott & Ed Cash at a local hot spot. Ate some things we shouldn't have (especially that late at night), but it was goood. It seems like all we did was laugh for 2hrs straight. Not even kiddin. My face was sore from all the laughing!

Just finished up the Invasion Tour this wk as well. It was nutz! Lots of early mornings. We invaded the Joplin, MO school system with our bro's Simon Pheonix & illusionist Cody Lowery. J.D. Buckridge emceed&hosted the events. Had a productive week full o that.

One crazy thing I experienced this week for the first time was a police escort to a meet&greet dinner. I mean, the whole limo thing is a given, but making other cars pull off to the side of the road cause we're goin to dinner??? WOW. I apologize to everyone who was late to where they were going because of that. ha. It was pretty cool though. Aint gonna lie. lol. UPRISING 2011 was an outstanding event that we thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks for comin out Carthage, MO!

By the way guys. If you see a camera crew following us around in public. Don't ask any questions... It's a surprise. ;)

Love y'all!

-JORDAN
Consumed by Fire

What an amazing year ahead...

I am so excited about what is coming up this year. God is just so good. Those words don't even give Him the proper glory and honor He deserves for what He has done and is doing, let alone WHO HE IS! We knew this year would be the greatest year of our lives so far, and it is turning out to be JUST THAT. God has brought in opportunity after opportunity for us to headline shows for the masses. We definitely feel the transition into something bigger than we are...

We've always known how far God wants to take this, but I don't think we will ever stop being amazed at how BIG our GOD really is. If you can imagine it, not only can He DO IT, but He will do exceedingly abundantly ABOVE it (Ephesians 3:20)!

Can't wait for you guys to see everything unfold before your eyes the way it is for us right now.

On a side note, but in the same light:

*Stoked about the Give What You Got tour heading to Kampala, Uganda in July. It's going to be simply amazing.

*More than excited about you finally hearing CBF on the radio EVERYWHERE you go instead of hit & miss/here & there. Yep. You read that right... Starting in March we'll be launching a nationwide CHR radio campaign with "Walkin Away" being the first drop.

*We have a new fan club president. We'll be introducing you to her very soon :) She's the best! You'll grow to love her almost as much as we have ;) SPEAKING OF THE FIRESTARTERS: Don't miss out on the opportunities to get the INSIDE scoop on what's going on with us by signing up with the Official Fan Club... For instance: We're in the studio today working on new demos for a new unreleased project that only industry pros get to hear (UNLESS YOU ARE AN OFFICIAL FIRESTARTER). We are sending out full mp3's to our official firestarters at the end of the week, along with UNSEEN photos from recent photo shoots. Don't miss these opportunities.



Anyways, gotta get back to work... Just wanted to let you know how amazing our God is and what He is doing on our behalves... The beautiful part is, we want to take you with us... YOU ARE APART OF THIS. :) Love you guys SO much!

-JORDAN
CBF

P.S. Don't forget! ALL of the latest public info can be found at www.consumedbyfire.net ! :)

Jordan talks about New Christmas Album from Consumed by Fire entitled "Get Ready for A Holiday"

Hey Guys,

This is Jordan. So much has been going on lately. I don't even know where to start or when to shut up for that matter! haha. I guess I'll start with what has been going on for the past couple o months. You've seen our updates, videos, tweets, etc... So you know we have been working on our Christmas album. Well, we hit a couple o bumps in the road here and there, but it is finally about to be released. It should be available for digital download in the next few days on Digstation, and then others will follow (you know the routine).

THE TASK AT HAND
We had such a blast making this record. Don't get me wrong though, it was a task... We started with about 4 or 5 songs that we KNEW we had "ready" to go and we knew we had 11 total tracks that needed to be on the record (8 of which are originals)... So we had our work cut out for us. We'd start on a song and then finish it "on the fly" in the studio. We actually had ideas for a lot more songs that we didn't end up using. I loved a lot of them too! It's not that we didn't use them because they weren't good enough, we jus had 11 to choose that was "right" for this record. We wrote about every aspect of Christmas that pertains to US and then picked the ones that we knew YOU could relate to as well. Caleb & I actually started on a song that was just way too tough to finish (emotionally). Maybe the next one you will see which one I'm referring to... I'm sayin all o this to let you know that we truly poured our hearts into these songs. We take every bit of crafting a song VERY SERIOUSLY. A song can tell so much of what a person feels.

There were so many nights where we'd finish up our studio session reeally late and not get in bed til around 3am and then wake up the following morning and do it all over again. haha. Such a wear & tear on the body. But honestly, I'd do it all over again. Christmas is so close to our hearts. We love everything about Christmas in it's purest form. This record helped us release some of that love in the best way we know how. :)

THE ALBUM'S TITLE/MEANING
When it came down to what we were gonna name the record it just seemed obvious. At the time we had just finished tracking for our song "Get Ready for A Holiday" and we were getting a lot of emails and phone calls from you guys asking what to expect from the album... I didn't quite know how to put it, so I told our Co-Producer for the album, Arlis Moon, about all the emails... He said, "IT'S JUST A BIG PARTY MAN!" And it made sense...

Christmas has always been a big celebration in our family. Every year, family from all over get together at our Grandma & Grandpa's and we just have a stinkin hoot-nanny! lol. Seriously! It gets crazy! :) So we kept seeing a common thread with the album's content being so intertwined with what our life is really like at Christmas time. We didn't name the album "Get Ready for A Holiday" because it was the "Politically Correct" thing to do (if you know us, then you know we could careless), but it was really because it was the best way to sum up the entire album and all of our hearts at Christmas. It's a PROCLAMATION! Simply stating, get ready for the best dang reason to celebrate! REDEMPTION through the birth of Jesus Christ is a serious thing! It's exciting! Like it or not, that's Christmas for us. And we throw down. lol.
  
OUR FAVORITE SONGS FROM THE ALBUM
You'd be surprised how many times a week we get asked what our favorite song that we have ever written. haha. It's crazy. The truth is, when you write a song it is like one of your kids... It probably sounds silly, but it's the only way I can put it. Not ONE song is loved more than others because each one has it's own value, meaning, and purpose, and you remember the exact way you felt the day it was born. Honestly though, you always know when one particular song was written for the masses. Know what I mean?

On this album. It seems like every time we'd finish a song, we'd say, "this might might be the best one". haha. But when it's all said and done and you have listened to it over and over again, and dissected your work, there is that one song that gives you chills every single time. For this album, I think that song is "Silent Night". Go figure, a song we didn't write. ;)



I remember the morning that it hit me that we were supposed to record this song... I had just got out of the shower and I was thinking to myself, "What other cover are we going to do?" So I got dressed in a hurry and walked (more like a trot) to my computer with a mission to find that special song that "connected". Now, before I go any further, let me just say... I have always sung Silent Night and liked the song a lot, seriously... However, when I pulled up the lyrics and actually studied them and read them with my heart rather than my eyes... It was like I went back to the night of His birth. I actually felt a strong Presence of God in the room. So, like any other song, you wanna hear out it sounds... So I started humming... Then the hum became a quiet singing voice, then I ran to the six-string across the room... Started picking it out and began to sing with all of me, and it felt like I had experienced something... It was like I had never heard the Christmas Story, and the song explained it all over again to me in a new way... Each line of the song was powerful. I mean come on, "Shepherds quake at the sight..." Just picturing the anointing that had to be present... "Heavenly hosts sing alleluia.." I was getting the full gist for the very first time in my 21 years.

So I ran up the stairs in excitement and almost tremble. Caleb was still asleep... I said, "Caleb! Wake up dude! I think I just found the last cover song for the album!" Caleb let out a loud and disgruntled, "That's great dude. I'm sleeping! Leave me alone!" lol. So I sat down on the bed and just began to pick it out and sing... I could tell he was half listening... So I kept singing (haha)... Then I stopped and walked him through what I had just experienced and told him that this song is the Christmas "AMAZING GRACE". Seriously. He eventually acknowledged me and said, "That's great" again. lol. But I knew the point had been made... So I walked out of the room in complete confidence that "Silent Night" would be the song we would record for our last cover.

A couple of days later we were in our last scheduled studio session... Caleb & I hadn't discussed "Silent Night" anymore... And the words from Arlis' mouth came out, "So. What's next?" It was almost in anticipation of hearing "Nothin! That's it! We finished!" haha. Only because we had an ongoing riv from Arlis boldly exclaiming that there was "NO WAY we could get 11 tracks out the door in time!" lol. But with a little will power and a lot o Arlis Moon & God... We did. haha. Anyways, back to the story....

Instead of telling him "Nothin! It's finished!" I said, "Well, we need to do one more cover." He looked at me with disgust. haha. Caleb all the while having that inkling that I'm about to bring up the song that ruined his sleep two mornings before.... :) Arlis looks at me with continued annoyance and asks, "What's the song!?" I said, "Silent Night". Instantly Caleb gets his smirk on his face (haha), picks up the guitar and starts figuring out what he is gonna do to the song. It took no time before Caleb found the same passion for this song as what was all over me two mornings before... I remember about the 2nd vocal take through for him, it was like it just... CLICKED. And there it was....

The reason you didn't hear the guitar in the song is because we had a lot of crazy "click" bleed through. So, Arlis, now in desperation... Says, "Let's just fix this problem!" haha. He then jokingly proceeds to mute the guitar track, leaving nothing, but piano and vocals... The rest was history! We had just accidentally created exactly what we'd want and then we would later elaborate on top of that.

Honestly though guys, there is a story for every song... haha. But this one, it's special, because of what it is. So I can actually boldly say, I've got a favorite from this record, I'm listening to it RIGHT NOW... It's "Silent Night"... I think the guys would agree that it's their favorite as well...

Anyways, I don't know how to say everything I wanted to say about this album in a few words, so there it is. lol. I honestly haven't said HALF of what I am capable of saying! haha. But I'll shut up for now... Maybe we'll sum all of it up in a video soon? We'll see. Hope you love it guys! Cause we sure loved making it for you!

Love you so much!

-JORDAN
Consumed by Fire