Composer

Rather I'm writing for the concert hall or writing for film or pageants or whatever, it's an amazing feeling to receive inspiration on something. I can't explain the euphoria that one feels and the satisfaction to know that my mind works well in a creative aspect and immediately I go to Heavenly Father and thank Him for that talent. That hasn't changed in all my years of writing. I've written so much now and every time I feel I have to thank Him for my talent and my success. Without Him I'd be nothing.

I have about 30 songs on YouTube and I can tell you an inspirational story about every single song. When you are writing faith-based songs, I think you can count on the Lord's help. I'll just tell you one story. I had a song. I was writing it for someone else. It had been commissioned. It was due. I was going to be singing it for them on a Sunday night. On Saturday night, there was still a line that I was not convinced was the right line. In fact, I knew it was wrong, but I didn't know what was wrong with it. And I had the idea to call Michelle. Michelle is a good friend of mine. She said, this is what's wrong with your line. She didn't give me the right line. But as soon as she said that, I knew what the right line should be. And I wrote it and gave it to the people the next day. There will always be help.

I can't leave out the experience of scoring music for the film The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd. The producer asked me to write the Savior's theme and he could listen to it and see if I'm on the right track. I wrote a number of themes and as the producer came to listen to him he rejected all of them and I kind of felt, yeah, he's right. So after a couple weeks of writing themes I finally decided my career was over. As I decided that I had nothing left, I couldn't write the theme. I experienced great humility and at that point I don't know how the theme came. As I wrote it down it just flowed as if I'd heard it before. So I walked into the studio and played the music to the theme I'd just written along with the picture and it worked. It was right.

There is a film that I really wanted to do called Legacy, played in the Legacy Theater at Town Temple Square. As it got time for the director to choose a composer, I was not contacted, and I just felt awful. I had prayed that the Lord would inspire the director to hire me, sorry to say, and when he didn't, days later, I got on my knees and asked Heavenly Father to forgive me. As I got up, the doorbell rang, and there was a man with a FedEx package, and he handed it to me, and I ripped it open, and there was a videocassette in those days of the film Legacy with a little note saying, see if you want to write the music to the film. I learned a great lesson there. It humbled me. It gave me a chance to realize where inspiration comes, and when I got the film to write the music, I was prepared, as it were, to write it.

Writing music is inspiration just in its entirety. To sit and think or walk and think, well a lot of times I go for walks or work on something else to distract myself and somehow the musical ideas come and then I'll write them down in my studio and if appropriate I'll play them back and they're highlights to that. But great inspirational stories that are beyond what I just described are the ones that I remember. It's unbelievable to have an idea pop in your mind that really works and it's humbling, it really is.

Working with the orchestra in London was an incredible experience. They all recognized where I came from, who I was, what my religion was, and yet we were friends. Some brass players came up to me once and asked me how many wives I had, and I said seven, one for every day of the week, and then I realized they believed me, so I had to explain I only had one, and I couldn't handle her. I couldn't imagine anything else, but they would ask me about my lifestyle, about my family, and particularly my family, and a harp player came up to me. She said, you've inspired me to have a family. I've been playing professionally for years, and I'm going to stop and have a family, and then pick up the harp later, and you were the example for me. I thought that was kind of fun.

An inspirational story I like to share is about one of my songs that I've composed. It's titled A Season to Be Strong. When I was 17 years old, I was in high school and I was a senior. I was on the seminary council and I was asked to compose our theme song. That year our theme was A Season to Be Strong. So I composed a song titled A Season to Be Strong and the music came to me and it came through me. Within about 10 to 15 minutes, I had the entire song composed on the piano and I had all the lyrics. So the entire song was finished in about 10 to 15 minutes. And for me, it felt as if the music was not mine. Even though I was composing and creating it, it felt as if I had already composed and created the music as if the words were just being given to me so I could share the music with others.