Producing You are Exalted

Cross to Crown Record from Collin Stoddard on Vimeo.
Buy You are Exalted here.

This is a project I am proud to have produced and helped write, thanks to the executive producer Doug Goodin for your vision, leadership and talent that made record become a reality. Cross to Crown is an incredible ministry that resources churches by encouraging and equipping pastors through their seminary, books that they write and publish, and their music.

I appreciate and support the intentionality that went into creating You are Exalted. While hand-crafting, shaping and massaging the process and continually looking at the horizon is a long and sometimes painful process, it lead to making this record a huge success. One of the challenges of the creative process with any new artist is the amount of dialog and conversation that goes into discussing the heart, the message and the sound of a project. Most artists (even those who have never recorded a project before) have an idea of their sound and can fairly easily be identified by picking up a guitar and singing a few words. While Cross to Crown had the heart, vision and a general idea of the musical style, I was creating and aiming for a sound that we only had a description of and not necessarily a sonic example. This process takes a lot of trust for everyone involved: for Cross to Crown to trust that I hear what they're expecting to hear, and that I can deliver it, and for me that they'll like what comes from a tracking session! God was evidently involved in every process of this project and Cross to Crown was one of the best and easiest ministries I've ever worked with and I look forward to our next record together.

A little inside information about talent on the record, Adam Silverman played drums and I always appreciate his talent and contribution to almost everything I work on from my time in 33Miles to producing projects. We've known each other for a long time and it's a blessing working with someone who knows what to play when I don't know how to explain it. Cal Joslin who helped start the CCM group Sidewalk Prophets and I went to Belmont played bass. Matt Reviere, a session guitar player currently touring with 2012 Idol winner Scotty McCreery who I also went to Belmont with played acoustics and electrics. Tyler Ewing is an Emmy Award winning composer and the most talented arranger I've ever met and and he provided the string arrangements and tracking (I also went to Belmont with Tyler....) Jason Hall is an audio engineer who I refer to as a magician and mixed and mastered the record. (Sigh...yes, I also went to Belmont with Jason.) PS, You're welcome, Belmont, my next student loan payment is on the way.

Go buy this record! This year is filling up quickly for me in my studio. We are settling into our new house in Firestone, CO and my studio is now up and running it's new location with lots of new projects on the books.