Thoughts on the Album:
The Legend of Chin
“The thing that you have to remember about this album is that none of these songs were written for mass consumption. These were songs that were written in my freshman dorm-room. These are the songs of a nineteen year old kid who has nothing to prove and nothing to lose. I can still remember those first few practices: Tim, Chad and I dreaming and scheming. We knew none of the boundaries that people have since tried to put on us. Back then a song could go anywhere, and I believe it still can.”
— Jon Foreman
“Written in 1996 and recorded in 1997, ‘The Legend Of Chin’ is the album that started it all. The album was recorded in its entirety in just three weeks– and when I say recorded, I mean the old-school way: no computers, no ones, no zeroes, just good old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape machines for the entire project. Editing two takes together was done by splicing tape, just like The Beatles had done thirty years earlier. This album was so exciting to make. Every new day was met with the fresh anticipation that anything was possible. The end result is an honest collection of San Diego rock.”
— Tim Foreman
Song Stories:
Chem 6a
I wrote this satirical song in the first semester of my freshman year in college. I was studying for a class called “Chem6a” when I decided to take a break. Picking up my acoustic guitar, I noodled around on the fretboard and pondered my apathetic disposition. A couple of minutes later, I had a song. I know how easy lethargy can creep into anyone’s life. However, as a Christian, I believe that every day is a gift from God and that our time on earth is not to be taken lightly. Chem6a attempts to reveal the absurdities in our modern, indifferent culture. All too often, I find that my generation does not care about living life to the fullest. We sit in our living rooms and let the world go by without us, living vicariously through TV and movies. Chem6a is a satirical response to this apathy that dominates modern culture.
Underwater
Life is so short. Everyone is running out of time. Who can be trusted? We are all so human and fail each other so often. Every new day we face the same old problems; every new day hits us just the same. The girl in Underwater faces the dilemma of modern humanity. There’s nothing to be in a world where nothing really matters. And besides she’s tried so hard plenty of times. Without Christ as our foundation, we are thrown by waves of despair, swimming in a sea of hopelessness. She climbs down into the bottle, looking to drown her desperation in alcohol. She hides from the reality of life underwater, where she can forget about her burning needs. Underwater is a place to hide from the world. As Christians, we seek to be found in Christ, living in his love and truth. Sometimes, however, we find ourselves seeking our fulfillment elsewhere: in relationship, in our jobs, or even in acting out religion. Apart from Christ’s foundation, we are living in fake reality, lukewarm and directionless, upsidedown � underwater.
Edge of My Seat
Love can do crazy things. Love spins our head, and suddenly the world is fresh and exciting: ‘life on the movie screen.’ I’m so glad God created us with the capability for friendship with Him and others. I’m thankful for all the incredible components of life-like sunsets, a smile, falling in love. I wrote this song when the world around me was bigger than life and I was excited to see what happened next. I was sitting on the Edge of My Seat.
Home
I wrote “Home” this summer, sobering up to a bitter realization of my faults. Plato’s cave analogy is appropriate. He describes prisoners who have seen only the shadows on the wall of a cave for their entire lives. For them, these shadows are the lonely reality that they know. I am often my own prisoner, chaining myself to my flawed behavior by rationalizing my selfish actions. This song was written at a time when I was very broken, not entirely wanting to wake up and face the truth. But I have my hope, I know that someday I will see heaven. At times like these, I have a million thoughts running through my mind: feelings of regret, doubt and failure. It’s so comforting to know that ‘all that is in my head is in God’s hands’.
Might Have Ben Hur
This is another song about relationships. Everyone wants someone with whom to share their smiles and tears: someone to talk with. At times we find someone we can really connect with. We laugh and talk and grow closer together, sharing our thoughts and building a solid friendship. As we all know, these relationships can fall apart. Letting go can be the hardest thing in the world. Letting go of expectations � letting go of someone you love � All the memories drench your thoughts. And there you are, still wishing you had someone to share the joy and the pain of life with. And you thought that it might have been her.
Concrete Girl
Here at the University of California San Diego, concrete reigns supreme. I love my school and wouldn’t go anywhere else, but the contemporary buildings here are noticeably different from the stately facades of the Ivy League schools. The sterile modernity here is cold and impersonal, the concrete corners immovable and severe. College in general can be like that. One moves away from the warmth of family and find the world to be much colder environment. These are harsh conditions to be surrounded by when one is facing the meaning of life head on. The concrete world around us can dull our joy and drain our happiness, turning us into stone statues like the White Witch (in CS Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe). The “Concrete Girl” was written about a dear friend of mine who stood upon the brink of a world of doubt, exhausted and dejected. With doubts and fears swimming around in her head, she had learned to fake her smile and go on with life. One night we got to talking at the top of the concrete world of UCSD. So we stood up there talking about our hopes and fears, and I prayed that she wouldn’t stop thinking and that she wouldn’t fall down. And she hasn’t.
You
This song is a response to the questions that are brought up in ‘Life and Love and Why.’ Stating my limitations as a human, ‘You’ discusses the hope and security that I can find, ‘not in me’, but in Christ. ‘Whoever wants to save his life will lose it’. Jesus says in Matthew 16:25, ‘but whoever loses his life for me will find it’. We must recognize that life and freedom and meaning cannot be found within ourselves (our finite experiences here on earth can have no metaphysical foundation in the moment or in our lives). But in Christ, our infinite, personal creator, we have meaning and truth. C.S. Lewis asks, ‘To whom will you look for help if you will not look to He who is stronger than yourself?’ As Christians we are called to look exclusively to Christ and live for Him with all that we are. He must increase and I must decrease.
Don’t Be There
I find that poetry and music are especially effective mediums in which to convey my feelings. Poetic devices can give us the eyes and heart of another, submerging us in the ocean of a foreign experience. In a song we can travel to far-away lands, catch our breath on the highest peak and feel our way across the forest floor. Music and poetry can act as jet engines for our emotions; I love these arts for the journey on which they take us. “Don’t Be There” is a song which began with an emotion and an acoustic guitar. I think that these two elements remained intact in this song. Obviously, the acoustic guitar is a prominent feature, but the melancholy mood that I was in when I picked up the guitar that day is evident was well. “Don’t Be There” was inspired by a bittersweet period in my life when I was growing further apart from a dear friend of mine. I will always treasure our friendship; I will never forget the beautiful memories. Yet, youth can be synonymous with change as we begin to learn and discover and experience life more and more. My friend and I had changed since we met, and our distance hurt both of us. “Don’t Be There” is built around the conflicting desires that I had concerning this friendship.