That's how long it took to complete Creation from conception to birth, from idea to CD.
One may ask how can it take so long, when other recording artists put out a CD every year or two? Well, I'll do my best to explain in the paragraphs below.
Before the idea for Creation popped in my head, I had been working in a CD manufacturing company where I was exposed to many styles of music. One of the most influential albums was Peter Gabriel's Passion, the soundtrack for the movie The Last Temptation of Christ. This album exposed me to creative use of samples and a successful blending of traditionally eastern instruments with western instruments and western style. It was innovative, and I tend to gravitate towards artists who creatively try new things. My writing style began to change.
Soon after, I had an intimate encounter with God - a deep spiritual experience one might say - and I wrote
Behind the Veil. However, I still felt that creatively, I was lost, uninspired, out of focus. After praying for something to focus on, I felt God say to start at the beginning - the creation story of Genesis 1 & 2. I thought, "Great! I have my focus! Now I can churn out ten to twelve tracks within the next year and I'll have fulfilled a dream of mine!" After some study - reading commentaries from bible scholars, reading the various theories (i.e. the "gap" theory) and all the problems with those theories, I felt I should just stick to the text found in the bible. As brief as the text is, it is ripe with imagery for the imagination to draw on!
Relatively quickly, I wrote Formless and Empty / "Let There Be Light,"The Expanse, Seas, and Adam's Song, and was able to sketch out the theme for Eve, but it wasn't long before I realized this was going to take longer than a year. I had to tell the story without words. That meant the whole project had to gel together, and not be a collection of individual tracks. Each sound, each nuance had to contribute in painting the picture, in drawing the image: If there was rolling seas to be portrayed, the listener better be able to clearly picture rolling seas. If there were animals, the listener better picture the wildness of a jungle; and then alternately picture a peaceful pastoral scene. Many tracks had significant rewrites later on, such as The Expanse, Sun, Moon, and Stars, and Seas because after coming back to them, they weren't fulfilling that criterion. There was a three year period where nothing came at all. I'd try something, then when I came back to it, I felt it wasn't right. Over those years I would often joke with friends that only God could do something so epic in only six days! Add to that a full time job, family responsibilities, and other activities, there wasn't a whole lot of time in a week to devote to working on this project.
Fifteen years. . .
I readily admit it was frustrating to take so long to finish this. But now I look at it this way: In fifteen years, the computer technology has vastly improved, the synthesizers and sample instruments have improved so much so that Creation would not be nearly as good had I finished it fourteen years ago.
And now, finally, you get to enjoy it!
-RFH
To download Behind the Veil, right-click on the title and save it to your computer.
