Phatfish singer LOU FELLINGHAM gives a track-by-track rundown of her solo album 'Promised Land'

Lou Fellingham

"Promised Land' is my second solo album. I am a busy mother of two small children, but when the opportunity arose for me to do some more songwriting, I jumped at it. I was a little nervous. Busbee (the guy who produced the album and helped to write the songs) was coming over for three days. Would I have anything to bring to the table? Would anything I did have be of any use? Busbee arrived and over the next three days we wrote 13 tunes between us. It was a great time of getting a feel for the songs, being vulnerable and seeing what came out. 'Treasure', my last album, was recently described to me by someone as being a very 'pastoral' album. I think 'Promised Land' is more evangelistic. It speaks of God's people, the journey we're on, the power of the Gospel and our future, with Jesus, in Heaven."

"Promised Land"
It is a story-telling song, telling of my journey from before I was saved, about Jesus and the fact that we are on our way to the promised land! My aim was to try to keep the language as simple as possible so that Christians and non-Christians could understand it, but pack it with truth so that faith will rise. It's got a great groove and I can't wait to try it in church!

"Come Let Us Enter"
This one started with a four on the floor dance beat. It was specific. We needed an "up", "opener" kind of song, so we started with the beat and took it from there. Lyrically it is supposed to be something you can use near the beginning of a worship time to help you know your position in God and the free invitation to come and fix your eyes on him.

"God IImmortal"
This was the first tune we wrote in the three days and it took a little while to settle on what the song was going to say. Suddenly I had an idea to use the old hymn "Immortal, Invisible" as a lyrical base and the song took shape from there. It's a 6/8 song which can be used to help us look to God and begin to realise the vastness of who he is and our humanity in comparison. The result is that we worship him.

"Mercy From The Throne"
This one was essentially written by Nathan, so I will let him write about it.
I wanted to write a song that expressed the truth that our righteousness before God isn't something that we have earned through our own doing, but is something that has been freely given by God, in his grace. I think it's an important doctrine for us to understand and to thank God for. I had written most of the song already when Busbee came to write with us, but he had a few helpful suggestions for the tune which definitely made the song stronger.

"Breathe"
This one came to me, on the second morning of writing, in an instant. We then shaped the melody a little and the phrase "breathe on me" came to mind. The tune arose feelings of faith and expectation. I wanted to have something that we could use as a response song at evangelistic events, when we're praying for salvation, for healing. The song started there.

"Restoration Song"
This song was originally supposed to be about Heaven and us as a people of God and although there are some elements in it about that, it is more about us as the people of God on the journey towards Heaven. The melody and feel made me picture us marching towards Heaven, people joining the march from all sides, growing and growing and being his representation on the earth - all pressing forward on this journey to Heaven.

"Christ Crucified"
A bit of a blatant title, but I couldn't think of anything else. We have been seeing a lot of people respond to the Gospel recently and I was struck by something my pastor, Joel Virgo, said about us preaching the Gospel. I have really been stirred that in a time in history where a lot of people talk about "being relevant", trying to express things and do things in a way that people can relate to, that the underlying core message of the Gospel must never change. I'm all for using new media and thinking carefully about how we present ourselves to those who don't know God yet, but still, the underlying truth and power lies in the Gospel - with Jesus' death on the cross right at the centre - and that needs to shine through more and more as the world becomes more and more ungodly.

"In You"
This was stirred by seeing God work in a couple of ladies in our church. Both have suffered with illness and have faced the possible prospect of death. But I've watched both of them draw near to God and seen the depth of their understanding increase about how they can treasure God above everything else and find peace in that place. When faced with losing everything earthly, the reality of our future in God and what we are living for takes on a whole new level!

"Spinning"
This also started with a groove and made me think of freedom and dancing before God and one of the things that allows us to be free is understanding the grace of God. As I said, I have two small children and life is pretty pinched a lot of the time. Understanding that how I feel doesn't always count, but the truth of who I am in God and how he sees me does is fantastic. I have found God's grace this last little stretch to be more offensive than ever. What I mean by that is that I come thinking, "Surely I have to bring something, do something for you to help me with my songwriting - for you to love me, for me to be able to come to you again." But I don't! It's offensive to my pride that thinks I must need to do something and I'm discovering more and more that I don't! Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I disregard God and do my own thing. It actually causes me to respond with thankfulness and a want to spend time with him, BUT, he is so gracious, he just keeps on lavishing his love and care on us, even when we don't DO all the things we think we should do.

"This Is My Worship"
Once again, this was written primarily by Nathan, so I will hand over to him.
We hear very often about how our "worship" isn't just what we do on a Sunday morning when we sing songs, but actually it's about how we live our lives. I just found a prayer stirring in my own heart, "In all of my dealings, let me be pleasing." I want the way I conduct my life - every part of it - to be pleasing to Jesus - the one who I serve. And this song is really a prayer to ask for God's help to do that.