Sam Gill
About - Spoken Hope
SpokenHope has been an idea, and implementation since 1996. It has taken several revisions into its current form. Originally SpokenHope was a project to take spoken testimonies, and put them over music, or write some custom music to them. Originally I had that idea, and also before that was writing my own sermons/messages over music. Only later did I hear other albums being published which took sermons, and put them over music.
About - Electronic Worship Format
Part of the current revision of this project, and ministry was to organize things in a way that other people could come along and have something to copy, or imitate. I am not the first one to put prayers, Bible verses or testimonies over music, I am sure someone has already done that. What I do not believe was ever done, was to put all those different aspects into a single format, and base cd tracks off of following that format. So when I saw a lot of bands, putting just one track, that was a sermon, or maybe a prayer here or there, I thought, it would be better to have some unity.
Now I have though a lot about methods, and rituals, and the format that I came to was the Electronic Worship Format, which is featured at www.electronicworship.org. I have recently found the true purpose for methods and/or rituals, which is to remind us of what needs to be done. Often times however, rather than being a vehicle to remember to pray or remember to do an altar call, it becomes process, that drives us to boring and dull worship services. The trick is to not let the ritual run the service, but let it be a guide for us, so that we do not forget what needs to be done. We do not want to leave out the important things. The format, is more like a guide, even the order can be a guide, but it must contain all of the parts. Otherwise it is like reading the Bible out of context.
About - Vision
The vision for Spoken Hope may someday be a church service with non-stop music, or a complete set of worship content for a home group, or even for a complete worship mindset for driving to work. I will always be striving to the goal of a non-stop music worship service, but any other means you find for it, I would like to know.
About - Sounds
Most of the sounds in the albums, are custom programmed keyboard sounds. In the future I hope to be using more software based synths, and programming them, but for now most of my rig is hardware synths and modules.
About - Onitod
Onitod is my musical outlet for producing, and recording all the music that is instrumental. In other words, I wrote a lot more music, than lyrics or songs. So for that purpose, I setup Onitod, which is a tribute to my whole music experience - that only with God, can I write any music. God gives me the arrangements, I do not even think of them, parts fall together, I just play it, it goes together. I can not explain that, only to say that God makes it so, and I just keep giving Him control over the whole process.
About - Album Track Order
I try very hard, in my albums not to make every track sound the same, or even be the same style. If you do not like the first song, skip to the next. I try to vary things up, for one thing, I like variety, and I like my own music, but I need to be able to listen to it, and if I am not happy, I know no one else will be.
Influences
Prodigy, Scott Blackwell, Prodical Sons, Prophesy of Panic, NSoul, Chemical Brothers, NIN, Ministry, U2, Square Pusher, Fat Boy Slim, DJ Tiesto, RJD2, Moby, Argyle Park, Mortal, D.C.Talk, Toby Mac,Tree63, Jeremy Camp, Jamiroquai, Orbital, Praful
Sounds Like...
Prodigy, Scott Blackwell, Prodical Sons, Prophesy of Panic, NSoul, Chemical Brothers, Yes, NIN, Evanescence, Ministry, U2, Square Pusher, Kraftwerk, Vangelis, RJD2, Moby, Argyle Park, Mortal, D.C.Talk, Toby Mac, Jamiroquai, Mike Oldfield