Worship | Ambient | Psalms | EXPERIMENTAL
In the early 2000's I released two self-recorded albums, Honestly and New Day. As a hungry and passionate worshipper these were projects full of zeal, made with friends who shared the adventure of making music on zero budget and even less experience. I was proud of those projects - it felt like we were forging new ground in world before music streaming and the saturated music market we see today. Looking back, two things seem clear - we had some great songs, but the recording and productions standards fell short of modern standards. These early album aren't available now, but it always seemed a shame that some of these songs were now lost. That's why I've used my side-project Breakers And Waves to resurrect and reinterpret some of them in new ways in this project I Can See The Cloud.
Breakers And Waves is an experimental project that exists to give churches fresh songs of Christ-centred worship as well as creative musical soundscapes for Christian meditation and listening.
With a passion for creating music for the gathered church, these songs are released through Breakers And Waves — an alternative musical identity that uses new emerging creative technologies, including AI, to present songs in novel ways.
Modern music production methods are changing quickly and are allowing expressions never thought possible before. By embracing these tools it allows new paths to be forged in serving the church with worship songwriting.
These songs aren’t about building a personal platform. They’re about giving worship leaders resources that will bless their congregations and point people to Jesus.
Every congregational worship song you find here is written by me (music and lyrics) and made available for churches to use, freely and openly.
Jonny Shepherd
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The congregational worship songs presented through Breakers And Waves are 100% written by me, Jonny Shepherd, and are the results of decades of practicing the discipline of worship songwriting and using the songs in church contexts. Only the arrangements are assisted by using AI tools, along with further real instrument accompaniment, mixing and mastering.
The non congregational/corporate songs, (the ambient/instrumental pieces and Psalms project) have a heavier weighting towards the AI technologies used, although their curation and direction as musical pieces were guided by me.
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Computers, drum machines, synthesisers, smart tools, autotune and now AI tools have long been at the forefront of music creation. These are all, at the end of the day, only tools that help in the process of the end goal of creating music. God’s Spirit lives and breathes in ME, the worship songwriter, and YOU the worshipper and the heart and motivation of me as a curator of these tools is more important than whether a specific tool is Godly or not.
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I have. Many times. However, the cost and time of doing so can be incredibly prohibitive and this experiment into using cutting edge production tools can help fast track getting new worship songs into the hands of worship leaders, bands and churches across the world. I don't want AI to take people’s jobs as musicians or recording engineers but do want to carefully use the tools available to me to help further the gifts that God has given me, within the means that I have available to me.
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I have been worship songwriting for more than 25 years and have used many of those songs in churches. A significant number of those songs and the songs I continue to write have never been recorded mainly due to costs it takes to do so. My heart has always been to write songs for the church worldwide and for that to happen, a recorded version of the song needs to exist somewhere that is easy to access and provides an excellent representation of a possible arrangement. I normally work on demo versions in my home studio, often experimenting with arrangements, lyrics, song structures, and hooks and riffs. It is from these demos, that I have then used online tools to help create band arrangements that inspire me personally and represent the song well. To clarify further, the corporate worship songs are 100% written by me (chords, lyrics, melody) and then AI tools used to complete arrangements that I am unable to achieve on my own merit.
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I get it. That’s why I’m trying to answer some questions here. Whether we like it or not, AI is changing our world at breakneck speeds and the ethics of its use will continue to be debated. All I can say is that true worship is to do with YOUR heart, not whether a tool or method was used/not used in creating something. If these arrangements provide tension for you, you don’t have to listen, that’s OK. If you can see past the methods used, look into the heart of the songs written by a worshipper and use them in your own worship times and in your own churches, then I hope you can do so without feeling duped or fooled in any way.
Do these songs point to Jesus? Yes. Do these songs glorify God? Yes. Can they serve you and your church in your worship times? Yes.
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I’d love to hear from you. Email me at shepherdworshipmusic@gmail.com
“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.”
