All Over the Earth

In preparation for the recording we all met up in Nashville. I live there
now, so Leeland, Mike and Shelly flew up. Michael and Debbie Smith were
kind enough to let the band stay in their house. (We've started to call it
"Hotel Smitty")

We relished the opportunity to get together in a room on our instruments,
get creative, and just see what happened. So we crammed into Michael's
basement studio in his house and "All Over the Earth" was one of the songs
that came about.

I remember Leeland had this cool, looping melody line that I loved. I
started playing it on the piano and the whole band joined in. We just
started singing different lines and the lyrics started to form. Pretty
soon, it just turned into a worship time and all four of us were singing,
"OOOOH we give you praises!" really loud, and it was probably pretty
annoying to everyone in the house, but we couldn't help it! haha

When we went in the studio, we had a pretty clear vision for the song. We
wanted it to feel like a live worship moment. So that's basically what we
did. We all set up on our instruments and recorded everyone at once.
Originally that song was supposed to be about 4 minutes, not 9! But when
we hit the last note of the first take, Leeland kept going with this
little guitar line. We got caught up in the moment and kept worshiping. We
finished that first take, and Paul Moak (producer) said, "I don't think we
should try to duplicate that one!". So we just kept it. It's pretty cool
because the last half of that song was completely spontaneous!

The lyrics to the song are pretty straight forward and simple, and that
was on purpose. We wanted it to be a plain declaration of how holy and
awesome God is. As a band, and as a ministry, we are desperate for His
kingdom to come in our lives. We long to see the church live victorious in
this final hour. And we've noticed that praise and victory go hand and
hand.  We are only victorious when He is put in His rightful place in our
hearts and our lives!

-jack

New Video: Jack Vs. Machu Picchu

Jack Mooring Vs. Machu Picchu from mellowtown on Vimeo.

NEW VIDEO: The Live Sessions - "I Wonder"

Check out this great article/interview from our friends at Beliefnet.

Here is a quick blurb from the article:

From practicing in a funeral home in the Houston suburb of Baytown, Texas, to sharing the stage with Michael W. Smith, alt/rock/worship band Leeland continues its unlikely rise to prominence.

Led by band namesake Leeland Mooring and his brother Jack, the band had no aspirations for a record deal or radio airplay when it first started writing music and playing around town. In fact, the band’s original purpose was to lead youth worship for Celebration of Life Church.

But when Leeland Mooring’s writing prowess garnered the attention of EMI Publishing in Nashville at the age of 15, he was able to parlay a solo gig into an opportunity for the band. Now with its fourth album The Great Awakening making waves across the nation, Leeland has been given a larger platform for accomplishing its original mission.

Read more: http://features.beliefnet.com/wholenotes/2011/09/a-conversation-with-leeland.html#ixzz1YoGfrpKS

Welcome to the new site!

Hopefully you've been following our Facebook updates over the past couple months. We've been slowly posting content from the new record there. But we're so excited to launch our new and improved leelandonline.com for a couple of reasons in particular:

1) Band websites are still awesome. And we want to make sure this is a place that is, well, awesome. We'll use this space to go deeper, with everything from devos, acoustic worship times, guitar tutorials from Lee, epic randomness from our bearded drummer, etc.

2) We'll be posting some exclusive things here that won't be on Facebook and Twitter. So, bookmark the page and check in every once in a while! We'll also be giving away special little presents for faithful fans that connect here.

Also, have you guys had a chance to check out the EP on iTunes? It should get you nice and prepped for the full-length release on Sept 20th. Tell us what you think about the new tunes!

Love you guys!

Talk to you soon.

-lee, mike, shelly, & jack