Shine and Rise

Shine and Rise

Sometimes the best way to learn something… is just to start something.

This track began as a sandbox — a way to break in the recording and engineering software we’ve been using for this project. Big shout-out to PreSonus Studio One — amazing tool, but no amount of tutorials or manuals could match the real thing. We needed something alive, something ours, to really see what the software could do.

One afternoon, guitar in hand, I drifted into a little country mood and stumbled on a riff. Nothing fancy, just something that made me go, “Huh… that’s pretty cool.” And like any good lion sniffing the air, I thought: Let’s see what can grow from this.

(PS — in a future version of this website, you’ll be able to see all the behind-the-scenes layers of how songs like this were made, mistakes and all. It’s going to be a sweet peek into TED’s creative jungle.)

So I laid down that riff… and then, as it often happens, God stepped in.
The “country thing” vanished, and the song turned into a call — a pulse — to get up, get out, get busy, get learning, get living, get loving.
Shine, shine, shine.
Not rise and shine. No — shine first, and see what rises from there.

The words just flowed: “It’s time to shine and rise.”
I loved flipping the familiar phrase, because shining and rising are different beasts. When you shine with the touch of the Great Spirit moving through you, it lifts everything and everyone around you. The rising is a side effect of the shine.

Of course, we were learning as we went — making the tracks clip, slamming the drums way up front, crafting a mix that’s almost in-your-face. But that raw energy? That’s exactly what we wanted.

This song let us shine and rise into the process — learning the tools, making the mistakes, and getting better with every step.
And if you want proof we’re still learning… read the Here and Now liner notes.

For now, we’re ready for love, ready for life, and damn glad to be alive.

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Shine and Rise (a TED poem)

I lit a match,
thinking it would burn a small fire in my hands—
but the wind of the Great Divine
blew it sideways,
up into the night,
into someplace I didn’t plan to go.

A riff in my head,
too big for my fingers,
became a bridge between my wanting
and someone else’s mastery.
I let go—
and the music came back carrying more light than I gave it.

Shine first,
and see what rises.
That’s the lesson this song hums to me,
over clipped drums and an almost too-loud mix,
the kind of raw honesty
you don’t fix in post.

Shine first,
and watch the room rise with you—
one heart,
one note,
one wild,
holy roar.

-- Scaffy