Shadow Weaver is the 16th studio release, and 14th full-length studio album, by alternative rock band the Choir, released in 2014. This was the last album to feature Marc Byrd as a member of the band, and the first time the Choir used crowdfunding to finance a new studio project. In 2019, UTR Media named Shadow Weaver as one of the "30 Best Gourmet Albums of the Decade (2010-2019)."
Background In the two years following the release of The Loudest Sound Ever Heard, the members of the Choir pursued other musical endeavors, sometimes together. Lead singer and guitarist Derri Daugherty and drummer and lyricist Steve Hindalong contributed audio engineering and percussion, respectively, to a number of projects during this time. The most notable was Dig Here Said the Angel by veteran Christian alternative rock band Daniel Amos, which was the band's first studio release in twelve years. For Daugherty, this was a reunion of sorts, as he was a former roadie and studio hand for Daniel Amos back in the 1980s, and engineered Daniel Amos' 1983 release Doppelgänger prior to forming Youth Choir with Hindalong. Choir bassist Tim Chandler was the long-time bassist for Daniel Amos as well, and also played on this record.
Daugherty, Hindalong and Chandler also contributed similar efforts to the 2013 album Job by singer/songwriter Rick Elias, which proved to be his final release before his death in 2019. Daugherty then co-produced the self-titled debut album from Vekora in 2013, featuring Jesse Sprinkle from Poor Old Lu. Choir guitarist Marc Byrd continued to be heavily involved with his critically-acclaimed post-rock band Hammock, first with the band's double album Departure Songs in 2012, followed by Oblivion Hymns in 2013.
Since saxophone and Lyricon player Dan Michaels had become a successful A&R man in the Christian music industry, particularly with the band MercyMe while a senior vice president at Fair Trade Services, he had financed the Choir's past three studio albums—Burning Like the Midnight Sun, de-plumed, The Loudest Sound Ever Heard—and also served as the band's manager. However, the Choir opted to use Kickstarter to crowdfund this release, as both Dig Here Said the Angel and Job were funded and released this way. The Choir would then rely on crowdfunding for all future studio releases.
Recording and production The Choir's successful 2013 Kickstarter campaign for Shadow Weaver proved to be instrumental in giving the band more time to record and mix the album, creating "a more complete sonic palette," according to Byrd. "The thing about this band is that none of us are session guys," Daugherty added. "We're not the guys that can go in and nail something in one take and be out of there in a half an hour. We struggle with it all the time." This was of particular help to Michaels, who would receive rough mixes and some of the demos weeks before he had to record his parts.
The additional funding allowed the band to bring back mixer Julian Kindred, who mixed the Choir's Grammy-nominated 2000 album Flap Your Wings. "We really wanted him to mix this record," Daugherty said. "He's really creative, but it's hard to pin him down; he's real busy." In addition, Kindred had relocated to London, England, which was an additional production challenge. "Steve's on the phone with him, Skype-ing with him in the middle of the night," Daugherty continued. "It was down to the wire. We're going into mastering, and we're waiting for songs to be uploaded on his Dropbox over in England so we can download them to mastering, and make any changes we need to make. It was pretty funny, but we got it done."
The "thick" sound of the guitars on Shadow Weaver that both Daugherty and Byrd were determined to achieve was in large part due to Kindred's work. "We kind of give him free rein with our mixes: 'Do what you think you need to do.' And so, he takes a lot of liberties as far as effects," Daugherty said. "It's not easy to mix stuff like that, because there's so much of that mid-range energy going on that it's hard to get any kind of clarity out of it at all. But Julian, he did a great job."
As part of the Kickstarter effort, backers were able to pay for an opportunity to play on the album, and the band was initially uncertain about the quality of what would be recorded. Five backers contributed vocally or instrumentally to Shadow Weaver, including Thom Granger, former editor of CCM Magazine. The band was pleasantly surprised by the contributions, and were happy with the final results. Michaels said that because of the "community of involvement," the album "sounds more expensive." Hindalong agreed, emphasizing that "we didn't cut any corners; we’re very proud of the record."
Composition Music
For this release, Daugherty wanted an album that people would listen to from start to finish. "We wanted to start with a really cool mood, and end with a really cool mood," he said, "starting a little darker, and ending a little darker, going through the whole process of dark to light and back to dark." Daugherty also wanted to have musical segues, since the Choir hadn't used those on an album since 1990's Circle Slide. This was inspired by guitarist Byrd's significant participation in the recording sessions for Shadow Weaver. "One of the things that meant the most to me on this record is having Marc Byrd back," Daugherty explained. "He and I are very like-minded when it comes to guitar and musical tastes. We hear things on the same level, and we love the same kinds of music. I come up with melody lines for guitar, and then Marc fills it out with his beautiful, ambient noise. And it's just gorgeous stuff. It really meant a lot that we were doing that again. This was from the very beginning, both of us playing, like a real band would. [Previously,] Marc would come in and do his parts on the last two albums and then be done. This album wasn’t like that."
To that end, one of the first songs written for the album was the opener, "Good Morning, Shadow Weaver." Originally, this was intended as a single track, but the Choir decided to split it in half, with the second half serving as a reprise to bookend the record. This song, like several others on the album, was originally generated out of a jam session between Daugherty and Byrd at the latter's studio. Daugherty would play a guitar riff into a loop, then Byrd would play over it and build the track from there. In the case of "Two Clouds Are One," Daugherty and Byrd’s composition was essentially the final version, so Hindalong had to write lyrics to match, syllable by syllable.
The driving rock track "What You Think I Am," which Byrd claimed was many listeners' "favorite song on the album," represented to him what the Choir was as a band. The song is unique in that it features a horn section, something the Choir had never utilized up to that point. After hearing the "very metal" chord progression and the beat, Michaels was determined to create one, and worked on this contribution for hours at a time over several weeks in advance of recording. "I have this app that can put eight bars on a loop, and I would just sit there in my chair, and try all kinds of different parts. So, I came up with those parts during those turnarounds. It's my tenor sax, and it's doubled, and then through my Lyricon […] I've got these custom sounds that I got from this guy in Dayton, Ohio [who] programs, and one of them is this beautiful-sounding trombone. It sounds like a trombone, but it's me on the Lyricon doing little support lines underneath the sax. So, it's a recurring thing in there, and a great opportunity to bring out my old horn arrangement capabilities."
Another early track was "White Knuckles," which was written the first day that Daugherty, Hindalong and Byrd got together in the studio. Hindalong implemented a custom-made drum kit with maple shells that Hammock used in their studio for years, and modified it to include two hi-hats. "If you do a little thing like that to yourself, sometimes it makes you think of a different kind of beat," Hindalong explained. According to Daugherty, this is due to Hindalong's role in the band as lyricist. "His drumming is very much pattern-based. It's really thought out. A lot of it revolves around the lyric." Hindalong agreed. "I like very structured beats. I like the band the National, I like Larry Mullen from U2. I don't like crazy, reckless drumming. I get a lot of peace when things are brought into order. I want to play drums that way. Drums are the vehicle the song rides in. Since I wrote the lyrics, I care way more about the song than I do the drums. I don’t need to impress anybody."
According to Hindalong, his songwriting style tends to echo that of Neil Young, so two of his songs had to be musically reinvented to fit with the overall sonics of Shadow Weaver. The first was "It Hurts to Say Goodbye." At the time, Daugherty was listening to To the Happy Few by Medicine "non-stop," and that album featured a track with "acoustic guitars that were all distorted with these really pretty harmony vocals," so he took the song in that direction. Byrd then added a slide guitar at the end. "That’s my inner David Gilmour," he said. "It was one of those spontaneous moments where I'm going to go up the neck as high as I can. I just love the intensity of that." The other song was "The Soul of Every Creature Cries Out," which felt out of place on the album even after the acoustic guitars, drums and bass were all recorded. Daugherty then "deconstructed" the instrumentation and came up with a different guitar intro. "It was a trick to make that one fit," Daugherty said, "but it’s such a great lyric and such a great song and melody that we had to have it on there."
Lyrics As is typical for a Choir record, the lyrics for several songs on the album were inspired by the relationships in Hindalong's life, including his daughters ("It Hurts to Say Goodbye") his then-wife Nancy ("The Antithesis of Blue") and even the Choir band members themselves ("Rhythm of the Road"). However, the remaining songs addressed more universal themes, including the complexity of individuals ("What You Think I Am"), the search for truth ("Everybody's Got a Guru," "The Soul of Every Creature Cries Out"), the reality of human suffering ("We All Know"), and post-coital euphoria ("Two Clouds Are One").
"Everybody's Got a Guru" was considered by Hindalong to be the lyrical centerpiece of the album, and Byrd agreed: "The lyric is kind of where everybody is within the band. What's worse: to live with a closed mind, or to have an open mind? To have a defensive posture or an open posture? To be more compassionate or more judgmental?" While the first verse of the song referenced Hindalong's yoga instructor, the larger sentiment was that "we all have people we worship and idolize. I was really influenced by Bruce Cockburn. [But] it's dangerous to put people on a pedestal. We're just people."