If you’ve been to the Music area of this blog, you’ve probably seen the music video for the song “No Me”. The video was a project Jenny (who sang the lead vocals for the song) and I did with a co-worker of mine, with the premise of a woman feeling “off” and lacking in life/purpose as she goes about some fairly normal activities. When she remembers that Jesus is the center of it all, she is able to fully engage with those other areas again. I think Jeremy (who plays the “boyfriend” in the video) did a really great job of pulling this off and telling the story.

The song itself is one I wrote in the latter days of the San Antonio version of Steady On. I actually intended it to be for another band; a female duo who sang at our church and was trying to go for a more rock sound (think Evanescence) than what we were doing with Steady On. When the duo I wrote it for didn’t take to it, Steady On started performing an acoustic version of it, which was very different (but cool sounding). It’s been through a lot of iterations stylistically, and ultimately the arrangement I created for the “Through The Darkness” album (the one used in the music video) is my favorite. I played the guitars, Hammond organ, and background vocals, while studio musicians performed the bass and drums, and my friend Jenny Kelly provided the amazing lead vocals.

The core idea of the song is that I have found my faith in Jesus to be critical for finding meaning in my life. The lyrics spend time contemplating a variety of concepts and aspects of life, only to assess them as lacking in providing purpose and meaning. I do NOT intend for this to say that such things are invalid or unhelpful. In fact, the ideas I discuss in the song are all meaningful to me, and of course I would never dispute the importance of love in the human experience. It’s just that, as Ecclesiastes says, everything under the sun is meaningless without something more. I believe this, and I believe it is Jesus who has given my life purpose.

However, I did not want to write a song that was just an apologetic argument for why Jesus is real and God exists; that for us to have purpose and meaning there must be a God. That’s a very academic outlook (the kind of thing I’d argue sitting around with friends or on an internet forum), and while interesting to think about, isn’t really the point. The point is that I RESPOND to that truth by praising God for what the purpose and meaning He gave me. I styled the chorus to be more of a worship song than an argument, and likewise I wanted this reflected in the music video as well, showing the main character in a worshipful response to the meaning and purpose God gives her.

It’s one of my favorite songs, and I really love the arrangement and how this recording came out. Making the music video was a lot of fun too, and it reflects the song well. You can watch it on YouTube, linked below, or download it for free from the music page.