Nov 4, 2008 Making I Am An American
Our most recent project has been the creation / composition of a new American epic song called "I Am An American". The purpose of this music is to provide a key piece to a new documentary being released this winter about Barack Obama. The story behind this piece of music is that the day after we returned from the Democratic National Convention in Denver where we released our new album 'Seven Songs For America & One For The World', we were contacted by a film producer named Maria Arita-Howard from Texas. They had come across our "Fired Up, Ready To Go" and "Making Fired Up, Ready To Go" videos and wanted to use the music and footage in a documentary called "Barack Obama: Who is this guy?". Since then, the film has been released in Blockbuster stores Nationwide. A few weeks after the film released to Blockbuster Maria had an idea of creating a piece of music for the extended version of the film that is being released this winter by Vivendi Entertainment and Universal Music. We thought about the idea and proposed an idea of creating a piece of music that brings together three key themes, while telling the story of how great this country and its people are as told through Baracks own experience. The three themes to be included were "American The Beautiful", "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Let Evry Voice Sing". The writing and arranging took place over a ten day period. Starting with Joe creating the lyrics and chords for the main verse and chorus of the song. Followed by he and I getting together late at night to work on the form and try out some more piano and musical arrangement ideas. Once we had the lyrics the form and structure down, I started grafting the three themes into the piece of music. After creating the final condensed score, I set about creating the instrumental parts. The music called for Brass and Strings. I wanted the music to be as grandios as possible for the recording and picked these instruments to help us create a huge symphonic sound. Also the piece called for a choir, I had hoped for at least 75 voices. By providence, during the writing of the piece, I was asked to perform some of the music from the new album at the 35th anniversary for the Total Experience Gospel Choir, by thier dear leader Pastor Patrinell Wright. At the performance and celebration, I saw another guest choir called "The Choir of Light" lead by Eric O'del. I was taken with thier performance and sound. At the end of the performance I approachced Eric and told him that next week I would be in the Studio recording a new piece of music for an up and coming documentary. I asked if his choir would be interested in performing on the piece. He said "yes" and told me he would get back to me with numbers. Bingo (just like that) I had Pat's choir of 25 and his choir of somewhere between 40 and 75 voices signed up for the recording. For the strings, it had been a long time since I had worked with strings, so I was somewhat nervous. However I drew a name from my past Walter Gray from the Seattle Symphony, whom I'd met at a board meeting for another group called "Quake" a few years before. I called him and asked him if he would be interested in playing. He delighted me by saying yes. I asked if he could help me find some other players and he said he would. At the same time, I called April Cameron (Matt Cameron of SoundGarden/Pearl Jam fame's) wife. She is a viola player who I had worked with a little in college. I asked her if she was interested in playing. She said she had to be out of town but would send out an email to some players she knew. Afger only a few days, I started hearing from some players and within one more day had the string section lined up. I also asked Matt if he could play the drums for the piece, but he said he was too busy with Pearl Jam's new album to help out. (Too bad, I love his playing). Again I went to my past connections and contacted long time friend and also rock star drummer Scott Mercado of "CandleBox" fame. He was totally into playing and said he would be there.
The recording happened over a four day period. By providence we found ourselves in the recording studio on Election Night 2008 (November 4th, 2008) that amazing night that our country elected Barack Obama as president of the United States.
Excerpts of American Classics:
LIFT EV'RY VOICE AND SING (by James Weldon Johnson) - Also known as the Black National Anthem
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER - (by John Stafford Smith & Francis Scott Key) Also known as the National Anthem
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL (lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates; music composed by Samuel A. Ward)
We certainly feel blessed by the greatness of the country and its people and are the benefactors of the key principals that make this land great. The entire piece of music was written, arranged and recorded and filmed in 14 days. We want to thank the entire team of people that helped make this happen including our families and especially our wives for supporting us through this immense amount of work it has taken to arrive at such a beautiful conclusion to the amazing campaign of Senator Barack Obama. Thanks to this amazing crew of people for helping us create this music.
Composition: Bergevin Brothers Music (Lyrics & Music Joe, Music & Arrangement Jon)
Musical Direction/Conducting: Jon Bergevin
Lead Vocals: Holly Phillips
Choir Direction: Pastor Patrinell (Pat) Wright
Choir: The Total Experience Gospel Choir and Friends
Solo Vocals: Pastor Patrinell (Pat) Wright
Piano: Jon Bergevin
Electric and Acoustic Guitars: Frank Seeberger
Electric Bass: Osama Afifi
Drums: Scott Mercado - Candlebox
Percussion: Arturo Rodriguez
Violins:
Ashley Sullivan
Eric Rynes
Rebecca Fischer
Cellos:
Walter Gray - Cellist Seattle Symphony
Emily Peterson
Trumpets: Jake Bergevin, Jimmy Sisco
Trombone: Greg Schroeder
Saxaphone: Jon Goforth
Videography:
Jay Alan - Avenue Films
Joshua Stanton - Avenue Films
Sound Engineering (London Bridge Studios, Seattle):
Jeff Ott
Jonathon Plum
Josh Evens
David Miner - intern
Jake Thompson - intern
Photography, catering and support:
Julie Bergevin
Jonna Bergevin
Joy Bergevin