Flying House of Loreto

"The Flying House of Loreto" is now available as part of the latest Catholic Cast.

Like the house on which it's based, this song has quite a history -- and I wouldn't even say it's finished yet. I started doing the music back in January, 2004, (near as I can remember) and, along with recording most of the music, wrote the first two verses and the first chorus then.

I've always been encouraged by all the things about Catholic tradition that would seem wacky to outsiders like the Santa Casa di Loreto. It was Dr. David Whalen at Hillsdale College who first told us about the flying house of Loreto, during one of the many apologetics sessions he'd have at his house (there is no better setting for instruction in Catholic apologetics than an old Victorian house filled with seven or eight children and lots of love). Anyway, as to the lyric: I also like using seemingly wacky things (such as supermarket cashier robots) as metaphors for human dignity, so that's the theme of this song, too.

This song is also a bit of a rarity these days as I programmed all the drums and percussion myself and didn't use any precanned drum loops (except for a percussion loop on the bridge section).

I made all the music in FruityLoops Studio at the time and finally, this past week, when it came time to finish the song I wrote the last chorus and recorded the vocals in SONAR 3.1. I'll go more into the technical/gear aspects of my studio in a later post.

As for those vocals, I was coming down with a cold, though (which I now have... ker-choo!), so if they sound bad to you, I'm guessing that's why. If I ever publish these in a more permanent format, I'll probably re-record at least some of the vocals or get someone else to. The mix could probably stand some more tweaking, too.

So what is the next Catechism Rock! going to be about? Well, it depends on how quickly I can get my voice back, but I do have some music I wrote last summer without a lyric. If I can get that done this week, there may be something for the next show. Until then, though, it's a mystery.