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The Stories Behind the Songs on Our 16th Single
Sat., Oct. 2. 2021 5:35pm EDT
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Here are the stories behind the songs on our 16th single of 2021:
LIKE PIRANHA FISH
The Apostle Paul warned the churches in Galatia, "If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other" (Galatians 5:15). He wasn't talking about cannibalism, but backbiting (and frontbiting and sidebiting). So don't be cruel.
Years ago, I got the silly spoof idea "My Piranha Fish," but I didn't think it had a good biblical application until one day when I remembered that Bible verse. Growing up, I thought piranhas were fascinating, so it was great to get them into a song, just like we put a Portuguese man-of-war into "Let's Show All the Way" a couple months before that. And think of all the air time we've already given whales with those four Jonah songs!
The last secular band I was in before coming to Christ was called Nice Piranha, and I'm the one who suggested that name. It was an in-joke my old college roommate and I had that's too long to explain here. I read the entire Hardy Boys series as a kid, and my favorite moment involved a swimming pool filled with piranha in book #51, The Masked Monkey.
Speaking of books, the day Wayne sent us the mixes for "Like Piranha Fish," I was finishing a book by ApX fan Bob Jones, and he wrote, ""I want to end our time together with a passage from Galatians 5" and then quoted Galatians 5:13-26." I thought the timing was amazing, as I don't see that Bible passage quoted often, and he started with the three verses I'd read aloud (using the same translation) in the middle of the song.
TO WAIT FOR THE BRIDE
Skeptics say you're wrong to believe that Jesus will return someday as He promised, since it's been such a long time since He left, but stick around. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
We previously discussed the Bride of Christ in "Christ's Wedding" (2015) and made a passing reference in "Sermon in a Love Song" (2020). Revelation gives more info: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7).
I'm pretty sure I got the hook line "He wants to wait for the Bride" on July 30. It came rather effortlessly, but I didn't know if I'd keep working on the song or not. But the line stuck with me, so I started working on it on September 6, 2021, and asked Rich Mannion to do the same with the keyboards and drum-programming. Jimmy added some percussion parts, too.
The bass and guitars were more complicated than I initially thought, but George Elliott and Wayne Bartley made them sound easy. As George told me, "Marcus Miller is the bassist on this, and he alternates finger-style and slap playing in the song." I wasn't familiar with Marcus Miller when he told me that, but just a little over an hour later, a book I was reading mentioned him. The next day, the same book mentioned him again.
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