“Timeless” - Song Story
Album art by Abby Allen
Songs are strange creatures. They come from someone and go to another person. In one regard they are like a chameleon or a mirror, assuming the shape and color of the listener. In another sense they are like a mold or a tattoo–imprinting something of the original on the hearer, changing them.
We want to give you our story with our first release, “Timeless.” This song has reflected the wonder and wrestling we’ve worked through.
Here you’ll find:
The full song lyrics
Our story for the song origin
Production tidbits and Easter eggs
Our lyric breakdown
Number your days and let's dive in!
“Timeless” Song Lyrics
Number your days and there you will learn
Build sanctuaries in time
Great cathedrals you cannot burn
Oh memories imprinted on your mind
He said
Offer the day and then you will see
There is mystery in everything
In a butterfly wing
And the chickadee sing
In the arc of the sky
You will find
Oh what will you find?
You will find
Every moment is rushing by
An echo telling you to buy
More than you could ever own
As if stretching time would bring the world back home
But I’m believing in the timeless
He said
What if a day wasn’t lost to the sand?
More than an hourglass slipping through your hand?
Every prayer an arch in the sky
Of a country you’re building with your life
Every moment is rushing by
An echo telling you to buy
More than you could ever own
As if stretching time will bring the world back home
I’m believing in the timeless
And the dimeless
And the bent rhythm and divine kiss
Oh the timeless
I’m believing in the timeless
And the dimeless
And the bent rhythm and divine kiss
Oh the timeless
I’m believing in the timeless
I’m believing in the timeless
Origin story for “Timeless”
The background for “Timeless” is admittedly pretty nerdy. We have been on a pretty long Sci-Fi kick. From watching through all of the Star Wars sub-series, to reading the full Dune saga, to diving into classics like Brave New World, our mind has been in the stars.
We love Science Fiction as a literary genre, because it takes society as we know it, turns up a few dials to the max, and asks the question, “how would this play out in the future?” Astro-tech aesthetic aside, it is really about asking amplified questions on human culture and purpose.
Within this context I had been reading Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. While reading one evening, I came across a quote that said the Jewish calendar year was like a sacred structure built in time, rather than space.
Since we began the Wind and Sail project, time has been our most brittle tension point. Time as a resource, as a gift, as a responsibility to be stewarded. But thinking through time as a structure, a chrono-palace that frames reality–walls it in and gives shape and relationship–that was incredibly captivating.
It pulled our mind to God’s gift of the Sabbath. When God rested at the end of calling reality into existence, he set a pattern in time and space for us as his image bearers to also let good work lie.
Instead of time being an intractable alloy we try to bend to our will, what if we could instead learn to live in it, offer it, and see it as a medium in which God meets us, rather than a prison we need to maximize and manipulate? \
I’ll go into this more below, but the words, melody, and central instrumentation came together quite quickly. I had been reading while playing with a new guitar loop pedal my father-in-law had given me. A time-based song felt like it begged for a bunch of overlapping licks.
Here’s a voice memo clip of our first kernel of an idea:
We wanted the song to sound like it was coming from a mysterious sage. So we overlaid lyrics pulled from ancient Psalms and meditations on nature, as if they were imparting a nucleus of wisdom and warning.
The song then builds towards a rather enigmatic anthem during the bridge. This was a very conscious choice, because the hope that we were holding out is one that works differently than our time-starved paradigm.
Production breakdown of “Timeless”
We have not wanted to enter the musical stage lightly. We had been sitting on multiple albums worth of music for a few years, honing them, getting to know them, trying different approaches.
When you are recording a song, it is a process of asking it what clothes it wants to wear. Does it want to be huge and cinematic? Quiet and close?
Our debut single, “Timeless”, ended up walking out of the wardrobe wearing a James Bond tux, with a space-suit slung over its shoulder.
Sonically inspired by X&Y-era Coldplay, Young the Giant, and “iRobot” by Jon Bellion, we wanted to bring the listener on a power-packed exploration of our relationship with the galaxy’s most precious resource: time.
With the song having such themed lyrics, it was key that the production truly built out the world the record was imagined in.
While penning the lyrics, I was messing around with a new loop pedal. Sparking my inner science-fiction nerd, I wondered if the lyrics would be best suited by a looping cascade of ascending and descending guitar parts. The hope was that this would suggest an eerie fabric woven together.
This song was actually the first demo that our producer on the record, Jeremy S.H. Griffith, really connected with. We sent over our loops to Jeremy, and he instantly clicked with the vibe and direction of the song.
The key question mark for the song was when to introduce drums and what character those drums should assume.
We wanted to build a verse that sonically brought the listener to a slightly unsettled space, where they would be open to asking questions. Bring in the drums too early, and you are almost given too much context. Too much framework for the ear, and the ear gets lazy.
It was clear that the evolution of the percussion–from lofi-inspired tech beat to full on rock drums–would be the musical main character of the song. As the drums grew, so did the song. Session drummer Eric Andrew Taylor joined for the track, and really brought some great energy and life to the rock drums in the latter half of the song.
The pre-chorus and chorus surprisingly simplify musically. This leaves space for the thesis of the song to breathe - in a world charged up on speed and progress, what are we left with?
Jeremy layered in an excellent driving, subtle bass synth in this section, giving body and energy.
The little electronic blips and vocal echoes felt like really neat artifacts from the song-world. We wanted to conjure the picture of leaving the atmosphere, Jeremy did that extremely tastefully.
Alongside the drums, the coolest musical moment in the song is when–in the final chorus–an upper guitar line comes ripping in. This was backed by some very subtle but cool choral stacked vocals Jeremy had us record in.
Fun facts:
We sang the vocals into our clothes closest, with our mic resting on a fold-up chess table
If you listen really closely, you can sometimes hear the floor where it squeaked while Graham was getting overly amped up by the singing
Lyrical Breakdown of Timeless
Verse One
Number your days and there you will learn
Build sanctuaries in time
Great cathedrals you cannot burn
Oh memories imprinted on your mind
He said
Offer the day and then you will see
There is mystery in everything
In a butterfly wing
And the chickadee sing
In the arc of the sky
You will find
Oh what will you find?
You will find
The first stanza is heavily rooted in the Psalms and Rabbinic texts. One of my favorite college professors always pointed back to Psalm 90:12 (“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom”) as a compass verse to live by.
The words were meant to conjure up an image of an adventurer journeying through their imagination and coming across a wise guide. You can almost picture the guide touching the main character’s forehead, and having them recall memories of beauty, purpose, love, and wholeness.
“Memories imprinted on your mind” is a nod to the echo of Eden we feel aching in our hearts, the datum for where we hearken back to “how things should be.”
Stanza two is like being led by the hand to a high overlook. The sage sweeps his hand across the horizon, gesturing, and welcoming you to consider a different perspective on life.
Prechorus and Chorus
Every moment is rushing by
An echo telling you to buy
More than you could ever own
As if stretching time would bring the world back home
But I’m believing in the timeless
Now you are sucked back into the tight space of your mind–the room of introspection. The main character is presented with their main hurdle: what is keeping them from embracing wonder and mystery? A fear of time resources.
Each moment comes and goes, and as soon as it goes it can take on the shape of an echo of regret, a vapor of what could have been. You can’t hold on to events and emotions, they pass through you and past you.
There is no bank you can store time in, no wealth you can amass that will fulfill all you pine for.
But, what if there is something–someone–outside of time? Not identified at this point, the character finds a lifeline in One Who is at the root of time.
The sage leads us on . . .
Verse Two
He said
What if a day wasn’t lost to the sand?
More than an hourglass slipping through your hand?
Every prayer an arch in the sky
Of a country you’re building with your life
The sage now gets personal. It is as if he is looking into the fears that entered the character’s mind in the chorus.
What if time didn’t slip away? What if your prayers don’t just drift off into the ether, but every moment is lived into a reality that is brimming with life.
Bridge
I’m believing in the timeless
And the dimeless
And the bent rhythm and divine kiss
Oh the timeless
At this point the song hits hyperdrive.
The sage answers the vague “I’m believing in the timeless” with a hope not bound by resource, that fits outside of our understanding of how things fit together - a divine kiss that meets us in time from outside of time.
Christ is the timeless. He is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), the infinite one who enters our finite constructs. He is the one who operates beyond time, beyond money. His way is the “bent rhythm” – the way that might not make immediate sense to our thought processes, but is a bridge to his goodness.
With this hope, you can be freed to live within the bounds of time and space, anchored in a hope that supersedes both.
“Timeless” lyric video.
As you go
Enjoy the song, share it, sing it at the top of your lungs! Excited to give you many more.
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Until next time – let’s believe in the timeless!