Matt Wessel Music

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ONE STEP FORWARD
(2001)

The Rising
Father, Please
One Step Forward
Resolution
God's Chosen One
One Day
Everlasting Love
Wedding Day
In This Moment
Thank You
Alive In You

TRACK LIST

CD INFO

recorded at gurnee community church, gurnee, IL
recording engineer: byron miller

released in december, 2001

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“One Step Forward” was released in October of my junior year in college (2001). I had spent the summer before recording all of the songs that would appear on the album, as well as the songs that would appear on “Daily Bread”, another one of my CDs that was released at about the same time.

I found myself on a fast timeline for getting this cover shoot done. I knew that I wanted another cover with my picture on it and I knew that I also wanted the picture to be of me near a piano. I knew there were plenty of places on Marquette’s campus for me to take photos, it was just a matter of my picking the right one.

I asked my friend, Courtney Carlson, to take the pictures for me. She’s big into photography. Whenever us friends would go out on the weekends, she would always bring the fancy camera and take the fancy pictures. So, naturally, I asked her to help. She was happy to oblige.

I decided to do the shoot in Marquette’s Chapel of the Holy Family. This wasn’t the greatest idea. The walls are very plain and the room itself is very dark (even with all of the lights on). We tried to take some different shots from different angles, but nothing was really working out. Finally, Courtney and I decided that we should just take some close-up shots of me playing at the piano (or even of just my hands and fingers) to use throughout the CD insert. We would have to find another place to do the cover shot. So we wasted about a roll of colored film in the Chapel, with Courtney taking a bunch of pictures of me writing music and playing the piano.

An interesting side note… if you have a copy of “One Step Forward” (bless you), look in the insert and look for the shot of me writing music. I simply grabbed an unused score sheet and scribbled “God’s Chosen One” at the top, and then penned in a quick series of notes. If you look close enough, you’ll see that the notes make absolutely no sense. I just wanted it to look as if I was actually composing. Truth is, I rarely write stuff out by hand anymore. I just memorize it until I can get in front of a computer…

Anyways, with the insert photos taken care of, we still needed to take a few shots for the cover. I was a bit concerned about going outside to take the pictures. I mean, the weather was still nice, and there were plenty of places on campus to take nice, scenic pictures. But the problem was that there were too many students walking around. I didn’t want to have a photo shoot going on where people could see and wonder, “What the heck is that guy doing?” In other words, I didn’t want to look like an idiot.

Luckily, I thought of a solution. In between the Chapel and the school’s Jesuit Residence, there’s an enclosed courtyard that is not open to any students. In fact, no one is ever really in this courtyard unless they’re passing from one building to another. And even then, it’s always a faculty member or an administrator. So I figured it would be a safe place to shoot. And, for the most part, it was.

Courtney and I went out there and took a bunch of shots of me at a bench, by a fountain and near some trees and bushes. She used black and white film for these photos, which I thought was a great effect. I think it really makes the cover of the album that much better.

So the shoot was going along fine until some 80-year-old secretary lady spotted us in the courtyard and came out to ask what we were doing. I said that we were taking some photos for a CD I was putting together. She told me that students weren’t allowed back there. I countered by telling here I was employed by University Ministry as a student music director and often times came out to the courtyard. She either didn’t believe me or didn’t care, because she made me come inside and talk to the Rector of the Jesuit Residence. I was kind of annoyed, but I guess she was doing her job.

So I walked in and talked to the Rector, who happened to be an acquaintance of mine, Fr. Tom. I explained what I was using the courtyard for and he just smiled, assuring me that it was okay. He just asked that I do the shoot as quickly as possible.

Well, seeing as how we had already gotten what we needed, we just decided to leave. But upon leaving the courtyard, Courtney snapped one more picture of me from behind. You’ll notice that this picture actually made it onto the CDs back cover. I thought it was funny that the one picture we didn’t really plan or intend on really using ended up on the back of the album.

So that’s how the photos in “One Step Forward” came to be. Oh, and the photo of the sun peeking through a cluster of trees (in the insert) was taken by me at Lake Tahoe that summer. I just thought it was a neat shot and asked Disc Makers to do something with it. As always, they came through.

BEHIND THE COVER