DisGuyz hopes THE TUESDAY NIGHT recording session was supposed to be just another night of working on their next album, but the five members of DisGuyz soon found they simply couldn't concentrate on love songs. Ian Ayson knew people who were anxiously waiting for word from loved ones who worked at the World Trade Center, which had collapsed due to a terrorist attack earlier in the day. Kimo Montgomery had been confronted with so many repeat showings of an airliner hitting the building that he felt the image "banging into his head." K.J. Ulep was still stunned that it had happened in America.
song aids healing
John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comThe quintet put aside the song they'd planned to record and started talking out their feelings about the attacks, the victims and their families, the sudden sense of helplessness and the desire to do something to help.
The group's leader, Jason Lent, and his writing partner, Élan, the other half of Afterthought Entertainment's in-house songwriting team, began phrasing the guys' feelings into verses. When Élan and the group returned to work, it was with a new sense of purpose and a newly written song to record, "Our Nation in Song.""We started working on it as spiritual release for ourselves and a healing for what we were feeling, and then we thought it might help others, too," Lent said.
The song was finished around 3 a.m. Wednesday. The group and Élan "burned" some demo CD copies, made calls to radio and television stations, then started making the rounds.
"We didn't know what they might say (about the song), but we got a lot of support from everybody," Calsen Aiwohi said. The song, smooth and soulful, with Lent singing lead, is a career-best performance for the group, and for Lent and Élan as writers. The recording was soon getting play on several radio stations -- KQMQ, Da Bomb, KCCN-FM100, I-94 and 98.5 Island Rhythms among them.
KCCN-FM100's Billy V, Charly and Pipi scheduled the song for hourly play on their morning show. Eddie L, afternoon-drive DJ on 98.5 Island Rhythms, added comments from President Bush to create "Our Nation in Song (98.5 Remix)" for high-rotation play by Lanai and Augie T.
DisGuyz were out delivering promo copies and doing on-air interviews through Wednesday afternoon. After a short night's sleep, they hit the streets well before dawn for another 18 hours of getting the word out and visiting radio and television stations on Thursday.
KHON produced a video version combining clips of the 'Guyz' morning show performance with network footage of the cleanup and rescue operations. KHON aired the video several times during the day; a second version with fresh national footage was being shown by Thursday evening.
"We want to let people know that we can all do something. We can't all go to New York and help there. Some of us many not be able to give blood. But we can all do something," Lent said.
The group and Olinda Road Distribution will be releasing the song as a CD-single and hope to have it in local record stores by Friday. All proceeds will be donated to an existing charity that is assisting the victims and their families.
Montgomery echoes Lent's thoughts in saying that he wants the song to inspire others to look inward and find their own best way of responding to the tragedy and contributing to the healing.
"Our feeling of helplessness is what fueled us to make the song, because not everyone can go over there and pick up the rubble or go to find who did this, but everyone can do something. We figure the best we can do is sing a song at least to share our feelings and help other people, too."
Sometimes it feels like a dream Our Nation in Song
Written by Jason Lent and Élan
But in the darkest night we must still believe
When you feel you've lost it all
We must all stand tall
And reach deep inside
They will never take our pride.Chorus:
We must stand strong
We can go on
Our nation in song
Hold our heads up high
Reach for the sky
Let's join as one
And overcome
Keep holding on
Stand proud on this day
God bless the USA (my country tis of thee)When all we fought for is taken from us
And all that's left doesn't feel like enough
Our flag will still be standing
With the grace of God providing
Let's reach deep inside
They will never take our pride.Chorus:
We must stand strong
We can go on
Our nation in song
Hold our heads up high
Reach for the sky
Let's join as one
And overcome
Keep holding on
Stand proud on this day
God bless the USA (my country tis of thee)
Sweet land of liberty.
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