the ride - album

the ride is a ten-song worship album i released in 2021 with tmr – a little trio that was just me and two of my closest friends at the time. we were all full-time worship missionaries, spending most of our days in a tiny prayer room, so the songs grew out of that rhythm: play, pray, sing, repeat.

we tracked a mix of studio and live recordings. songs like psalm 23, heartache, who, and above all else were recorded in the room itself with a live band and a choir full of our people – friends, family, and whoever happened to be caught up in that season with us. the set list was built like the worship nights we used to host: slow build, big crash, quiet resolve, one more lift at the end. it really does feel like a rollercoaster when you listen straight through.

before it was called the ride, the project was almost named in the room, because the whole point was to make it feel like you were standing in the middle of that prayer space with us. we toyed with the artist name “the nest” for a while but eventually landed on tmr – just our three initials stacked together – and the ride felt more honest for what the whole thing actually was.

a bunch of these songs started as tiny choruses i would mumble on a wednesday set, or little fragments friends brought in from other places. over time they turned into full songs we led over and over again. i was still deep in my faith then; i don’t identify as a christian anymore, and i don’t sing these songs the way i did back then. but when i listen now, i can still feel how serious we were about what we believed, and how much we cared about making something beautiful together. it’s complicated and bittersweet, but i don’t regret that this version of us is on record.

if you listen, i hope you can hear both things at once: the sincerity of those years, and the fact that life doesn’t stay pinned to one theology or one room forever.