Like the frost on a rose Winter comes for us all Oh how nature acquaints us With nature of Patience like seed it'll snow I've been buried to grow For Your promise is loyal From seed to sequoia I know Though the winter is long even richer The harvest it brings though my waiting prolongs even greater Your promise for me like a seed I believe that my season will come Lord I Think of your Love Like the low winter sun And as I gaze I am blinded In the light of Your brightness Like a fire to the snow I’m renewed in Your warmth Melt the ice of this wild soul Till the barren is beautiful and i know Though the winter is long even richer The harvest it brings Though my waiting prolongs even greater Your promise for me like a seed I Believe my season will come I can see the promise I can see the future You’re the God of seasons I’m just in the winter If all I know of harvest
Is that it’s worth my patience Then if You’re not done working
God I’m not done waiting You can see my promise
Even in the winter Cause You’re the God of greatness
Even in a manger For all I know of seasons
Is that You take Your time You could have saved us in a second
Instead You sent a child Though the winter is long even richer The harvest it brings Though my waiting prolongs even greater Your promise for me like a seed I believe that my season will come And when I finally see my tree
Still I believe there’s a season to come Like a seed You were sown For the sake of us all From Bethlehem’s soil Grew Calvary’s sequoia Hello there I'm Gabriel Kelly one of the team here at Hillsong Church and thank you for joining us for new song cafe on worship together comm we're really excited today to be talking to Ben Hastings one of the writers in the song seasons from the new Hillsong Christmas album the Peace Project, it's great to also have Nigel and autumn here with us today guys nice to see and YouTube Thank you for coming along you all look fantastic Benny I love this song that you and the guys have written I feel like even the arrangement that you've kind of brought for us today is really lovely and I think it's a really special song He tell us a little bit about how it came about yeah absolutely Um this song kind of came together really organically actually and I think it's because a lot of the concepts I've just sort of been bubbling around in my mind for a long time And they were coming out in conversations with Chris and one of the other writers in the song unban as well So we sat down to write it and it all just started falling together Um kind of really organically even that chorus lyric kind of all came. I just as we were playing it I think him you think about God the God is God right so he can do whatever he wants at any moment in any time He could fulfill all his promises just like that but so often here. He takes his time There's a lyric in the bridge of the song It says you could have saved this in a second instead you sent a child. I think um I think Jesus is the perfect example of that how God is so okay with playing the long game like sending a baby in order to fulfill a plan that would Initiate 30 something years later, and then rely even to today, and I'm and yeah, there's so much in that I think so as well you're already highlighted I'm lyrically I feel like it's really really well thought out really well developed themes Which I think you guys have done a great job on one of my favorite lines is the one that mentions? I'm from seed to Sequoia. He tell us a little bit about that quickly. Yeah um Yeah, that that's actually so crazy how that came about sister koi is I don't even know where I learnt the word I think it was we did a family trip to Yosemite a few years back And they have these beautiful big giant sequoias like the biggest trees I think the biggest trees in the world and they live up to 3,000 years old 3,000 years old which is crazy like seven those trees were kicking about when Jesus was here and But anyway we were writing at the back of conference in this writing room and this line cannot landed And we were so pumped at the time I was the best thing that's ever happened And I'm one of our creative directors Josh Binet walked in just walked in the room is like oh, I'm sorry guys We were like no come in dude you ought to hear this and so I'm we threw this line at him And we kind of told him the song that we were writing and he was like Oh, let me show you something so he pulled out this big manuscript And he'd been working on him on a TV episode for the channel for him for Robert Roberts our teaching pastor I was here at church and And his whole the whole episode was on this idea of winter and process and God in the wedding we were like oh It's so cool, and so to kind of add to that and Chris was talking to Robert later on that day And he said and you know we have this song. It's really cool we're kind of on the same spiritual page like I never thought that would ever happen with Robert and and he said And he starts telling him about this Sequoia line and Roberts like oh That's amazing because my whole my whole episode is actually about sequoia trees And how the seed I'd like apparently with sequoia trees the EM the seed needs the harshness of winter to flourish into Everything it becomes and so in that moment I was like okay this like this has to stick and this really feels like something God wants to him God wants to share with people Yeah, yeah, it's really really cool. That's actually a really cool story I think a lot of times with with Christmas albums and projects They can kind of feel like their performances or whatever else But it feels that this song would really fit naturally and like in a worship service Yeah, what kind of role? Do you see it fulfilling like on a Sunday in a church for example? Yeah
That's a really good thing to think about because I think it's not Necessarily your conventional song that the chord structure moves a little differently normal. It's quiet like lyrically. It's got concepts like sequoia trees things You're not necessarily used to hearing, but I think if you utilized it well as like a song 3 I think a few and like a Good song at the top and to kind of get everyone engaged so they're pretty song or something like this Amazing Grace Something like up that'll get you in and then again like a strong song, too and and then I would place it as a song 3 almost like a bit of a Bit of a moment and let it let it be a moment for a little bit And then hopefully the bridge kind of picks it back up grabs everyone's attention, and then I think finishing with a strong song Benny It's really interesting to me you mentioned the chord structure that song It's like there's a lot of material to kind of cover their knowledge I'm interested to hear from you about your approach as a guitarist and a music director About how you would kind of take this song which on the album is this huge orchestral arrangement? And then as we've heard here today like bring it right back down so just a few instruments Do you have any thoughts on how we could approach that? Yeah, cool. Well in the setting as you see there's there's about six instruments or so and On the album, it's fully produced with many different layers, and here's quite stripped back, so I guess it's about building dynamics and Journeying the song well so with the acoustic guitar well firstly the songs originally in the key of C and today we do it in in a With the guitars both Benny, and I are playing with the capo on the 2nd fret With the G shape and it starts off really chilled with Benny Just picking it and he actually carries that picking idea throughout the whole song And then we add the layers with with Ott's and the chorus and bringing some glocken Percussion in various other layers and I'll come in later on just with some strumming and Yeah Yeah, yeah sure so we am so as I've said we're in this G. Ship on the cap of 2. Nm. Goes Forum's the C to the G 6 e minor to the 5 We pass on the three this time it's three, she's the to the four she see Six-five and then going into the chorus on that three Though the miners even one to the T E minor to the D That's kind of the chorus progression and then in that bridge we hammer on the one hey at the start Yeah, it's on that G. And then when it goes to the progression it walks down on the D to the D minor the C Back up on the D that time and when you're coming back to it It works dime from the one cool, so he's playing that picking style throughout the song I only come in on the turnaround after the first chorus, and I'm actually strumming just with thumb Just using all my hands just strum with that And I only pick up the the pick on the bridge yeah, yeah, and then Just that idea cords very simple to shape a minor See old-school see with the fifth down the bottom, buddy And that's Pretty much that idea throughout awesome. Oh, would you mind talking to us quickly about how? The chords and the movement and the musicality can support the song as a whole yeah One of the beautiful things about this song that Benny, you've done such a great job is lyrically it's a bit of a masterpiece, and so I think our approach today at least was to just let the chords and the voicings support The lyrics this beautiful melody happening in amazing lyrics, so we didn't overplay because I think it doesn't need it so I think in your own churches sometimes there can be this temptation to To just overplay because we want the Spirit of Jesus to come But I think if if we understand that sometimes being more mental minimalist in our approach actually Lets you hear the beautiful melody and lyrics that the guys have done so that that's what we did today. Hopefully It's I hope it's awesome. It's very cool, and you're right oh
it's the whole point is that people will take these songs and kind of play them in their churches and really believing that this song that you guys have written becomes a Declaration for a lot of people over this Christmas period and you know God would use it in a powerful way which is cool Thank you guys for coming in today. It's been great having you. Thank you You
