When I was young and foolishly sure of myself, my song lyrics too often had the tendency to focus on what the listener should do to get his or her life right. I call these kinds of songs “You songs,” because they say things like, “You need to do [...]

Last week I attended my first day of school. Let me clarify. “Professor” Sterling (sounds weird, right?) met with a small group of students on Saturday morning (yikes!) for the first of fourteen weekly 3-hour classes (double yikes) that will [...]

Here’s another behind-the-scenes look at a recent choral anthem… One for traditional choirs: CHRIST THE WORD For those who compose music for the Church, perhaps the most crucial element in our work – even more so than the music – is [...]

“Church” (Words & Music by Robert Sterling) from the CD Sounds Crazy. Some songs burst out in a creative rush. Others leak out over a period of days. If you look only at the time I spent actively writing it, “Church” arrived in a matter of [...]

I recently released a solo project. We used to call them albums. Then we called them CDs. Now I just go with “project” – because CDs have pretty much disappeared, and albums (LPs) are only for vinyl afficianados. But as I was saying, I released [...]

“Perfect Peace” (Words & Music by Robert Sterling) There are lots of ways to write a song. The “right” way is whatever way works for the writer or writers. The words may come first, fully formed and in search of a melody. Or the [...]

I’m a guy who mostly lives in the “right now.” I never thought too much about yesterday, and probably never thought enough about tomorrow.  Composing and producing music (often on a deadline), tends to keep the Present in the forefront of my [...]

It’s always interesting to see a young person discover something old, and think that it’s new. I remember when my younger son, who was about fifteen at the time, came to me and said, “Dad, I just heard this awesome CD by a band called Weather [...]

Most of us have been “pigeonholed,” or creatively typecast at some point in our lives.  For all I know, it’s human nature to reduce another person to a particular thing, so we can better identify them.  Yes, it’s lazy.  But it’s awfully [...]

I love the movie, The Princess Bride.  William Goldman’s brilliant screenplay is one of the most quotable scripts of the last twenty years.  And one such line happened when Miracle Max tells Inigo Montoya that his friend, the man in Black, [...]