Paul Vieira

I started a new category of podcasts that you may be interested in. Please click the “podcast” tab above to learn how to subscribe. I’m posting teachings that seek to find Jesus in the writings of the Hebrew Bible. So far, I’ve posted a four part series that introduces the Scriptures to those who are interested in studying it more deeply. You can also listen to a 45 minute podcast episode that gives a solid orientation to the first five books of the Bible, also called the Books of Moses.

In other news, I’ve become the new guitarist in a band called WHY. The lead singer (Brian Cook) and I are writing songs together. We have about 11 songs on the go and I’m very excited by what is coming out. We hope to record these new tunes over the next year and get them out to you. In the mean time, please go to www.myspace.com/whyy to check out the music of WHY.

I have to let you know that we’re experiencing some trouble with the comments feature on this website. We’re getting too much spam and until we can fix it, the comments feature will be disengaged. If you want to get in touch with me, please use the contact page.

It’s been hard blogging these days simply because I’m so busy living, I don’t have as much time for a cyber-life. I’ll try to blog in small bits. This would be more manageable. In addition to working and raising my kids (which includes home educating them), I’ve joined a band. This band needed an electric guitar player and the lead singer really felt that I was the guy. I tried to convince him that I would be stronger at rhythm guitar and piano, but he really challenged me to give the electric guitar a shot. So, I rented a guitar and I’ve been making up for lost time all these years that I stuck to acoustic. Surprisingly, I’m loving the electric guitar and it’s coming along well. The lead singer is very happy with my playing and we’ve also been writing songs together. The collaboration has been really inspiring for me. I’ve written songs on my own since I was 15 years old. Collaborating with someone else was never really an interest of mine. However, I must say that the songs that we are writing together seem to be bigger and better than what has been typical as a solo song writer. I’m very curious as to where all this is going.

Sometimes I get discouraged that I’ve gotten into music so late in my life. I put it off to pursue formal church ministry for so many years. The other day I actually broke down and cried about it. I felt heart broken that I hadn’t followed the path of music that I was on when I was a teenager. I guess we’ll see what God has planned for me in this area.

On the last day of 2007, I finally finished a demo recording of one of my songs. You can find it on my myspace page by visiting www.myspace.com/paulvieira

Let me tell you a little about this song.

Recently, I figured out how my wife keeps me so interested in her. I feel like I`m still chasing her even after 14 years of marraige. It`s something that she does instinctively. She doesn`t even try to do it, but it drives me to keep seeking to win her. It seems that many men have a particular weakness that sabotages their romantic relationships. For men, the fun is in the chase. They feel inspired and energized by the potential of winning the heart of a special young lady friend. When that beautiful vision of a woman plays a little “hard-to-get,” she becomes even more desirable. Well, what happens when the “prize” is won? What happens after you and your bride exchange the rings, say the vows and return from the honeymoon? For me, it`s been a whole new adventure on the other side of the alter. The truth is, the journey only really begins on the wedding day. There is an exciting challenge that exists for those who commit themselves to spending the rest of their days seeking to know their wife. I still don`t feel like I have her. My wife keeps me chasing. It is hard for me to explain how she does it. She still plays hard-to-get. She`s slightly aloof with me, but in a totally attractive way. It keeps me captivated by her. I`m constantly dreaming up new ways to win her affection. She provides just enough affection and encouragement to keep me secure in her love for me, and yet maintains this air of mystery and intrigue that forever keeps me in this state of desire. I want to please her. It makes me want to go to extremes to show her my deep love and passion for her. I don’t know how she does it, but I love it. I’m still chasing her. I’m still trying to win her. I wrote this song in an attempt to explain how this dynamic works between my wife and I. Here are the lyrics:

What must I do to really have her, `cause I want her.
When she plays so hard to get.
Let me count the ways I love her.
Ya, I`ll love her for all the years ahead.
(chorus)
She waits for me, waits for me
with her feet here on the ground
until I get my head out of the clouds
she wakes me. I break free. She shows me who I am.
And when I think I have her figured out
I`m back where I began.

I can see she really needs me like I need her.
As she slowly lets me in.
When I put my arms around her, there`s comfort.
Like a prize for me to win.
(chorus)
(bridge)
She still captivates me
She`s got me on a string
She keeps me interested, she`s got everything
But I`ll wrap around her finger, just to reach her.

Well, that`s it for now. Back to the chase.

Please download the song on my Myspace page and listen to it on your mp3 player. It`s totally free.

Tonight is music night. Yes! It`s one of the highlights of my week. This is the night for rock and roll. I`m in the process of forming a band to perform my music. So far it`s just the drummer and me, but we`re looking at adding an electric guitar player and bass player. It`s been a lot of fun so far and we`re taking our time to create our sound and perfect each song. My goal is to be able to play live by next summer. A friend has given us space on the third floor of the building of his business to set up our equipment and practice. The business? A funeral home.

Yes, each week we gather in a funeral home and rock the house. Some of my friends think its a little weird but I think it works very well for several reasons. Playing music to the dead has certain advantages:

1. It gives us an opportunity to test our music out on a captive audience.
2. The audience is not likely to “boo” us or throw tomatoes at the stage if they don`t like the music.
3. I hate it when I`m pouring my heart out in my music on stage and people in the audience are chatting with each other. The annoying chit chat rarely happens at our practice on Wednesday nights.
4. The audience is a little “stiff,” but overall, they are helping me build my confidence at playing in front of other more lively audiences.
5. I like to perform my original music, so I appreciate the fact that the audience at the funeral home doesn`t constantly ask us to do cover songs.
6. It hasn`t taken us long to get fairly popular. People are “dying” to get into that place to hear us play.
7. It`s much easier to focus on the music when your`re audience is peaceful and predictable; no surprises to distract you. (Well, except for that one night that we foolishly decided to play our first cover. Of all songs, we chose Thriller by Michael Jackson. What a mess that was! I try to forget that night.)

It`s close to midnight and something evil`s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You`re paralyzed
cause this is thriller, thriller night

(Note: For those of you who are really freaked out by the fact that we play in a funeral home, maybe it will help you to know that we play up on the third floor that is used for storage and the dead are kept down in the basement. Other than thriller night, we don`t ever see them.)

If you`ve heard me speak, have read my book or have visited this blog recently, you probably know what I mean when I say that I`m a man in exile. If this is new to you, then please read the blog entries in the category “living in Exile.” Well, one of the things that I`m trying to do, as I learn what it means for me to be in exile, is discover what I enjoy doing. My hobby used to be “church planting.” I was a very “one track” kind of guy. Actually, it was kind of nauseating. But now, I`m actually developing a sense of what it means to live in this world. I`m catching up on all the years that I lived in the church sub-culture. It`s feels great to be back. There is so much beauty in this world and I`m truly beginning to love life. Well, I have a new hobby, or rather have rediscovered an old one. I love writing music and performing. Just last week I began to play with my long time friend, who is a drummer, and we are starting a band. It`s pretty cool. We need a bass player and electric guitar player. I hope to be able to play live within several months. I`m writing a lot of songs these days and I`m very excited about what is coming out of me. I never gave music the chance that it deserved, but now I`m ready. I have no illusions about making it big in the music industry. Right now, I`m approaching this as therapy. However, I believe my music has something wonderful to say and I hope I will be able to get it out there to as many fans as I can. In the meantime, I will post my progress along the way and I hope you can walk this journey with me.

Check out my myspace page.

peace.

I`ve already had some good feedback on the decision to read my book over a series of podcasts. That`s exciting to me. I think the audio podcast idea is good for some people who would sooner listen to a book than read one. I will be in Oregon this coming weekend, speaking at a conference, but when I return, I will record the second chapter and get that podcast out to you next week some time. Please, spread the word about the podcasts if you can.

I`m sitting here at work on a break and thought I could take a moment to post a journal entry. I teach English to immigrants here in my home city of Winnipeg, Canada. Last year, our city received 10,000 immigrants from all over the word. Our provincial government has a plan in place to bring in 20,000 people a year for the next several years. This means that there will be a whole lot of people who need language training. So, I think my job will be secure for a little while at least. I really enjoy teaching. I meet people from all over the world and it is giving me a very broad perspective. My life is truly enriched by this experience.

Tonight is the last class for one of the courses I teach. It has now become a tradition to end each course with a potluck diner and a mini-concert. Yes, I get to perform my songs to a very forgiving and eager audience, at least 5 times per year. It`s an international audience, I might add. So, you can say that the fans of my music span the globe. I am an internationally known singer. Okay, the sound of that is way more exciting to me than the reality. Someone important once said, “Do not despise the days of small beginnings.” So I`m going to soak this ‘international singer’ thing for all it`s worth. Well, I better go now. My audience is waiting.

I just wanted to make a post to say ‘sorry’ to everyone that I haven`t been blogging very much lately. I don`t know what has gotten into me. I have a lot to say, just lacking the time. I`m very busy at work. Every ten weeks our teaching session ends and we start a new term. At term-end there is a lot of reporting to do. On top of that, my mind has been conjuring up a new business idea.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had a family from Chicago stay with us for a week. They are very close friends. On the day that they were supposed to leave something happened. There we were saying goodbye; the care was packed. My friend and I started talking about the music industry and began to contemplate where things were going with the independent music scene. Then, all of a sudden, we fell into an inspirational groove. It was like we could see the future. We knew where things were going with the music business. This idea was so big that we just couldn`t part ways that day. Without any warning or time to really think this through, my friend says to his wife, “Okay honey, let`s unpack the van, we`re staying another day!” We spent as much time as possible over the next 24 hours dreaming, predicting and planning our part in the next phase of the evolution of indie music. So, over the past two weeks, I`ve been fixated on this. I feel like I`m trying to crack a code. I spend every available minute researching and scouring through websites trying to find that missing piece. I think I`ve found it. It`s pretty exciting. But I can`t talk about it now.

In a previous post, I explained that I have this great job teaching English to immigrants. For the very first time, there is someone in my class named Jesus. Yes, I`m teaching Jesus English pronunciation. Well, the other day, Jesus heard one of my songs off my website. He said to me, “Why are you an English teacher. You should be a musician!” (This wasn`t a commentary on my teaching ability, but rather a compliment on my singing and song writing.)

So, I can truthfully say that Jesus told me to be a musician! (Okay, it`s not Jesus the Saviour of the world, but it must count for something, right?)

My wife and I have been thinking and talking about little Madeleine all week. We look at our twin toddler girls and can not help but think about how terrible it is that someone would abduct a child. The evil in this world is very discouraging to me. However, I feel hope about Madeleine. The whole world wants to find her. Today, I wrote a song for her. I decided to video record it and post it on youtube.

Click here to watch and listen to this song of hope.

Please pass on the youtube link to everyone you know. We can help by spreading the word. The more people watching for her, the more likely she will be found.

Also, visit www.findmadeleine.com

That’s me up there, singing my heart out. I was only a kid, but I knew what I was meant to do. I started learning guitar at the age of 12. I wrote my first song at 15, at which I also began teaching myself to play the piano. Writing melodies and lyrics was something that came natural for me. By the time I hit high school I was holding concerts at my public school, at parties and formed a band that played to hundreds of teens every month. I sang to anyone who would listen. My songs were always very intense and emotional. Music was my access to the hearts of people and somehow I knew inside that this would be the vehicle through which I would make a difference in the world. I reached 20 years of age and something happened. I gave my heart away. The dream died.

I made a choice to follow a path that led me into religion. I was always weary of religion, but it can be very subtle. In my opinion, religion is our attempt to please God based on our own efforts of self-righteousness, which often leads to a sense of spiritual elitism, judgment and hypocrisy. When religion begins to lay hold of us, we see the world in terms of us and them, and we distance ourselves from people we deem to be sinners. We also judge the world to be a hostile and secular place from which we must escape. I never felt this way about the world; I went into an Evangelical Christian context to see if I could make changes. Instead, I was the one who changed. The life slowly drained from my being, and the music in me was put on the back burner. I gave my heart to the kinds of activities that my church leaders saw as more spiritual and of better service to the church. It took a while to finally come back to my roots. Now, I have left organized religion and it is good to be finally free.

My heart is telling me to return to music. After completing my book, I began to devout myself to song writing once again. I am very pleased by what is coming out of me. I am planning to debut these new songs very soon. So keep coming back.

I started a myspace site, so please feel free to check it out here. I need more friends.