BYU-Idaho Radio · The Story behind creating the new release of 'From a Distance'
The Rexburg Children’s Choir recently released a new music video?featuring?David?Archuleta. The collaboration was born from founder and conductor Ben Watson.
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“I had been thinking about the song?‘From?a Distance.’ It’s a song I grew up listening to and I just love it and it happened to be?the 30-year-anniversary of the song,” Watson said.
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After he brought the idea to his associate?conductor,?she said she?had been?thinking about doing the?same song. This selection process took place last year before the idea of social distancing became a widespread practice.
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Watson said he wanted?to make this music video the best possible, so he contacted Masa Fakuda, the conductor in the One Voice Children’s Choir, to help with the arrangement of the song.?
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“I had no idea that David Archuleta was going to be part of the song. I just asked Masa to do an arrangement for some of our choir members to sing as soloists,” he said.
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It wasn’t until January that Watson discussed with David Archuleta’s team about doing the solo part of the project. This was?pre-pandemic?and he knew Archuletta was scheduled to do a concert in Idaho in April.??
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“I reached out to his team and asked since David is already going to be in town would he be interested in being part of the music video,” Watson said, “I still thought it was sort of a long?shot,?but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.”
That simple request turned into a definite yes. He said?Archuletta was more than happy to be part of the music video. Then the pandemic began shutting things down across the country.
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Thankfully, both Archuleta and the choir recorded the audio for the song right before everything shut down. David recorded his part in Nashville and the choir?recorded?in Idaho. ??
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After?the song was?ready, Watson said?they needed some ideas to make the video with all the coronavirus restrictions?in place.
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“The idea we came up with was having David film his part with a videographer there in Nashville, and have our own videographer here in Idaho, and with the magic of editing have a great finished product,” Watson said.
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The video officially came out August 2, and?it’s?already their?most viewed video with more than 85,000 views.?Julie Gould?wrote the song that?won a Grammy award for best song in 1990.
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“She [Julie Gould] was so happy when the video came out. She was praising it up and down, but what she said that this is nothing short of a miracle….and our Heavenly Father really is in the details of our life,” he said.
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To watch the?video,?you can see it on their Youtube channel,?“Rexburg Children’s Choir.”