Meaning of Capital Diffraction

So, you want to know what in the world Capital Diffraction means, do you? Well, let us explain. “Capital” is a word that denotes superiority and completeness towards the word being modified – “Diffraction.” “Diffraction” is a scientific term describing the behavior of waves as they pass through a narrow opening. Diffraction is where waves are dispersed from the opening to cover a larger area. As Christians, God is the opening, and as He narrows – transforms our lives to more fully reflect Him – His love is more fully (where the capital part comes into play) dispersed throughout the world, through us, His workers, who are only made holy through His blood (Philippians 2:13).

About the Band

Capital Diffraction is a Christian band from the mid-north-eastern area of the United States. The band was formed by Josh, who is also the band’s songwriter. Of course, if we just stop there, a great deal of humility will have gone untapped (that was sarcasm, it was funny, go ahead and give us a chuckle). The reason for this is that Josh is currently the sole member of the music group.

What is to follow is an in depth, non-comprehensive look into Josh’s history with music. If this is not what you came for, better bug out now! (Quick, if you need an escape from the bio, you can change the page to view our recent release – Save yourself while you still can!)

(Note to self: don’t add a link that needs to be updated, we’ll never remember to update it)

Josh’s Music Biography – *Cue the person change*

So I have been teaching myself music theory since January of 2014. Before that I had taken group lessons, but I was less motivated to learn back then. The second half of 2013, I had started teaching myself how to play several different songs on the piano.

I was doing dishes one Sunday night, sometime before mid-January (2014) and I began thinking about songwriting. I was thinking about what lyrics I might write if I were to try and write a song. Then, all of a sudden, I began to experience a rush of lyrics coming to me while I was still standing there at the sink.

Later, I wrote down the verses and chorus*es* that I had in my head. Yeah, that’s right, my first (serious) song I really wrote had two unique choruses. At that point, I decided to teach myself a couple of chords on my mom’s guitar, so that I could write out this song I had.

Well, around the same time, our youth group had been planning youth retreats, and I was part of that planning team. None of the usual people who led worship were able to make it to the retreats – one for the middle schoolers, and a second a month later for the high schoolers. They were mentioning that we would probably just use prerecorded music videos as worship. I wasn’t impressed with the thought of that, and I quickly volunteered myself (okay, I debated and prayed for a week) to lead worship for both retreats, less than four months away. It turned out that another guy was also available to lead worship (I didn’t know he played) and so we split up worship into two different sessions for each retreat – he led some, I led some. This was probably the best setup, as it took some of the pressure off of myself because I only had to learn and practice half the songs.

I continued to teach myself more and more music theory, and continued writing songs that were better structured – as I didn’t have a firm grasp of the concept of beats when I wrote my first couple songs. I wrote a song at our church’s mission trip that same summer (2014) and with the help of our church’s worship leader’s son (and guitar, as I hadn’t brought my own [I wasn’t planning on writing a song in the first 36 hours of the mission trip]) I was able to perform it in front of the group towards the end of the week. This started to help me get comfortable singing in front of people, which was an important challenge to face.

January of 2015, I bought and assembled a bass guitar kit. I used it with our youth’s worship band the Sunday after finishing it. I had no idea how to play a bass, besides the videos I watched online, and the knowledge I had previously learned for acoustic guitar. A few months after I started playing bass guitar for our youth worship team, I was recruited to fill in on bass for our church’s main worship team when the main bass guitar player was out. This has given me a ton of experience playing with other musicians, as well as learning how a band works together. Playing bass guitar on Sunday mornings has also helped me to further face the challenge of playing instruments in front of people.

Mid-2015, I wrote another song the first night of a mission trip I went on – that time writing the song in less than 12 hours. Monday morning, the morning after we started the mission trip, I was eating breakfast next to my sister, and I showed her the lyrics I had written. She liked them, and it just so happened that I also sat next to, on my other side, a nice guy who brought his guitar. Since I had not brought my own guitar (I still wasn’t planning to write a song for the mission trip), he let me both write the chords to my song, and then perform the song Thursday evening during my group’s devotional. I was not very comfortable even telling my group I had a song we could use, but I mentioned it to someone randomly, then they mentioned it to the whole group next time we met.

From there, another nice guy was able to practice singing my song with me in preparation for Thursday. I showed him the lyrics to the song, and I think that he found that the song was true and meaningful (you can listen to that song here). Thursday night went off without a hitch, and it was a great experience. From there, I continued to write songs, and thought that I ought to think about recording them. I purchased some recording equipment and began recording the last quarter of 2016. It took from that time until September 2017 before I was able to release my first album (at the age of 18).

So that was some of the history behind how the band was formed. Feel free to stay up to date with what we’re doing by visiting our Facebook page, or by checking out our website again later.

Benediction? (These aren’t usually found on “About” pages.)

I have told you a little bit about the journey I have been on thus far, but where will it lead me from here? I am constantly praying that God will lead me to where He wants me to take the songs. I ask He will be able to use me for what He has for me (Ephesians 2:10).

I have told my story. What about you? Testimonies are one of the most powerful tools that God uses to reach people, are you prepared to tell your story?