The new track “Waiting On Your Love” by Justin McRoberts was released today with none other than Mr. Reese Roper singing on it. It actually has the bridge of Every New Day in it. Find out more from Justin talking about it and listen via the player next to the song’s lyrics below:

I originally wrote the song “Waiting On Your Love” as an indictment of the system that destroyed my father; a system of greed and power, whose utilitarian values had been gestating in the bloodstream of America since Manifest Destiny was accepted as justification for annihilating Native American culture; that is, from the beginning.

As my career as a songwriter has progressed, the story that “man is not defined by his success” has moved to center stage. Most recently the story has found a redemptive strain in my role as an advocate with Compassion International.

Though the song was started and mostly completed in the summer of 1998, it took me quite a while to finish, partially because of it’s emotional content. Therefore, along with several other songs about the loss of my father to suicide, “Waiting On Your Love” did not appear until my 2nd release, quite un-creatively entitled “Father,” in 2000.

In the meantime, Frank Tate at Five Minute Walk sent me out on my first national tour; FIF’s “Holy Roller” tour. We played 48 shows in about 55 days, most of which were in roller skating rinks. Now, there is quite a bit memorable about those 2 months. And much about them set the tone for the rest of my experience as a professional musician. But here is the key: Up to that point and even since, I had not and have not seen a band have the kind of relationship with their fan-base, their colleagues or the promoters who booked them as FIF.

I needed to see that.

I needed to know that there was a way to enter into a career fraught with (and quite often driven by) the same utilitarian values I was learning to despise and war against but not allow them to define my path. I needed know that I could serve people, support people… be first and foremost about people… to work towards making friends instead of fans and partners instead of contacts… and trust that, in doing so, my needs would be met. To put first things first. In Five Iron Frenzy and the Five Minute Walk family, I saw that at work.

And so, as I revisit my role and career in light of becoming a father later this month, it is only appropriate that I revisit the songs I was moved by and those I was moved to write; hence the collision of Waiting and Every New Day.

Thanks once again to the FIF crew for being a part of my story. In particular, thanks to Reese for his appearance on the track. I hope y’all dig it.

Justin
@justinmcroberts