The title of NEWS AT ELEVEN'S first album is a line from the song 'I Will Never Forget You,' which is drawn from various places in chapters 40-50 of Isaiah. The song reminds us that God is always with us, even during the darkest times in our lives. HAVE YOU NOT HEARD? began as the brainchild of NAE producer Matt MacPhail in January, 1999. Bored while sitting at work one afternoon, Matt came up with the idea of doing a recording. He thought it would be exciting to record songs that the group did particularly well, or more importantly, ones the group did with an unusual flair or flavor. Matt made a phone call to Executive Producer (and then-girlfriend, now wife) Ann Lyles MacPhail to pitch the idea. 'At the time, I don't think either one of us had any idea what we were getting into,' Ann says. 'Matt and I had previously worked on an album together as members of The SoCal VoCals, an a cappella group at USC, but that album was frustrating because the group felt rushed to finish the project before school let out for the summer. We wanted to do another album where we had the leisure of taking our time.' Little did anyone know how much time would be involved! Having come up with preliminary plans for the project and some idea how to fund it, the two pitched the idea to the rest of the group over dinner at Jerry's Famous Deli in late January. The other members liked the idea, and the group compiled a list of their favorite songs on a napkin. A few days later, pre-production began. Matt, Ann, and guitarist/vocalist Zach Laney met for a series of production meetings to sketch out musical ideas, arrangements, and the general direction of the project. 'From the very beginning,' Matt says, 'the focus of the project was, 'How can we do this material differently?' We tried to take songs you probably already know just from going to church on Sunday, and put an unusual spin on them.' The spirit of this approach can be seen most clearly in Rich Fineza's soaring improvisations in 'Peace Is Flowing Like A River' and the group's all-a cappella take on the universally-known 'I Am The Bread Of Life.' Production began in earnest on March 14, 1999, when drummer Mark Patti laid down his drum tracks at Crossroads Studios in Santa Ana, CA, just south of Los Angeles. From there, the marathon began. Ann discovered that with a few modifications, the vanity area of her apartment's bathroom could be used as a great recording studio, and the group could save a lot of money on studio time. The room came to be known as the 'little padded room' for the ubiquitous green carpet padding (purchased at Home Depot for $40) used as sound insulation on the walls. The mixer, recording decks and speaker monitors, meanwhile, were kept in Ann's bedroom. The combination of bathroom as 'live room' and bedroom as 'control room' gave the studio its name: Bed & Bath Studios. Over the course of the next eight months, the group recorded vocals, guitars, flute, cello, conga drums and auxiliary percussion in Ann's bathroom. Production continued throughout the summer and into early fall, with members of the group returning from as far away as San Francisco to spend a weekend recording their parts in the studio. By mid-July, recording was completed on several songs, and it was time to get underway on the next step of the process: mixing. Completed session tracks were transferred from digital audio tape to CD-ROM format and taken to Asylum Studios in Los Angeles. Over the course of several weeks of all-day sessions spread out over three months, each song went from a rough collection of individual vocal and instrumental tracks to the finished songs on the album. Finally, on November 4, mixing was completed, and the audio portion of the album was finished. The finished product arrived in late January, 2000--marking the end of a full year of pre-production, recording, and mixing. While there had been many times during that year when the completion of this album seemed like an impossible task, the musicians somehow found the drive to overcome every obstacle. In the end, the group had a project they were proud to share with their families, friends, and the community. They are excited to share this joy with everyone who hears the 'news.'