2 of 4

After Wherever You Are, how did releasing two volumes of Chronology help give you a fresh start?

Anderson We felt like ChronologyOne and Two bookended the first ten years, so now we wanted to make a new statement. Everything about Wherever You Are was presented as more of an AC album, and we sang it from the second person point-of-view, as if we were having a conversation with someone going through a hard time. Revelation is more of a first-person project, right from the first track, "This Is Who I Am." So now the conversation is between us and God, and a new statement of who we are.

Is there an overarching theme or message to Revelation?

Carr Well, it's often hard to sum up an entire record into one congruent statement, though Revelation is definitely more cohesive than some of our past records. It's more of a conversation between man and Maker.

Anderson Mac really laid it out there as a songwriter with words that are a little bit edgier. Like in "Revelation," the revelation doesn't come from a perspective of us telling God what to do, but rather asking God to tell us what to do. So we're bearing it all out with more openness and transparency to make it relatable to more people, rather than just a normal testimony of someone who used to have problems and now has everything figured out.

But then it must have been tough to combine such relatable lyrics with a more aggressive rock sound, right?

Carr That's the beauty of Howard Benson as a producer. His greatest strength seems to be taking a song to a new level lyrically—one that's believable, yet all the while making it sound huge. Our hope is that as people who are familiar with Third Day hear this new record, they will be pleasantly surprised at how big the sound is—that it's been elevated to a new level of sonic quality—and most of all, that the music and lyrics are even more believable and compelling.

Did going from a five-piece band to a four-piece affect the sound of the CD?

Carr Actually, the record was recorded with Brad, so you'll still hear the five of us there. But Howard was not so much into having fifteen different guitar parts anyway. Instead we'd take one part and then double it, or maybe even triple or quadruple it, which makes it stand out without having a jumbled mess of parts trying to figure out how to play them live. I was initially a challenge for us to figure out how to perform as a four-piece, but so far it's translating really well and still pretty true to the record.

Why did Brad leave the band?

Anderson It's not a big drama or [anything gossipy] like TMZ. Brad gave us our signature sound, like the second electric guitar on "Consuming Fire." He also brought professionalism to the band that we really needed. But the only thing constant in life is change and change is hard. It was really hard to a lot of our fans and even our kids—when I told my kids that Brad was leaving the band, we sat on the floor and cried.

Did he tell you he was leaving, did you ask him to go, or was it more of a mutual decision?

Anderson It's a simple question, but kind of hard to answer. We all came together and it wasn't a fighting thing. We were talking and praying through this together and the result was it was just time to part ways. I know that sounds vague, but there have been different feelings by all of us before and after [Avery left]. It wasn't that Brad quit or that we kicked him out—it was a collective decision.

next page... |  2 of 4