The guys in Audio Adrenaline have been on numerous missions trips, and now they're encouraging others to go as well—maybe even you!

From the left: Tyler Burkum (guitar), Mark
Stuart (vocals, guitar), Will McGinniss (bass),
and Ben Cissell (drums)

Audio Adrenaline is a band on a mission—literally. Frontman Mark Stuart grew up on the mission field, and the band has been on several missions trips together. With their latest album, Worldwide (ForeFront), and recent concert tours, the band is encouraging fans to consider taking missions trips as well. On a spring tour with Mercy Me called "The Go Show," the band introduced concertgoers to The Go Foundation, which makes it easy to sign up for a short-term missions trip. We talked to Audio A's Tyler Burkum (guitar) and Will McGinniss (bass) about Worldwide and missions.

Worldwide has a theme of missions running throughout. Talk about some of those references.

Burkum: "Dirty" is probably the most blatant reference. It's about getting out of your comfort zone, getting your hands dirty, and putting your money where your mouth is. We as a church aren't here to be a club. The song says to step outside the walls that we built and not be afraid to get some mud on your face. It's a song about action-about actually getting out and doing something.

McGinniss: It's about serving people you normally wouldn't hang out with. These people might seem unlovable—vagabonds, if you will. You might get bruised, and your hands will get scarred and wounded, but that's what we're called to do.

Any stories about when you were on the mission field where your eyes were opened to this kind of serving?

Burkum: We went to Guatemala with Compassion International, and saw lots of orphanages. That was a new experience. We know there's a need out there, but it doesn't become real until you see it with your own eyes. We were walking through streets where we were actually walking through garbage. It blew my mind and it made me ask myself why I wasn't doing missions more. When I have two weeks off, why am I at home? It's obviously important to be home with family, but it all made me think I should be out doing missions with Compassion during those breaks in my schedule. Being with and playing with the kids in such a terrible place really impacted my life in a lot of ways.

McGinniss: I've been to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and it's amazing how so little goes so far when there's nothing else. You have these kids that live in shacks and some of them don't have their parents. They just have the organization feeding them, if that. They're just so thankful for so little.

God has given you an opportunity to see these things and relay them to others in your music. You're not able to go as much as you'd like, but you're still fulfilling a role in missions by encouraging others to go.

Burkum: Yeah, but sometimes when I go and see these missions, it makes me feel bad for doing what I do. Even though I try to encourage people, it makes me feel bad for having a warm shower, for getting on a tour bus, for complaining, or for whatever. But it's also made me think more about why I'm doing what I'm doing and what my role is.

McGinniss: Hopefully, it's made us be more intentional about encouraging people to get out and be more of a humanitarian by serving others.

What are some of the new musical elements you incorporated into Worldwide?

Burkum: Two things. First, on a spiritual level, we tried to go into it with a real purpose and theme. There are songs with the perspective of God speaking to a person who's going out into the world on his behalf, and others encouraging people to go out. Second, Mark [frontman Mark Stuart] and I sang on the record a lot, but this time I ended up singing on about half of the record. There's a different kind of a musical thing happening with the two of us this time around. It stretches us, and especially me, because we hadn't done this before to this extent. So, that adds a new musical element to our sound and to our band.

Learn more about Audio Adrenaline at our artist page for the band, which includes a review of their latest album Worldwide. You can listen to song clips and pick up your own copy of their album at Musicforce.com.

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