David Carr (left), Mark Lee, Mac Powell, Brad Avery, and Tai Anderson want everyone to know that Christ will meet each of us wherever we are.

"I wanna be a rock star, but I ain't got what it takes." So sang Third Day's Mac Powell on last year's Wire, an album they thought would hit it big in the mainstream, making them rock stars in the world's eyes. Though the album didn't yield those results, it still went Gold and won a Grammy, and the quintet remained as successful as ever in the realm of Christian music. But all wasn't well. A number of trials—including death, loss, and divorce among friends and family—shook the group's foundation. In an effort to reach out to their loved ones—and anyone going through similar situations—they recorded Wherever You Are (Essential), their most hopeful album to date. In this interview with Christian Music Today, frontman Powell and lead guitarist Brad Avery talk about the Wire dilemma, the season of trial, and how they hope to bring hope to listeners.

Your album Wire was supposed to be your big crossover album. What happened?

Mac Powell: Well, not a lot happened (laughs). We had the perspective that we were going to make the record that God was placing in our hearts. We felt the need to make a record that was a little more accessible outside of Christian music and outside of the church. Even from the very beginning, it probably didn't have a very big chance. That's not our forté; it's not an industry we know very well. The odds of it doing something were not very high, but we still felt like we had that calling anyway. Whether it sells ten million records or ten, this is what we were supposed to be doing, and we did it.

Brad Avery: We were successful in some ways, perhaps not as much as we would've wanted, or what we dreamed would happen. You never know when that kind of stuff tends to work out or not. As far as the music, it was time for us to communicate in a different way, in a way that everybody could understand and not just Christians. We've always had a desire for everyone to hear our music. We don't want to limit our art and the message we have. We feel it's a message for everyone, but not everyone is ready to hear it.

In that effort to reach a wider audience, Wire was very ambiguous as to your intentions and convictions. But Wherever You Are is very outspoken about your beliefs. Why the reversal?

Powell: With Wire, we wanted to reach people's heads and thoughts. We want people to think about their faith and where they stand in their relationship with God. [With this album], we wanted to make a record that was more for your heart, a record that would touch people in the circumstances they are in their lives. That's the major difference between the two albums.

Avery: I don't know that Wire was ambiguous as much as it was us being careful in the words that we selected. Listening to that record, I don't think anyone is going to be fooled what we're about and figure out we're not Christians. We've always been fairly obvious about what we do. But instead of using Christian jargon, we made sure we picked words and visual pictures that everyone would gravitate toward. That was the difference.

Wherever You Are is also a record for everyone. It's based around the premise that God is going to meet you wherever you are. That doesn't mean he'll meet you only if you're faithful, read your Bible, and go to church when you're supposed to. Wherever You Are is about people going through life, and everyone deals with life. Whether you have God to turn to for strength or you don't have God at all, people endure pain, struggles, and even joy. God blesses everyone with sunshine, rain and beauty. Not just believers.

So the change in approach is not you saying, "Since Wire didn't cross over as expected, let us go back to what we used to do before."

Avery: The crossover thing was something God told us we needed to do. At what level it happened, who knows. As far as the process is concerned, it's not something that we came together and said, "Hey, this is where we're going and this is the story we're going to tell." These are the songs that came out because of what God was doing in us. We don't do anything unless we hear a clear calling from God. We all needed to broaden our scope and communicate in a different way. But as far as this record, the songs that came out are the songs that came out. We found out after the fact why the songs came out, and this is where we are in our walks and emotionally.

You co-produced Wherever You Are with Brown Bannister, who is a pop producer at heart. Coming from a more Southern rock background, what was it like working with him?

Avery: It was interesting. It was very cool. Brown is a tremendous person, a tremendous artist. He has an incredible ear; it's very perfecting and defining. He comes from a non-instrumental Christian church background. He used to sing a cappella, so he hears notes and harmonies and layers that most of us only dream of hearing. What's so excellent about Brown is his sensitiveness, his ability to capture what you know and what you do, but also expand upon it and make it your best.

Powell: A lot of people know about the pop stuff he does, but he's done a lot of rock stuff as well. That gave us confidence that he was going to do a great job. For years we had been talking to management and the record company about working with him. He's an amazing guy. Wonderful musician with such a great ear. But above that, he's just such a strong believer and a wise man.

Brad, you went through some difficult times recently. Tell me about that.

Avery: I lost three family members in the past year—an aunt and two grandparents. I also had some friends who lost loved ones and who endured divorce. There's been a lot of loss; everything was coming at once. When life happens, it happens. There's no rhyme or reason sometimes.

For me, it was numbing and surreal at first. I didn't know how to deal with it. I guess I dealt with it the way that I've dealt with most things in my life. When I was growing up—as a teenager and an adolescent—the way I dealt with things was by playing the guitar. It was therapeutic. It was God's way of meeting with me. And that's how I dealt with this, just spending time with my guitar. And that's really where the songs that I wrote came from.

Were you alone in this process, or did your Third Day brothers reach out to you as you grieved?

Avery: That's the great thing about being in a band. We're friends. We're family. We're a church. We're five personalities, five denominations, five different belief systems coming together trying to advance the gospel and loving each other. We've been together 13 years now. We've been there for each other, seen each other at our worst, and also at our best.

Powell: We're not just a band on stage. We're a band of brothers. It's five guys who share each other's burdens and share what our families and friends are going through. A lot of this comes from hearing those stories from each other. Hearing about friends that Tai [Anderson] has, or friends that Brad has, and praying about these things. It's more of us coming together and carrying each other's burdens.

Avery: We were all going through different things. We all had friends going through difficult times and situations. We wanted to write songs, be there for them, and encourage them with truth, because we know truth is powerful and the Word of God is strong and brings healing. It brings hope, and we wanted to give people hope. And we ourselves were going through them. This is where this record is really fueled from.

Most everyone in Christian music is singing about hope. What makes your stance any different?

Powell: I don't know that's any different. It's not a different message that hasn't been talked about before. But what I hope is that it's real, and that it can meet people in those different circumstances. When we first started making the record, I was meeting with my mentor, and he asked me, "What this album about? What message do you guys want to convey?" And I kinda shrugged my shoulders and said, "I don't know. We just kinda have a bunch of songs."

So once we started making the record and listening to all these songs, there's definitely a thread of hope through the times of adversity in almost every song throughout the record. We felt like that was a message that God was clearly pressing on our hearts because we didn't even realize what these songs were about. We were just writing some songs, but we weren't sharing these ideas with each other and saying, "Hey, we should make a record about hope through adversity!" The record comes from a real place.

For more about Third Day, visit our site's artist page for the band. Click here to read our review of their latest, Wherever You Are. To listen to sound clips and buy the music, be sure to visit Christianbook.com.

© Andree Farias, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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