The Long Haul
As Third Day celebrates their tenth anniversary with a pair of best-of albums, drummer David Carr reflects on the band's past, present, and future.
by Jackie A. Chapman | posted 7/16/2007
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In 1996, a relatively unknown Southern rock band from Georgia made their debut on Reunion Records. Ten years later, Third Day remains one of the most enduringly popular acts in all of Christian music. Commemorating the anniversary is a two-part Chronology series—Volume 1 (1996-2000) and Volume 2 (2001-2006)—collecting music, video footage, home movies, bootleg performances and a 60-minute in-depth documentary. In this interview with Christian Music Today, drummer David Carr reflects on how the early years shaped who Third Day is today and where the band is headed tomorrow.
What's your take on Chronology's stroll down memory lane?
David Carr Very eye opening. Until recently, the only way to look through the past was through memories, stories, and interviews. When you're on the inside, you can forget and not fully appreciate everything that's happened. As we look back with family and friends, they're a bit in awe of how big things have progressed for five goofy guys from Atlanta. It's been fun to see how far we've come.
Who collected the old photos and footage?
Carr Several of the guys went digging through boxes and found a bunch of old footage that their dads had recorded. I personally didn't contribute a lot. Really all I had were pictures that I didn't want people to see. [Laughs] [Bassist Tai Anderson] contributed most of it. He's been the driving force behind this band all along.
Interesting since the documentary on Chronology Volume Two mentions that Tai was never officially asked to be in the band.
Carr Yes! That adds to the flavor of the story. We invited him as an afterthought to just come record bass on some songs; fifteen years later and he runs the band.
How much input did you have?
Carr A lot. We sat on a bus for six hours to decide what would go on both volumes. We had a lot of fan favorites [from live shows] as well as radio hits to include, and we wanted to put some of our personal favorites on there too.
Do you hear any significant musical differences between Chronology 1 and 2?
Carr I definitely think (and hope) that Chronology 2 is musically superior to Chronology 1. Maybe not by leaps and bounds, but you would expect things to only get better as we go, though I do think there has been consistency throughout our music tying it all together. Disc 2 is a little more easy for me to listen to personally, but that would just be due to the more recent material. As an artist, you are usually more into your latest material and a little more shy about your beginnings.
Along the way, what have been the high and low points?
Carr One of the high points was when Reunion Records first came out to Murfreesboro, Tennessee [outside Nashville] to see us play a show at a youth camp. It was winter and 20 degrees outside. We played in a small room, right in front of the fireplace. It was not a great show, and we [sarcastically] thought, "Oh boy, we're sure they love this." They came up afterwards and said, "We want to sign you. What do we have to do?"
The other high point would be the Dove Awards in 2001 when we won Artist and Group of the Year, after like five or six years of being nominated. Not because of the awards themselves, but it felt like the industry as a whole was recognizing our work. That was a special time for us.
The low point was when Wire released in 2004. We knew within six months it wasn't going well. The audience didn't understand the direction [aiming toward a broader, mainstream audience] and the response wasn't what we had hoped for, though we had put so much thought and prayer into it and thought it would be something massive, but it didn't happen. We felt a slump, though we've thankfully never hit any rock bottom points.
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