Christian rock band Third Day keeps the faith

By Deborah Evans Price

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - It's a breezy Tennessee afternoon. Third Day's Mac Powell, David Carr, Tai Anderson and Mark Lee are enjoying a tasty Southern lunch at Stoveworks in the Factory, a historic Franklin, Tennessee, complex that was once a thriving industrial workplace and is now a trendy locale housing restaurants, shops and performance venues.

As the sweet tea and conversation flow, the band is confident and relaxed. It's about to share its new project, "Revelation," with Provident Music Group staffers who will promote the July 29 release.

A short while later, seated on the stage of a nearby venue, the foursome introduce tracks from the record and field questions. It's a show-and-tell that can make even the most seasoned artists squirm, as the band members gauge reaction to the new music. For Third Day, there are no nervous jitters.

You could chalk it up to the fact that this is its 10th studio album, and that Third Day has earned three Grammy Awards, 23 Dove Awards, one platinum album, a platinum DVD and six gold albums while populating Christian radio with such hits as "Cry Out to Jesus," "Consuming Fire," "Come Together" and "Tunnel." But in reality, it's a quiet confidence that comes from being happy with the record the group made and the path it took to get there.

It's a little bit of a different path these days, though.

The Georgia-based rockers could easily rest on their laurels, but in the past year, Third Day decided to shake things up.

After a decade with Nashville's Creative Trust Management, it signed with Red Light, whose roster includes Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Good Charlotte, Switchfoot and such country artists as Rodney Atkins and Phil Vassar. Earlier this year, after completing the new album, longtime guitarist Brad Avery exited the group. Third Day has opted not to replace him.

And instead of working with one of the Christian industry's reliable stable of producers on the new project, it teamed with Howard Benson, well known for his work with Hoobastank, Daughtry, P.O.D. and Flyleaf, among others. That choice led to the band recording for the first time in Los Angeles instead of Atlanta.

"Contentment is something for your personal life," drummer David Carr says. "But for our professional life together, I don't know if that's an appropriate feeling, ever."

NEW CHAPTER

"Revelation" is the band's first studio album since 2005's "Wherever You Are." In 2007, it released a two-part career retrospective -- "Chronology, Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2" -- and it views "Revelation" as the beginning of a new chapter.

"It did get us out of our comfort zone," lead vocalist/principal songwriter Mac Powell says of recording in Los Angeles. "We really wanted to shake things up. We chose to work with Howard because of the past music that he had done. We loved those records and the vision he had for those albums. At the time, they weren't easy decisions -- to go somewhere else and to record with somebody different -- but in hindsight, I'm so glad that we did."

Benson says he wanted to work with Third Day because of the quality of Powell's voice. "(The person) who really turned me on to Mac was Chris Daughtry," Benson says. "I think Chris has one of the best voices in rock 'n' roll right now, and he kept telling me how great Mac was. He was right."

Benson, who is Jewish, says he enjoys working with Christian bands. "I personally like Christian artists because they believe in something," he says. "As a producer, a lot of times what you're trying to do is find something that the artists believe in or something to be confident in. With a Christian artist, you know what that thing is. To me, it takes that part of it away and I don't have to worry about that."

He notes that their different religious beliefs made for interesting conversation. "We talked about things that are beyond just making a record," he says. "We discussed a lot of religious things in a creative way, and that comes out in the record because of the way I challenge them and they challenge me."