The moments, and the momentum, have built slowly but steadily for Third Day since the group’s evolution began a decade ago. Powell and Lee first started working together in 1991, after meeting in high school. By the beginning of 1993, Carr and Anderson came on board, and in 1995, Brad Avery joined Lee as the band’s guitarists.
Instead of aggressively chasing the big time, Third Day atypically—and unwittingly—let the music industry reach out to them. The group pitched itself for bookings only three times during its developmental years, and each occasion led to a series of regular appearances. When the band first headed into a recording studio, it had no intention of making a demo tape for a record company; the guys merely wanted cassettes to sell at their concerts.
In short order, their efforts netted a record deal, and they set about making albums that established a unique core sound, built around Powell’s earthy vocal texture, though they doggedly avoided repetition in their albums. Following their self-titled debut in 1996, Conspiracy No. 5 experimented with hard modern rock textures in 1997, while 1999’s Time rediscovered the band’s inherent Southern roots.
Along the way, they garnered a substantial amount of attention, with 15 #1 singles, eight Dove awards, and three Grammy nominations. In addition, they scored major press from CNN, NBC’s “Today” show, Billboard, US magazine, CCM magazine, The Dallas Morning News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Minneapolis Star and The Cleveland Plain Dealer, among others. They even wrote and performed a song for Coca-Cola.
They also formed a coalition of sorts with many of their fellow performers, joining such acts as Jars of Clay, Caedmon’s Call, Sixpence None The Richer and The Newsboys, among others, with the 2000 album City on a Hill, a music community project in which numerous acts came together in worship.
The praise songs of Third Day’s Offerings, intended as a side project for the group’s most ardent fans, solidified the group’s presence. That album preceded their momentous night at the Doves, a victory accompanied by a heightened profile, which the band is only beginning to feel.
“I always thought there’s the mainstream Christian music scene, and here we are off over to the side doing our own thing,” Lee explains. “As soon as you win Artist of the Year, it means you’re right at the forefront of what’s going on in Christian music, so I think we realized then that it’s a cool thing. But it’s also this responsibility, because people are looking at us to see what we do next, and it can really shape where Christian music goes, as far as reaching more toward people that didn’t grow up in the church. So I think we have a responsibility to do some things that maybe aren’t the popular thing. Because we’ve been put in this position, we should do some things to try to influence Christian music.”
Third Day’s approach to its music is a model in communication and teamwork. Many bands, if not most, start out as a democracy, only to implode when one or two members commandeer the group’s direction. Third Day started with a democratic mindset that has only increased over time. The songwriting credits have become more evenly distributed as the group has developed, and the individual players consistently set aside personal aspirations for the betterment of the larger unit. That ideal is exemplified by its two primary guitarists, Lee and Avery, who blend so naturally that months after the completion of Come Together, they weren’t able to determine who played which guitar parts.
“You pick your spots to make a little noise, put a little signature thing here or there, but the idea is the collective whole,” Avery insists. “That’s the idea of music, in a band: You have to listen to everybody else.”
“We’re in a totally exciting place for a band. This is what we do, but it’s exciting. We’re excited about going forward, we’re excited about the future,” Anderson adds.
Find out more about Third Day’s 2001 release Come Together here.
