Currently in the US pop album charts is yet another act to have crossed over from the insularity of the US CCM scene, AUDIO ADRENALINE. Jan Willem Vink reports.

The songs on 'Bloom' have been born out of the reality of being on the road for five years, and dealing with all the pressures a Christian band has to face. One of the songs on 'Bloom' is aptly titled "I Am Not The King", dealing with all the pressures the band face being on stage night after night. Will comments: "We can't help but talk about what's going on in our personal lives and since we have been travelling so much, that's what came about. The irony of being up on a stage and having light shine on you and when God says to humble yourself and give him all the glory, stuff like that. Basically, that's just a song to keep us in check that all glory goes to God. We're not the King, we're just trying to be servants and sing for him."

Another song that partly deals with the same subject matter would be "Never Gonna Be As Big As Jesus", that Mark and Will wrote after visiting the Hard Rock Cafe. Barry: "There came a song playing on the stereo there saying, 'We're bigger than Jesus'. Like in the '60s John Lennon said something to that effect about The Beatles. The song is not necessarily about the Beatles, but it is saying, no matter how big we're going to get, even if we're bigger than The Beatles, we're not as big as Jesus. Only Jesus gave his life for the world, to save our souls. To make people be right with God again. It is another way of saying to the crowd, 'Don't look at us, we're not going to be superstars, we're not going to be better than you even, but look at Jesus.'"

I ask Will if their message of being down to earth people comes across to their fans. He responds, "We want to be friends with everyone. We're not on stage to be at a higher level. We just happen to have a gift of music and we're gonna use it for God's glory. We're trying to go out after the shows and do all things like interviews or whatever so people can get to know our hearts that we really want to be good friends with everyone. We really want to share our hearts in that way."

Audio Adrenaline has often times been compared with DC Talk. There is no doubt there are more than a few obvious links between both bands. Like I said before, it was Toby McKeehan who gave their first demo to ForeFront. They share management and record company, Toby partly produced 'Don't Censor Me' with the Gotee Brothers and Toby's sister, Kerri, is married to lead singer Mark Stuart.

Audio Adrenaline are quite positive about their recent 'Freak Tour' with DC Talk. "This tour is probably the best tour that we've been on with DC Talk," says Will. "There is no doubt that this is a great blessing from God, but we definitely want to move on and move out of the ranks of them. We consider doing a headline tour ourselves and for that matter, we definitely want to be a headline band sometime and be taken seriously on that level. I guess that's where to leave it."

Barry agrees DC Talk has been more than an example to Audio Adrenaline. "Mostly they're almost like role models. They're not older than us, but they've been in it three of four more years than us, so they're that much further ahead of us. We see the integrity and we see the way they do their tours and how important the spiritual aspect of things are to them, it really inspires us and makes us think when we go out and do our own tours, we want to be that way, or the way they treat us as an opening band. When we have our own tour and have an opening band, that's the way we want to treat them."

I conclude by asking Will and Barry what they want people to remember about Audio Adrenaline. Barry: "I would say more than anything else I want people to remember that we're Christian. We want people to know that we're Christians and believe in God. That's why we do what we do and that's different about us, a joy and a spirit of celebration and excitement and maybe they wonder why we have that. We have hope and peace and joy in our life through Jesus Christ. And beyond that we're real and normal people, we're not celebrities or superstars, we struggle, we're just like them."