On the brink of their eagerly anticipated London concert, Mike Rimmer caught up with Atlanta rockers THIRD DAY in Nashville.

Mike Rimmer spoke to Dave Carr and Mac Powell from best selling American rock band Third Day.

Mike: Wire is very much a return to your Southern rock roots, isn't it?

Dave: I think on this album we wanted to put more of an emphasis on the rock roots of where Third Day has come from. I think we've done that pretty well because there's still enough of the intimate element of Third Day on this album. There is the worship moment, or there are several of them; but we're not going to paste the words "A Worship Album" on the bottom! It's a rock album and we feel it's exactly what we needed to make.

Mike: Won't Wire surprise people who have discovered Third Day as a worship band?

Dave: That's definitely something we've had to consider. Anytime you stir it up a little bit you have to sit there and go, 'Okay, what is this going to mean for the people who have come to know as being X or Y?' or whatever it is. But you kind of have to follow your heart and follow your intentions and kind of what your "calling" has been from the beginning. It's always been to be a rock band and even the worship albums were rock albums. I believe at the Dove Awards this year we got two categories that we're up for; one of them I believe is "Rock Song Of The Year" and then another one is "Worship Album Of The Year". But we couldn't be up for "Rock Album Of The Year"! So if there's a "rock" song on the "worship" album, then why is it not a "rock" album? I know that's confusing but the terminology gets so vague. I think all our albums have been rock albums.

Mike: What about the album title? I mean, obviously it's from the song Wire but why call it that?

Dave: It's kind of talking about taking risks and taking chances. One of those risks that we're taking is by saying, "We're not doing a worship album here guys!" This is a rock album and these songs are not all very blatant "Christian" songs. But they're all about life, they're all about the things that we experience as Christians and the struggles we go through and the struggles we observe other people going through. It's very much a personal record. I just feel that Wire sums that up so well for us. You'll get more of the meaning as you listen to the album.

Mike: Your worship albums way outsell your rock albums. Isn't that a bit disappointing?

Dave: Well, it's never disappointing when you sell a lot of albums! But I'll tell you, in all honesty, our intention was not to jump on some bandwagon of worship music and say, "Oh, this is really huge and we could make a lot of money and sell a lot of albums!" That's never been our intention with anything, really! I mean, we are a "business" and we are a ministry at the same time so yes, sometimes those can butt heads but I think people realise that when we did Offerings, it was a response to fans saying, "Man, we would love to see you guys do a worship album. That would be so cool! Because when you guys play Consuming Fire and you play Love Song and Thief.all these songs, those are the best moments of the show! If you did a whole album with all that on it, that would be just awesome!"

So we were like, "Well let's do it then! Let's do half live and half studio." That did so well and we felt like we had more to offer.no pun intended! So we said, "Let's do a Part 2" which again was taking a risk because people are prone to trying to capitalise on what happened the first time around. It's like no, the fans respond and you give them what they want, you know? They pay good, hard-earned money to come see your shows and support you.

Mike: You've covered some unusual songs on the Offerings albums.

Dave: Yeah, we did Rich Mullins and a Waterdeep/100 Portraits song on the second one, which is called You Are So Good To Me. Most people don't know that that's not really our song. We were like, "If we're going to do it, let's not do the ones that have been done a hundred times on other worship albums, because that's kind of getting old. We've heard them all plenty of times." So we said, "Let's do our own stuff and if we're going to throw in a cover, let's make it one that people don't even know about." So we threw in Bob Dylan's Saved! And it turned out to be an awesome song!

Mike: Tell me about the song Come On Back To Me.

Mac: Well it's basically a "prodigal son" story.or daughter. A message that is not new for us, we've written several songs that have that message of someone leaving their faith and yet coming back, realising that without God, our life is kind of in shambles. It's broken. So it comes of the standpoint of, it could be God speaking or it could be a parent speaking and saying, "Even though you've done all these things, even though you've kind of turned a way and denounced your name, you're forgiven of that. I still love you and I have patience for you and I want you to come back and I want to hold you." David should talk about that song because it's his son's favourite song!