"Here, take these."We're standing inside the Frog house, a green-hued surf shop on Newport Beach's PCH (that's surf talk for California's Pacific Coast Highway), and Christian pro surfer Bryan Jennings is handing out wetsuits to members of Audio Adrenaline."Got one my size?" asks Bob Herdman, the band's lanky 6-foot-5-inch rhythm guitarist and keyboardist."Don't worry. It'll stretch out,"Bryan promises.Bass player Will McGinniss emerges from the drssing room looking like Gumby in black neoprene. Everyone laughs. "What do you do when you put a 13-pound weakling in a wetsuit?" he grins.Will is joking, of course, because he really weighs 150 pounds. He and the other Audio Adrenaline band members, who hail from the Midwest, know they are fish out of water when it comes ot surfing, but they're willing to give it a shot.We're here in Newport Beach on this September afternoon to surf a few waves during on of Audio Adrenaline's quick Southern California swings. I thought it would be a great idea to ask Bryan Jennings, director of the Walking on Water Surf Camps (featured in the June 1999 issue of Breakaway) to teach the Audio Adrenaline boys how to stand up and ride a curl or two.Four members of the band--Mark Stuart, Will McGinniss, Tyler Burkum, and Bob Herdman--have slipped into borrowed wetsits. Drummer Ben Cissell stayed home to attend his grandfather's funeral."How's the swell?" Bryan inquires of the kid behind the counter."Two-to-3-foot mush, but I hear it's picking up this afternoon," the surf shop employee replies.They grab their boards and walk across PCH to Newport Beach, a wide expanse of sand just north of the Newport Wedge, on of the gnarliest breaks around. Today, the surf is relatively gentle. The vacant lifeguart towers and empty beach remind everyone that school's back in session.Before they dip their toes into the water, Bryan leads the band in prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for this day and for this divine appointment. I thank You for the talent that you've given these guys to play music; and Lord, we just ask You to use those talents to florify You. We also ask that You keep us safe today. Amen."Time for a quick lesson."Surfing is about three basic things," Bryan explains as he draws an outline of a board in the sand. He kneels down on his "sandboard" and pretends to paddle."All we want to know is how to survive," Tyler says."Don't worry; you will," Bryan says. "You want to put your hand on the rails like this, and once you're in the wave, push up to your feet. Most people try to get on their knees first before standing up. That's a no-no. You want to push up and get on your feet right away. Then stand up like you would with a snowboard or skateboard."The guys are nodding. They're all big into snowboarding.Everyone paddles out into the smallish waves. Mark, who's surfed the most--three times--is hot. He stands up on his first wave like he's been surfing all his life and rides the soup into shore. Will tries to catch every wave in sight. He stands up a few times and gets slammed on other occasions, but he quickly bounces up for more. Meanwhile a strong current is pulling Tyler farther north. Bryan is yelling energetically for him to come back.Bob, who has his hands full trying to paddle out to the breakers, is getting thrashed. This is the second time he's ever surfed; the first time was when the Supertones took the band out surfing at Old Man's, a San Diego surf spot. "I'm from Ohio," he says. "There's not much surfing in Ohio." Wave after wave pummel him, but her gamely paddles on. Ninety minutes later, the band has had enough. As we walk back to the Frog House to return the surfboard rentals, Mark the band's lead singer, says, "You know, 'Underdog' would be a great surf song for us."Mark is right. "Underdog" is the title cut of Audio Adrenaline's newest album its fifth, and the underdog theme fits this band like Will's tight wetsuit. Since the group formed 10 years ago, Audio Adrenaline has been the underdog in the Christian music world. They were never singled out as the next hot band or anointed for surefire success by industry types. Their straight-ahead, take-no-prisioners brand of Christian rock was never labeled trendy or avant-garde by reviewers.In fact, Audio Adrenaline has never been featured in Breakaway magazine until now. None of this ever mattered to them because tehy are working-class, lunch-pail types who like to jump around the stage and encourage people to have a good time--while pointing fans to Christ.For years Audio Adrenaline opened for some of the biggest names in Christian music. But Underdog could be their breakout album. "Get Down," the first single soared to No. 1 on the Christian Hit Radio list upon its release last fall. The album has won favorable notices from critics for its accessibility. Translation: This is not a bunch of head-banging, melody-free music. "Underdog may be the best Audio Adrenaline album to date," wrote Plugged In reviewer Steve Isaac. "Fiery guitar riffs. Solid melodies. Clingy hooks. The first single 'Get Down,' issure to replace 'Big House" as the band's concert love."Bob Herdman agrees. "If you listen to 'Get Down,' thatdefines Audio Adrenaline to the core," he says. "We like to sing songs like that and let people have a good time."A good time with a good message. Check outthese lyrics from "Get Down":How Audio Adrenaline was formed has to be a "God thing." In the mid- 1980s, Will McGinniss was a skinny, nervous freshman who had just arrived on the Kentucky Christian College campus in Grayson, KY. Before his mother left, she decided to take a walk around campus. That's when she overheard a couple of students talking about forming a band.Mrs. McGinniss interrupted the conversation. "Excuse me," she said, "but my son plays bass. You should invite him into your band."Mark Stuart and Barry Blair looked at each other, and then at Mrs. McGinniss. She smiled like any proud mom. After all, her 18-year-old son had been playing a bass guitar for a whole month (it was his high school graduation present), and she was sure any band would want him."What's his name, Ma'am?" Mark asked. "Will McGinniss. You can find him over at Waters Hall."Mark and Barry looked Will up and asked him if he wanted to play bass guitar in a band they were putting together."Actually, I'm just learning," Will admitted."That's ok," Barry said. "I'll teach you how to play."For the next four years, Mark, Barry and Will, along with another KCC student named Bob Herdman, became fast friends and hung out with each other. Mark, whose father sang in a gospel quartet, began singing in church when he was 3 years old and had been in bands all through junior high and high school. At Kentucky Christian, he and his musical buddies formed and reformed new bands and messed around writting songs. Just as they were about to graduate, Bob talked about forming a group called Audio Adrenaline, and they wrote and recorded a demo song called "My God," which became a regional hit. Someone from ForeFront Records heard their song, and before you could say "We're going to Nashville," Audio Adrenaline was signed to a recording contract."A lot of strange things like that have happened to us over the years," Will says, "strange thing that let us know that God has His hand over this band. The way we met each other and met some key people has shown us that God is working in our lives. We started the band 10 years ago, thinking it would be a cool ministry for one summer, but we've been amazed at how things have fallen into place since then. Before we knew what was happening, we found ourselves touring with dc Talk and Steven Curtis Chapman. We feel like we've been playing catch-up as we go," Will says.Mark says he knows a lot of people won't understand what he means when he tells people that Audio Adrenaline feels like an underdog band. "We really struggle with our own perceived weaknesses and inabilities," Mark says. "We're still scared to death sometimes to play a big festival or to go onstage after a band that we really admire. But God has chosen to shine through the very things we see as our weaknesses. Now we're in a position to encourage other people who feel weak or broken. That's where the whole underdog theme for this record comes from, and I think that's a big part of the connection that kids feel with Audio Adrenaline."
