Audio Adrenaline in Full Bloom

When our editor called and asked if I'd be willing to do an interview with Audio Adrenaline for hm, I was surprised, to say the least. Before I could voice any objections, I was quickly assured that they had a new sound that belonged in our magazine. Sure enough, their new release, Bloom, with raw 70's rock & roll deserves a place in hm. And we took the time to talk with Audio Adrenaline guitarist Barry Blair to discuss what I found to be an exciting new direction for the band.

Barry, your band has a new album coming out near the end of February called Blook. Tell me about the new direction the band has taken on this album.

"Basically, we've been growing and evolving musically...trying to get back to, or find, our own style. Mostly, it came from taking our songs off the other records and translating them live into just stripped down versions. A lot of peope told us they actually like that better. For that reason, and because we like it better too, we decided to go for that direction on this record. We approached ou writing the same way, but we just went in and played it as a band and made it real simple."

"Mostly we drew from the bands that we grew up on; the music of the 70's and rock & roll bands of the 70's, maybe early 80's. Maybe everything from disco to Aerosmith, to Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, Steve Miller Band, and a little bit of Southern rock, like Lynyrd Skynyrd type stuff or whatever."

"We were looking for a cover song to do, and we had 2 or 3 in mind. I think Dan Pitts, he works for our management, presented that idea to us and we listened to the song, and to be honest, I'm not sure that I'd ever heard it before. But after listening to it, we all decided that the message was something we could really latch onto, so we did it. Stylishticlaly, it was perfect."

"Man, I hope we don't get any. But I'm sure we will. There are some people who might say (that) to do any song from an artist who wasn't a Christian could be a bad influence. When you listen to the words, the song is talking about going to Heaven. And it's a free ride because we can't earn it, it's something that God gives to us. And if you listen to the song closely I don't know if that's what he (Daniel Hartman) meant when he wrote the song, but it definitely can mean that. I can't say what the original songwriter meant, but that's what we mean."

"I think the lyrics are pretty clever and pretty catchy, and I just like that style of music a lot. It's one of the heavier songs."

What did you do differently in the studio as a guitarist in comparision to your last studio work on Don't Censor Me?

"We had a new producer on this album, John Hampton, and he produced the Gin Blossoms, so it was kind of a different approach from our end and from his end. Basically, as a guitarist, we used the same approach to getting sounds. As far as the parts go, the guitar parts were more arranged, and more finished before we even went into the studio. This time, instead of building songs in the studio, we got the band together and rehearsed and we had the songs at least closer to being ready to go before we went in the studio."

"The connection was through Eddie DeGarmo, one of the owners of our record company. Eddie, I guess, has known John for years. Just recently, John has made his mark in the secular arena, especially with his work with the Gin Blossoms. Eddie set that up. John Hampton is a Christian, and from what I understand, really wanted the opportunity to work with a Christian band. And the way it was presented, we went for it."

"What we're about, and what this album, Bloom, is about, is growth; coming to a new level both musically and spiritually, as a band and as individuals. And through our music, we're trying to point both Christian kids and non-Christian kids to Christ. That's what we want. As one of the songs on the album says, we want to be see-through. We want people to see Christ and hopefully see through us."