Revive(2)

Revive("复兴"乐队, 名字有时被风格化写为"Rev!ve"), 是一支来自澳洲, 目前长居在美国乔治亚州亚特兰大市的福音摇滚乐队. 该乐队目前由主唱Dave Hanbury, 吉他手AJ Cheek, 贝斯手Rich Thompson和鼓手Mike TenKate四人组成。成立于2004年的复兴乐队在整个澳洲都获得了巨大的成功，乐队之前发行过两张专辑，并且在2007年1月一直跟随著名福音摇滚Third Day进行全国巡演。巡演结束后，复兴乐队才真正长居美国发展他们的福音音乐事业，在2009年8月，"复兴"向公众宣布他们的吉他手Tyler Hall将在9月4日退出。这一空缺吉他手席位后来被另一支福音摇滚乐队"Nevertheless"中的吉他手AJ Cheek代替。


It’s not always easy to step out of your comfort zone, especially when it takes you halfway around the world, far away from friends, family and everything that’s familiar, but faith trumps fear. Obedience opens doors and true passion for sharing the gospel can’t be contained by geographic boundaries. Just ask the members of Revive, Australia’s latest creative export.

“We’re always saying the second that God starts closing doors for us, we’ll know it’s time to go home,” says Revive bassist Rich Thompson. “We’ve been saying that ever since we’ve been a band together. We pray each week that God will provide for us and He really has.”

Lead vocalist Dave Hanbury agrees. “We didn’t force the issue to come over to America. We couldn’t orchestrate it. We couldn’t have made these things happen. We know we are meant to be here.”

Guitarist Tyler Hall and drummer Mike Tenkate round out Revive, a vibrant pop/rock outfit that caught the attention of Third Day frontman Mac Powell during a tour of Australia. Powell kept in touch with the band after he returned to the states and encouraged them to move to Atlanta. Since that leap of faith, the band signed with Essential Records and began working on their U.S. debut with Powell handling production duties. They spent the spring of 2008 performing for U.S. audiences after landing a coveted opening slot on the Third Day tour with DecembeRadio and Sanctus Real.

For the members of Revive, the past few years have felt as though God pushed the fast forward button on their lives and career. “We all met at the same church, so we all grew up together in the same youth group,” recalls Hanbury of their early days. “When Ty and I started out, we just had people asking us, ‘Hey, do you want to come play at our youth group?’ We only knew three songs, but people just kept asking us and we kept getting emails and calls to come play.”

So they recruited Thompson and Tenkate, recorded their first album, and expanded their tour schedule. “Back in Australia, if you are a Christian, it’s very, very unpopular,” says Hall. “So our ministry back home was going to schools and we’d play songs that would help the Christians come out of the woodwork. We’d help form Christian groups at schools and we’d also play for youth groups. We sort of tried to empower them to be bold in what they do. Over there it’s different. We found out it’s not really an issue over here. It’s pretty acceptable to be a Christian in America.”

The members of Revive gave up better-paying corporate jobs to enter music ministry full-time while still in their native Australia. As they launched their ministry, they approached it as they would any other business. “Mike was doing the web site. Dave did the tours. I was doing the local bookings, and Rich was doing the merch,” Hall says.

Adds Hanbury: “I had just come out of a corporate job and so had Ty, so we thought ‘What’s the difference? Let’s run it like a corporate job. Let’s be accountable to each other, have weekly meetings, have action plans and get things done.’ It was good. It just trained us to really own our band.”

When the opportunity arose for Revive to open for Third Day during an Australian tour, they had no idea how important that would become to God’s plan for their future. “We were extremely excited, but we never thought that getting to know the band would be anything other than being cool,” says Tenkate.

“Before the second show,” adds Rich, “Nigel, Third Day’s road pastor, got us all together and we did a Bible study together. Then Nigel said, “Alright I want everybody to stand up and Third Day guys I want you to lay hands on Revive and pray for them.’ We had barely met these guys and we were totally and utterly just blown away. What an experience!”

Personal and spiritual bonding gave way to professional respect as the Third Day guys became Revive fans.

God continued to open doors in so many ways. During the summer of 2007, Revive came to the U.S. to work with Powell in his home studio and wound up opening for Third Day in Charlottesville, VA. “We finished our performance and packed up our gear and just walked through the audience to our merchandise table and people started clapping,” recalls Hall. “We were looking all around, we thought Mac had run up behind us because everyone was standing up applauding.”

“We sold out of merch, everything we brought,” recalls Tenkate. “It was pouring rain and there was this huge line of people waiting in the rain to meet us.”

At the end of the 2007, Revive made the leap to move to the U.S. “I remember being on the plane and I was excited, but at the same time I realized I was taking my wife across the other side of the world, away from friends and family, so this was no small move,” recalls Thompson. “I was a little bit anxious as we landed in Atlanta. While we were hanging around the baggage claim trying to get our bags, we bumped into this lovely southern lady and just struck up a conversation.”

She asked the band and their wives why they had moved, where they planned to live, and many other questions. “She said, ‘I go to a pretty big church in Atlanta and I know a lot of people, why don’t I send out an email to my friends and just see what happens?’” remembers Hanbury. “As the Lord would have it, three out of us four couples are now living with friends of hers. I remember praying for this exact thing maybe two months before we came over. God answered those prayers saying ‘Got you covered, I’ll take care of you.’”

In the same remarkable way, God provided transportation through a United Parcel Service (UPS) employee in Atlanta, who while delivering a package, asked to pay for the new transmission needed in the band’s mini-bus after seeing a CD on the desk at the repair shop. Claiming he was a fan of Revive, the UPS driver said he just wanted to help out. The band members were speechless when told the news, and the driver remains anonymous.

Citing influences such as Third Day, Switchfoot, Jeff Buckley and Steven Curtis Chapman, Revive has developed a unique sound that unites their aggressive rock appetites with more mainstream pop sensibilities. Revive’s high-energy pop/rock sound is anchored by Hanbury’s compelling vocals. There’s warmth and vulnerability that immediately draws listeners into the ballads such as “You Know,” a duet with Powell, and there’s an edgy intensity on the vibrant “Chorus of the Saints.” Hanbury’s voice contains an element of drama, a spiritual passion that commands attention.

It serves Revive well as it places direct emphasis on the group’s well-crafted lyrics. “The songs are influenced by what we are reading in the Word or by what friends or family members are going through,” says Thompson. “’Chorus of The Saints’ is a song inspired by reading about the Israelite people and saying, ‘Man they are just so silly, always kind of turning away from God.’ But we look at our own lives and it’s so true for ourselves, constantly thinking we can do things on our own and forgetting who He is and how awesome He is.”

Feeling God’s provision on every step of their incredible journey has placed Revive in a very special place. “These songs come from a rich and real place for us,” says Hanbury. “The song titled ‘You Know’ even has Mac singing on it. He loves that one. The lyrics remind us that God is with you. He doesn’t promise that life will be easy, but He does promise that He will be there. People can relate to that.”

Long before the band responded to God’s call to move halfway around the world, they sat down together and fully discussed their purpose, their vision and mission. They summed it all up on what they call a “Values Card.” It’s all there in print as a constant reminder to each other and as an instant introduction to others wondering just what these guys are all about.

“To maximize our gifts for the glory of God,” Hanbury says stating the band’s purpose. “We talked about our values for a while. Values are how you want to run your business or your band. So we came up with respect, integrity, diligence, excellence, fun, humility and Godliness. Fun had to be on there. It is fun. Being in a band, at times is really fun and what’s wrong with that. We don’t want to deny the fun of being in a band.”

Beyond the music, the fellowship and fun, Revive is about ministry and reminding people of the message in Psalm 85. “It says, ‘He will revive their hearts.’ We love that,” says Hanbury. “We want people to be refreshed, like what our name means, to be revived. It would be great if someone would listen to this CD, and feel like they could walk closer with the Lord.”