New Artist Spotlight: Revive

This month, Brandon Heath interviews his tour mates Revive, a new band from Australia.

“I’d love to introduce you to my new friends and tour mates, Revive. Spending the last couple of months with them and seeing their new record launch has been exciting to be a part of this next chapter in their life.”
– B.H.

Brandon Heath:  Hey this is Brandon Heath. We’re on the phone today with Dave Hanbury from the band Revive. Dave, how are you doing?

Dave Hanbury (Revive, lead vocalist):  I’m good, mate, how about you?

Brandon:  You said, “mate”?

Dave:  That’s our thing, “Mate.”

Brandon:  Do you mean you’re Australian?

Dave:  Didn’t you know? You mean you never noticed?! [Laughs]

Brandon:  So, Dave, where you calling from today?

Dave:  We’re on the road in Jonesboro, Ark. We’ve never been here, so we’re excited to be here.

Brandon:  That’s funny… I’m in Jonesboro!

Dave:  How bizarre!

Brandon:  Are you on tour right now?

Dave:  Yeah, man, I’m on tour with Third Day, and this guy…

Brandon:  What’s his name?

Dave:  It starts with a B…

Brandon:  His name is BRANDON HEATH! We’re both on tour right now. Where are you; are you in your dressing room right now?

Dave: Yes, this is my dressing room. Where are you?

Brandon:  I’m in my dressing room!

Dave:  That’s weird. Budget cuts. [Laughs]

Brandon:  We’re both on tour with Third Day, and is this your first U.S. tour?

Dave:  No, it’s not actually. We [were] on the road with Third Day for 50 or 60 dates last year. We did spring last year and the fall, so we’ve done plenty.

Brandon:  So you’ve been out with Third Day for a while?

Dave:  Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.

Brandon:  And you guys … did you move to Nashville? Where are you living?

Dave:  We live in Atlanta at the moment. We relocated from Australia at the beginning of 2008.

Brandon:  So you’re not [doing the] typical “move to Nashville, try to get a record deal thing”?

Dave:  No, man.

Brandon:  You moved to Atlanta. How did your relationship start with Third Day?

Dave:  Yeah, our story is anything but typical. Third Day came to Australia three times. They came for the third time in January 2007. We opened for them. It was a pretty funny story. We were supposed to open for Steven Curtis Chapman. They called us and said, “Yes, you’ve got the opening spot; we’re excited,” and it fell through an hour later. But the promoter felt really bad and said, “Hey look, the next kind of American artist that comes through, we would love to use you,” and it ended up being Third Day. And God works in mysterious ways. … Much of the reason we’re here now is those boys. So we ended up opening for them January 2007, and we just got on really well. We asked the guys to watch our set, give us advice, feedback. … We cornered them in catering, and then you know, at the end of the shows in Australia, they said, “Look, if there’s anything we can do for you boys, let us know.” And we weren’t afraid to listen up.

Brandon:  So [when] you guys started … when did you decide it was the right time to move to the U.S.?

Dave:  Before we moved, we did two trips to America as a band. The first was business, meeting with all the record execs in Nashville … that kind of stuff. At the end of the trip, we hung out with the Third Day guys more. We went home, and we kind of gleaned from each other that we decided to work together. So we went home, and we started writing songs and started sending them to Mac [Powell, lead vocalist of Third Day]. We wrote about 50 songs and e-mailed them, and he would go, “I like it; I don’t like it; needs work.” Then when we had a whole bunch together, he said, “OK, let’s do songwriting. Why don’t you boys come over to my place for a couple weeks?” We did that, and halfway through the time together he said, “Hey, we’re doing a show tomorrow in Charlottesville, Va. Do you guys want to open for us?” And we were like “OK.” We were pretty nervous. We jump on the bus, head to Charlottesville; and we do our very first show in the U.S. in front of 4,000 people. I’m talking no café, no nothing. This is our first show. We are really nervous and little did we know. … We talked about working together with Third Day, but this show was an audition. They wanted to see how we got on in front of fans. We got on stage, and I remember all the boys standing side stage with their arms folded and just watching us play. And I get out there, [and] I think as soon as they heard the Aussie accent and we said, “Thanks for having us. Thanks for being so good to us because this is our first time playing in the U.S,” there was no going back from there. They loved it. We got off stage, and we went home; and then we waited for about a month to hear back from Third Day. You know … would we be on their next tour? Would they be involved in our album? We got a call from Mac, and he said, “Let’s do it. We’d love for you guys to move over here. Can you be here in 10 weeks?” And I was like, “Yeah, no worries!” And then I hung up the phone and said, “Wow. Ten weeks is not that long.”