Revive - ChristianMusic.com

revive

About Revive

The band Revive officially got together in the (Australian) Summer of 2004, after playing local churches and schools for the better part of 2003.  In July 2004, they released their first full album as Revive titled "Where I Belong". Australia took the album well and more doors began opening for the boys from Sydney . They started to get very busy with shows all around New South Wales - in particular in schools where they found they were able to have a strong and fruitful ministry with the students.

With more offers coming in, it was getting difficult to balance work/university with the band commitments, so in January 2006, the boys took the leap of faith and went full time Revive (as well as broke!). It is often said that God uses those willing to be used - and they quickly found out that this was indeed true for them. The tours began to reach outside of their home state and into wider Australia . As well as this they were able to co-lease an old studio as a part-office/part-recording facility. The guys were able to spend hours and hours each day writing and recording, crafting their own sound as a band. The product of this time is found in their 2006 album " Trafalgar Street ", named after the street the old studio was in.

The album was picked up by radio and grabbed the attention of promoters across the country. One such promoter had just decided to bring Third Day out from America for a tour in Australia . He asked Revive to open the three shows for Third Day.  While the boys were obviously excited about playing with Third Day, they had no idea what was about to happen.

The Third Day guys liked what they saw and asked to hear more songs from the boys - new songs. So for the next 6 months the boys put their head down and wrote many songs. In August 2007, after hearing what they'd done, Mac (lead singer for Third Day) invited the boys to the States to work on some of those songs with him in the studio. Revive were also given the chance to play a show with Third Day in Charlottesville, VA. The show was excellent and the studio time went really well, so much so that Third Day invited Revive to be a part of their company: Consuming Fire Productions. This meant moving to America .

The boys were needless-to-say extremely excited and so, on the 31st of December 2007, they packed their bags and moved to their new home in Atlanta, Georgia .

“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.”

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.”

They hit the studio immediately with the best songs written throughout 2007 and, with Mac Powell producing, came out 2 months later with the album "Chorus of the Saints". "We were more pleased with this album than we had anticipated", says Dave (lead singer, Revive), "Mac brought our songs to a whole new level!".

“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.”

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.”

With the album in hand Revive hit the road with Third Day and played to over 40, 000 people in 20-something states during February, March and April (2008). The reaction to this band has been almost unanimous - people love them!