AUDIO ADRENALINE

Audio Adrenaline is a Grammy Award-winning Christian rock band that formed in the late 1980s at Kentucky Christian College in Grayson, Kentucky. Along with dc Talk, Newsboys and Jars of Clay, they quickly became one of the most successful Christian rock bands of the 1990s. They were a main attraction at the annual Creation Festival, Spirit West Coast festival and Agape Music Festival. Audio Adrenaline was also considered a staple performance of the Alive Festival every year up to their last performance in June 2006.

Audio Adrenaline has had many influences on Christian bands. Audio Adrenaline, along with dc Talk, started a revolution in Christian rock music. Some of the bands influenced are MercyMe, Sanctus Real, and Hawk Nelson.

The band was formed under the name of A-180 by Mark Stuart, Barry Blair, Will McGinniss, David Stuart, and Phil Vaughan (As of 2007, Stuart and McGinniss are the only remaining original members.) The four men, along with Ron Gibson and Mark's brother, David, became a popular local band—booked by the school nearly every weekend.

The band's big break would come in the form of Bob Herdman. Bob went up to Audio Adrenaline with two songs he had written, "My God" and "DC-10". After "My God" was recorded at Landmark Recording Studio—under the band name Herdman had created, "Audio Adrenaline"—it was sent to radio stations and scaled the charts quickly. Forefront Records decided to offer a record deal to A-180 but had them change their name to Audio Adrenaline. The name "Audio Adrenaline" comes from an incident in which Bob Herdman had been listening to some rather loud and fast secular music, he was so enthralled by it that he apparently exclaimed "This is like... Audio Adrenaline!" while jumping wildly. Bob then joined the band, and David left to focus on his family.

Their first album under Forefront, the self-titled Audio Adrenaline, was released in 1992. The follow-up album, Don't Censor Me, came the next year. In 1996, their third album, Bloom, was released. It marked guitarist Barry Blair's final album with the band.

With Blair gone, the band needed a new guitarist. They found a temporary fill in Brian McSweeney Seven Day Jesus / Matthew whom decided to stay with his fulltime act. From there, they turned the guitars over to Tyler Burkum, who joined the band at only 17 years old, in time to record some guitars on the 1997 Some Kind of Zombie album. This was also the first album to feature Ben Cissell as the band's full-time drummer, though Cissell had played on percussion the record bloom as well. In 1999, the band released Underdog, its fifth studio album.

The band greeted the new millennium by releasing their first greatest hits compilation, Hit Parade, in 2001. In the winter of that same year, they released a new studio album, Lift. In the time between the releases of those two albums, Bob Herdman left the band to become president of a new record label, Flicker Records, which he founded along with Stuart and McGinniss. In 2003, the band released its ninth album, Worldwide. It was a more worship-based effort that emphasized their style of ministry and love of mission trips. The band's "Hands and Feet Project" and "The Go Show" tour also served to encourage missionary work. Worldwide, like Lift before it, wasn't as 'rocking' in the traditional sense as their previous efforts, mostly because of the focus on softer and more praise-oriented material. Worldwide went on to win a Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album in 2004 which would be the first of two Grammys for the band. In 2004, the band, along with former member Bob Herdman, founded a project in Haiti called the Hands and Feet Project, in which the band built an orphanage for children.

The band's tenth album, Until My Heart Caves In, was released on August 30, 2005. It received a Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album in 2006. "Clap Your Hands" was also played on ESPN with highlights of the football games.

Among Audio Adrenaline's most notable performances are three of their most popular songs, "Big House", "Hands and Feet", and the live staple "We're A Band", as well as a duet with The O.C. Supertones, "Blitz", from the album Some Kind of Zombie.

On January 18, 2006, Audio Adrenaline announced that they were retiring from active music ministry. The band cited Mark Stuart's "ongoing vocal challenges" stemming from vocal cord damage after years of performing as the primary factor. On July 27, 2006, the band played at the popular Christian music festival Creation West for the last time. They had performed at Creation West every year since it began.

On August 1, 2006, they released their final album, Adios, a farewell album containing two new tracks as well as the band's greatest hits. For their final national tour in February until April 2007, Audio Adrenaline opened for MercyMe on the "Coming Up To Breathe Tour". The band performed their last live concert on April 28, 2007, at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their final project, which was released on August 28th, 2007, is a live CD/DVD combo entited "Live From Hawaii: The Farewell Concert".

On March 21, 2008, Australian festival Easterfest announced that Audio Adrenaline would be getting back together for a world exclusive concert at Easterfest '09 in Queens Park, Toowoomba.

September 1, 2003, the band released its first book Dirty Faith: Becoming the Hands and Feet of Jesus, with Think Books. Co-written with Mark Matlock, the book discusses reaching out to the needy and features an organization called Mission Year.

On September 5, 2006, the band released Hands & Feet: Inspiring Stories and Firsthand Accounts of God Changing Lives, with Regal Books. It takes the reader on a journey to Haiti with the band as they build houses for the children there. The reader also meets Drex and Jo Stuart, the parents of frontman Mark Stuart. The book gives an explanation of life in one of the poorest nations on earth. It also tells of the band's building of The Hands and Feet Project (an orphanage for poor, hungry children).

Mark Stuart was recently involved in !Hero the Rock Opera, playing as Petrov. !Hero was a modern adaption of the story of Christ performed along with dc Talk band member Michael Tait, presently the frontman of one of dc Talk's solo projects, Tait. Also involved in this production was popular CCM pop vocalist Rebecca St. James, playing the part of Maggie.

Mark Stuart and Will McGinniss, along with guitarist Brian Whitman, have launched a post-retirement speaking venture titled "AA Talks". The trio are available "for a night of encouragement, testimonies, Audio A classics and worship."

Don’t miss their collection of WOW CDs, Accompaniment Tracks, and music DVDs.

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