Links...
I feel like Avalon has truly become a ministry. And personally, Im at a come what may point now. Weve been through so much, and so much has changed, and obviously for some reason, God still wants this to be. If its nine more years, Im here for nine more. Im here for the long haul. -Jody McBrayer
MQ: How how have you grown spiritually from your time in Avalon?
Jody: Gosh...that's a whole day...
Melissa: - A whole lot! Well, you (looking to Jody) talk about - like in everything - no matter what job you're in, you're going to go through trials and tribulations.
Jody: Sure, I think it's just part of life. You know...it's so easy for us to look at other people and think, "Their life is so perfect...their life is so perfect." It's like everybody has the junk...you know? And I think that...we are faced with a decision where we're going to choose to make the best of the junk and become better because of it or become bitter because of it. I can just tell you at this point, I could be extremely bitter but I'm not...I think that God has a very important purpose for Avalon still - and there's a lot left for us to do. And through the adversity and through the loss, through the difficulty we've experienced, I feel that He has made us stronger...and I'm so thankful for that. We intend to persevere and we intend to try to be everything that He's called us to be because of it.
MQ: Got any projects you're working on...?
Jody: We're going to Scotland in August and we're part of the Edinburgh music festival which is not a Christian festival, but we're going over there and they've asked us to come and sing.
Melissa: It's like their WoodStock, it's HUGE - this festival that we're doing...and so we've got the opportunity to go.
Jody: And they're taking an all-star band over there - sort of to draw a crowd...like Sheila E. will be playing percussion and Abe Laboriel will be playing bass - but anyway, we've sort of gotten some arrangements put together to have Sparrow do a DVD taping from a castle there in Edinburgh.
Melissa: We feel like our concert is what this ministry is about...that when people come to a concert, that's the culmination of everything Avalon is, more so than the cd.
MQ: How do you feel technology is affecting music production, creation, distribution? Do you have any thoughts - positive or negative - on how you see the technology affecting what you do?
Jody: I love the fact that you don't have to go to the 40 thousand dollar a week studio anymore to make a record and it still sounds great. Thank God for Macintosh...you know what I mean? I don't know if anybody in Nashville has a pc - I think everybody has a Mac here. It's sort of revolutionized the way we make records now. You can have a studio in your basement that puts out as good if not better quality cds and recordings than any Music Row studio that would charge you 10 thousand dollars a day to be there. For example, Faith Hill's last record went triple platinum or something and half of that record was done in a friend of mine's basement. So, you don't have to have that anymore...to me it's amazing. I'm definitely right-brained so I don't know much about technology. I just know that I've fascinated by how it works. It's helped us keep cost down, which is a good thing because, obviously, nobody's records are selling as much as they used to. Even the best selling records are selling half of what they used to sell...because of piracy - yes, but because of the economy, because people don't want to buy 12 or 13 songs, they want to buy 1 or 2 of their favorites. Because of that, it's important for us to try to keep cost down in every way, and that's a great way to do it, by using more home studios.