{"id":978,"date":"2011-12-16T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=978"},"modified":"2011-12-15T18:15:38","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T23:15:38","slug":"a-conversation-with-tenth-avenue-north-lead-singer-mike-donehey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/a-conversation-with-tenth-avenue-north-lead-singer-mike-donehey.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Tenth Avenue North lead singer Mike Donehey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It might seem like Tenth Avenue North came out of nowhere back in 2008, but just like every band, there’s a longer tale behind the “overnight success” story. For these guys, it all started at Palm Beach Atlantic University (which, by the way, I’m pretty sure my wife would’ve attended had she known such a place existed back in the late 90s) where lead singer Mike Donehey and drummer Jason Jamison formed a worship band that grew in popularity as it served throughout the local community.<\/p>\n

In this Whole Notes interview, Donehey talks about touring with some of the scene’s popular veteran bands, taking the unplanned approach to success and writing a life-altering song:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: What has it been like for a relatively new band to the scene such as Tenth Avenue North to tour with a crusty old band (and I say that affectionately, of course) like Third Day?<\/p>\n

Mike Donehey: It\u2019s funny, we went with them on tour in the spring and they asked us to come back out in the fall. The first weekend of the fall tour, they invited on their tour bus after a show and they just listened to music for hours. So hanging out with the old crusty dudes has been the most refreshing times for me. We’ve also toured with Mercy Me and those guys are so grateful to still be doing it. Sometimes it\u2019s the young, fresh guys that are the most cynical ones. We\u2019re learning all over again to just be really grateful to do what we do.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Tell me about the band’s journey to the national stage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tenth Avenue North (left to right): Jason Jamison, Jeff Owen, Mike Donehey and Ruben Juarez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donehey: We met at a college 11 years ago and that\u2019s where we started playing. Basically, we were playing at college worship services and youth groups. We were the house band for a youth group there and worked at a church there for several years. Then we just kept getting asked to play places and we just kept saying \u201cyes\u201d to the point where we were like, \u201cMan, we could actually do this full time.\u201d We didn\u2019t have any hopes to be a band or be rock stars or even do this full time. So it\u2019s very strange. We just kept walking through doors and before we knew it, we\u2019d been full time independently. I slept on a lot of floors, but we were never trying to get signed or trying to break through as it were. It\u2019s kind of weird when we get guys who are trying to break through that ask, \u201cHow did you do it?\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI don\u2019t know! I wasn\u2019t trying!\u201d But I think the best advice I can give to someone who wants to break through as a band is to just bloom where you\u2019re planted and serve the community that you\u2019re in. If you\u2019re not serving the community you\u2019re in, then what makes you think you\u2019d be of any service to these other communities?<\/p>\n

Bonham: Has the purpose behind the band changed since you went national or it essentially the same, just with a much larger audience?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Donehey: To be quite frank, one of the sad things is that we used to do camps for a week or we\u2019d do a retreat for a weekend. We\u2019d play a concert but we\u2019d also lead worship. That\u2019s where I feel like I can actually engage in the discipleship process with kids, especially because they don\u2019t think you\u2019re anything special. They\u2019ve never heard of your band. \u201cWho are you guys?\u201d You\u2019re always proving yourself every time you play. But then once you go national and everyone\u2019s heard your songs on the radio, it\u2019s like \u201cOh my gosh! You guys are Tenth Avenue North!\u201d And we\u2019re like, \u201cNo! We\u2019re the same old band! Why are you being weird?\u201d So suddenly it\u2019s almost harder to break through those walls that people carry because there\u2019s this fame element added to it. But I try to look at what Paul said about it. Some serve. Some encourage. Some evangelize. Our focus has always been Jesus and helping people encounter Jesus. We still want to make disciples with our music and through our concerts. But it\u2019s become more evangelistic because we\u2019re in a different city every night.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How has the song \u201cYou Are More,\u201d both its success and its message, impacted the band and your audience?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Donehey: I heard Jon Foreman from Switchfoot describe songwriting and he said, \u201cA lot of times I write songs like an oyster makes a pearl.\u201d The way an oyster makes a pearl is there\u2019s an irritant, like a piece of dust or dirt, that gets inside and the oyster forms the pearl around it to deal with the irritant. So my irritant was basically something I\u2019d heard in some songs and in some sermons. I heard it in a Christian movie. It was this overarching, grandiose statement: \u201cThe choices you make, make you who you are!\u201d One day I was driving and I was getting so mad because I understood what they were trying to communicate, that our choices have consequences, but by phrasing it that way, they\u2019ve actually eliminated the possibility of grace. They\u2019ve completed annihilated redemption with that statement: \u201cYou do this, you get that.\u201d The whole point of the Gospel is you sinned. Jesus gets (your punishment). You get His life. You get His forgiveness. It\u2019s the exact opposite of, \u201cThe choices you make, make you who you are.\u201d The choices He made for <\/em>you, make you who you are. None of us earned being a new creation. I wrote \u201cYou Are More\u201d out of that irritant. This has to be explained to people because I think we\u2019re misleading them.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Have you seen that message resonate with your audience?<\/p>\n

Donehey: Up until that point, \u201cBy Your Side\u201d was the song that people seemed to gravitate towards. Then \u201cYou Are More\u201d came along. I was so excited writing it. I felt like it was so important for people to hear that. It was important for me <\/em>to hear that. It\u2019s been amazing. This past summer at festivals we\u2019ve had crazy stories of people getting out of addictions, girls handing me their razor blades that they used to cut with. A lot of them attribute it to \u201cYou Are More.\u201d And I\u2019ll say, \u201cYou know that\u2019s the Gospel, right?\u201d That\u2019s all it is. It\u2019s pretty exciting.<\/p>\n

Stay up-to-date on the latest from Tenth Avenue North by visiting the band’s official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends! It might seem like Tenth Avenue North came out of nowhere back in 2008, but just like every band, there’s a longer tale behind the “overnight success” story. For these guys, it all started at Palm Beach Atlantic University (which, by the way, I’m pretty sure my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,70,120],"tags":[572,573,68,247,571,574,7,254,10],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-music-feature","category-qa","tag-jason-jamison","tag-jeff-owen","tag-jon-foreman","tag-mercy-me","tag-mike-donehey","tag-ruben-juarez","tag-switchfoot","tag-tenth-avenue-north","tag-third-day"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Tenth Avenue North lead singer Mike Donehey - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Tenth Avenue North lead singer Mike Donehey - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}