Transparent Christian Magazine

 

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The young men in MissionSix may be short on years, but they are giants in maturity.  They recently sat down with Transparent Christian Magazine and discussed the band, their frantic life and their goals.
 
The members of MissionSix are ages 13-14. 

Noah lead vocals/guitar
Isaac vocals/keys
David drums
Anthony lead guitar
Michael vocals/bass

TCM:  There are five members of your band, but you are called MissionSix.  Can you explain the name?
Isaac:  God is number one and there’s five of us, His servants, helping Him out, so that’s where the name MissionSix comes from.
 
TCM:  How long have you been playing your respective instruments?
David:  I’ve been playing drums all my life really.  I can’t remember when I wasn’t playing drums.
Noah:  I’ve been singing for a long time, and playing guitar for about 3-4 years.
Michael:  I started taking lessons at 9.
Isaac:  I have been playing piano for about 4-5 years and recently switched to synth.
Anthony: I have been playing guitar for about a year.
 
TCM:  What are some of your goals?
Noah:  Well, we do feel we are called to reach out to our generation.  We can relate to the issues that kids today are going through, because we are going through the same issues.  Our hope is that through our music and seeing us perform and worshiping God, other kids will be influenced to make good choices and worship God too.  We want to show people that we can have FUN and worship God!
Michael:  Ultimately, I would love to see millions of kids come to Christ and to be the disciples that help them.  I would love to work with people like Billy Graham.
 
TCM:  How long have you all known each other?
David:  Most of us have gone to school with each other forever…since before kindergarten.  One of our members came in the second grade and we got to know Anthony last summer… I guess God just brought us all together.  It’s kind of weird how it all worked out.

TCM:  Tell me about your schedule lately.
Noah:  For the past 2 or 3 months we’ve been working really hard and have had a lot of shows, and we’ve been doing a ton of travel.  We were in West Virginia recently, and the Radio Disney Headquarters, in Dallas Texas a couple of days ago, and Nashville this weekend.  Our new CD is out June 3rd of this year, and we know we have some dates in California this summer. 

As Noah indicated, MissionSix has been getting more and more travel gigs, and the boys are now involved with the global organization Mission of Mercy’s Artist Program.  They are up for a prestigious Momentum Award  (the Momentum Awards have established themselves as the premier awards for Christian independent artists worldwide, and MissionSix will be the youngest band to ever appear on the main stage at the awards show on March 28th-29th…They’re up for the Christian Indie Rock Band of the year award).  Oh, and have you ever heard of Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus), Avril Lavigne or the High School Musical Cast?  If you haven’t, your children have – just look for posters on their bedroom walls.  Disney’s Global Radio Station promotes all of their music, and recently MissionSix was added to Disney’s Incubator, which is a carefully selected group of 20 up-and-coming bands that receive limited airplay and get voted on by the listeners.  If they do well, they get picked up on the radio station for regular rotation.  What does THAT mean?  Well, when their album is completed this spring, Disney will run three spots (3 songs) on the air over a three-week period.  With 10 million listeners a day, regular rotation on Radio Disney would make them a household name overnight. They had to submit songs to be approved, and 6 of their first 7 submissions were accepted. I asked them how they got the Disney Radio introduction…

David:  Well, Sue Ross [owner/founder of The Inner Vizion and artist relations director at Indieheaven] actually made the introduction.  We can’t believe how fast this Disney deal is happening.  We had to submit all of our information and we’ve been waiting, thinking that they disregarded us.  And one of the guys got a call a few weeks ago.  Then last weekend we were in Texas at the Disney Radio Headquarters.
 
TCM:  Tell me about your association with Indieheaven.
Noah:  Indieheaven helps us out a lot, they [support] some stuff that we do, and the Momentum Award nominations really gave us a lot of drive and traffic on our MySpace page.  We also get to talk with the other artists and they all have been a really supportive group.
David: God’s timing has been nuts here. Sue told us that we’ve been blessed, and other bands have to wait a LONG time and never get near where we’ve gotten.  We’ve had people behind us and God’s been providing for us amazingly for the last 2 years.
 
TCM:  Who else helps the band? 
MissionSix:   Well, our parents help out a lot, and our families are really supportive… other bands too! EleventySeven has been the most fun to play with.  We just love their personalities…They help us with our instruments, and they’re good to hang out  with.  

TCM:  Who are some of the bands you have played with or opened for?
MissionSix:  Some of the bands we’ve opened for are StellarKart PureNRG!, Everlife, Day of Fire, and December Radio.

TCM:  Who are your favorite bands?
Anthony:  Switchfoot and other high energy Christian bands…And I really like the 80’s bands like Bon Jovi.  Any kind of music that gets your blood flowing is good.  Newsboys , EleventySeven, Stellar Kart, and Family Force Five.

TCM:  What do y’all do when you aren’t performing?
Anthony:  When we’re not performing, I catch up on rest…I play Guitar Hero.  It’s kind of nice getting away from the guys sometimes, but I miss them when I’m not around.
Band All Together:  AWWWW!!!
David:  There’s always catching up on school…

TCM:  How do you manage your schooling with all of the travel?
Noah:  Well, we got off of school because it flooded it so bad here…and this week is spring break. When we have school my dad goes to the principals, and tells them when we’re missing due to travel, and we get our homework ahead of time.  I haven’t been to a full week of school for a while.
 
TCM:  How do you keep your grades up?
Band:  [They all jump in]  We’ve gotten our best grades ever.  We HAVE to keep up on our work so we are doing the best we ever have in school.

TCM: Many people struggle getting going at the beginning of a new week.  I could relate to your song Monday Morning. What does that song mean to you?
David:  That song talks about having to get up and get ready and it’s really hard on Monday.  We experience that, and we know a lot of other kids experience that.  We need to remind ourselves to live that day for God, and get our blood flowing again.
 
TCM:  What about the song Super Hero?
Michael:  That’s one of our favorite songs to play and our fans LOVE to hear us play that song.  It’s really about Jesus and making Him your hero, and making good decisions.
 
TCM:  Tell me about your Christian upbringing.
Isaac:  My family has been Christians a good portion of our lives.  They wanted to raise me up to be a follower of Christ. The Christian school teaches us the basics and Christian values.  You are learning about God at school, at church and at home.  I’ve been a Christian for quite awhile.
David:  I was in the car one day and my family was driving by this church.  There was a sign out front that said “A Parent’s Life is a Child’s Guidebook.”  My dad’s a pastor and he’s been working in churches since before I was born.  Kids grow up in their parents houses, and see what their parents do, and do what they see.
Noah:  My dad’s a pastor too.  Some parents just let their kids do anything and watch anything.  We don’t watch R rated movies, and I don’t want to get warped by the [images] and hear all these bad words.
Anthony:  I grew up in a strong Christian family.  I have noticed that lots of music nowadays tears us up, and puts us down.  We want kids to understand that they don’t have to act like the images they see or the words that they hear to be cool.  We actually didn’t go to church much when I was a kid.  We read the Bible all the time, and studied at home.  I am really enjoying it a lot now.
Michael:  Based on what their parents let them do, we see so many kids swearing… How kids act and treat other people is pretty bad sometimes.
 
You wouldn’t know it by talking to them, but there is a big buzz around this band. With all of the activity around them lately, the attention of their audiences, music industry reps and media publicity, I asked them how they stay grounded…

David:  Our faith keeps us humble.  This has all been one big opportunity that God has given us, and it’s not our doing.  We want to use these opportunities to influence kids of this time period.  We feel like we can reach out to them through music.  And, God works in some funny ways too.  We’ll play a show with 1000 screaming kids, and the next show will have 20-30 kids and terrible sound.  It keeps us very humble.  We just give it all over to God.  Our parents help us in this area too.  Plus, there is always lots of work to do after the shows with homework.
Anthony:  We also get lots of mail on MySpace and e-mail from fans.  These kids are telling us they look up to us and we don’t want to let them down.
David:  Just to know that these kids look up to you is amazing.  We want to try to set a good example.
Michael:  We got a letter from  a guy in Alabama, and this guy really looked up to us, and said that our music really touched his life.
 
TCM:  What do you see coming in the future?  What do you dream about?
David:  Well, Disney was a huge thing…It was really kind of crazy walking into the headquarters there.  When we first got together as a band, we sat down at a donut shop and talked about our dreams.  One of them was playing on Disney Radio, so in a lot of ways, we feel like our dreams are coming true.
Noah:  [Like we mentioned earlier] my dad gets a call one Saturday, and we kind of freaked out.  “Oh my gosh our dreams coming true!”
David:  It’s kinda weird, and we’re in our hometown, and even kids from our school are screaming and going nuts.  And they want autographs, and a lot of other people come up and ask for our autographs.  It’s really funny because these are the same people we sit next to in class and it’s no big deal.  That keeps us humble too.

TCM:  How do the parents of your audience respond to your music and message?
David:  The parent responses are more than we would expect.  The parents in West Virginia were coming up to us after the show saying THEY were influenced and that THEY were fans.  They were setting up voting areas for our music to get on radio stations and different things.  We weren’t  expecting to get parents as fans.
Michael:  The parents are excited because they feel that we are a good influence for their kids to watch and listen to.

TCM:  How do you feel about that?
David:  Well, it was especially shocking that we had parents as fans.  I mean, when we started we were hoping to at least impact some kids, so we never thought we’d be doing this.  We never thought we’d have gotten so far already and we’re amazed at what God has done.  Just to see how much we’ve done and how much we’ve grown with each other is amazing.  And hey, anyone we can reach out to is great!!
David:  We really encourage each other to read our bibles, we pray together in the circle…Noah came back after a show one time and just read bible verses to us.
 
TCM:  What do your siblings think?
Noah:  Well, my sister is starting a band, and I’m helping her with that and my family is really supportive.
Michael:  Sometimes my sister complains about the attention I get with the band, but my parents work really hard at keeping me grounded and giving her the love that she needs.
David:  My brother comes on a lot of our trips – whenever I’m at home he’s the guy I play with!  We’re really close and he’s strong and athletic for an 8 year old.
 
Five things the members of MissionSix like the best about being in a working band:
1. We have  a support system that’s in the band, and we really help each other!  It’s also great impacting all of the kids.  We see all of these kids and how they respond, and we see how we can possibly be a part of that. (Isaac)
2. One of my favorite things is we have a lot of fun – it’s kind of like a sports team (we all stopped playing sports to focus on the band), and it’s a fun time. Also, because of the meaning of the band, we feel really good about what we are doing.  We are trying to reach out to as many kids as possible.  Sometimes that means playing at a YMCA or a Boys & Girls Club and giving away our CDs, and sometimes it means we are a part of a mission to Honduras for 2 weeks. (Noah)
3. I love playing music and we love seeing all of these kids change and come to Christ. (David)
4. I love just growing in a group of Christian men. (Michael)
5. I love the adrenalin of being on stage, and it puts a lot of pressure on us.  I also love sharing the ministry with this great group of people. (Anthony)

The members of MissionSix talk about the biggest challenges of being MissionSix:
Catching up on homework is pretty hard.  We get a ton of work piling up on us, the late nights and practicing a lot is probably the hardest thing on us.  We need practice and we need to keep our grades up.  Our parents made a deal with us that if we kept our grades up we could keep the band together… so we make sure we get everything done! And when we have bad sound… we hate that!  Especially when we’re playing what we’re supposed to play!  One time recently in a gym – even when it was just talking and there was no music playing – nobody could hear what was being said.

What do you do when that happens?
You’ve just got to keep going… you can’t stop. (Noah)

TCM:  So what’s next for the band?
Noah:  Well, we’re starting to line up dates all year round.  This summer the album is coming out, and we know we’re going to be playing a lot.  The name of the album is Superhero. We had a great time in the studio, and one time we all got to go in there and just shout!  There’s a hidden track on the CD, and there’s some chipmunk voices…
 
TCM:  Should I write that or do you want it to be a surprise?
Band Laughing:  You can write it.

The band sounds good.  Their brand of pop lands perfectly in the arms of their audience, and the melodies are catchy enough for my 36 year-old ears.  During the interview I marveled at how sincere they were, and Isaac mentioned that they have been thinking of the bible verse from Revelations 3:8.  “I see what you’ve done. Now see what I’ve done. I’ve opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don’t have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn’t deny me when times were rough.” (The Message).  He said they are very focused on staying true to God, and feel like that’s the reason they have been so blessed.

In their song Future Noah sings:

We write our future today
With every choice we make every word we say
‘Cause we don’t want to be
Regretting the choices we make

More than mature words to live by… a mission statement for the young men in MissionSix.

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Their new CD titled Superhero drops on June 3rd.  It is being Produced by Kevan Cyka (Hillary Duff, Everlife, Jump 5, Radio Disney) and Dan Needham (Nick Lachey, Jaci Valesquez, Isreal Houghton) and mixed and mastered by Kevan and Dan at Brownstone Studios.  For more information, including music, booking and merchandise for sale, check them out here.

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Outdoor Pictures used by gracious permission from Thoughtquotient.  To See more pictures from Godstock click here.