Avalon has been Reborn. It’s in the press, the song title, the album cover and the conversation Soul-Audio recently had with longtime band member Greg Long. It’s also in the personnel as Greg and Janna are not the only married couple involved with the group anymore, with Jeremi Richardson’s wife, Amy, joining the group as the latest vocalist of the four.

But perhaps no aspect of this Reborn Avalon surprises as much as the recent producer collaboration – Ian Eskelin. Because of time constraints, Avalon had to abandon their usual routine of working with Brown Bannister. In the process, a newer, edgier vibe inhabits the radio pop of Avalon and gives the four-piece a youthful feel. It’s exciting for Long and the rest of Avalon, even if some fans don’t enjoy it. But for the most part, all is still well in the world of the vocal legends.

Soul-Audio: Tell me about the genesis of this entire Reborn concept. What’s behind the changes?

Greg Long: The funny part is that I’m always very cautious on the “God inspired this” thing or “God said this.” I’m not a hyper-spiritual guy at all. So with that said, I do believe that if we’re believers, then God will ordain our steps. So the timing of everything and the way it worked out was interesting. I could go on for years about this, but I’ll try not to. [Laughs] We’ve worked with one producer for most of the last decade. There’s one other producer we’ve worked with on two records, but overall we have a comfort level with these guys. We know them. We love them. They’re amazing. One of them is always nominated for Producer of the Year it seems like. So they’re great.

Well, once this tour came in place with Selah, they wanted the record done in time for that tour. We knew right away that Brown Bannister can’t do it. We were sure of it. This would be needed within about a month or 40 days and sure enough, Brown said he was backed up to six months to a year. We needed to plan ahead. [Laughs] So it became, ‘What are we going to do because we’ve worked with him for so long?’ Ian’s name came up and there was a slight laugh. I mean, Ian is someone I’ve known for forever. I’ve written songs with him and all of that, but that’s not what you picture – Ian Eskelin with Avalon. But we had a couple meetings with him and label people and management and Avalon. The first meeting was like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know.’ But in the second meeting, the light came on. It was like, ‘Let’s do this. Away we go.’

SA: What about the idea of Reborn?

Greg: Well, the story behind Reborn is this: our manager, Norman Miller – who also does Selah, Leeland, Casting Crowns – said the title should be Reborn. Earlier that day, Amy, the newest member of the group, was talking to her sister and her sister said, ‘This is like a whole new period for you guys. It’s like Avalon has been reborn. There’s this two couple thing going on and a lot of different nuances that makes it the first time like this.’ Now she didn’t know all of this, but we are working with this new guy, you have two couples and all of this. Within three hours was the meeting with Norman where he came in and said the word ‘reborn’ and that was the same word Amy’s sister had used and it’s not a word you use a lot.

So Norman says this in that meeting and we thought, ‘Weird.’ We weren’t all catching it to be honest with you, but then Ian comes in and says they’re writing a song at the eleventh hour called “Reborn.” We fell in love with it and the graphic design guy who we love came up with this concept cover of sunflowers in the middle of a desert. It’s all one of those things where Janna said yesterday in an interview that she’d never been a part of a record where things happened so quickly and you actually liked it. Normally you think it’s terrible, but you have to get them done. [Laughs]

But things kept jumping into place and so what do you do? There it is. It’s odd but we all love it. And it seems a lot of our fans are. Then again, some of them aren’t. If you read the e-mail that people send you, you kind of go through some of those and find people saying, ‘This is not the Avalon I know’ or stuff like that.

SA: Really?

Greg: Oh, my goodness. I mean, you have to laugh in some way. I’m a big believer in not reading the press about yourself. You’re not as good as the good press says and you’re not as bad as the worst ones. If they’re saying you’re great, then you’re not that great. And if they say you stink, then you probably don’t stink that bad. You can ride a roller coaster ride if you let it. But I will say this, it’s 10-1 or 20 to 1 good that they like it. But you definitely have those fans who hate it. I read some last night where you wonder why there’s so much anger. You think, ‘Wow, you’re spending your time to tell me how much you dislike me.’

But I guess that’s what it means to be a public personality and you put out a piece of product. You open yourself up for people to tell you how they don’t like you. I believe as an artist, you need to feel good about what you’re doing. And as a Christian artist, you want to feel good about what you’re saying. You want to take pride in the way you’re saying it. We take pride in what we’re doing. We feel good about it. So at night, you can rest your head on your pillow and feel good about how hard we’ve worked and about what it says and we’re anxious to take it on the road, which we’ll do with Selah this fall.

SA: So whose specific idea was it to work with Ian?

Greg: I think I would give that first nod to Norman Miller. I may be wrong about that, but I believe he’s the one that brought it up first. But again, that might not be right. [Laughs]

SA: What’s the very first thought in your head when you hear that idea?

Greg: Well, I liked it, but again I’m the most rock guy in the group. I’m definitely a rock guy. If Avalon was the Spice Girls, I would be Rock Spice. Janna is Posh. Or Janna is Shoe Spice. [Laughs] So for me, I’m thinking it’s cool. But overall, even being the rock guy, I’m careful because Avalon is a pop group. And you don’t want to do anything that’s too weird. But then we listened to some of his stuff and he’s able to say, ‘Hey, I’m not an alien to pop.’ Even in his earlier days, his solo stuff was kind of this techno-pop thing. He said, ‘Hey guys, I can do pop and I love vocals. I do all of these bands, but I love to work with singers.’ There’s not that many singers out now. It’s mostly bands, so he thought he could do it.

So at first, you’re thinking, ‘Really?’ And both sides are thinking that. But as we talked more and more, it all went well and we had a really good time. I would say hats off to Jim Sturgeon and the guys at Koch E1 because he really just said to go make a record and he let us have creative control to a huge extent. You can hang yourself there, but at the same time, you enjoy it and you’re having a good time making the record and you like the songs. So that makes for a good album. It was a fun time that ended up being, what I think, is a really fun record.

SA: Was it the most fun you’ve had making an Avalon record?

Greg: [Pause] That’s hard to say. I need to say this: we love Brown Bannister. Brown is one of the nicest guys in the world and he’s so incredibly talented, so I don’t know what I would say. We’ve had a lot of fun with him. But we did have a lot of fun here and we had a lot of fun having the creative control that we did.

SA: Was there ever a point, even in the studio, where you wondered if it would work or not?

Greg: The first track he sent us, we heard them and we were like, ‘Yes.’ He got it. It was that instant. I think for a while we were talking about ideas and I brought up this techno-pop, up-tempo number. We really wanted to have a lot of up-feeling things. He thought my idea was kind of cheesy, so I thought, ‘Okay, well, he doesn’t like mine.’ But once we heard his track, we knew it was good. One thing I like about him as well, for example with the song “Alive,” the opening line says, ‘I don’t want to be broke anymore/Living life in a million pieces.’ Well, a lot of songs that have depth are almost depressing. [Whiny voice] ‘Oh, I’m so broken. I’m a mess.’ And that’s the truth that we’re all broken and miserable and we’re all a mess.

But the message of the gospel is not Debbie Downer. God came to save us. If you look at the album cover, it’s a desert. That’s us. Then God comes into our desert and makes some fantastic growth and creates something beautiful out of it. Being in Christian music, that’s what we get to sing about. So even though these songs are up-tempo and all that, the messages are authentic and I feel like they have some depth, but it’s not depressing. It’s messages that say, ‘Look at what God can do. They can take our brokenness and make something a whole lot better.’

SA: So the feeling by the end of your studio sessions?

Greg: By the end, we were all anxious to take this stuff on the road. That’s a good sign. I like making records, but I love being in front of people and delivering the songs that you’re supposed to bring. So you hope the radio likes it and the media likes it. But what I look forward to is being in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on a Friday night delivering the songs to your fans, or wherever you are. We just finished a couple of warm-up dates. We’ve done “Reborn” and “Destined” and just doing these songs a couple times, the audience is already responded to them. I love singing these live and that’s what it’s about to me. The albums are the means to the end.

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