“With their soaring vocals, blistering guitar riffs and heart-wrenching lyrics, A Day Awaits draws from a diverse set of influences, seeking to create music that reaches broken people of all walks of life.”
This short bio of the local Christian alternative rock band, A Day Awaits, sums up who the band is in a nutshell. But what it doesn’t tell you is of the hard work and dedication the six-band members have put into their music and their recent successes.
Sunday, A Day Awaits will take one step closer to national recognition when it participates in the Kingdom Bound festival in Darien Lake, N.Y., opening the festival at 6:20 p.m. after recently winning the Kingdom Bound talent competition, competing against more than 30 other bands.
This year the festival will feature artists such as Casting Crowns, for King and Country, Toby Mac and many others.
The victory also moves the band into position as one of five finalists for the Christian Festivals Association national competition. If selected as one of the overall winners, it will have the opportunity to play at all of the CFA-affiliated festivals next year.
Band members include husband and wife vocalists Brennan and Mandi Bell of DuBois, Jake Stewart of DuBois, Curt Wisor and Andy English of Curwensville and Garrett Rowan of Punxsutawney.
Formed in 2009, the band struggled to gain footing at first, with departures, bad timing and other incidents. However, members continued to forge a path and, in their own words, emerged from the rubble, “Intent on expanding the landscape of Christian music … the band drew from a diverse set of influences” and continued on.
The band is a two-time CFA Talen Search finalist (2016 and 2018) and its song, “Shattered Frames” was selected as a finalist in the Overall and Christian categories at the 2018 Unsigned Only Music Competition.
Its recent album, Satellites, was produced by Jeff Quimby, who has worked with artists such as Plum, Lincoln Brewster and Gungor.
When asked about their goals beyond this weekend’s event, English summed it up, “Our goals are to continue using the gifts God has given us to bring healing and restoration to a broken world. We’re also hoping God will continue to open doors for us to get our message out to those who need to hear it, whatever that might look like.”
More information about A Day Awaits can be found on its Web site, www.adayawaits.com and information about the Kingdom Bound festival can be found at www.kingdombound.org/festival.
