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The members of Avalon take a break from their hectic lives to talk about their new album Oxygen.

No need to hold your breath any longer—vocal powerhouse Avalon is back with a brand new album. Featuring songs like "The Glory" and "Make It Last Forever," Oxygen touches on our innate need for God. Michael Passons, Janna Long, Jody McBrayer and Cherie Paliotta talked to Family Christian Stores about the new album, their recent trips overseas and the lessons God is teaching them.

FamilyChristian.com: Oxygen is a pretty unique name. How did you choose it?

Cherie: Oxygen is the one thing that nobody will ever dispute over. Every single person on the planet needs it and it's the one thing that actually unifies every person on this planet. That's how we view Christ in our lives.

Michael: It's interesting that several songs on this record actually mention the phrase "the air I breathe." It's more affirmation that that should be the theme of things.

FamilyChristian.com: Michael, one of your close friends, Jess Cates, wrote some songs for the album, right?

Michael: Jess' family are founding members of the church I belong to in Franklin. They're pretty much the first people I'd ever met [there]. They're a real musical family. All of his brothers and sisters sing and he's had a real interest in songwriting since I've known him. He would play the piano and kind of mimic me or if I played something on Sunday mornings [he'd say], "Come teach me that." We've been friends throughout the years and when he got his publishing deal we all went out to celebrate. It just happened that when we were doing Oxygen some songs came across the table that had his name on them. I was excited to [hear] how they sounded and even more excited that the group liked them.

FamilyChristian.com: Which ones did he write?

Michael: "Make It Last Forever" and "I Don't Wanna Go."

FamilyChristian.com: You received a little help from Aaron Neville on a song. How did that come about?

Jody: We released "Can't Live A Day" to mainstream radio last year and it did really well on the Adult Contemporary chart. I think that Aaron had heard that song and mentioned to somebody [that] he was planning on doing a gospel record [and] he would like to do something with Avalon. Somehow it got back to our record company. We ended up doing "By Heart, By Soul" [with him].

FamilyChristian.com: All of you performed on the Child of the Promise tour. Did you enjoy that?

Jody: The tour was great. The cast was wonderful to travel with. We had a wonderful time getting to know some people we haven't traveled with before, going out again with some people we hadn't seen in awhile and of course the musical itself was beautiful.

FamilyChristian.com: Do you have any stories you could share from the tour?

Jody: There are a couple of really good stories, especially with Michael because he had to change clothes about 15 times a show so you never quite knew how it was going to be.

Michael: I played a Roman soldier for one scene. I was just backstage shootin' the breeze and thought, "I'm going to go out and see where they are." Well, when I popped open the door to the arena, my scene had already started. I didn't have my helmet on so I [back] there and just slammed it on. Of course my helmet is down [over my eyes] so I look like Marvin Martian from Bugs Bunny. I run in front of the wisemen and deliver my line but I'm cracking the wisemen up [so] they can't speak because they can't see my eyes. I quickly get off stage and make my re-entry and by that time I just pulled the helmet off. That was one headdress fiasco.

Then I'm the priest in the next scene. I run back, do the quickest change, pull [the helmet] off [and put on] this priest hat that has strings of yarn going over it. As I was going off stage it got caught on the curtain and so there's no time because I have to be up there. The yarn just flops down in my face.

Oxygen by Avalon

Jody: He's standing sideways, looking out the side of his eyes, and you can see this piece of yarn going like this in his face. We're all trying not to laugh.

Every night when I would walk up on stage somehow duct tape would be stuck to the floor so I would have to move really quickly like I was surprised and my foot would get stuck on the duct tape. Cherie and Janna are sitting down on the floor and their backs are to the audience so they can laugh.

Cherie: Not only that but he had to wear these shoes that were too big for him. The very first couple of nights I see this white stuff coming out of his shoes. He stuffed his shoes with toilet paper!

Jody: The wardrobe lady did and she tried to paint it black so that we couldn't see it. Of course she missed the part that was sticking out. We used a real baby one night; that was a surprise. They used Aaron Benward's little girl. I went out there to sing and I had to take the baby from Mary and the hands were moving!

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