With Chronology Volume 2 hitting stores next month, and Volume 1 pleasing fans since it came out this past March, Third Day is certainly giving fans plenty to pick up. Both volumes are packed with exclusive remixes, never-before-seen video and documentaries highlighting the band's beginnings and travels to date. With 24 number one radio singles, 24 Dove Awards and three GRAMMY Awards in their incredible career, there's certainly plenty to reflect upon.

Recently, lead singer Mac Powell spoke with NewReleaseTuesday.com about the projects and what they mean for the future of Third Day.

Let's talk about Chronology. I listened to it this morning and it's a great project. Was it wild for you guys to go back and listen to all this stuff?

It really was. I don't listen to a lot of Third Day stuff to begin with, especially from the first album. I get to listen to it all the time onstage, so it's not like when I'm at home I need to listen to a Third Day record. It has really been years since I've heard some of these older songs and honestly, I didn't want some of this stuff to get out there. I feel like we're a lot better now. Our songwriting has improved and my vocals are stronger, but at the same time, there's a lot of "diamonds in the rough" from back in those days. It would be a shame for some of our newer fans to not be able to hear some of those songs and discover the history of Third Day. That's what we're excited most of all.

Besides music, you've got a ton of videos on here as well. Was it tough to narrow all of the song choices and videos down?

It really was much harder than I thought it would be. You know, we've been together for 14 years now, and we've made a lot of music together. If you were to pull ten Third Day fans from an audience and ask them what their favorite song of ours is, you'd probably get ten different answers. So, it was hard choosing what those songs should be.

As far as the videos, we really wanted to give fans some extra things that have never been available before. We wanted talk about some of our favorites and the history behind some of these songs. There are also some great videos that show us, literally, at the very beginning. These were our first shows with David and our first time playing with Tai. All of these videos are from years ago that I thought I had actually gotten rid of.

And burned!

[Laughing] Well, I just wanted to keep them away from the general public but now, for some reason, the record company wants to get it out to everybody.

As I was listening the album and looking at the liner notes, I was thinking that as an artist, it must have been helpful putting these projects together. Maybe there were things that you've gotten away from in your live performances or in recording sessions?

That's a great point. I don't know about you, but my memory is fading the older I get so it was good to go back and listen to those things. As a song writer, I kept thinking about where was I at in that season, what was I doing during that time, and what was effecting the music? There are things that we have lost and we can go back and grab hold of those things again. I really did that as I was going through some of these older songs.

Is there one song on either of these projects where you said "I have to have this song on here. This is the best we've ever done!"

Wow. That's a tough one. They are all our babies, so it's hard to pick one. "Consuming Fire" may not be everybody's favorite song, or even my favorite song, but it just seems to be the quintessential Third Day song. It was the first song that all five of us played together. We were a four piece band for a couple years and then we invited Brad to tryout just to see if it would work. That was the very first song he played with us and as soon as we were done, we knew it was right. There was something great about it and we knew we had something special. It's also a great worship song but it's still a rock song as well. That's certainly not new, but back in 1996, worship was not the huge genre like it is now.

With both volumes coming out this year, I'm hoping this is not a signal of the end of Third Day. This is just a mile marker and you guys are heading onto bigger and greater things, right?

Absolutely! In fact, that was one of the fears we had when we started discussing these project. In more cases than not, a "Best Of" record singles the end of things. But for us, that's not true. I really wanted to call the record "We're Just Getting Started," because I feel like everything that we've done to this point was just a learning experience and has prepared us for the future.

That's great news! We're certainly excited for that future. We appreciate you taking a few minutes to chat with us.

Thanks so much. God bless!