Still riding the momentum of its huge-selling Grammy-nominated debut album, End of Silence, RED returned with Innocence & Instinct, a provocative new album forged in a perfect storm of inspiration and catastrophe. From the literary spark of Dante's Inferno to the bloody aftermath of a 75-mph highway crash, RED absorbed a flood of ideas and emotions that empowered the band to create next generation rock songs. Finding the sonic sweet spot where epic and primal converge, Innocence & Instinct features animated dynamics that super-charge its innocence vs. instinct theme. “Innocence” is where we all begin. “Instinct” can quickly take over. A lifetime is spent in this internal tug-of-war between who we really are and who we hope to be.

“Innocence & Instinct is about the duality of man,” explains guitarist Jasen Rauch. “The album examines the fight between our childlike innocence and the instinctive side that makes us do things we shouldn’t. There are moments that switch between never feeling so close to someone to never feeling so abandoned, but that's part of the human experience. These extreme feelings, these paradoxes, coexist all the time.”

My favorite song on Innocence & Instinct is RED’s excellent cover of “Ordinary World.” Accented heavily by piano and strings, this Duran Duran cover takes a decidedly RED direction, featuring a twisted fusion of dreamy orchestration and loud six-string distortion.

“There’s just a dynamic and depth musically in ‘Ordinary World’ that is not present in most pop songs,” explains guitar player Anthony Armstrong. “Technically it’s a difficult song that challenges the pop formula. Lyrically, the song just fits the overall theme of Innocence & Instinct by its longing for a return to something more familiar, more secure, more ordinary.”

I got the great opportunity to interview all four band members in person at the Creation Northeast festival about their current single, “Ordinary World.” Here is what the band shared with me about the song.

Please tell me about the background in recording the song "Ordinary World."

Something we were talking about in the studio is that we didn’t know what song we wanted to cover, and originally we were thinking about a Nine Inch Nails song. We ended up picking this song, originally recorded by Duran Duran. It perfectly fit the theme of the record. Something we also wanted to do with this album was challenge ourselves musically and this song really did that for us.

Do you have a life verse or any Bible verses you think goes with the song?

Proverbs 13:10: By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom.

What's the take-away message for listeners regarding the song?

What’s cool about the song, and although it may not be a blatant Christian message, you can interpret the song from your own perspective. With the theme of Innocence & Instinct, we just kept thinking of how we’re dealing with all these things around us--the recession, the earthquake in Haiti, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico--does an “Ordinary World” exist? Even for believers, we ask God to show Himself to us, and reveal His ways. We’re not supposed to question God, although that’s our human nature. God has promised us that there is a place without all this craziness, and that’s Heaven. We’re just stupid humans. We took a song that some other guys wrote and we’re trying to use it as a vessel. We really like how the song turned out. It was originally a political statement. We wanted to make a classy rendition of the original and we took the song in a different direction.

Here are the lyrics:

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
I thought I heard You talking softly
I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio
And still I can't escape the ghost of You
What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some would say
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Passion or coincidence once prompted You to say,
"Pride will tear us both apart"
Well now pride's gone out the window
'Cross the rooftops, run away
Left me in the vacuum of my heart
What has happened to me?
Crazy, some would say
Where is my friend when I need You most?
Gone away

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some would say
Where is the world that I recognize?
Gone away

And I won’t cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Everyone is my world
I will learn to survive
Everyone, everyone
Somehow I have to find

Although the song was originally recorded by a secular artist, you can interpret the song from a Christian perspective, especially the lyrics Passion or coincidence once prompted You to say, "Pride will tear us both apart."

One of God’s main messages for us is that He hates our pride. Pride is an ingredient in every argument. It creates conflict and divides us from each other and God. As believers, we need to live with God as our King and remember that our pride will tear us apart from Him. God gave us free will to make decisions, but there are consequences to our decisions. It’s not our responsibility to question God, but instead to live by faith and not by sight.

You can watch the video here.