Remedy Drive has been an established name in Christian music for many years now, and with their latest album comes a project that is so much more than the music - it is about saving lives.

BreatheCast had the opportunity to talk to frontman and founder David Zach about the band's work with The Exodus Road, an organization that looks to spread awareness and save the lives of children caught in grips of the sex slave trade. Zach passionately shared with BreatheCast about the mission, focus, and goal of the band, and how they plain to use their Kickstarter fundraiser to make a differences in thousands of lives.

BreatheCast: You guys are banding together for a noble cause. Where did this passion to help people involved in Human Trafficking come from?

David Zach: I watched the Kony 2012 video with my daughter two years ago - about the boys being abducted and forced to fight on the front lines in Kony's army. At the end of the video both of us were crying and Ava said to me "Dad - why not God protect those boys?" Something moved in my heart that day in a new way.

We'd done quite a few benefit concerts for Invisible Children and other organizations trying to combat the exploitation of children - but then we'd go back to playing normal concerts. I started dreaming that day of what it would look like if I could leverage everything we'd built in the last 15 years of touring to be loud about the condition of the most vulnerable among us. After watching that video was when some of the early lyric ideas were first written down for a counter trafficking album called Commodity.

I also read a lot about a guy named Aaron Cohen that would go undercover in the red light districts around the world to rescue girls out of sex trafficking. When I read about what he was doing, there was something in my heart that was on fire - I wanted to be part of something like that - something significant. So - it was the most amazing thing last year when I sat down with Matt Parker of the Exodus Road - who does the same thing - he goes into the darkest places in the universe to rescue girls and boys. They didn't know that I had just written a bunch of songs about freedom so it was a really awesome moment of convergence. When I met with Matt I realized that I didn't just want to sing about this - I wanted to be part of it. And that's how I ended up on the streets of Southeast Asia in February and it's why I'm going back in July.

BC: What are some commonly unknown things about Sex Slavery, and please if you can share some of the startling statistics?

Zach: I was surprised to find out that there are more people in slavery today than there were during the days of Abraham Lincoln. 28 million. I did a ton of research and reading about how the trafficking works in different parts of the world but statistics and numbers are all in my head.

When I first watched video surveillance of boys, the same age as my son, being taken by motorcycle around a city in Southeast Asia to clients by the hour - or the first time I sat down with a girl who was maybe 13 or 14, whose "fee" was $60 - it was soul crushing. I don't know what 28 million looks like but that one girl with pretty eyes that should be innocent - I'll never forget what she looks like. And we weren't able to rescue her that night. It was devastating.

BC: "Commodity" is the first single off of the upcoming album. How will the song and the rest of the album tie into what you are trying to accomplish with The Exodus Road?

Zach: I believe in melodies. Songs remind our souls of freedom and hope. Songs can break through the barriers of indifference and inaction in a very unique way. This whole chapter starts with a song - a song of freedom. My dream is that this album contributes to the soundtrack of the resistance and that when people listen to this record they are inspired to get in the fight - to live with dangerous selflessness. If there is to be lasting systematic change in the area of human trafficking it's going to take people knowing about what is going on. My hope is that when someone hears this album they are compelled in the way I was compelled, watching that video on boy soldiers, to join the fight.

We all have ways we can contribute to freedom. Justice is in the hands of the ordinary. The Exodus Road has ways for ordinary people like myself to end up on the front lines of the fight. I met a couple in Southeast Asia that spent two weeks doing surveillance over there - normal middle age Americans that used their vacation time to essentially spy on a network of traffickers. Ordinary people. There is a youth group in Illinois that hosted a spaghetti dinner and sent the proceeds to Exodus Road. Other people give $35 a month to sponsor the undercover surveillance work of team delta or team alpha. It starts with a song for me but it gives me a chance to talk about it in an interview like this one and I intend to do that for the next several years.

"I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." - Gandalf the Grey

BC: Your press release said this is your most important work to date. In your career as a band how has the ministry aspect developed and what is the long term goal?

Zach: Call me naive but I think that rock music can contribute to freedom. I know I'll never get to see the actual influence this record has but I believe with all my heart that it will play a role in decisions that people make to get involved in the resistance. I shared this quote the other day on Facebook "Ending human trafficking is not idealistic or naive. It is audacious. And it is people of audacity who change the world." - Rob Morris. So I guess I want to be audacious. I will continue to go back and go undercover in Southeast Asia with the Exodus Road - and then I will come home and tell the story from stage. My dream is that I'll get to be part of an actual raid where we rescue girls. Everything I've been involved in so far on the front lines has been surveillance and gathering evidence. My wife overheard my daughter tell her friend when I was overseas "My dad is in ____. He's rescuing girls from slavery." I've never felt the way that made me feel before.

BC: Tell us about the Kickstarter campaign, and what can everyone do to help?

Zach: The Kickstarter ends on Saturday, May 31. We're depending on our friends and our fans and our community to make this record because we're releasing it independently (without a record label). We added some cool rewards including jewelry made by women in Southeast Asia who were formerly trafficked or exploited. When I was over there I got to tour the place where they make this stuff. It's so pretty. And it gives them a chance at making a living in a new way.

BC: What has the response to the new project, mission, and ministry of the band been like?

Zach: We've never had a song like "Commodity" before where it's such an immediate connection to everyone who hears it. People want to get involved - you can see it in their eyes. Even if you didn't know the story behind it - there is an urgency in the lyrics that changes the room when we start to play the song.

BC:  What's the biggest testimony shared with you guys throughout this whole project?

Zach: What's cool about talking about counter trafficking from stage every night is that I meet people from all over the country and world that are just starting to get involved in some way. I met a girl from the Netherlands at a festival we played in Germany that used music therapy to help rehabilitate girls who have been rescued out of sex trafficking.

BC: How do you balance musical artistry with ministry and career?

Zach: Not very well. Not to mention that I have a wonderful wife and three kids. The strangest thing ever was coming home from Southeast Asia. I had just been in 30 or so brothels and clubs where they were selling human beings and then here I am in Tennessee at my kids' baseball game. It's a bit surreal at times. What I love about this chapter is that the mission is so tied into the art that it's not a balancing act. Each aspect is so intertwined that I don't have to compartmentalize it. The songs bleed from the dream of freedom and I'm not going to dilute it. It's one thing. I'm leveraging everything I have built to sing a child's song of freedom.

BC: What's next for the band?

Zach: The album comes out in September. We're developing a concept along with the album where we do events in communities that aren't just concerts - they will be counter trafficking events where the community comes together to celebrate freedom but also to dream together and strategize in the fight for liberty.

To view Remedy Drive's Kickstarter campaign for "Commodity," click here.

www.remedydrive.com

Follow Remedy Drive on Twitter @remedydrive

For more information on how to help The Exodus Road eliminate sex trafficking click here.