10 Questions with ... Darren Mulligan

1. Brief History/Synopsis

I was born in a small, rural town called Monaghan on the border with Northern Ireland in the Republic of Ireland. I grew up in a small village called Ballinode. We didn't have much. We had a shop, a pub and a church. Very small community but wonderful people and wonderful memories. I attended school all the way through and went to university. Studied philosophy and geography. I dropped out to play in a heavy rock band. I currently live in Spring Hill, TN just outside Nashville.

2. What does a normal day at home look like for you?

A normal day is hard to describe. Obviously, I live two different lives - one is at home being a daddy to three kids and a husband to my wife, Heidi. A day at home would be, my wife would wake up early to get our kids ready for school. She would tell me to get out of bed but I'm so used to my touring schedule that I struggle to do that, but I need to learn to do that because she holds the fort down when I'm away and I need to be more supportive at home. I get up. I bring the kids to school. Hopefully my wife and I can go for a coffee. I like a cappuccino and she gets a latte. I eat one of those chocolate cake-type things and we spend some time hanging out and getting stuff done around the house. We pick the kids up from school, get homework done, take them to soccer, ballet, hip-hop, whatever they're into. And then my wife can go and do the things in the evening that she can't do when I'm away on tour. We get the kids down early, my wife and I watch a movie, just chill out for the night, try and catch up. Then we get up and do it all over again. When I'm out on the road, it's the usual routine. You get up in the morning later than you should. Get some breakfast. Maybe go and work out at the gym. Come back, get some lunch. We have devotional times around 4:00pm where we read the word and pray for each other and seek God's face for what He has for people that night. Get some dinner and get ready for show time. Play the show. Meet with fans afterwards. Get back on the bus, have some food, go to sleep and then start it all over again.

3. What's the song that you just can't get out of your head right now?

I can't stop listening to a song called "Believer" by Imagine Dragons. I love the lyrical content of the song. I love that he opens his chest up to you and lets you really hear what's inside his heart. I love his voice and the power he delivers it with. I love the rawness of the mix, you know, it's a very simple chorus with a little bit of guitar and some lead parts. It's very sparse but still has this incredible power, mainly through his voice and the emotional content of the lyric.

4. How much do you travel, what are the challenges? How do you juggle life on the road with wanting to be home?

I travel way too much. I've probably done somewhere around 450 shows in the past two years. By the end of this year it will be 500. I guess, you know, I want to take advantage of the incredible support and encouragement we've had from the radio community, from fans and the record label. We want to reach as many people as we can. I think a lot of artists starting out tend to say yes to too many things and tend to say no way too little. We're fortunate that we're in a position, starting next year, we're able to say yes to things and also to say no to things, to protect family life. Balance is not really something I see in the kind of life we live. I think there are seasons when you're gone, and they're wonderful, but also incredibly difficult. And then there are seasons when you're home, and they're wonderful, and they also present their own challenges, too. I think I'm trying to make the best of the situation you're in, to be present. Be present when you're on the road, be present when you're at home. Leaving your wife and kids, it hurts them a great deal, as does it me, but we're called to something greater. The Lord has called us to give our lives away, to love others. This is just part of what we do.

5. What Artist or Pastor has had the greatest impact on you?

There have been so many people that have spoken into my life since I came into a relationship with Jesus nine years ago. One of the most indelible marks has been left by a friend of mine named, Noel Kenny. He's a pastor at Liberty Church in Dublin, Ireland. And Noel, for as long as I've known him, and I've known him since shortly after I got saved, he's continually spoken encouragement into our lives. And in a culture where people tend to not want people to succeed as much as themselves, Noel was one man who wanted us to do well. He wanted us to succeed. He would speak wonderful words over us. He would tell us that someday we're gonna go to America and someday we're gonna help bring this sound from heaven and we're gonna see thousands of people come into relationship with Christ and people healed and restored. He believed that. He believed he heard that from the Lord. So, honestly, all these years later, a lot of what Noel spoke into us has come to pass. He was an encourager, is an encourager. He's still a great friend. I'll never forget the things he's done for us.

6. What's the last book you read?

The last book I read was Velvet Elvis by a guy called Rob Bell. I love the irreligious stance he took on his view of Christianity, the church, how we do things, why we do things and the motivations behind what we do. I think the greatest take away from that was to learn to love people without an agenda. To allow people to see Christ in me as opposed to trying to convince them of Christ. He really challenged a lot of the stereotypical conservative views of the church in America and all across western civilization. It helped me to look at how we have community, what the community of the church should be like, is like, in a very different way. I loved it.

7. Funniest or most embarrassing moment on the road?

There have been a lot of embarrassing moments on the road. I have fallen off the stage multiple times and attempted to appear like I have not fallen but rather pulled off some incredible rock move. I have told an arena in Ohio that I'm really glad to be with them all in Detroit, too much hissing and booing and laughter.

8. Tell us what's going on with your latest recording.

A couple of songs on the album have made a big impact. One of those is "Magnify." It's a song I wrote a couple of years ago. I was in a place where I should have felt real joy and real happiness but I found myself discontented and in a mild depressive sate. I asked the Lord, why is this? Why do I feel like this? I have a great family, a great record label. He said, Darren, you feel like that because you talk about me, you sing about me, but you're not really with me. It's like talking about your wife, showing her public affection, but then rejecting her in private. So, that was a song that was calling me back into an intimacy with Jesus, much like David talks about come and magnify the Lord with me. I was trying to command my soul to magnify the Lord, to make much of Him. The bridge says, God be great, God be strong, God be louder. It was my prayer asking God to take away all other distractions, the noise, the jealousy, the pride, the lust, the envy - all those things so I could just see Him again. A couple years later, we released that song and the Lord used it to really heal a lot of hurt in me and my family in a time we were going through a crisis. Another song is "Point To You," our current single. I understand theology somewhat, a little bit, as much as an Irish guy like me can. I understand that Jesus loves me and has forgiven me, but I have a great deal of difficulty of applying it to myself, forgiving me for what I've done and the things that I do. It's a song to remind me that Jesus still wants me with all my bruises and my scars. He's not ashamed or embarrassed of me. I'm trying to grasp hold of His forgiveness, of His mercy, of His loving kindness and trying to apply that to my life in a practical way. If I do, I won't act like someone who is unforgiven. The chorus says point to you, the idea being that whenever I do apply that practical love to my life for Jesus, I want to make sure that anything good people see in me is pointed back to Him. He's the author and finisher of everything that is good in me.

9. What organization/service group are you affiliated with?

We're affiliated with an incredible organization called Compassion International. They help to provide resources for people who live lives of poverty. They help provide medical services. They help provide adoptions services. They help provide schools. They help provide water and basic necessities of living, all across the world. They have a heart to share the Gospel in doing that. We have found those guys to be in credible partners, very thankful for them. What they do, they reach people we could never hope to reach, but together we can a great many people actually see the practical love of Jesus.

10. Person you'd most like to have a discussion with, living or dead.....Deities are excused from this question

I would love to have a conversation with a guy called Francis Chan. I've read a lot of his books. I love what he stands for, that he was a man that lead an incredibly successful congregation at a mega-church but he walked away from it because he was hungry to find a more genuine, real form of community. He walked away from a position of authority and acclimation and risked it all because he believed Jesus is who He said He is. I find him incredibly interesting and incredibly genuine. He's willing to ask the tough questions and admit when he doesn't have the answers. He'd be a good hang.

1. Favorite Bible Verse....life verse?

I don't have a favorite Bible verse but I do have a favorite chapter - Ephesians 2. I love how it reminds me that I was once dead in my sin but God, because He is rich in mercy and full of love, has made me alive with Him. And not just made me alive, but seated me in heavenly places right now, through Him, beside God the father. It reminds me that Jesus was willing to reach me at my worst. He brought me out of a place of terrible shame to a place of honor beside him. Jesus is not insecure. He's not worried about me taking any of His glory because He is all glory. He is completely holy. Some days I cannot believe that He would love somebody like me. But He does! And not just rescued me, but Ephesians 2 goes on to say that He has saved us because He has these great works prepared from before time began, for us to walk in. So, we're saved not just to be saved, but purposefully to go into all the world and share the love of Christ.

2. How & When did you become a believer?

I grew up a Roman Catholic family in Ireland. Terrific parents. Had so much love, so much freedom, so much compassion. I was allowed to dream as a kid. We didn't have a lot, we were relatively poor, but we had all the love we could ever ask for. Our Catholocism was strictly religious in that there was no relationship or understanding that Jesus would want friendship with somebody like me. We were inclined to do many good things to avoid going to the terrible place called hell. Unfortunately, doing good things out of a sense of religiosity or being compelled to do because of guilt or shame has nothing to with the good work and the incredible person of Jesus Christ. I didn't realize this, so as I got older I fell into adultery, drunkenness, blaspheming, violence. My life gradually became so far removed from the incredibly good ideals and morals my parents instilled in me. But ideals and morals without Jesus Christ could not keep somebody like me from myself and my lust, my pride, my greed, my arrogance and my envy. I fell into a very difficult place. I had a girlfriend at the time who was struggling with her own set of demons because he father had been an alcoholic and she had suffered with eating disorders. I moved to America in 2003 to play in a heavy rock band while my girlfriend remained in Ireland. It was there that she fell in love with Jesus and he completely rescued her and healed her of the illnesses and her depression and her loneliness. A year later, I returned home to Ireland and asked her to marry me. She said yes, amazingly. A few weeks before we got married, I gave my life to Christ, realizing that I was dead and in my sin and there was a huge chasm between me and God that only Christ could cross. And He crossed it for me on two pieces of wood on a hill called Calvary when He was crucified and died and rose for me. But I didn't fall in love with Him at that point, I came to Him out of fear. But it's the kindness of God that draws men on to repentance and on to Him. It was a year later when God told me to tell my wife all of the things I had done, the affairs and some of the heinous things I had done. I waited for her to reject me, because I deserved to be rejected and deserved to be shamed. But my wife had met with Jesus and she saw me with His eyes. She was able to put her arms around me and tell me she loves me and forgives me for everything I'd done. It was that moment that I truly fell in love with Jesus. I saw His mercy and grace firsthand.

3. What's the biggest "God moment" you've ever experienced? Personally or professionally, when has God shown up in a powerful way?

The most profound moment I've had with Jesus has to be that moment nine years ago when my wife put her arms around me. Because I'm always waiting for the rejection, always waiting to get what I deserve, always waiting for the payback. But when my wife was able to put her arms around me, to forgive me for the terrible things I had done, she demonstrated for me the love of Christ in a very pure, earthly, but incredibly holy way. Honestly, it's that reconciliation with her that has led to this beautiful reconciliation with Jesus in my life. On the days when I'm too tired to chase after Jesus, too tired to pray, too tired to read, I remember what He has done for me and I remember that moment with my wife when everything changed.