I was out in LA a couple years ago and got set up to write with one of the original members of Augustana, Josiah Rosen. I met him up in the Hollywood Hills where he was staying. I played him this charging guitar part that I had worked up on my acoustic and he suggested the idea of writing a song about how life is kind of a mad mission. I could totally relate to that.

There are so many things we are trying to do in life and we never know for sure if we're going to succeed, but we go for it anyway. Maybe it's all for naught. No one knows the future but it's in the pursuit of our dreams that the real reward comes. It's the power of the connections we make with other people and the trail we blaze that is left behind. It's the love for one another, the love for the dream that outlasts our human experience.

The band and I got together a few months later to work out the tune at our friends' place in rural Coatesville, PA. It's an old schoolhouse on a beautiful piece of land that we have been fortunate enough to use from time to time to get into a zone and really work on our songs. I remember how great it felt working on Mad Mission because it was a song I was really excited about and to hear it grow into the full band arrangement was something special. Hearing Brian bang away on the drums, Evan coming up with the perfect guitar lines and Chris throw in harmonies in all the right places really brought the song to life.

There are so many things that we can't control, but what we can control is the art that we put out into the world: art that will hopefully last long after we're gone. It's only because we put so much love into it that it stands a chance. We might be missing something between nothing and everything, but we're still searching. We're still chasing those dreams… even if it is a mad mission.