Tony Cummings met up with veteran gospel team CL6 who've been around 11 years before releasing their CD debut

CL6

There aren't many groups around who can sound funky and streetwise with percussive urban beats yet can woo any audience with silky smooth acapella. But then British fivesome CL6 aren't your average vocal group and though the four-track EP 'The Maxi Part: 01" is their first CD to hit the retail racks they've been paying their dues on the church circuit for an astonishing 11 years. When I spoke to the group I asked Michael "Miikz" (pronounced Mikes) Hamilton about the 11 years' wait for their recording debut. "I think that's the beauty of what God's given us as a ministry, and as CL6. A lot of it is just basically born out of our friendships and our unity together. And obviously we went to different schools, different colleges, that type of thing together. It's just been basically a refining process really, you know. Hence our label as well. We've got a record label called Refinery Recordings and 'The Maxi' is our first release."

Such are the formidable chops of this team of Essex harmonizers that they've been able to attract Andrew Small as the producer of their debut. Andrew is the music director for Kylie Minogue and drummer for Massive Attack. CL6 consist of Miikz, Mark Allick, Cal-l Muirhead, Dean Shanka and Francis Nortey, all hailing from Ilford and nearby Walthamstow. The guys have known each other since childhood. Four of them went to school together in Ilford, Francis and Dean were in primary school together. In addition, Cal-l, Miikz, Dean and Mark had all grown up in the same church - the New Testament Church of God.

The CL6 story began when the NTCG headquarters in Overstone put on a national talent search contest for its member churches. Miikz decided he wanted to enter the contest, and set about putting a group together. Mark, Dean and two other friends soon joined him. Cal-l was just 13 years old at the time, but his performance in a Sunday school play had been enough to convince Miikz of his talent. He invited Cal-l to a rehearsal at his house and drafted him into the fold immediately. The group was originally a sextet (hence the name CL6, it stands for Christ-Like Six). But two members left for other pursuits and were replaced by Francis.

Over the years CL6 became known on the insular London gospel scene for their impeccable harmonies. For many years, strictly acappella today the group are open to a wide range of musical influences. Said Miikz, "You know that there's seasons for everything and we are vocalists, that's what we are. And all we do is sing and song write - we tinker with instruments. And what we believe as vocalists is it's about singing so we can sing a rock song, we can rap, we can sing an R&B song; we just use our voices as instruments. In terms of the sound I would think that it's sort of Boys To Men meets Coldplay meets the Beatles meets Take 6. Over that 11 years practise we've been refining our sounds. We've developed our sound, we practice hard and hopefully when all the stuff comes out you'll be able to hear the harvest on record."

I asked the group what inspired their songwriting. Said Cal-l, "I think a lot of it is, if you want to put it under an umbrella, is testimonial. You listen to a lot of the lyrics of our songs, a lot of the things we're talking about is experiences we've been through as young Christians growing up and going through the things that we've gone through. So a lot of the things - material content - is relative to our own life experiences. We find with that that we can encourage a lot of other young Christians. But then our material has matured as we've matured so a lot of the older Christians can identify with what we're talking about and where we're going. With regards to catchment market, it's funny how we've kind of been accepted into many secular regions whereas some of the more traditional gospel acts or artists or ministers find it a bit more difficult because of this style or the image and various things like that."

CL6 have put a commendable amount of thinking into how precisely they intend to be all things to all men in order to save some. Said Mark, "We believe it's very important to package the message correctly. Obviously, if you're going to a dinner party you need to be aptly dressed, if you're going to the basketball courts you're not going to dress like you're going to a dinner party. So the people you speak to, you need to speak to them in the language that they would understand really. I believe that a lot of artists struggle with getting the balance right. We are striving but we believe that we've got a bit of a winning formula in terms of songwriting and stuff like that. We actually heard a famous rapper once say, 'First I grab their ears then I grab their heart.' It's interesting that a lot of secular artists have these biblical principles but they just don't know it. But with our music, we know who we're serving with it, and why we're trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible."

This year CL6 have made hugely impressive live appearances at the Greenbelt Festival and A Celebration Of Gospel Music tribute shows held in London as part of Black History Month. The group's debut full length album will be released in 2008. And in everything these veteran harmonisers are determined to keep their career defiantly God-focussed. Said Mark, "God's brought us together for a reason, and he's given us gifts which we intend to use for his glory. We love doing God's work. We have a passion for doing God's work, and want to do it to a higher standard. It's all love and we want to share that with everybody."