No other band has done more to wrench praise music into the '90s than Littlehampton's Delirious?. Tony Cummings spoke at length to the band's lead singer Martin Smith.
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Tony: Was Kevin Prosch an influence on you and the
band?
Martin: "Yeah, he's a good friend and we speak
often on the phone. He has been an influence certainly at the start of
things - he was saying 'Do it.' Musically, I think we are probably
treading different paths now but in terms of the same heart for people
we definitely feel the same."
Tony: How did the Cutting Edge Band evolve?
Martin: "What happened was that Stewart and Tim were already playing
in the church and I arrived and we decided to get a little band
together and play at Cutting Edge. We never dreamed it would turn into
a touring band or anything like that. We were just a band there to
help serve the rest of the team there. Over the years the songs
started to come in giving us more our own identity. Then we started
recording together."
Tony: So how did the studio at Littlehampton
start?
Martin: "Tim financed the whole studio and I
brought a 24 track recorder and a few bits and pieces in with me. It
was totally organic really, and something that we feel God did have
his hand on. We just went from one day to the next until last August
when I had a car accident and was in hospital for a while. I really
felt God say that now was the time to get everyone together and go
full time."
Tony: Tell me more about the car accident.
Martin: "I was recording a live album at Grapevine up in Lincoln. We
finished on the Tuesday night packing up, my wife Anna was with me,
she was working there doing children's work and also Jon the bass
player. We were coming home and we were one road away from home and I
fell asleep at the wheel. We crashed through a wall. My wife and Jon
got out. It took them one and a half hours to cut me out. It was
really close. I broke my leg and spent two weeks in hospital. It was
quite traumatic really."
Tony: But the Lord seems to have turned that accident round
for good.
Martin: "Most definitely. It really stopped us
in our tracks. We felt we really needed to get on with what we are
here on the earth to do. We decided to give our jobs up and our income
and try to make it work on our own, a band of five people, sound
engineer and full time administrator."
Tony: You were obviously getting a lot of creative fulfilment
from record engineering and production. Was it difficult to give up a
lot of the recording?
Martin: "Yeah, it was difficult
because I did enjoy doing that and also meeting people. But I just
knew at this time that that season had come to an end and it was time
for me to put my whole energies and focus completely on the music we
were doing together. The band became my priority."
Tony: How come you decided not to go the usual route via a
contract with a Christian record company?
Martin: "We're
not doing it to prove anything or put down the existing companies.
I've got great relationships with all the companies. It really was
that God started to say that we needed to go a different way. The
band. We need to record and produce ourselves with the help of Andy
Piercy and just to let out what was coming out. Some of the songs were
10 minutes long which normally wouldn't be allowed on an album, but we
really felt right that we should do this, be faithful for where we
we're at. First, we recorded these little tapes..."
Tony: Who put up the money to manufacture them?
Martin: "We financed it ourselves and then recouped costs on the
first one and then put that into the next one and progressed from
there. We felt it right to record six songs and make them a good
length but only charge five pounds 'cause they were aimed at young
people without necessarily a lot of money. We wanted to keep the price
down. Furious Records really has grown from that."
Tony: So what's with all these wierd
names...Delirious...Furious?
Martin: "I don't know.
Originally, the first name was Curious Music 'cause everybody was
wondering where we were coming from - they were not quite sure what
was going on. Furious Records came next because we needed a company to
look after the records and Delirious was in the plot of rhyming with
that! Then there was the question mark on the end! Nothing intensely
spiritual, we just liked it! We were glad to see the back of the
Cutting Edge Band name because we never liked it anyway. It was a
little bit pretentious calling yourselves the Cutting Edge Band. It
had only come out of being part of that event. So we are pleased we've
got a new name. It signifies for us the beginnings of a new era, being
full time."
Tony: Does Delirious? have outside financial
help?
Martin: "No, we've not got any external financial
support. One of the things we've endeavoured to do is not go that
route but try and run a company well and with integrity so that God
blesses that. We are a ministry but are also running a business that
will finance that ministry. So we are wanting to be prophetic in that
business as well and make good decisions and right decisions. The only
reason we are doing this is God. We never gave a record to a record
company. We are gigging around the whole country selling all these
records and that's all going in to our company whereas normally you'd
be on a 15 per cent split, never seeing money for years. Selling our
own records has been one of the main things that has financed us."
Tony: Furious have had some releases besides Delirious?
Martin: "Stu Garrard has a tape out on Furious Records and also we
had an artist called Jeff Searles who is one of the worship leaders at
Anaheim, California. Now Jeff is going to do his own thing. But now we
feel we want to concentrate completely on our own stuff. In that sense
we don't want to become a record label, we don't want to sign other
bands or other people. We feel God saying we need to focus on what we
are doing, we've got enough on our plate."
Tony: Has it been demanding being on-the-road?
Martin: "We are finding it very physically demanding, more than we
thought actually. For example, if we're playing in Sheffield it means
leaving at nine in the morning and getting there at three in the
afternoon, setting up, playing the gig and then driving back and
getting back at four in the morning. It's a very, very long day and we
might have to do that three times in a row, though obviously we build
in time off during the week."
Tony: Because Delirious? is a ministry band, are the
demands increased?
Martin: "I think they are. We've
never done a gig that has ever been the same. Every gig is different.
We really do try and follow our hearts and what God is saying tonight
and that requires a lot of energy to keep it fresh and to stop
yourself falling into a pattern. Part of that I suppose is not us but
we really do want to maintain a close walk with God. But we've got a
great team and everybody has got their own different roles and it
seems to work really well."
Tony: Are you comfortable with being called a worship
leader?
Martin: "In a sense I think that everything
needs a leader so I don't mind being called the leader but when we are
playing we're a band. That's how we like to be thought of, that one
member is not more important than the others. At a gig, at times I'll
look across and say, 'What'll we do next?' Then one of the other lads
will say, 'Let's go in that direction' and they will lead it. Even
though I may be the bottom line of the thing, there is a real sense
that we're all in it together. We've moved away from that worship
leader and his band model and believe that we are all prophetic, we
all have a part to play."