Worship veteran GRAHAM KENDRICK talks to Kate Nesta about his latest album 'Worship Duets'

Graham: It's the most recent! [When I'm asked] these sort of questions, I always say let people be the judge of that, see what they make of it. I think we've got a strong bunch of songs there and the fact that the co-writers sing on the album as well makes it different. It's hard to serve it alongside the different things I've done though. I mean I did all those albums for March For Jesus, songs to march down the street to, and I've also done singer/songwriter albums. So that's part of what keeps me stimulated - the variety, and being able to get so involved.

Kate: Is that what you'd say keeps it interesting for you, by mixing things up and keeping it fresh?

Graham: Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot more classic Christian songs I've done and I still sing them and I still lead them, but I don't just want to travel around doing my best known songs all in a row because for me, the creative process is the most exciting part. It's all about creativity, it's the process of writing and once I've written a song I kind of want to say, "Right, now let's write the next one" and it's that creative adventure which stirs me.

Kate: In 1984 you wrote "The Servant King" - one of your classic songs. Are there any other old songs like that on 'Worship Duets'?

Graham: With The Rend Collective Experiment, the idea was for them to do their take on "Servant King". They told me some while ago before this project came up, they'd been using "Servant King" when they'd been working with a guy called Shane Claiborne on their album, and they've used that song a lot with him. So it was already part of their repertoire and it just seemed like a nice progression for them to do their version, and invite me into it. They also put their own stamp on it by writing a kind of tag to it, a kind of response to it, which was where it took them creatively and it's come back really well.

Kate: You've had such an incredible career. Would you say, now, it's easier or more difficult to write music as time goes on?

Graham: I think the challenge is more so writing music that people connect with today. My generation will connect much more easily with what I do if they liked it in the first place because we have the same cultural reference points. I'm never going to entirely connect with someone who's 20 years old or 30 years old but we can find places where we can relate. Of course the Gospel, the story of Christ, is the place where you start. We completely relate with it but the way you express it is different, the kind of music you write from it is bound to be different. This is why I think this particular project has been great because I can bring a song that's maybe partly written to somebody, like the song I wrote with Jon Egan ("What You Started") and work from there. I'd written a version of the song and Jon didn't relate to the style at all. It was simply because it wasn't where he was at. But he started to re-work it and then we worked it through together, bit by bit. A whole new thing came out and the adventure of that and really working on it resulted in something fresh from two very different starting points.

Kate: Are there any more albums in the pipeline?

Graham: I certainly hope so. I think if people stop being interested in what I'm doing that will change things, although there's lots of other things that I can do. I don't think I will lack things to do. The nature of putting out albums is that if people don't like it they won't buy it, they won't use the songs, worship with them, they won't pick up on the songs and that's got a very clear message in it hasn't it? (laughs). I think if you're a creative person you never stop being that. I think everyone has periods in their life when they're particularly on it, and it happens with everybody. Thankfully I've never been somebody who only does songwriting. For example, a lot of the worship leading I do these days, I just open up the Psalms and make up a song on the spot from the Psalms and everybody's singing. And that's a new song every time, a song that you only ever use once. It won't necessarily have the shape of a song but it'll be more like a linear journey through the Scriptures. A number of years ago when I started to do that to a crazy extent, I remember thinking about this songwriting side and in my prayers I'd be thinking, "Lord, am I ever going to write another song that's going to be sung around the world?" I really felt that if that was going to be the case, I could have a ministry just singing from the Scriptures. It's not quite the same thing but there can be just as much power in it, just as much of the Holy Spirit, perhaps even more than writing songs and recording them and going through that whole process. This singing, I call it Psalm serving, is something I do a lot of and as long as I've got a voice and I can pull it off. . .

Kate: You're being very modest.

Graham: (Laughs) There are folks that have gone ahead of me, people have been mentors in my own life and I've seen them go into those final laps and finally pass away. You can always be a fruitful Christian. Even if you're not able to go on the platforms and you can't do the stuff you did when you had youth and energy, God can still use you. God will always find a way. So yeah, those kind of examples help me focus on the priorities and the priorities are always to walk with God day by day, to be full of the Spirit and to be a blessing to other people.