THE CALLED, otherwise known as Steve Hall, spoke to Tony Cummings.

The Called

Tony: Why are you called The Called?

Steve: I think The Called speaks for itself in that we are called to work in a field of God's choice and God certainly spoke to me about getting involved with dance music and producing music that would have the edge of evangelism attached to it with a package that would be appealing to youth. For me, The Called is a platform for where young people can come in and listen to dance sounds, ravey sort of tunes, but I will stop the meeting, say a prayer of salvation after I've shared my testimony and then go on again. It's making a way for people to come into an environment that they might want to come into without feeling threatened by church bells, so to speak, or religious conversations, get what they are really after in life - because everyone wants amusement, everyone's after fun, especially when you're young. But we're stopping and giving the message of Jesus Christ and I don't mince my words. I will tell it what it says and it says that you've got to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus, that's what I'll give them. If it says that you ca go to hell if you don't believe in Jesus, then we got to tell 'em. We've got to not be scared. So I'm coming from an evangelist's point of view.

Tony: How do you put your music together?

Steve: I've worked with a few engineers - a guy called Anthony Friday, a tremendous engineer. He's written a few songs for us and they've been very successful. He's written another one for me, and the tune for that is super. I'm working on the words, about healing. Jesus healed me of emotional distresses, phobias, problems that we all can suffer with without it being identified when you first meet someone. I think inside our hearts, inside our minds, it takes a lot of controlling day to day sometimes and I think that's where I'm coming from with this song. It's like Jesus went from town to town healing everyone around and I think we all need to know that God will heal you, Jesus wants to heal you and not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, make us stable and have a peace. Especially in this day of unrest.

Tony: What about the other producers you've worked with?

Steve: I've worked with Jonathan Packman on the Isle Of Wight. I've been out there and done a few shows, that's how I got to meet him. He's done one of songs, "Shout Jesus", on the CD. The lyrics are a little bit raw, but then they are only samples being put together. Anthony writes his by hand which gives it its own class, but other people put tracks together by samples. What I've found though is some of the sampled sound in a live performance, people love it. Another guy, called Peter Fryer, he's in the RAF, has written seven songs and just sent me a load more. There's some good stuff which I'll be using as the year goes on. I really thank them for their work. I've even got my own set up so I can do my own writing. I've written some songs, but I don't know if I've made them quite where they're at yet.

Tony: Many readers will have heard quite a bit of your music on the Cross Rhythms The Experience sampler which is given away with the magazine. What made you finally decide to release a "proper" album?

Steve: I've released nine tracks up to date through the Cross Rhythms CD. I've felt it's good to work together. I'm completely behind the Cross Rhythms ministry and putting tracks on the CD is a brilliant way for the independent artist to get music to the grassroots Christian music supporters of Britain. Over recent months, especially after I played the Cross Rhythms festival and the activity of doing gigs I thought it was time that I brought all those tracks together, have them remastered to get them up to a really good quality sound and put them all together. There are 10 tracks on 'No Fear' and also a TV interview with me by Chris Cole of my testimony. The reason for putting it on the CD was for an evangelistic point as well as from an interest point of others who might want to say to me, 'We might want you to come and share with our young people.'