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It might seem like only yesterday, but exactly one year ago today, on 15th December 2003, World Service was released in the UK. I thought it would be nice to mark this anniversary in style and dedicate the frontpage of Delirious.org.uk to World Service.

The main part of my World Service anniversary special is the next in the Delirious.org.uk series of exclusive interviews. Julian Kindred, the man who Produced World Service, talks all about making the album and what went on behind the studio doors, in this fascinating interview. It's been a long ongoing project to try and get Julian's interview together. It was actually his idea to do the interview in the first place. He contacted me back in March with the offer of doing an interview, but putting together the questions and actually putting them to him took a long time, mainly because he is such a busy man. He told me that since he produced World Service for Delirious? he has been inundated with offers of work. That shows the high esteem Delirious?, Julian and indeed the World Service album are held in by other members of the Christian music scene. We finally completed the interview a few weeks back, and I decided to hold it back until today, the first anniversary of the album's release.

Julian Kindred at work in the studio
during the recording of World Service
I first met Julian back in May 2003 when I visited Delirious? in the studio while they were recording the album. It was a fantastic experience, watching Julian hard at work at the sound desk. He knew exactly what he wanted from the band, and knew how to get the best results. I remember at the time being completely amazed at the sheer attention to detail that went into every second of every song. For example, while I was there Jon was laying down the bass for 'Rain Down'. Julian had him play the final 40 seconds of the song over and over, each time recording it, playing it back, and deciding to record it again. Nothing but perfection was good enough.

Julian is a great guy with a superb sense of humour. Not long after I arrived at the studio back in May, the first time I met Julian, Stu G was serving cups of tea to everyone in the studio (no tea boys here, just d: boys). Julian and I took our cups of tea from the tray and Julian turned to me and said "I bet you've never seen an American drinking proper tea before have you?". Remembering the American obsession with coffee, and their lack of taste for 'real tea', I agreed with him that it was indeed a rare sight. "That's because I'm Canadian!" he laughed. The joke was twofold. Firstly on me for being a typical Brit and not noticing the difference between an American accent and a Candian one. And the second for recognising that Brits are aware of our American friends lack of a good cuppa.

Another photo of Julian in the studio
Anyway, I digress. I hope everyone enjoys reading the interview with Julian. You can tell he really does have an immense sense of pride in Delirious? and the album he and they made together. He's completely honest in what he says, even admitting to not liking Audio Lessonover: "I wasn't a fan of the last [album] but there are some great moments on it. I really like 'Take me Away'. I personally feel that we made one of their better records, without any discredit to their previous work". He also tells some fascinating stories about how some of the songs were created on the fly: "'Feel It Coming On' came from a jam of them playing for about 20 minutes and I just happened to record the whole thing as I was setting up something else. About 15 minutes in we all looked at each other and knew we had something to work from."

So, a year on and the album is still as fresh and exciting as it was on release day. It's still generating new interest in places like Germany and Delirious? say there are pleanty of places they want to take the songs on tour in 2005. Their service to the world is looking pretty good.