Interviews & Media Articles

Source: Str8up.co.uk
Author: Grantly Wilkinson
Date: Feb 2005

Saturday 19th February 2005 will be a day that will be recorded in the history books, as being the day that over 200 artists from the British Gospel and Christian music scene came together as one, at the world famous Abbey Road studios in London to record the biggest charity single of its kind, 'One Voice One Heart'. Grantly & Kathy Wilkinson, feature's writers for Str8up.co.uk were on hand to mingle with some of the biggest names in the industry. Grantly asked Martin Smith and Stuart Garrard of Delirious? how they came to be involved in the historical recording...

Stu G: We were recording in Eastbourne @ ICC and we met up with Les Moir, an executive at Kingsway music who is one the people involved in the conception of this project and he mentioned it to us then, and it was something he kept phoning us about and so we decided we wanted to be part of it.

Grantly: Martin you are no stranger when it comes to working with Gospel artists, tell us whom you have worked with in the past:

Martin: Well I had a great opportunity last year to work with Basil and the London Community Gospel Choir, and in fact we were at Abbey Road studios, when they asked me to guest perform on one of the songs. I also know Noel Robinson very well from the past and singers like Fay Simpson, so it's fantastic. I'm really glad that the worlds have come together it's about time!

Grantly: What's happening with Delirious? at the moment?

Stu G: We are in the studio and touring at the same time, so this time next week, we will be near our homes recording and then the week after that we go off to America and then we come back for a couple of days then off to Switzerland and then come back for a couple of days and then were are off to Australia.

Grantly: What are you up to in America?

Stu G: We have a couple of church gigs and a festival. We have a good following in America and it a great place to go.

Grantly: Tell us how Delirious? got started back in the day.

Stu G: I wasn't around back in the beginning, but what happened, a youth event stated at our church in Littlehampton which is called Cutting Edge and Martin was there right from the beginning and basically the band came about because of that event. We wrote songs and had praise & worship, so that was the kind of baby years and a year or so later I got involved and the band started to form, we started to get invites to go elsewhere and that's how it all began.

Grantly: How many years ago was that Martin?

Martin: That was 1992, we originally started the event as Cutting Edge as Stu said, when around seventy kids came along in a small drama Theatre and it has just built and built from there really and after five years we decided to take it around the country and that's when Delirious? started and we haven't looked back since, its been amazing.

Grantly: How many albums have has Delirious? recorded?

Stu G: We are getting ready to record our eighth studio album.

Grantly: So what advice would you give to someone who is looking to go down the Delirious? route?

Stu G: I think for people that aspire to do what we are doing, it's important that you work on a couple of things, firstly the gift, the instruments the talents and try to be the best you can, work on your character. You also need to be grounded in God's word and belong to a church and develop your relationship with God, have people that you are accountable to and work really hard and don't let your dreams slip just keep them in your mind and go through the doors that God open to you.

Martin: I think for us guys the amazing gift in it all has been each other probably, that the five of us have stuck together over all this amount of time and work through the ups and downs and I think that's now really started to come out in the music its just the real life aspect of what we do and the relationship, you can sort of smell it in the music I believe, you can hear it in the notes and I think we have been faithful to each other and to God and its now started to really cook.

Grantly: In todays music business, bands break up within a very short space of time, what would you say has helped you stay together so long?

Stu G: We are just normal people, but I think a few of our strength are that we are all married to good women and I think that's brilliant, and they all get on as well. We are all in the same church and that's a very healthy situation which we have seen grow. Having a focus of servicing something else some time is really healthy, its not just about the band all the time and realising that has been a good balance, and also we know how to have a great time and we've celebrated who we are and what God has done in our life. I think we are at a stage in our life where we are really enjoying it

Grantly: How do you manage to hold it all together in terms of touring, your time with God, and your family and church, is there some sort of magical formula?

Stu G: Not a magical formula, we don't spend months away at a time touring instead we try and go away for shorter periods but we end up doing nearly as many gigs I would think over the year, we tend to go away for weekends, or a week but no more then ten to eleven days and that way we keep the family sweet and also we get back to church as often as we can, we still lead worship at church every six to eight weeks.

Grantly: What would you say to someone to get him or her to buy the single One Voice One Heart?

Stu G: Simply go out and buy it because it's for a good cause and we need your help!