Interviews & Media Articles

Source: Delirious.org.uk
Author: Dave Wood
Date: 14 Mar 2008

Dave Wood speaks to Delirious? guitarist Stu G about the release of their latest album, Kingdom Of Comfort.

Having spent the past few years touring many of the world's poorest countries it's perhaps no surprise that the latest album from Delirious? is peppered with global issues. "The last 2 years of touring around the world and especially experiencing communities in extreme poverty has really affected us" explains Stu G. "Lyrically we're just trying to live out the wrestling and questioning that we're right in the middle of. We hope people will join us on our journey."

One track in particular, Love Will Find A Way, contains the striking line "I try to make sense of the things I've seen between the poverty and the five star dream". When asked about this particular lyric Stu conceeds there's no easy answer. "[I'm] not sure if it will ever make sense" he admits, "but what helps is to realise that wrestling with your conscience is better than being indifferent to the suffering of others."

There's a fresh new feel to the music on the album. Lyrically the band seem to be pushing hard, and musically they're clearly enjoying themselves. So does it feel fresh to the band? "Well we hope we never stay still so yes it is a conscious effort to create new stuff" Stu agrees. "A song like Kingdom of Comfort fills me with hope that we can still create great music."

Another track on the album, Wonder, appears to be more of a love song to a sweetheart and I suggest to Stu that it's more 'earthly' than a song about God. "Wow I didn't know the earth was not about God" he jokes. "I know what you're saying though. Yeah the song Wonder was written by Martin after meeting a young girl at Prem Kiran in Mumbai. It's really about his process of thinking through that situation."

So, Love Will Find A Way talks about poverty, Wonder is about a girl in Mumbai, what inspired the intriguingly titled 'Stare The Monster Down'? "The first verse is about the fall of Lucifer but kind of in the first person so a little bit dark..." explains Stu. "The second is about us turning away from the cries of the oppressed and poor and the future, asking us 'you had the solution in your hands why didn't you do anything about it?'. The third verse", he continues, "is about my Dad's battle with cancer. The monster is anything that comes to destroy us. For Daniel it was Lions for my Dad it was cancer. The chorus simply asks the question 'is there a place in your arms of love'?".

In addition to the five members of Delirious?, several other people played an important role in 'Kingdom Of Comfort'. "We used Gerard Le Feurvre again on cello and song writers Marty Sampson [Hillsong United] on 'We Give You Praise' and Iain Archer [formerly of Snow Patrol] on 'Break the Silence'" says Stu. Then there is producer Sam Gibson. "Sam is a brilliant engineer and has a great personality that works really well with us in the studio" Stu explains. "We have a lot of production ideas between us and Sam has a great head on him to help us decide what goes on and what doesn't. It's a good team!"

With Poverty being such a big issue on this album, Delirious? decided it was only right that a proportion of the royalties went to charities that aim to help the deprived. "We felt like we couldn't mouth off about helping the poor and not put our money where our mouth is" reasons Stu. "The Prem Kiran project in Mumbai is something that we unanimously agreed to help. It's in the slum red light district in Mumbai and the kids are all kids of Mums working in the sex trade. The amazing folks at Prem Kiran look after the kids, feed them and educate them to hopefully break the cycle of poverty there."

Delirious? recently shocked fans with the announcement that drummer Stew Smith is to leave the band later this year. History suggests that once a band starts to loose its members, the future doesn't look good. So I put it to Stu that Kingdom Of Comfort might be the final album from Delirious? "We certainly hope not" says Stu reassuringly. "Stew leaving is a big thing for us and we have been going a long time, but we don't feel like we're done yet with making music and playing around the world".

So if the band still has a future, what have they got in store? "We're pretty much on the road constantly this year," says Stu. "We will do the main album tour in the UK in October. We'll be performing songs off Kingdom Of Comfort all year on the road. In the US we're playing a few Joyce Meyer events and other gigs dotted throughout the year." A new DVD is also a possibility "we're talking about it now" reveals Stu. "All news will be on the website but there are a couple of ideas floating about." Talking of websites, Delirious? recently relaunched theirs. "It's absolutely essential to jump on board the cyber revolution" explains Stu. "We hope this is just the beginning. We'd love to hear any thoughts and comments especially any ideas of things people would like to see on there."