Interviews & Media Articles

Source: Rock Sound Magazine
Author: Nick Smith
Date: May 1999

Delirious? have had two Top 20 singles and their last album entered the charts at number 13. They're British yet they've also sold 250,000 records in the States. They've sold out Brixton Academy and Glasgow Barrowlands so why haven't you heard of them?

Delirious? are a deeply ambitious band. Trouble is, they're also Christians. Shouldn't be too much of a problem you'd think. After all, if they were Buddhists or Moslems and selling that amount of records the British press would have seized on to them. Even Satanists get front covers nowadays. Unfortunately coming from Littlehampton and being Born Again seems to mean they're deemed uncool. It's something guitarist Stu G accepts with a sigh. "It's frustrating. We've skirted around the outside of the industry and been in the charts. Having come from the Christian scene we've never quite made it. It was always underground. I think the new album will change it." Indeed it will. Mezzamorphis is a modern indie rock record that owes a debt to the likes of Radiohead, U2 and the Manic Street Preachers. It's hardly like listening to a Sunday sermon in a dusty old church. The problem is that they haven't had a big record company to back them up. "We started selling demos at gigs and selling one paid for the next one and it just grew," explains Stu. "So we're still all hands on but as we've got bigger we've been able to employ people. Now we're waiting to find out what happens worldwide as we've got a load of labels interested. We're now with Virgin in America, but we'd sold 200,000 there before that deal." Was that just through the Christian network? "Yeah, but it's more important for us to crack it here. The music is more important than the religious background."

Listening to Mezzamorphis it's by no means obvious that the band are religious but surely people can be put off going to see Delirious? because they think it's going to be one big prayer meeting. Stu disagrees. "Live, we have a big show with loads of images but they're inspired by the songs, there's no hidden agendas, no subliminal Jesus on a cross kinda things. We're selling out big venues so we're getting a much broader range of people now. We're not trying to save the world. We're just a great band and we want to entertain as many people as possible. It would be great to walk out the door and hear someone down the end of the street singing one of our songs." That's a dream that may not be too far away. Their single 'See The Star' has been picking up airplay around the country. It's also deeply catchy and very uplifting. So are all the songs about being happy?

"Lyrically we deal with every day bits and pieces. On our new album there are some quite dark things because dark things happen and we all have tough lives, but if there is a message in there it is one of hope and also perpetual change. The song 'Metamorphis' is about change, being pulled in different directions which from our point of view is being pulled by the Church or the mainstream." So are you all part of a Church? "Yeah, but that's our personal thing. The band is more a business than a ministry." It seems like business it ticking over nicely. It shouldn't be long before Delirious? claim their rightful place as one of Britain's brightest new bands. Go on, check them out, you'll be surprised.