Interviews & Media Articles

Source: CDNow
Author: Brian Mansfield
Date: 06 Nov 2001

"Seven or eight years ago," recalls Martin Smith of the British rock band Delirious? "we started a youth event called Cutting Edge, which was once a month on a Sunday night -- just invited the kids from the local area to come along. It was basically two hours of worshipping God, but in a very modern, contemporary style. Basically, we were a rock band. Those songs -- 'I Could Sing of Your Love Forever' in particular -- came out of that meeting and was a very organic, genuine reflection of where we were at the time."

The songs that came out of Cutting Edge -- "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," "Shout to the North," "The Happy Song," and "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?" among them -- helped spark a worldwide revival of worship music. In Great Britain, Delirious? managed to crack the mainstream radio charts. In the United States, "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" became a touchstone for young musicians with a heart for worship by inspiring several recordings and launching a successful series of worship-music compilations.

"There was a radical move amongst young people who wanted to express something differently," Smith says. "As those songs have sifted out, I think that sparks people off to write themselves and, also, to put a package around [it], which they're calling now 'the new worship movement.'"

Deeper: The D:finitive Worship Collection compiles the best worship songs from Delirious? It includes new recordings of four songs and offers a new tune, "Never Forgotten." At the same time, the group has released a disc of new songs in Great Britain that should find its way stateside in 2002.

CDNOW: You have an album called Audio: lessonover recently out in the U.K., and you've got a completely different album out in the states.

Martin Smith: The main one for America, we're doing like a best-of from all the records that we've done so far. It's more of the songs people can sing in church, really. It's got 25 songs on it; we've re-recorded four of them.

Which ones?

"Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?" "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," "Lord, You Have My Heart," and "The Happy Song." Then we've recorded a brand-new song called "Not Forgotten."

In our church, we don't do hymns that often, old ones. But that morning, we were doing "Here Is Love Vast as the Ocean." There's a line in it, "He can never be forgotten." That really struck me. I thought, "As a generation of believers, we still need to have faith and still need to keep singing that. Even though it looks like we're sometimes losing ground as a church, in terms of community and society, we must always remember that Jesus will never be forgotten, that He is alive, and His kingdom rules."

"Even though it looks like we're sometimes losing ground as a church, in terms of community and society, we must always remember that Jesus will never be forgotten, that He is alive, and His kingdom rules."

You've said in the past that you didn't feel like the definitive version of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" had been put to tape. Is this new version that?

I think it's good. You may have to be the judge of it yourself, actually. I'm a bit too close to our version now. But I like it.

Deeper is something other than a typical greatest-hits album, since it is a worship-focused collection. How did you approach it in terms of sequencing?

Really, we just wanted to have it as a collection for people and just provide it as a resource for people. Of course, we wanted to try to put some of those songs back out [to] radio. A song like "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?" has never, ever been a single. We thought we'd try and record a version that's a bit more up to date and sonically stronger so that we can release it. It's quite exciting in a way, really.

Are you planning to release Audio: lessonover in the states next year?

Yes, we will. Probably about June. It's packed full of really good tunes, quite radio-friendly. It's quite a mainstream-sounding record. We just wanted to write about the love of God and our own relationships in a very normal way. It's a slightly different lyrical content than stuff you would sing in church. But we're really excited about it.

Why the difference in the release date between the two countries?

Because we're releasing this compilation first. We're releasing the compilation here [in the U.K.] at Christmastime. So we're swapping it around.

How are you perceived differently in the U.K. than you are in the United States?

In America, the songs seem to be, in some areas, bigger than the band. That's why they pigeonhole us. Actually, we've just been on tour with Bon Jovi. There's a very real sense for us of wanting to get out there and be an influence in culture and be salt and light and be a good rock band and be able to be in those situations as well. Because we feel that's what Jesus would've done, too.

"Even if you came to see us at Bon Jovi, I think you'd find it very worshipful. It's just that people wouldn't have their hands in the air, because it's not church."

You do two different types of concerts -- the mainstream stuff, like opening for Bon Jovi, then you do concerts that are more worship-oriented.

To be honest, they're not much different. We just might change a couple songs. Even if you came to see us at Bon Jovi, I think you'd find it very worshipful. It's just that people wouldn't have their hands in the air, because it's not church.

How does the role of the audience differ in the two types of shows?

When you're talking the language with Christians, you can be very clear and say, "We're going to worship the Lord." But when we're playing in a mainstream situation, I want to get everyone there worshipping God, but I can't speak that language. I have to encourage them in a different way. You have to get in the back door and let God move on the music in a sovereign way, and stir people's hearts, open them up. Music is the language of the spirit. Music, even without words, can cut a man in two, and God can get in there.