Interview: Tim Hughes
One of the UK's most popular worship leaders, Tim Hughes, releases his brand new album 'Love Shine Through' this month. LTTM caught up with Tim to get the inside story on the album and his thoughts on worship leading.
Tell us a little bit about your new album 'Love Shine Through' and what the inspiration behind it was?
Love Shine Through is a collection of worship songs that I hope will encourage people in their expression of worship. Whenever I record an album, the desire is that the songs can resource the local church and be used in corporate worship.
For Love Shine Through, there’s a real sense of looking at the theme of faith. A faith in God, faith in what is to come and the importance of God’s people standing up, stepping out and choosing to place their trust in Jesus Christ alone. However, I’ve really tried hard to find ways of expressing this faith and this belief in the context of the reality of a broken world in which we live. Sometimes it can be easy to make these grand statements, to confess that we’ll do anything for God and yet there’s not that sense of reality that life is hard and that we’re full of questions. We know what it’s like to experience fear and disillusionment, but how does faith look in the midst of that? So I guess the theme, both lyrically and musically tries to capture high elements of excitement, praise and raw passion but at the same time, our vulnerability and a deep longing for more of God.
Which is your favourite track on your new album and why?
Choosing my favourite track is really difficult. I think though it would have to be between Counting On Your Name and Ecclesiastes. Counting On Your Name looks at the importance of choosing to trust in Jesus Christ alone and the hope that He brings. However, Ecclesiastes has a special place in my heart, partly due to the story behind writing it. It was late one night and I was at Martin Smith’s. We’d been working on some songs and trying to work some words from Ecclesiastes into a bridge for a song but it just wasn’t working. In the end we left it and thought maybe this could become a new song. Martin started to play the piano and sing out some melodies and pretty quickly together, we crafted the song. I remember recording the demo that night and it was a pretty emotional moment. It’s great when a song spills out that quickly which hopefully captures the sense of emotion. With this record it’s been fantastic to work with a bunch of different people. The Rend Collective, Michael Guy Chislett, Mark James, Kim Walker Smith, David Grant - all of these people bring huge amounts of energy, creativity and have encouraged the album to be pulled and pushed in different directions.
You've worked with a lot of different people on this album, from the producer and songwriters, to the musicians and singers. Can you pick out a few highlights from working with that team?
Particularly with this album, I’ve worked hard at collaborating with others such as Phil Wickham, Martin Smith, Ben Cantelon, Nikki Fletcher, Stu G and Nick Herbert. Having the creativity and insights of others, has definitely stretched me and pushed me into different directions, different melodies and ideas. I’ve loved the energy of that and feel that it’s definitely helped keep things fresh for me.
The highlight for me was working with Martin. We had so many great chats and some great moments. I remember recording some of the BVs and on one particular take for 'God Is Coming,' the singer Tony just let rip, started singing and adlibbing these amazing lines. It was such a holy moment, as soon as he finished no one said a word in the studio and we all ended up praying and worshipping together. It always excites me when we have those God encounters in the context of recording in the studio. It was also fantastic to have the energy, humour and quirkiness of the Rend Collective. They’re amazing guys and I think their boldness and brightness has really impacted the sound of some of these songs.
What's your song writing process?
I’ve found to keep fresh as a songwriter, you’ve got to be careful to avoid having a one set process. For ages I would write songs on an acoustic guitar. Of late, I’ve found sometimes the acoustic guitar has been a hindrance rather than a liberating thing for me. That’s just the season I’m in. I’ve actually found writing on a keyboard, even though I’m pretty hopeless at it, has actually freed me up to find different melodies.
If you could work with any song writer, who would it be and why?
If I could work with any songwriter it would have to be Chris Martin from Coldplay. I just think he writes such amazing melodies, that really grab the attention of people. His songs are so accessible, and profound. Even better, would be to get in a room with Chris Martin and Brandon Flowers who equally writes the most incredible songs.
In your opinion, what makes the perfect worship song?
In my opinion, there’s no such thing as a perfect worship song. What makes an amazing song is authenticity and something that is real and heartfelt. People can tell if something comes from a deep place and I always believe that is essential for having an amazing worship song that connects people. Other than that, I think you need to have something fresh. A fresh lyric that explores and explains something of the character of God and a memorable tune that people want to sing again and again. Emotion is the key part to worship and so a great song has to capture great emotion.
Away from the studio, your day job with HTB and Worship Central must keep you pretty busy. What do you enjoy most about that?
I absolutely love heading up the worship at HTB and leading Worship Central. I get to work with some of the most amazing people who are great friends, who I love dearly. Being part of a team is so important. I’ve always said this but the most glorious place you can ever lead worship is at your home, local church. It often is also at times the toughest place but when you get to see God meet with people you know and love, it’s amazing. When you get to see God move through the good times and the bad times, it adds so much to the fulfillment of leading.
With Worship Central it’s been exciting to step out in training others, running different events and we’re developing a course that people will be able to use for themselves in terms of training and developing worship leaders in the local church. It’s a similar mould to Alpha. We’re also trying to release more song writing from within the team so we’re really excited that on March 24th, at the HMV Forum in London, we’ll be recording a new live album. Myself, Ben Cantelon, Al Gordon, Nikki Fletcher and others will be there. If people are interested in finding out more about Worship Central then do visit the website worshipcentral.org where we're trying to find as many ways as possible to resource worship leaders.
What advice would you give to any aspiring worship leaders or songwriters out there?
I think the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever had in terms of leading worship, is that a worship leader is someone who takes their private cry and makes it public. There can be a lot of emphasis on the front, in terms of worship leading. A lot of people can focus on the skills of leading, the production element, the creativity, the singing. It’s all well and good that we stretch ourselves in terms of the practicalities of leading worship but essentially great worship leaders are people who just love worshiping God. They are the people who close themselves away in their room and worship and who always are trying to engage more with God, not just in a public setting but also in a private one. If you want to become a worship leader then learn what it means to seek God in the private place. I think this is also true for songwriters. Songs of worship will, always come from a deep place and an encounter of worship.
You're stuck on an island, it's hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your mp3 player. What track is it?
If I could only ever listen to one final song, I think it would have to be Fix You by Coldplay. It has incredible, raw emotion. I absolutely love it.
What does the next year hold for Tim Hughes?
Next year, there’s lots of exciting developments as I mentioned with Worship Central. We’re recording a live album and we’re also releasing a book, which we’re going to develop into a course. There’s lots going on but it’s all very exciting.
