Louder Than The Music

"We got in the charts at number 20 and we thought we'd conquered the whole world! It was like, 'I can't walk out my door ever again without being recognised!' Of course looking back that was completely ludicrous but to us then it was like we'd made it. We were being played on the radio, it was like, Wow!"

"If 'It's Ok' had been a number 1 single, which I think it deserved to be actually - not all the singles we put out deserved to be even played, but if that song in particular was a hit, that would have changed our lives. But if we trust God, we trust that it was the right thing."
- Martin Smith.

A couple of months ago I received an e-mail saying that Martin Smith wondered if I fancied meeting up with him to do an interview. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. I've interviewed Delirious? a number of times over the past 10 years for Delirious.org.uk. I interviewed Jon Thatcher recently on LTTM, and last year I interviewed Stew Smith just before his final gig with the band. A few years before that I interviewed the whole band together before a show in London. But this was the first time I'd interviewed Martin on his own. It was also the first time I'd ever been asked by someone to interview them!

So, last Friday morning I drove over to Littlehampton to the new offices of Furious? Records. Last time I went to Furious? they occupied a large building on an industrial estate, with a spacious warehouse on the ground floor and offices and a conference room on the first floor. But recently, with the sale of the distribution arm Fierce to Kingsway, Furious? have considerably downsized. They now share a modest 4 desk office with CompassionArt, located above a shop a short distance from Martin's house. On arriving I chatted with Clive (Furious?) and Paul (CompassionArt) for a while before Martin arrived. We then moved next door to a small meeting room where easy chairs are arranged around a coffee table.

I had in front of me a sheet of paper full of questions to ask Martin. It's hardly difficult to prepare a list of things to ask the lead singer of a band like Delirious. With 17 years of history behind them and last years announcement that the band would be ending later this year, I had arranged my questions into three categories: Past, Present, Future. I wanted to start by taking him back to the early 90's when the Cutting Edge band, as they were then, first got started. I then planned to move on to the numerous flirtations with the mainstream music industry that the band have become famous for. Then there is the present - the decision to end the band and the forthcoming farewell tour. Finally the all important questions: What next, and will we ever see Delirious? back together again?

So, armed with all these questions, I set about unpicking one of the most remarkable careers in Christian music. Martin seemed relaxed, open and willing to talk. As the quote at the start of this blog shows, he was pretty candid. I threw in some questions that were perhaps a little unfair; Were there any bad feeling from the rest of the band when he told them he wanted to leave? Does he ever wish Delirious had done better in the charts? But there were no objections, he happily answered everything. He even suggested I question him about the book his wife Anna is currently writing about him!

I did narrowly avoid a catastrophe mid interview when Martin spotted that the battery on my laptop, which was recording the interview, was very nearly flat. He then helped me hurriedly find a socket to plug it into before the recording was lost. With that near-disaster averted, we continued, until finally my list of questions was exhausted. With the recording over, we continued chatting for a while. He had a few things on his mind, some of which will probably come out in the coming months.

Overall I think it will be an interesting insight to the Delirious? story. The interview will be online in the next few days here at LTTM. I hope you enjoy it.

Dave