No other band has done more to wrench praise music into the '90s than Littlehampton's Delirious?. Tony Cummings spoke at length to the band's lead singer Martin Smith.

Tony: Was Kevin Prosch an influence on you and the band?
Martin: "Yeah, he's a good friend and we speak often on the phone. He has been an influence certainly at the start of things - he was saying 'Do it.' Musically, I think we are probably treading different paths now but in terms of the same heart for people we definitely feel the same."

Tony: How did the Cutting Edge Band evolve?
Martin: "What happened was that Stewart and Tim were already playing in the church and I arrived and we decided to get a little band together and play at Cutting Edge. We never dreamed it would turn into a touring band or anything like that. We were just a band there to help serve the rest of the team there. Over the years the songs started to come in giving us more our own identity. Then we started recording together."

Tony: So how did the studio at Littlehampton start?
Martin: "Tim financed the whole studio and I brought a 24 track recorder and a few bits and pieces in with me. It was totally organic really, and something that we feel God did have his hand on. We just went from one day to the next until last August when I had a car accident and was in hospital for a while. I really felt God say that now was the time to get everyone together and go full time."

Tony: Tell me more about the car accident.
Martin: "I was recording a live album at Grapevine up in Lincoln. We finished on the Tuesday night packing up, my wife Anna was with me, she was working there doing children's work and also Jon the bass player. We were coming home and we were one road away from home and I fell asleep at the wheel. We crashed through a wall. My wife and Jon got out. It took them one and a half hours to cut me out. It was really close. I broke my leg and spent two weeks in hospital. It was quite traumatic really."

Tony: But the Lord seems to have turned that accident round for good.
Martin: "Most definitely. It really stopped us in our tracks. We felt we really needed to get on with what we are here on the earth to do. We decided to give our jobs up and our income and try to make it work on our own, a band of five people, sound engineer and full time administrator."

Tony: You were obviously getting a lot of creative fulfilment from record engineering and production. Was it difficult to give up a lot of the recording?
Martin: "Yeah, it was difficult because I did enjoy doing that and also meeting people. But I just knew at this time that that season had come to an end and it was time for me to put my whole energies and focus completely on the music we were doing together. The band became my priority."

Tony: How come you decided not to go the usual route via a contract with a Christian record company?
Martin: "We're not doing it to prove anything or put down the existing companies. I've got great relationships with all the companies. It really was that God started to say that we needed to go a different way. The band. We need to record and produce ourselves with the help of Andy Piercy and just to let out what was coming out. Some of the songs were 10 minutes long which normally wouldn't be allowed on an album, but we really felt right that we should do this, be faithful for where we we're at. First, we recorded these little tapes..."

Tony: Who put up the money to manufacture them?
Martin: "We financed it ourselves and then recouped costs on the first one and then put that into the next one and progressed from there. We felt it right to record six songs and make them a good length but only charge five pounds 'cause they were aimed at young people without necessarily a lot of money. We wanted to keep the price down. Furious Records really has grown from that."

Tony: So what's with all these wierd names...Delirious...Furious?
Martin: "I don't know. Originally, the first name was Curious Music 'cause everybody was wondering where we were coming from - they were not quite sure what was going on. Furious Records came next because we needed a company to look after the records and Delirious was in the plot of rhyming with that! Then there was the question mark on the end! Nothing intensely spiritual, we just liked it! We were glad to see the back of the Cutting Edge Band name because we never liked it anyway. It was a little bit pretentious calling yourselves the Cutting Edge Band. It had only come out of being part of that event. So we are pleased we've got a new name. It signifies for us the beginnings of a new era, being full time."

Tony: Does Delirious? have outside financial help?
Martin: "No, we've not got any external financial support. One of the things we've endeavoured to do is not go that route but try and run a company well and with integrity so that God blesses that. We are a ministry but are also running a business that will finance that ministry. So we are wanting to be prophetic in that business as well and make good decisions and right decisions. The only reason we are doing this is God. We never gave a record to a record company. We are gigging around the whole country selling all these records and that's all going in to our company whereas normally you'd be on a 15 per cent split, never seeing money for years. Selling our own records has been one of the main things that has financed us."

Tony: Furious have had some releases besides Delirious?
Martin: "Stu Garrard has a tape out on Furious Records and also we had an artist called Jeff Searles who is one of the worship leaders at Anaheim, California. Now Jeff is going to do his own thing. But now we feel we want to concentrate completely on our own stuff. In that sense we don't want to become a record label, we don't want to sign other bands or other people. We feel God saying we need to focus on what we are doing, we've got enough on our plate."

Tony: Has it been demanding being on-the-road?
Martin: "We are finding it very physically demanding, more than we thought actually. For example, if we're playing in Sheffield it means leaving at nine in the morning and getting there at three in the afternoon, setting up, playing the gig and then driving back and getting back at four in the morning. It's a very, very long day and we might have to do that three times in a row, though obviously we build in time off during the week."

Tony: Because Delirious? is a ministry band, are the demands increased?
Martin: "I think they are. We've never done a gig that has ever been the same. Every gig is different. We really do try and follow our hearts and what God is saying tonight and that requires a lot of energy to keep it fresh and to stop yourself falling into a pattern. Part of that I suppose is not us but we really do want to maintain a close walk with God. But we've got a great team and everybody has got their own different roles and it seems to work really well."

Tony: Are you comfortable with being called a worship leader?
Martin: "In a sense I think that everything needs a leader so I don't mind being called the leader but when we are playing we're a band. That's how we like to be thought of, that one member is not more important than the others. At a gig, at times I'll look across and say, 'What'll we do next?' Then one of the other lads will say, 'Let's go in that direction' and they will lead it. Even though I may be the bottom line of the thing, there is a real sense that we're all in it together. We've moved away from that worship leader and his band model and believe that we are all prophetic, we all have a part to play."