Tony Cummings quizzed Tom Eccleshall, worship pastor of London's Kings Cross church, KXC

It is amazing in a way, the last song that Andrew worked on is a song called "With Me". There were a few problems with the song with the pre-production so he was working on it right to the end; it was the last song he ever sent us. The worship leader who wrote it had lost a brother-in-law. It's a song about bringing our questions to God; choosing to worship in the midst of all those questions, all that pain and grief [felt by those left in the] land of the living; never stop singing you're good and your love endures for ever. So that was the last song he did.

The church had been planning an event; we were really excited about getting together and praying in the middle of London, and then this happened and we didn't quite know how the evening was going to turn out. We did a kind of thanksgiving talk for Andrew; his family flew out to be there. We did that song "With Me" and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. I saw Andrew's family on the balcony giving their all in worship. I don't know how to describe it but it was a moment I'll never forget. It was amazing to have it recorded and filmed and captured.

Tony: I really appreciate you sharing that with me. What about other songs on the album? Are there a couple which are impacting people in a particular way at this time?

Tom: I think so. There is a song called "All Things New" which has been a huge theme of our church. God is the creator and he loves to come and restore. That's the story of Christ who will come and restore the earth and make everything new again. It's also the story of us as individuals; God comes and restores us and changes our lives. That song has been doing really well. The song "Kingdom Come" works well. The song "Be Lifted Up" sung by one of the worship leaders Karen Gillespie which talks about choosing to put God first above everything else. I've found that song to be really powerful in our times of worship.

Tony: How many vocalists are there on the album?

Tom: Good question! Rich and Lydia Dicas, who are worship leaders; Karen Gillespie, myself, Daniel O'Callaghan, Abbi Johnson, Tanya Follet and Amy
Dolley, so quite a few.

Tony: Has 'All Things New' got any exposure in America yet?

Tom: Yes. We've got an arrangement with Worship Together. They came over and were there at the album recording and we made some café videos. We did six of the songs we recorded acoustically a few days after. We were a little bit tired by that point; it had been a busy week, an emotionally draining week. The album was recorded on the Thursday and we had Friday to recuperate and then on Saturday we did all the acoustic videos. They've been promoting them in the US to worship leaders and people who might be interested in looking for new songs in their churches over there. They've staggered those videos so there's still one more to come out. It's been great to see messages coming in from little towns in the US and places around the world, using our songs; it's an amazing privilege to be part of that. I think we always write songs for our community, for KXC; it's our goal to write songs that connect with what God's doing in London, in King's Cross and our community. I think it's healthy to have that as our goal. But it's amazing that God's using these songs elsewhere as well.