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radioSTU G (Garrard to the taxman) spoke to a group of journalists at the Greenbelt Festival this year. Here's what he said.
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Have you got a name yet?
"Yes, we have. It's called One Sonic Society - OSS."
Where did that come from?
"Just the vision of the four of us being together in unity, which is One; Sonic being sound and wanting to keep creating and pushing forward with that; and Society, that it's not just us but a community."
Does that mean you are going to be based largely in America?
"Don't know just yet. It could happen. We're thinking about it but for my wife and I it's not possible to make a quick decision on that."
How old are your kids now?
"18 and 15."
At your Greenbelt gig you performed a Kanye West cover. What made you sing that song?
"Well, I know that some people kind of think Kanye is a bit of a clown but I loved the '808s & Heartbreak' album. I thought that was an amazing album. I think what attracted me to that was what he was writing about - the pain, break up, his Mum dieing, stuff like that. I identified with that kind of writing and thought it was amazing, once you get past the auto tune vocal thing. I thought it would be fun to do a Kanye West cover on acoustic guitar."
Will One Sonic Society be working in the Christian scene or in the mainstream?
"At the minute the music is definitely for the Church. It's got a vibe that is kind of a Deliriousy-type thing, obviously because John and I are in it, but we're wanting for it to be really creative and pushing forward all the time and they are great songs."
Do you think OSS will be able to straddle the mainstream market as well as the Christian one?
"For me, the new band is an extension of what we've been doing and just one of the things that's part of the next picture for me. I'd be silly to kind of turn my back on CCM because that's where 85 per cent of my life has been and where I have contacts. I'm definitely working hard there but looking for opportunities to broaden that as well. Like we did in Delirious? when we released the singles and did the mainstream tours. I just want more of that really. My manager is Paramore's manager."
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I've been thinking allot about these guys lately. It's nice to see some feelings shared as to the reason of the death of Delirious.
In regards to that, I've been wondering, in spite of current church culture, whether or not it's best to have a "band" in the church.
It's weird, as a musician it seems apparent to me that placing such a strong focus on the players can be counterproductive to glorifying God. We've all been indoctrinated by rock "star" celebrity culture, to varying degrees.
I'd personally love to be more creative with church music. But at the same time I think that the intricacy of melodies can be distracting. It's like the more complex the music gets, the more specific it gets in style. The more stylistically specific it gets, the more those who don't care for such a style will be turned off. If they like that style, they can then become pre-occupied with the worshippers instead of the worshipped (God).
I love music, but I feel like Martin might have gotten it right to quit. It's like that Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah." The song has that line, "you don't really care for music do ya?" Ultimately I think God really doesn't care, especially when the music becomes a ruse for the true gifts of the Holy Spirit... but I still love music, and as a musician, I hope I'm wrong.
From this point of view though, it makes sense that selfish expression resonates with the world. Whereas submissive expression, though it might sonically suck, is the true calling of music the body of Christ.
I personally gravitated to the parts of Delirious' songs that complained or sounded sonically selfish.
There's so much personal involvement in a life committed to music that I really wonder whether or not such extreme isolated self-involvement isn't truly at it's core, Satanic.
I'll stop ruminating now, again, I hope I'm wrong. I love music, and I think personal (selfish) music sounds best.