Army Of Bones: Martin Smith talks at length about the exciting new band

Thursday 9th March 2017

Tony Cummings spoke to Martin Smith about the mainstream rock team ARMY OF BONES



Continued from page 1

Tony: It is courageous, the way you're doing it. Have all the guys gone in with their eyes open?

Martin: I think they're excited to be on the journey.

Tony: It helps that they're younger, doesn't it?

Martin: Yeah. We're just taking one step at a time, knowing that at any point you can have a surprise.

Tony: Have you lost any band members yet?

Martin: No, we're all good so far. I think that's a journey as to how it figures itself out as we go along. In the early days, someone has to take responsibility for it.

Tony: Tell me a little bit about each of them.

Martin: We've got Reuben Harsant on drums. He was at the church I was at for years.

Tony: In Littlehampton?

Martin: "Yeah. When I first met him he was six years old with his drumsticks and his saucepans and whatever, banging while I'd be leading worship; and now he's out playing with me. He's like 25 now. We've got Steve Evans on the bass. He was probably eight years old at Arun Community Church. It's amazing for me, because I've seen these guys from very little and now we're on stage making some great music. I think because of that background there's a lot of trust there: we know where we're going and what we want to do.

Army Of Bones: Martin Smith talks at length about the exciting new band

Tony: Is it true to say there's a reluctance to call on Delirious? fans for support?

Martin: Yeah. I have been quite intentional about not going to that fanbase initially - one, because I didn't want to force it on people, and two, I wanted to give people the chance to discover it, like a genuine music project, and not use the normal 'you must love this' tactics. I wanted it to be about the music. If people love the music and they want to come and see us play, that'll be fantastic. But it's not meant for that audience. These are my people, so I love them: there's no negativity. In the same way they discovered Delirious? in the first place, I want them to discover this and not be told they've got to like it because of the message.

Tony: Part of Delirious?'s problem getting support, particularly from the BBC, was due to the 'Christian band' label.

Martin: Yeah. I'm not ashamed about people knowing I'm a Christian: 100 per cent, that's what I'm living for. I don't know whether those prejudices still exist or whether they did exist, or whether the songs we had at that time weren't good enough. You can say Delirious? didn't get played on the radio because it was a Christian band, or was the music just not quite there enough? We'll never know. I think that the subject material is so different on the Army Of Bones project that it's not an attempt to try and trick people where it could be about a girl but actually it's about God. These are songs about my life. It's very clear that it's a different thing all together. It is what it is, and I'm excited to see what happens.

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Reader Comments

Posted by Paul Cooper in Wellingborough @ 14:50 on Jun 8 2017

I love the new Army of Bones album. It's fresh but with a distinctive Martin Smith feel to it, I'm convinced it will do well.
I once met Martin Smith at Spring Harvest when I was part of the worship team there and was struck by his humility, one of the biggest names in UK Christian music and he took time to speak to me and put the worship team first over his slot.
I'm now a pastor and still recount how his lack of rock star pride (which sadly ruins so many) impacted me.
I pray he is a blessing to his local church and they do great things to further the Kingdom of God in Brighton!



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