Blink and you might have missed it. The release of 'Run Thru The Wastelands' by Cardiff duo ONE TO ONE was a gem. Tim Cockram investigates.

A.P. One of us usually has the initial idea, we both love arrangements, that's the creative part, sorting it all out.

Do you ever start with the words?
D.P. I wish we could. I find lyrics really quite hard. Sometimes you're trying to put something across and it just sounds so Christian. You're sure that no one outside the church is going to understand it, but there's the other extreme where you don't say anything. I find it hard to get what I'm trying to say across without sounding 'wet'. When I first get a line, I have images in my head of what the song's about, so I
normally base the words on the images. It doesn't have to be 'Christian' but if it comes from a Christian who has God in him how can it not be Christian?

A.P. We nearly always start with the music. Neither of us are poets; I'll be the first to admit that. It's really hard slog getting the words; sometimes it's immediate, just like that. Then you've got a song, but you usually have to be going through an emotional crisis for that to happen.

Do you see yourselves as Christians who are musicians?

D.P. No. Correction - musicians who are Christians definitely. I've got no qualms about working with non-Christians or doing secular stuff provided it doesn't go against my Christian beliefs. We would be doing music whether we were Christians or not but because we're Christians we can be more positive even if we're not being directly evangelical or very spiritual.

A.P. The church and the church scene are always in danger of putting people in a mould that they don't want to be put in. For musicians who are writing songs and want to communicate the Gospel there's a great danger in being moulded as evangelicals instead of musicians. Although the two can be mixed it's not always so. It depends on where you're being led and that's not where we're being led. Whatever you believe comes out in what you do!

D.P. It's often the case people decide to do a concert but they don't decide to do a concert where non-Christians are likely to go, where they can like or lump the music. Instead there are choruses and hymns at the beginning and an appeal at the end, which they think they have to do - 'the Christian format', whereas the songs and the witness of the musicians should communicate! The church is beginning to wake up to the fact that people aren't going to come to churches, even if you put on a concert. You need to find some neutral ground.

One to One

Going out to the people?

A.P. Definitely, yes.

How did 'Run Thru The Wastelands' come about?

A.P. A long process. We had enough material and were negotiating with various Christian labels. Kingsway just came along at the right time. Things worked out just right, time-wise.

D.P. Before then we'd done an album by ourselves. We did that because we realised we needed to do something to get record companies interested. I think you've got to do that these days as they are after a 'complete product', which they can take on. We hawked it around and didn't get any joy at all.

A.P. We got the great refusal letters, which we'll pull out of the bag in a couple of years.

D.P. We just kept plugging away, they're not going to ring you! Originally 'Run Thru The Wastelands' was going to be a cassette album. Mai Pope (the producer) sent off the first couple of songs to John Pack at Kingsway, who was I think pleasantly surprised, so they released it on CD as well - we didn't expect it at all.