Tony Cummings reports on deejay STEVE LEACH whose debut CD fuses preacher samples to dance music

Steve Leach

The release by Elevation/ICC of the 'Right Here In This Room' album by Steve Leach brought to a new generation of dance music devotees a practice that had started with the groundbreaking House Of God EP in 1989 and reached underground popularity with the Raving Loonatics in 1993 - using samples of preachers over pounding dance beats. Cross Rhythms gave radio play to Steve's "Come On Then God" and broadcaster Mike Rimmer quizzed the Bournemouth-based deejay-turned-recording artist about his life and album. He explained how he had first begun deejaying.

"I got into deejaying probably 10 or so years ago. I was keen on people like Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers, what I consider more intelligent than just a bunch of 'oompcha-oompcha' all night long. I was fascinated with all the latest technology and using that very creatively. From my paper-round and from my Saturday job, all the spare money got saved up towards my first decks. I got my first night club gig just slightly before I was 18 which was probably a little naughty, but that was alright. And as a student I played lots of club nights here and there around Bournemouth where I was at University. That kind of went alongside the Christian things that were happening at other points. So the two were going along together. My dad was ordained as an Anglican vicar in the week of my birth, so I've grown up in churches and very much with that background. I'm very grateful that from such a young age I had a solid grounding in my faith. I hope for that for my children, as and when."

As his Christian faith grew Steve became more and more aware that the worship music in the churches was a million miles from the pounding rhythms of clubland. He commented, "It was kind of a natural progression to get into deejaying and then another natural progression for that to be worshipful, to explore how it could become worshipful. So right from the start that was really the aim and that continues to be the aim - that people would engage with God where they can't relate to traditional worship music."

Steve continued, "The acoustic guitar is clearly dominant when it comes to worship, and we all know that worship is about our heart and our lifestyle and it's a thing that happens the whole time. When it comes to the point in the service where we say 'let's worship', inevitably that means we get a guitar out, or a pop rock band, and I don't think it needs to be that. There's much more music out there and much more technology and it's important to use a whole range of creativity to worship God. That's what I'm about, for my own sake because I'm quite bored by the dominance of the acoustic guitar and for Jesus' sake because I suspect that he might be too, and certainly for the sake of those that aren't in our church because it's so single-minded in its approach. I'm not saying that I want dance music to replace that, it's just another string to the bow. Of course we need more drama, more art and more everything, but this is just the bit that I'm enjoying particularly."

It was at the 2008 Spring Harvest that the idea for what was to become 'Right Here In This Room' really took hold. Steve was deejaying at the Bible week and each day would take the talks delivered by the seminar speakers and scan them for possible extracts eh could play over his dance tracks. ICC/Elevation Records liked the whole concept and Steve was asked to put together an album. "When I needed to put this album together, I had a limited time and needed to find 10 or 12 tracks worth of samples. It was a case of trawling through hours of sermons and talks and that sort of thing. That got quite boring. It is the big celebration ones where you tend to get the best rant and the best delivery. I guess the atmosphere you can imagine would be like that. Whereas more seminar or intellectual talk doesn't lend itself readily."

There is indeed an impressive selection of speakers sampled on 'Right Here In This Room'. The turntable hit "Come On Then God" features Pete Greig of the 24/7 Prayer movement; "Do You Remember" offers the voice of Soul Survivor founder Mike Pilavachi; while the album's title track samples Louis Giglio, the famed head of America's Passion events. Commented Steve about that track, "I haven't counted how many times it repeats the words 'right here in this room', but it's probably about 150 or 200 times, something like that, so that was the obvious name for the song. It samples Louie Giglio talking about that whilst it might seem like there are not many Christians around in this country, he senses such an excitement because he believes that there are enough even right here in this room to start a revolution in this nation. I think that's exciting. I think it's one of the stronger tracks on the album and really it's my prayer as well as maybe being prophetic."

As well as the banging beats, Steve also provides music of a more chilled-out variety for a regular event in Bournemouth. He enthused, "One of the most exciting things that I've been privileged to be involved with is where we open up a big old Anglican church from about 11.00pm until about four in the morning every Friday night for a couple of months. It's right in the heart of the town in amongst all the clubs and bars. As Christians, we open that place up and it's all kind of relaxed music and lots of candles and projected visuals and poetry and little arty installations, as well as tea and coffee and sweets and that sort of thing. There's no start or finish, there's no talk or any 'Sign up for the Alpha Course Here', there's none of that. It's just open, and we invite people who are out and about clubbing around Bournemouth to come and see what they make of it really. And they love it! It's so exciting to be a part of. The vision for it came from seeing some 25 thousand people clubbing in Bournemouth each weekend at night, and that's when all the churches are closed. And then the following morning, these people are all in bed and we're all in our churches singing away, and we just thought that we need to be open at this time. Again, it's about creating that space where there's people, Christian or not, who are likely to think about or encounter God, and it's great. We've had some brilliant moments there."