A Zoom Chat with Martin Smith

it's recording hello hey Dave how are ya yeah I'm very well I've had a bit of a bit of a tight haircut as you can see yeah I'm looking at me looking kid oh thank you look at myself on the camera here and I don't know not too sure but it'll grow back that's the thing about my hair I I have contemplated a lock-down grade one but the problem is I think there'll be sections of it that don't exist anymore so I'm I would be a bit nervous to go all the way you know it's just just the way is it's the sort of thing that you could get away with now perhaps you know and never again because one yes we'll be out in the world again and I know I know and I know I really want to grow a beard but again I just don't have it in me don't have the manliness to grow a beard even like a four o'clock shadow you ever done it I see now I see Anna's she's pretty hot on that she won't go near me if I don't shave it's just one of our things you know never figure it out that there we go the opposite with Jess if I go too close she doesn't like each other anyway that's about that let's talk about some of your music yeah so for those of you watching who are perhaps aware of Martin and his work Martin was the frontman and principal songwriter of a band called delirious now let's hear it from the horse's mouth once and for all does it match if there's a question mark on the end or not this internet is crashing I'm going to go to another room and see if you've crashed oh dear I'm sorry Dave you've crashed already or eaten that might be me I don't know hang on a minute gonna go to another room back yet yeah you are it might be because I've got 13 children on the internet all doing schoolwork all right right is that an is that any better um well you never you never went anywhere on me I I write when on you I think okay great so start again so just the question about Denarius as a brand do we does it matter if we include the question mark or not that's that's the kind of what I want to know from the horse's now straight off the bat the the question mark came originally as a design thing because there were five in the band and we thought it was somehow call at a time to incorporate a question mark which was like are we delirious is it delirious what is delirious and then the question mark sort of incorporated the five and so it was a it was a clever little thing that Stu Smith came up with and it stuck so there we go yeah so I was just saying for those who don't know much about you who might be watching you were the the principal songwriter and and frontman of this town called delirious yeah sort of existed as a band from what 1996 to 2009 yeah I think properly is when we left our jobs and you know went full-time went on the road 96 97 I think it might have been the April of 97 it was April the April Fool's Day I remember when we started work as a band together which is quite amusing and I think that the record that we were making at the time was was king of Falls so it's quite apt yeah a nice segue yeah and so we're not going to look at king of fools and that has been covered by other people so we're going to jump straight into 1999 and talk first about this well which for me just speaking personally this is the this is the album that got me into what you guys are doing hmm I heard king of fools I'd heard the the band you're in that sort of project you're in prior to that cutting edge and heard that stuff and liked it but yeah I I got into what you're doing for myself through hearing this Wow and it really grabbed me I mean I I was 15 16 at the time and listening to a whole lot of guitar bands and this for me made me sit up and listen because it kind of it was similar I think in its feel to some of the stuff Radiohead we're doing yes you too yeah sort of the yeah I tease you too yeah Achtung Baby and pop and that kind of stuff because there's a there's a real electronic kind of underbelly to this foundation to this album there's a lot of electronic sounds on there yeah I mean I remember I think the most important thing about the record for us at a time was the sonic side of it was that Sonics or the landscape of let's take the drums let's just put them through a guitar pedal let's let's do the opposite of what people are expecting from us you know the previous record was quite a soft sounding sort of blown-up folk record in a way beautiful acoustic sounds choirs beautifully recorded pianos we recorded it in a big manor house somewhere I think this was their night okay let's try and go the other way and put some aggression into what we were doing and also that's where we were at at the time we we were lining ourselves up with those bands like you say you know Manic Street Preachers Radiohead you know mmm to the Benz record and it so you know okay computer just blowing my mind how you can make music like that so I think that all those will massive inspirations to us at the time and you know I remember just kind of like going well let's just that fun with us let's just really mess this up yeah so there's five of you in the band and yourself as singer and guitarist and well you play piano as well I know you right on camera and then you had guy called Stu playing guitar I kind of have it in my mind that you two sort of were quite united on on your self-directed direction as a band and what sounds you were going to pursue is there more to it than that I mean explain a bit about how your dynamic as a band as a creative team worked sure I mean yeah I mean I think Stu G and myself were predominantly the ones pulling the songs together but of course it's always more sort of beautiful than that in terms you've got five people rubbing shoulders ideas comments what if we did this what if we did that and our personalities would go in this melting pot and outcomes you know music that was made by five people but yeah I mean you know Stu Stu and I would write together for a three we block or something we'd make some demos and then take those to the guys but it was never in isolation I think we were always teaming it but you know Stu being such an incredible guitar player you know a lot of the riffs would come from him and you know you know you know I remember there was sort of heaven Rick uh-huh you know he you know that riff probably would have come first and then suddenly I'd be dancing around the room going out what about a walk through there you know so very much the team and so I mean what a musician and incredible incredible guitar player one of the best in the world I would say still mm-hm and you're working with Jack Josef Pig yep weak yeah yeah yeah he's quite well-known producer work with people like John Mayer yeah Bedingfield yeah yeah so what was his role sort of with this project what would the well between the finished product and the sort of the demoing sort of level that you were just talking about yeah sure well we we decided to record the record ourselves I got on engineering background and so we bought some kit we went to a little place NIT near where we were in for dinner and all and we just hung out there for weeks and weeks and recorded it and then we took it to California where Joseph remixed it if you go on Pro Tools and in Pro Tools nerds out there you can download wave software from jjp and that is that the Jack Joseph for unit but the great thing is I got the chance to actually work with him in person and in those days we were ocean waves in California and with a massive 96 channel Focusrite desk with all his analog stuff all Bank behind so I've actually touched the original you know tube tech compresses and you know and all that stuff that he Fairchild that he owns so anyway that's a bit nerdy but well if I sound was incredible with him I think he he buys a new channel strip for every almost every channel setting he's ever used and then can yeah he was my name's an extraordinary guy very eccentric he II hadn't worked in our genre a lot I think he was very very suspicious that we were kind of like a Christian down or whatever you want to call it because we'd come out of church saying he was really suspicious it worked on everything from rolling stones Google Dolls everything he you name it and then there's little us from little Hampton say can you mix our record and we sent him a song and he was like fair play let's do it so he he actually transformed the record in the end I think he had brought it all I could say is he brought it louder and more to the front and you know I mean the mix is unbelievable probably the best mixes we've ever had in a sense apart from recent in recent days with Sam Gibson but that was a real experience and I think he could stamp on it and made us believe in the record more you know he'd be saying this is really really good and when you hear it from someone that he's doing everything you it gives you breaking confidence yeah and then a few years later he made one of my favorite albums was just heavier things by John Mayer which is yeah quickly touch on a couple of the songs on the record so you've got you've got this kind of this opening salvo should we say of mezzanine floor heaven and then follow and there's a kind of melodic motif that runs through each of those songs which kind of ascends then if you even know what I'm talking about but that kind of dududu sort of you can hear that in the melody in each song yeah yeah matically it ties together really beautifully yeah my observation is is a really well-constructed album in that sense yeah who of you was sort of oversaw and had the mastermind of the whole thing would you say that was more more of you or more Stu well I think it you know if you you're at the heart of the songs you probably have an overview of a record quicker because you are sort of living you're living every what you want to say what you're trying to say and also you don't even know sometimes what you are saying and till later till six months anything oh there is a thing developing here there's this certain emotion that's evolving in me or this theme I'm keep on gravitating towards or I'm struggling with this so I'm writing about it so I think as the writer and predominantly I was morally recessed suggests you you do feel the heartbeat of a record more and then when it comes to sequencing it mastering you also feel the heartbeat of that as well you know that the progression of the journey about what you want to say I'm just looking at songs you know it's right that we ended the record we blindfold and kiss your feet you know it's a very sort of the end of the record but but it starts in quite a robust way yes and you know I think that's that's pretty good if it had been the other way around it probably would so the the last four song has always struck me as a kind of a sequence that works really well as well so beautiful son love falls down blindfold and kiss your feet have you got any clear memories of writing any of these songs anything that makes you sort of if you think about this album what songs do you immediately remember writing it's okay I think being in America at a time when we met someone we we met this girl backstage and really moving she had just come out of hospital having tried to commit suicide and there we were confronted with this girl she'd probably was only 15 it's heartbreaking really and she looked a mess I mean she had just come out asked she was recovering from you know nearly killing herself and and yet there was an incredible beauty about her because she'd survived and she fought it and there she was standing with us and you could just sort of feel the grace of God around her you know so that song came from from meeting her and you know that lie she's as pretty as hell obviously got proposal well stupidly it did I mean but I mean it's a beautiful picture of of someone that did look pretty beat up and yet look beautiful at the same time and of course the song if you actually listen if those people actually listen to the song is actually a song of hope and life and encouragement or redemption but yeah that was part the crazy world of Christian music in America especially of having to write to bookstores to say please would you like like the record and you know there is this reference in there but it's isn't it funny looking back now but it reminds me of that sort of that thing in the sixties where John Lennon said you know we bigger than Jesus mmm they burn Beatles records in yeah I was in the Bible Belt but anyway we won't talk about that and we'll move swiftly on amazing record he then had a quick follow up didn't you with glowing year yeah how much of those two albums were sort of almost birthed at the same time or were they quite distinct well sonically I think they're like brother they're two brothers in the same family and I think that we were just so excited at that time so you know it was like we'd been let loose and you know we were starting to play really well together as a band I think that's what I remember from that time there's sort of a moment in a Bands life where you things click and we wouldn't have been able to make glow 4 years earlier but you know we went to a great studio in Brighton which doesn't exist anymore unfortunately big old church building they've turned it into a studio we set up on the floor and for two weeks we just I think that's what you can hear and that record is is five people making music together especially you can hear that Stu Smith coming into his own just some really interesting sounds great grooves you know sitting back on it and and confidence you can hear confidence in a band that had been together a few years and like right we are you know we're a band of brothers were a team and we stand right yeah so let's let's record ourselves and we had an interesting engineer on that project called Charles Zilla he guy called Ted T helped produce it and again I think you can see see that those two people around us were opening up doors for us yeah it was the first time they forced him to go on a Fender Rhodes and like scrap all his beer G gear always D fifties synth sounds pads it would all gone he like know what I'm going to use that everything was a Fender Rhodes through guitar pedals weird stuff and I think it was it was crazy but I mean I do or a record like it in that sense you know it was just an expression of life and like a bomb going off really really exciting it it sounds all the things you've described to me like a band being let loose and the creative freedom I think you found because there's those segments between songs that are more instrumental and sort of expand on some of the ideas in their songs like Jesus blood and then you've got that sort of amazing string section that follows it and closes the album I think that like no one was known was doing that certainly in the CN came from but but it's it it be true to say that there was a focus again perhaps congregate congregationally in those songs on globe and then again pretty hot off the back of glow you're back in the studio and the following year this one comes out so I've got to here because there's the English or the UK release which is called audio lesson over which I'll get you to explain in a second and then there's an American release which of a very similar bunch of songs but would I think a few that are different called touch and they're sort of yes you know very actually related similar in in what's yet I think slightly different mixes and things on the American one to the English wahrman different running on them so I think Chuck's wiki that you just talking about the clothes your engineer Charles wiki he went you know this didn't me he did yet so this is a crazy one because a lot of people I think that I was aware of at the time porta it rushed off to buy it and off the back of glow really and were very surprised it was so different how would you describe approaching this one well again we were always once to change but we we got Chuck in we decided to record on 16 track two-inch tape so we were again going away from the computer cutting stuff live to tape so you can hear again there's less on that record there's less stuff on it it's drums bass electric you know it's it's more basic but really well recorded it's crunchy you know we had to cut the erector tape so you can hear that in there I don't think all the songs were we're great in my in my opinion I think they could have been better but there are some really great songs on there too what um what my favorites well I've forgotten what's on there I'm just going to look it up let's quickly look at these aware take me away love is the compass a Leah angel in disguise roller coaster there is an angel bicycle gasoline a little love show me heaven America and stealing time that's the audio lesson over version yeah yeah got touch as an addition on this one I mean in America one yeah a lot of these Rex sounded great live actually I remember them saying really tough like a proper you know we were growing as a band the crowds are getting bigger songs like fire take me away was so any big life stealing time is beautiful yet some of these cuts are really heavy like really fuzzy bass right up in your face here in the mix and really heavy buzzed our guitars as well so it's I remember seeing you live at a time and it was it was a much heavier experience than we would have seen a few years prior to that I know and and I think that we there were no rules in our minds I don't I don't think that we realized we were sort of within a genre I think we just were just excited to be making music and I think looking back if there's one thing I could say about all of this is that sometimes we missed a really good a A&R guy in the process because you know we were five guys following our nose all the time we know running our own company or own label pretty much doing what we wanted I think if I listened back to all the records now I think there's probably two or three songs it didn't need to be on them personally you know that we could have trimmed them back or saved them or rewritten them that's just my own personal opinion being super critical or maybe someone to say hey I think that song just needs a little bit more time to finish it let's push it over the edge but you know like you're learning as you're going I mean you don't it's only when you look back you realize those things but at the time you just just you just throwing all this stuff at the wall right psychedelic stuff on audio lesson over and it almost sounds like some of you have been listening to the sort of late 60s be there's that kind of you know hope that harmonium sound in there and yeah strings yeah almost quite whimsical and like George Martin style it's funny how English this one sounds in in that way songs new at the end up quite yeah strange like what what is bicycle gasoline what's that about well that's actually stew geez line what up brilliant art I mean of course a bicycle doesn't need gasoline so it runs on by saline and something about violence in there I know so clever isn't it you know III think of all the times that I'm I try and like give my wife the things I think that she would love and need and it uses the wrong thing that's like I don't I don't want bicycle gasoline you know during that fast shows sketch when the exasperated wife is always waiting for Mark Williams's character to come home and she's always like did you get the potatoes love and then Mark would eat is like even better than that and has a bunch of crazy things that no one needs know I've got this I've got model ship and you know she's just always exasperated because she's gone sending him out for some groceries you need to come back with something completely pointless and maybe that's a new way to understand that yeah stealing time yeah it's beautiful another stooge II song originated in his head the idea of you know you know to get to to make sense of things to capture the beauty in the day to do something great with your time you have to it doesn't it doesn't come to you for free you've got to go and steal it you know you got to go and be a thief and take it off the shelf and bring it to you and there and and you know because time just disappears time is expensive and so and we were busy as a band you know we were away a lot all had kids married families so I think it was a great you could you can sort of hear the earnest the yearning in there of wow our lives are like going so fast and we've got to consciously time from each day to be with the people that we love so yeah important suck I think with all these songs you know 60% of them just go under there sort of radar of the general listener but I think now people hopefully years on I've got ears to hear that there's some amazing sort of messages of our life and them yeah and I think I think it could be a little tins best stuff there's angel in disguise there's this kind of can I break down in the middle of the song and there's sort of flutes in there and it just goes into this pastoral little sort of segue and Tim's just opening up he's just playing beautiful piano yeah that happens a common really here Tim just stretching his legs in the air easy yeah he's a great he's a great pianist Tim and you know he put him on a real piano especially Grampian and he will just come alive he's very very gifted like that and so it was always a regret of ours that we could take Grampian on the road because you know that would have been amazing dementia but he also has good ears as well so he had a lot of attention to detail and would often come in the studio at the end of the day and say hey what what about this what about that what if he did this so he was always a great set of ears yeah but but yeah he you know he's always emotional what he brought I had the honor of having him play on one of my early chaos curb songs he came in to Paul Burton's and played piano and yeah it was so great he's just got a touch he's just gonna be in touch yeah isn't that great yeah beautiful and the other thing I wanted to comment on and on this album is your vocals because I don't think we hear many delirious albums where you're as vulnerable as you sound on this one it's I don't know if you recognize that how do you how do you feel about that because it's I hear a lot of vulnerability and I almost kind of there's a shakiness in your voice so then maybe I'm reading too much into it but it's not as bold and sort of triumphant sounding is glow or world service which comes after this one interesting work I think currently I remember Chuck Siler we're not gonna mess around here look I don't want you want a big studio mic in a booth you're on MSN 58 on a cable in the room standing next to me and you're just gonna built this out and we're gonna do one or two takes and that's it that's all you got but what what you do is got to be you got to go there Wow so I I did you know so that I think it's not as polished as some of the other sonically put together pieces of music and vocals of course but it's so you know it was a band kind of record off the floor and yeah that's quite exciting so I'm gonna I'm gonna skip on now quite a few years because Denarius made several more albums that were sort of if I can briefly sum them up as sort of refocused again more at the sort of the congregational thing yeah big songs that the church were singing all over the world and the band comes to an end in 2009 as bands tend to do yeah then some more years go by and there's a there's 16 years between audio lesson over which i think is an anagram of radio one loves us yeah quite cheeky little because of course they didn't love us so it was quite a cheeky album so 62001 and then in 2017 this one emerges after a few years of kind of being incubated and dreamt up and army of bones is sort of another one of your secret they're not secret but sort of less known works and yeah I obviously I have a personal attachment to this one yeah because you know I shared a lot of this journey with you and yeah it's hard to be hard to be objective about it for me you know like I hear a link here sort of the journey that you leave off on here with stealing time I hear being picked up in a way and I said this to you just before we started recording but stealing time is in the same key as don't be long which kicks off this record army throws an interesting yeah it's kind of amazing for me like an amazing link there because I listened to one after the other last night in preparation for this interview because I'm well done well I don't yeah you know and all right let's let's quickly talk about the journey to this how on earth did you end up record that isn't martin-smith record and isn't a Denarius record what is this well I mean obviously the band ended I I you know I managed to start together a great team around me different set of guys younger guys actually a lot of who would just start out thinking of Rubin house and I would say a good drummer but needed time and and experience to go to being a great drummer and of course he's one of the best drummers in the UK now so just you know it's a message to all muses out there is it nothing really comes quickly in of honing your skill talent you know in the end it becomes more about what you don't play than what you do play and so you know I went on the road with these guys Johnny Bird Steve Evans we did a lot of stuff in the church gospel stayin the course that's one of the things I love to do but because we're bit of an odd Bunch a lot of wildness in there still we thought well you know start a band let's call it something different let's make some music that we would love to make and so we went in the studio the four of us and it and it is literally a four-piece you can hear it's for peace playing like playing those songs for Mia I had lots of songs in me which I knew I couldn't do on my Sunday morning and I would say that it was the this song is really this this whole record is a love letter to my wife it's it's one of them the most open love letters ever where I'm saying look you know we've come so far we'll we're 20 23 years in or whatever you know and we're still going and it's a miracle sometimes when I look back at what we've had to go through you know just time away stresses on that and our family you know we're here and we love each other and well one of the questions you know do you love me still you know should we do this and you know when they ought twenty-five years so we're very grateful for that but of course anyone know being heard or everything requires a lot of work and commitment and so that all these lyrics are about me saying look I I desperately want to hang on to this I desperately love you but I'm really painfully aware of my own issues and you know stupid things that I do which could sometimes jeopardize what we have and so I hope that in the end you know it will be an encouragement some people okay again I think if you've got ears to hear and you dig deep into it in some ways it's some of the best work I've ever done some of the most honest songs ever written you know we sort of I felt like I needed to take the mask off and just sing about what was really on my heart and and that is it army of bones and I think the bones theme runs right the way through the spine and that record is of course we are you know we just flesh and bone aren't we in sometimes our bones break but but believing that God can put the bones back together and and that is what I believe then I think that's what he does do and that's a theme of course that you revisit very strongly on on your most recent work which we will look at in a sec but just just to jump in on a couple of these songs because again there's a sort of there's a heaviness in this music that we hadn't really had from your songs for a while not just sonically heavy but lyrically heavier as well so dead in the water care yes what's that one about where's the picture of sort of how you'd imagine if you were drowning and and the only sort of going down and you're looking up at your life that once was and you're seeing it all up there and desperately you one thing someone to kill you up so that song is all about that you know are we gonna make this through war what's happening here I'm sure a lot of us could identify with that said losing grip and you know going down down and down and then not quite sure yeah what what - hang on - who - hang on - trying to make sense of your life you know I think there's a line in there about I see a movie playing out something that my life's like a movie I think some of us have that sense of you go through life as sometimes the easiest you'll are watching him movie here and it's a yourself and you you wish it could be better you know it's a cinematic album in in as much as it's got this grand sweep to it in the production and the kind of the imagery I think I remember talking to you about music videos at the time and about how we could almost do a sort of concent film around it the soundtrack to something but then you've got songs like batteries which sounds really bleak like some of these like take my batteries out you know I'm it sounds like a person who's very tired and of course there's a twist in the lyric but there's there's a real vulnerability to something like that what yeah I think is is what was there any kind of self limiting on how vulnerable you were going to be on this record no I not really I had a great guy producing this regard called guest Pearson a Welsh guy and he you know he's not he wasn't from my world or Church or nothing you know he's just a great producer in his own right and he came at it very intentionally like I need every single lyric you're singing to make sense to me I want to believe it and I need to believe every single word you're saying and if I don't what then we're not going to use it so don't dress it up I want to hear yeah I want to hear what's what you got to say so I fell in love with Leslie all the doubletrack vocals all the layers I mean it we spent hours and hours it drove me nuts layering vocal was sounds and so he brought that very much that that tone to it also is the first read will be recorded in four three two Hertz so normally you know three years have been recording for forty but we it's a slight pitch down it sounds a little bit dirtier little bit more vinyl light and I really like how my voice sound in four three two so we were experimenting and he was pushing me hard to sort of like come on let out what's in there you you know you've you've lived this life I want to hear I want to hear about it it's there's a cost to this record not I'm not talking about financial cost I'm talking about artistic I guess and personally on you hat when you look at this now a few years later what emotions do you feel I'm really proud actually of it I'm proud of the guys I think we're all proud of it for us because I think a and I don't mean it's in a bad way but my experience of a lot of Christian music is that it's it's built for that particular consumer to consume and help them it's gotta be theologically correct and I love all that and I'm a part of that world but I think where the bravery was in this record was just but there are certain times as an artist you have to tell the truth on how this all works for you and and and sometimes I can't say all that I want to say in that particular genre because it doesn't work and you know this was a real chance for me to sort of open up another door or way and explain that what you know just because I'm I do this to do that and you know I can sing sing God's arms at such people it doesn't mean that also there's a heart I mean it struggles in certain areas as like with most people with every person would and I need to present this message of hope that I sincerely believe in I've got to present the whole picture I can't just keep presenting one slice of it which kind of is a bit shiny keeps everyone happy and and makes my brand look fantastic but I I just felt like I needed to present the psalm ik nature of what it's like to live on this planet be a human being you know we aren't God and I think it was healthy for me to present that holistic picture of of someone married with six kids trying to do his life play me using write music an installation or drug habit well thankfully I've not been drawn to that but your coffee machine oh yeah yeah drink a lot of coffee and I've started running so that's my new drug oh yeah yeah say my wife's biggest drug is is running yeah I think crack I'm joking see the for those of you who don't understand my humor oh you most of you will so it's fine the day the fire went out oh man that's a song painful to listen to for me in all the right ways and I like songs at the time all of this was happening and you know we were working together quite a lot you and I and I was going through some stuff and this song fool it it just it just summed up so much of that time for me why did you end the album with a song like that and what is it I think I put myself in a position that dark place of imagining what would life be without with Anna you know what would my life be if she wasn't here and and it was incomprehensible and so it's as much as a warning that song you know to sort of let's not let this find out listen let's keep this burning and let's celebrate what we have you know we this is amazing what we have so let's up if it should which starts together more and LMI all right hello right if we do I mean it's brilliant innit like we you know a family I know it's so powerful isn't it and of course we all fight you know you've got kids all got kids it's a very real fight to keep that together and I think that if you can make it through you know through all the ups and you know it's got to be the biggest reward in life isn't it the biggest prize to not bottle it too early and and you know of course I'm not I understand there's some very real issue you know I'm not saying all of that you know some powerful things happen in people's lives very traumatic things but I I think I'm more speaking to myself that you know I've got to stop myself being an idiot and you know and take care of the fire take care of that and then that song and I don't let the fire go out you know I'm responsible for that it's not just gonna happen alright I can stay away from the things that get me in trouble keep that fire going and yeah a great way to win a record yeah very so very that the fade out on that track as well is is a beautiful way to to lead that record I've had several friends on Facebook asked will there be more army of bones music in the future I'd like to think there will be the truth is it was it was very difficult to sustain it four guys playing in a club with you know 27 people you know always families and it was a really tough thing to sustain in our in our ordinary lives you know the problem was we weren't sixteen just sleeping on the floor and driving in a transit you know we've all got other things going on and I think it so I'm being totally honest there it was but I think it will come again and I think more music will come there is one more song actually that's unreleased that I'm gonna might slip out in a near future oh is that an exclusive yeah it didn't make the record but I might just put it out for the summer I think it could be good Oh gonna want to give away the name of it no I can't oh yeah I'd have to kill a day I probably got it yeah he's probably got it here yeah probably doing that right in time you'd send me demos of things and there's I think I've got four or five tracks that never got completed that sort of yeah yeah brilliant songs all again thanks let's jump a couple of years into the future then from from this one 2017 when this came out and your most recent album yeah and there's all sorts of sort of visual clues that speak of the army of bones sort of preceding it which yeah which to do with the Chevron's that you use the sort of good old map used in the design process for this yeah yeah used a lot on sort of on your clothes and some of the merchandise and things like that and we see it again in the artwork yes the iron lung which in the end and on your jacket there as well yeah yeah yeah you tied the sort of the two projects together done so this is much more aimed I'm guessing given that it's on a label that sort of the gospel label yeah but that audience again but there's a lot sonically that sounds in the same vein your yeah the writing approach what made this album a Martin Smith record not an army of bones record that's a very good question because the sustain band pretty much same team you could hear that in there I think that I needs to reach out to the wider audience again and I had some of those songs like exult and fires gonna fall that I think will need it for the church to sing so it felt like a logical thing but also the chevrons was my way of saying that I'm the same guy there as I am here I haven't changed I'm the same person I just have different things in me that you know do different songs different expressions but I'm the same guy I'm not kind of split in two I'm a whole person that wants to sing about the fire wants to sing about you know my wife wants to sing about love what's the thing about my faith in God you know and them and the older I get I want to celebrate that wholeness more I don't want to compartmentalize my life into sort of different sections that compete with each other I wanted to be sit within my frame in a really comfortable way and they do you know and and the more I'm at peace with that the easier it's become you know I'm not fighting any of them I think that becomes confusing for people maybe it's like what what what's Martin doing now is it easy this is he there but um yeah I mean I haven't figure myself out yet so yeah you know you you let me speak for itself don't unions but I appreciate that but iron lung is my story you know when I was it when I was a baby on he died of respiratory problems and bronchopneumonia and so amazing for this time iron lung was a weird song to come out a year ago but now it sort of makes sense really that we have a world that's struggling to breathe and of course it's so many layers to that you know and you know we we've got the challenge on the respiratory system and kovaydin crow virus and but you know God knows so you know and he breathed life into my la ah this is a baby and little did I know that I'd go on to be singing songs so it's a great story yeah there's there's a few songs on here that I feel like I kind of could be on an on your buttons out and run away yeah or might always be my life kind of motorists and ask a nice Co right yeah a little Co right with you yeah I'm massive honor for me it always be my love I think was a rig that was a runner for army of bones wasn't it it was around yeah it was a heavier version and I slowed it down and made it a little bit more personal I think which I think it was good in the end yeah you know like it's actually we use these terms quite liberally you know in terms of like in the worship contest I you know God you'll always be my love but of course we know in reality that's not always true mm-hmm you know we're distracted we fall in love with other things and so I think is my wife saying look I I want this to be true God you know my heart but you know I let you down but despite that and that's where you you sort of note you find out who I am yeah it it's for its as vulnerable it's another very vulnerable song which is a kind I guess a theme that I've touched on several times in this chat is the vulnerability that no this one and then army phones and then iron lung sort of there's a vulnerable thread that runs through all of them and actually the end of metamorphosis a is pretty pretty vulnerable so gonna shut the door while they're cooking nearly done nearly done um so there we are there's a bit of a journey they're touching on some of your work I guess the question some would like to ask you is is where do you feel you're going next because in a sense you've never sort of played to expectations yeah we followed your nose as you put it and of where Martin Smith's creative Muse will lead him next now I don't but I'd like it to be more collaborative as there's so many people who I admire you know somebody's seen as an artist that I'd love to something together with a lot more people that would be fun you know maybe keeps breaking the walls down especially between the sort of Christian music scene and mainstream you know so many walls built there but I but I would love to see some of those walls come down and see some people working together a bit more and you know I know people from the pop mainstream side that would say oh I'd love to write a church song with you you know and then I there's people from the worship so I said I'd love to write some melodies for a dance song you know I just get a groove and write top line I think that would be both would benefit and so I'd like to be a part of that I think but no Dave I don't know the answer to that I'm in lockdown at home I'm busy with kids and less creative than I would imagine at this time because I'm just you know being around but I'm giving my time self time to see what comes and you know see what songs that need to be sung in this in this moment and so I'm waiting great answer I'm going to jump to a couple of questions from friends on Facebook yeah let's see what they've asked Matt Alice asks did you get my last email yes I did okay but I've been talking to Dave Griffiths too much so you know I haven't had sign it somebody asks my friend Tim Clark do you still have that bright yellow windmill park shirt from when delirious sponsored us as a church football team I'm sorry I don't have it I'm so sorry yeah most exciting things happen for days well I know how exciting is that Wow yeah kids coming in alarms going off it's all very raw I know my friend asks could you ask Martin when you're making metamorphose did you ever feel like you wanted to be a regular slash secular band without the expectations of the church yeah I think we did but we also realized that we were Church guys you know we'd come out of that we were fully involved still in our church you know you could never take that out of us and so yes we had ideas of becoming the next Radiohead in YouTube but you know maybe our calling was different and we we just accepted that and just did the best we could thank you that's great Oh juicy question here my friend Nick asks can you ask him if there's more and the bike inspected the band's production and pressed the generic Christian sound button to amuse the masses or did they have free rein like any band should have well les Morris is an amazing guy and in fact actually contrary to what people might think he would push me to be more of myself in that sense but yes you know there are people in the mix that happy to let you record an album and then say oh can we have an acoustic version of it for a radio station in America because what you've done is a bit too angry or it's too loud for them so can we have a anything that's fine you know I can do that yeah but now actually the guys in the UK I would say all very supportive and let's get behind you yep thank you sorry about the controversial nature of some of these questions but you know um we're not trying to cast any aspersions this is just what's come to me from Facebook my friend dear friend grant asks that the Christian record industry as well as the church should actively encourage musicians to take risks experiment and forge new paths from a musical perspective or is it better that Christian / Church artists are steered to create music that is safer and less edgy in order to achieve better commercial success and potentially reach more people so should we take risks or play it safe in order to reach more people with a sort of a wider yeah I mean I'm approached to our answer isn't it it all comes down to who you are it depends what your nature is what your calling is I mean I've got you know so many close friends you know if you go back years and years you know you know my great friend Matt revin similar age yeah you know Matt's calling absolutely was to write hymns that church people could sing and and and you he's done an incredible job at that he wouldn't have said that he was an artist or you know sort of that way inclined but just I want to write songs that people can sing and I think he's been true to that the fruit is amazing and you know he's chosen that path and I I think well done that's brilliant so maybe you know I enjoy I've enjoyed the different aspects of artists you know background so sonically I was it was a bit easy for me to sort of experiment possibly and we're all different army and I think we be true to who you are and and I think that's all you can do to be honest well I've got one one last question which was very very quickly what is this is from me what is people's biggest misconception about you well oh that's a very good question you'd have to ask people around me but I'm more probably more sort of grounded and down-to-earth and ladee than people Oh see Brian play I've got two sons you know am i I'm probably more normal you know like yes I can put some headphones on and go guitar and I can become that character but no 90% of my life is just I enjoy being at home and you know doing all the jobs at home and you know being a part of my family's life and so yeah and maybe I know you'd have to ask my kids that yeah I think having got to know you I was surprised in a good way by your sense of humor being quite laddie you know in right yeah we've had this and there's some very fond memories of things that have happened that have made us laugh and it's yeah

Channel: Dave Griffiths

Views: 670

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: delirious?, army of bones, Martin smith, Dave griffiths, interview 2020, lockdown, zoom chat

Id: TEXpDvuYx6I

Length: 68min 47sec (4127 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020