delirious?MEZZAMORPHIS
A BAND IN PROCESS
Here in America, time has a way of condensing. Last year alone, there were retro
fashion revivals for every decade since the 30's, and the pace of change only seems
to quicken. If that's true in general, it's far more a reality for the English
band Delirious, which has had the creative product of its seven years deposited on
American soil in less than 24 months.
At the end of '97, Sparrow Records released the massive two-disc
pop/worship album, Cutting Edge, to both strong reviews and an incredible audience
response in the States. Some of the songs on that album had been recorded over four years
earlier, and the collection had been released throughout the U.K. and Europe on the
band's own Furious? Records label. Then in mid-'98, Sparrow released the
band's pop/rock follow-up, King of Fools, which at that time was already a
year old in the U.K., where the band has a successful mainstream single with
"Deeper." Now, shifting into high gear, Delirious is releasing Mezzamorphis, an album documenting the growth and change in the band as they travel their faith-journey
and expand musical horizons.
A New Sound
What has been a gradual growth process for the band; spiritually, musically and career-wise;has felt far more rapid to fans, especially in the
condensed North American setting. For band leader and singer Martin Smith, the changes as
Delirious has stepped up to the challenge of taking its music from the safe confines of
youth worship in the church to evangelizing the world have felt very natural."I
think we're still that little worship band that we were six years ago," he says.
"When we're in private we're still talking about those very same things
that motivated us back then. I think there will always be a vertical thing going on with
the records and when people come out to see us play live. There always has been, and I
think there always will. I think if we've lost that, we've lost the whole plot.
What we're about is the challenge to communicate in a way that does truly communicate
to folk outside of the church. To get it across in a way that isn't just limited to
language. I think we're getting there."
Still, Martin acknowledges that there has been recognizable change.
Musically, Mezzamorphis is a more aggressive, modern rock album, embracing the
current sounds and seeking to make their own unique mark. Some of the change, he says, is
just part of the quintet growing up, maturing both spiritually and as people.
"Generally, what people mean when they say, this is totally different, is that this
is not a worship album. But for us, it doesn't feel like we went in to make a
different record, to us it has a lot of the same elements. It's just older, bigger
and a bit more manly. It just came out this way, and it reflects where we are at this
point in time. We've always written about what we see, and I think that hasn't
changed. We're still writing about what we see, we've just been seeing more of
the world."
Mezzamorphis does rock with more intentionality, says
guitarist/songwriter Stuart Garrard. But, he's quick to point out that it's been
two and a half years since King of Fools was recorded, and pop music has changed
and the band has grown musically. "This has been a totally natural progression for us
musically," assures Stu. "We don't feel that it's been massively
different. One difference is that we had Jack Joseph Puig mix it (Eric Clapton, Semisonic, Tonic), and that took it to another league."
Getting There
For those who were living in a cave and may have missed the story the
first round, Stu G. offers this brief history. Delirious for Dummies: "We started off
doing the 'Cutting Edge' monthly events for local kids in Littlehampton, on the
south coast of England. Those events grew quite quickly to around 1300 people in a year
and a half. The songs Martin was writing seemed to hit a nerve with youngsters.
There's an honesty and naivete about them that connected. We started to do events
around England, and began to believe that one day people would hear our songs on the
radio. We released these six song cassettes, which the kids wanted so they could take the
songs home. Those recordings (later) became the first American release, Cutting Edge. In
late '95, Martin had a car accident, and it got him thinking about what we were going
to do as a band, and with the rest of our lives. So, we became a full-time band."
When the song "Deeper" became a chart-topping single on BBC
radio, drawing comparisons to bands like U2 and Oasis, Delirious began to feel that they
were going where God wanted them."As we've developed" explains Stu G., "we wanted to write about our faith in music that worked on a musical level for
non-Christians, and for the Christian listener will work on both a musical and spiritual
level. In the 'Cutting Edge' events and the songs we were sharing, we were
telling kids not to hold their faith inside the four walls of the church, but to take it
outside and share it with the world. It would be hypocritical for us not to do the same
thing. We've had people tell us that there's an inspiration in our music, similar to what they've heard in U2's music, and they want to know what it is.
That's the exact impact we've longed to have."
The Influences
Current influences, Stu says include: "Radiohead; Manic Street
Preachers, a band from Whales; obviously U2’s still in it for us. John, our bass
player's really into some of the hip-hop, remix-y kinds of things: DJ Shadow, The
Beastie Boys. I'm a massive reggae fan for instance, and all these things manage to
influence you in some way, even if it's not always readily apparent on the surface.
In "Heaven" there are these bridge sections where the kick drums kicking four on
the floor, which is basically a ska pattern. That comes out of my reggae background, although no one's going to mistake the song for ska or reggae. We're all finding
ways of getting into the music now, in the past we might not have had the craft to do
that.
"When we write,"; Stu continues, "we never really set out to
write a particular thing. We constantly talk and analyze our music and the world around
us, but when it's time to write, we have to express what's going on inside of
us. We started to write more, and songs like'Deeper' began to pop out. To us, they're no different, it's just a bit of progression."
Growing Up
Martin acknowledges that in the last seven years the members of Delirious
have in fact become grown-ups. "Even though we haven't changed a lot, we're
still the same blokes we were when we started out, but in another way, I guess we have
changed. We were boys when we started out and we're men now, and we've got our
own kids. Our opinions have certainly changed about a lot of things, our language has
changed, and our whole approach to the kind of quick fix solution to everything in life
has probably changed, too. We're all trying to walk the walk, the Christian life. The
best we know how, as passionately as we know how, with as much integrity as we know
how."
As the title suggests, Delirious is in process; a band with a past, and a
vision for the future. In the meantime, they're on a journey, and Mezzamorphis describes the place they're at on the way to what they will some day be. "We
haven't made our definitive album," states Stu, "at least not yet.
We're still pushing, we haven't finished yet. Which is another reason for the
album title, the whole "Mezzanine Floor" thing; were not quite there yet.
We're in the whole process of being changed so it's about the effect that it has
on us, our music and our relationships."
Martin agrees, the progression visible in Mezzamorphis is a good
thing. "We're very excited about this record, and we can't wait for our
fans to hear it. Anyone who's really into music, we think will like it. We've
reached the stage, where we've had to face the reality that we can't please
everyone. We take each step as it comes. We're going to see what happens, and try to
be obedient. We don't have an axe to grind, we're just going to do what
we've always done."
By Brian Quincy Newcomb
Freelance music writer, contributing to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
BMG's Sound & Spirit, CCM and 7 Ball/Release
