Your album Your Kingdom Come was released by Authentic in February. How would you describe the album?

I think the album as a whole takes you on a journey full of emotion. Throughout the songs there’s a mixture of deep intimacy and also great passion. In some ways the album stretches the worship genre boundaries in a healthy way. Not only have we gone for full-blown orchestration in some of the more anthemic songs, but we’ve also created an edgy, progressive sound in others. All in all, I hope it’s accessible to a wide demographic of listeners.

What are your hopes for the album? How do you think people will respond to it?

I genuinely pray the album will be a haven for the broken-hearted, a mountain top for all who dare to reach beyond themselves and believe in the unconditional, and a touching place for those who recognise our inherent need for intimacy with God. The album has also been described as ‘the honest, passionate and hopeful heart-cry of the 21st-century believer’ by Jeff Philips, who is a senior Pastor in the Foursquare Church denomination in the States, and I like that quote a lot!

You worked on the album with wellknown producer Alan Shacklock. How did that come about and what was it like to work with him?

My first album, World’s Collide, was picked up by the former Sony A&R executive Jack Steven, who was responsible for signing the Eurhythmics. Jack and I met regularly in London whilst I was in the process of touring the first album and, by the end of that tour, he felt I needed a genuinely world-class producer to work with me on my next record. God has often used what I call ‘human agents’ on my journey and Jack has definitely been one of them. Worlds Collide was a contemporary album, but it was evangelical in its lyrical content and, although there had never been the right opportunity to talk with Jack in depth about God, he obviously realised that Alan and I would be a good fit not just musically but, more importantly, because we shared the same faith.

The first time I called Alan we just talked about God for an hour and then prayed together - in fact, we didn’t talk about music for the first nine months of our friendship, we just kept talking about the Lord!

Working with Alan over these last two years has been the greatest privilege of my musical life. We’ve grown extremely close and are much like father and son now. We’ve got what I’d call a covenantal relationship - totally Christcentred and utterly reciprocal. In Alan, I’ve found my musical soul-mate. We begin every session in prayer and just get steeped in God’s presence. It’s very liberating to work like that and consequently, the Holy Spirit has more room to flow through us.

Alan’s produced more than 60 albums - many of them award-winning. It’s humbling to work with a man of such gifting and I love to sit at his feet and learn from him - I can do that because there’s such a deep bond of love and trust between us, we’d both admit that we’ve become family now.

Who would you say have been your biggest musical influences, both in the mainstream and in Christian music?

Oh crikey! Here’s a story for you. I don’t have any to be perfectly honest. I wanted to go into Law when I grew up and had no aspirations to be a recording artist at all. I worked pretty hard to get an unconditional offer to read Law and was due to start Law School in the autumn of 1998. By that time though, I was already wrestling with the calling I knew God had placed on my life. I couldn’t imagine why on earth He’d want me of all people to go into the music industry, but that was clearly what He was saying.

There was a huge inner wrestle going on inside me over giving up Law, but eventually I stopped exerting my will against God’s and just said ‘yes’ to Him. It was scary. I hated singing and had certainly never done it publicly; I didn’t write songs and didn’t play piano or guitar.

But God said two things very clearly to me when He called me. The first was that it was to be a worldwide work and the second thing was that I was to write for the world as well as the Church. I just sat and said ‘Well Lord, if this is what You really want me to do with my life, You’re going to have to be my musical tutor.’ And that is exactly what happened. In fact, I recognise the need to still pray that prayer to this day and know I always will.

You do lot of worship-leading and also more conventional live performances. Do you approach them in different ways?

I’m not here to entertain, but to minister and therefore, whatever the setting, I’m straining to hear God’s voice and then lead according to what I believe He’s saying.

One of the most wonderful things about my work is that I get to be in the presence of my King whether I’m leading worship in a church service setting or doing a worship concert and I take that privilege and responsibility very seriously.

Another great thing about my work is that it’s all about Jesus and not about me. I’m nothing really - just a fool for Christ; but I burn with a passion to spread the Gospel and find total release getting up and communicating it through the medium of music. God is unrelenting in His desire to have a deep and loving relationship with every human on the face of the earth; and so for me, being called to be part of the process of reaching people for Christ means that one of my main areas of focus whatever the event, is that I must get into a place of submission and accountability every day, in order to be most effective for God. I am totally committed to the need for regular pastoral accountability and don’t think anyone should go out into the world and minister without it.

It’s totally biblical and fundamentally important. I have a great Pastoral Director called Gerald McNinch who has shared this journey with me from the beginning and I also have an extra level of senior pastoral cover in Victor Laidlaw - one of the most respected ministers in the country. Having time with these godly men provides an extra foundation of spiritual authority and oversight for me. I know God put them in my life to minister to me and it’s vital that I avail myself of them, not just for the sake of accountability, but also in order to grow and be refined spiritually and as a whole person.

Do you only perform your own songs? If not, who are your favourite worship writers whose material you like to use?

Virtually all of the time I use my own material. When God called me to this work, I realised the training process of becoming an effective wordsmith and songwriter meant that I had to discipline myself to get out of bed every week and write new material - that was the only way I was going to learn to develop and hone the right skills. Consequently, I have a big catalogue of songs and so many of them seem to fit worship concert or church service settings, that I barely rely on any other material. I also think that when God has given an anointing and poured out prophetic gifting too, it’s essential for that individual to use the material God directly inspires in them - that way of working is far more potent and fruitful.

Do you see your songs as stand-alone performance worship, or are they intended to be sung in churches?

Your Kingdom Come was written specifically with a balance of about five performance worship songs and five congregational songs. Songs like Baptise Me, Jesus You’re Here and Without Your Love are immediately accessible for congregations, whereas other songs like Calvary Song and Holy Is The Presence are what I’d call ministry songs. It’s vitally important that all my music is made available to churches as a worship resource and, in fact, the demand for music from the album is such that we’re going to release a DVD Rom of the music, including charts, tablature, lyrics etc.

I also enjoy incorporating other songs that will feature on upcoming albums in live-worship situations. One of my favourites just now is called Amazed By Your Love, which I wrote on the way down a mountain having met with the Lord. I must have used it at the last 50 or so concerts I’ve done and it seems to be going down a storm - Hallelujah!