Martin Smith: Mostly, as we’ve traveled the last few years, we’ve seen with our own eyes some very horrific things. That’s forced us into making a response. You just can’t come home and carry on living life the way you were. It doesn’t mean things immediate, but something happens inside that makes you go, "I need to start repositioning myself and what I do to make changes." So that’s a slow process but hopefully it’s a strong, steady, house-building process. And we’ll all react different to that, but I know there’s a sense for all of us that it can’t ever be the same. Your heartbeat changes a little bit. It beats a little bit faster once you’ve seen all that stuff, and you can’t settle. So we came back into the studio, and I remember us setting up and Stu G turned his amps on, and we got the drums up, and it’s like all this emotion, worry, pain, confusion, and the smell of India, and it all just sort of came out in the music, and we decided we just needed to go with it. I don’t know where this fits but let’s just keep going.

Stew Smith: I think it’s more than just about social justice and poverty. Those are some of the trickiest, but actually for me, this is about what I believe in, and "does it make sense?" and "how am I making a difference?" And those are the real challenges that we have as individuals. It’s not just this small social justice kind of poverty thing, but actually that is being the spearhead to these serious questions about our faith and what we believe. And part of the whole concept of Kingdom of Comfort is: have we made the Gospel ­ which is so potent and can be so radical ­ have we made it something which is so menial and almost like a consumable item, that we’ve lost the meaning and the potency of what Jesus walked around on the face of this planet talking about? And those are some of the things that go through my mind and in my heart, and thinking “ok, what does that mean to me, am I actually making a difference?” And hopefully when people listen to the album, they hear that cry of poverty, but actually, it requires something of us to try to change this world that we live in, and that’s not just about India or Cambodia, or wherever, but it’s about where you live. It has to start with you. Those are some of the things that I’m still buzzing on, that I’m still questioning, and I haven’t got all the answers, but that’s where that confusion and frustration comes out. But you know we really have to be people that make a difference. If our faith actually is that real, what am I doing about it? It’s an exciting and challenging album. Musically, it’s brilliant. I think it’s the best album we’ve made.

Stu G: I think that, because we love music so much and we listen to all different types of music, you get those sort of influences coming in and out all the time. And you just don’t want to stay in the same place as a musician or a person. You’ve just got to keep moving. Otherwise, for me, you feel stuck. When you’re in it, it doesn’t feel like you’re doing it that much, but our aim is to move on with every record.

Stew: I think it’s an interesting tension isn’t it? Particularly with this new record Kingdom of Comfort ­ I remember in the studio we were talking about “ok, we’ve done this before, let’s not do that, we’re just falling back on what is safe and what we know to do.” But the tension is that there’s a kind of sound to Delirious?, a link that people want to hear those things at the same time. So there’s a bit of a balance, isn’t there? If we produce an album that’s so diverse and so out there, there probably wouldn’t be any connection.

Martin: "My Soul Sings," which is the last song on the record. “All God’s Children.” They both sit at the end of the record. They kind of carry the gist of it, don’t they? But I love “Stare the Monster Down.” It’s quite a personal lyric. I love “Eagle Rider.” I mean, I enjoy all them.

Stu G: It’s actually hard, but I mean, "Kingdom of Comfort" is probably my favorite song. “Stare the Monster Down” is very personal to me lyrically, and there’s a lot of passion in that. I like the more up-tempo things like "God is Smiling" and "Break The Silence." "My Soul Sings," "Eagle Rider," it just goes on. I mean, we had fun making it, we really had fun. There was some really hard work at the beginning with some of the songs, but with the recording of it, we had really great fun.

Martin: That’s really hard.

Stu G: You could have at least given us a top 5 or something

Stu G: I’ll go for two. I love “Investigate.” I love the Psalm that comes from. I love the period of time we were in when we wrote that, and playing that on the stage is a great experience. And then “Kingdom of Comfort”

Martin: I’ll take the song “It’s OK,” which I think was a great achievement for us because it was pushing that emotional “breaking your heart” button without doing the Jesus thing, and I thought it was great at the time. It was very holistic. And a song like “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble,” not because stylistically I think it’s great, but because lyrically at the time, it came out of nowhere. It was a little bit bigger. And when you read the lyrics now, it’s still relevant today.

Stew: Mine would be “Mezzanine Floor,” which I think is really interesting because I think it’s an interesting song for now as well. And for me, I really think it sort of encapsulated a time and space thing for where we were as a band and what we’re trying to achieve in terms of mainstream and be more poetic in our language to appeal to a wider audience but still have some sort of potency. And probably “Investigate,” it’s just a great rock song ­ it’s just a chance to get lost in the sounds and tones.

Stew: I’ll be changing the guitar strings. *laughs* Obviously, I’ve been drumming, but behind the scenes, creatively, I’ve designed our marketing stuff. I’ve been fortunate. That’s what my real job was before the band. That’s where my training was, and I’ve been fortunate to do two things that I love. One is drumming, the other is the creative thing and the design, and actually in the last 12-15 years, to balance those things out. And so, I’m going to continue to pick up that creative thing. I’ll be working two days a week for Delirious? and Furious? and other artists to continue that, so I’m really excited about that, and so the rest of the time I’ll be doing other opportunities as Smeezer the Designologist. I’m excited, it’s emotional and sad for all of us, because it’s something I love doing and could easily carry on with for the next 10 years, but it’s the tension of being away and just feeling like God’s got more for me and requires more of me. And that is a very difficult one, because I love what I do, and when we’re playing, there’s no better place to be, and I still feel that when we play. But the feeling is that I need to take my foot off the gas, and I’ll really find myself again and connect with the creative thing, which is something else I really love. It’s all those things, it’s confusing and sad, but I’m excited for the future, I’m excited for the guys. The guy that’s replacing me is a friend of ours, a young guy that’s from our church that I helped out years ago to get into drumming. His name is Paul Evans, and I think musically he’s going to be a great, great asset to the band. He’s a brilliant drummer. I think in terms of the band, he’s going to bring some different dynamics... it’s going to be an exciting time.

Stu G: Well, it’s always an option, whatever stage you’re at. But I think the thing is, we just didn’t feel like we’re finished. As simple as that.

Stew: I said to them “This is feels right for me, but it doesn’t feel right for you”

Martin: It’s taken from that sort of mad story where the Old Testament priests would go into the holy of holies, and at times the presence of God would be so intense that the guy would die. And so they’d go in to tie a rope around his leg so that if he did die, they could pull him out without someone else having to go in. I mean it’s a great story, isn’t it? But it’s taken from that thing that this is pretty holy ground we stand on, and savoring that moment, I’m taking off my shoes.

Stu G: That’s difficult.

Stew: Probably the Roxy at Sunset Boulevard. Mid 90’s, I think that was around ’97. There were a few hundred people, Virgin Records and those guys were there, and we were really sweaty and jammed in there, but it was great.

Martin: One that comes to mind is the Parachute Festival in New Zealand. It’s outdoors, it’s like 30,000 people. The stars were out. And you really are on the other side of the planet. And we were seriously jet-lagged. It was the wrong time to be awake. And yet, we were out on the stage, and it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. How an outdoor thing can feel like a small little club show. I love that.

Stu G: For me, I’d agree with Stew, I’d say the Roxy, but I’ll give you another one. It was the first time we played ­ I can’t remember which one it was ­ it was either Irvine Meadows or the Greek Theatre in California ­ and it’s like an outdoor amplitheatre. And I think it was an “Investigate” moment. When we played “Investigate” there, that was just the best moment.