E 244 Blast from the Past: Delirious? And Others

 E 244  Blast from the Past: Delirious? And Others

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Chris: Hello. It's great to be with you today. We are continuing our series called Blast from the Past, where we are looking at various books, ideas, experiences that shaped our earlier years of formation. So today we want to share about music and bands that have been particularly formational to us in our earlier years.

And for those of you who may be new to the podcast, music is a major way. I've connected with God for most of my life, and I started playing the guitar when I was a teenager. And playing music has remained a primary way that I connect with God and grow spiritually. And when I was probably 19, I had a friend introduce me to a band from England called Delirious.

I had grown up singing songs in church, but there was something very unique and different about this music. The instrumentation was [00:01:00] different. The songs were happier, if you will. Most church music that I had been accustomed to singing was serious in nature, and this had a lightness and it promoted clapping and moving around.

And probably most noteworthy was that the songs were not just about God, but they were to God. And so there was a level of closeness to God in the lyrics that captured me and this group of friends that I mentioned, and I find that. A lot of Christianity is left brain and cerebral. And I had been engaged in Bible study and academics theology, if you will, which was great and I liked that aspect of faith, but this tapped into the right brain and it prompted art and presence with God.

And people in a new way that I hadn't experienced before. And there was a group of us learning to play [00:02:00] music. And we got the chords and we would spend hours singing these songs together. And this was probably one of the most significant pieces of my spiritual formation and journey. And after that experience, I started lead leading worship music at a nonprofit where I met Christina.

We traveled playing music at conferences and youth groups, events, small venues, large venues, and I'll talk more about that in a moment. But as I reflect on this. It wasn't just listening to music or listening to bands, but listening with others and singing with others, playing and actually making music with others.

That was formative to me. 

Tina: That is a fun blast from the past of how music has been formational for you. And I will say, as a side note, this band that Chris is talking about, delirious was also a band that I had come across when I lived in St. Louis. Someone that I knew also had traveled [00:03:00] to England and brought back the cd, and I remember it was this unique, cool packaging in a tin can.

And similar to you, Chris, it had captured our hearts and imaginations and gave language that felt very close to God. And so I remember hearing Chris play guitar on a trip to Spain. This was part of a spiritual formation trip that we had taken. And I walked in on him playing a Martin Smith song. He was the lead singer of the band Delirious.

And I was watching Chris I don't know, pour his heart out to God in that moment. And it was the first time I thought, wow, this is a cool guy who loves God. And was probably the first seed of interest that has now. Turned into being my husband for almost 26 years. So who knew that delirious would impact us on so many levels.

But anyway, although playing music is not as central to me as it has been for Chris, it certainly has played a role in my spiritual formation. I. I attended a Greek Orthodox church growing up and my mom sang in the choir. And so I knew lots of songs in ancient Greek and chants in ancient [00:04:00] Greek but not much beyond that as far as spiritual music.

And so I remember in high. School being exposed to all different kinds of spiritual music. And that was back in the day of having Discmans. And so we would play the discs over and over again and we would repeat tracks and be able to do a little bit more with our listening skills. That was difficult.

Prior to that we had the cassette tapes that you had to rewind and all that, and so it just really promoted it was portable and we could listen to music all the time. These bands were using guitars and drums, which was very new to me, coming from a Greek Orthodox background with choirs and organs and things like that.

And so I think it drew me in because it felt so culturally relevant to just my normal teenage life. And interestingly enough, also like Chris, when I was a teenager, I started to play guitar. It was in 11th grade and for Lent that year, I decided to fast TV with my older sister and my older brother. And because of that, I had a lot of extra time on my hand since we weren't watching tv.

And my sister had a guitar and I started to [00:05:00] learn. And the church I was attending at the time actually had several people learning guitar. And so they had created these little books with songs and the books were maybe, those large index cards. And it was in a little mini binder and it was very simple guitar chords.

And so many of us would carry these little books with our guitar cases and we would sing songs together in small groups and gatherings. And so I loved like taking in music and listening to it in my car, playing it in my room, singing with others. And I think the thing that stands out to me is how accessible it was even playing.

I didn't feel like I had to be some pro or have, guitar lessons under my belt, but it just felt very accessible to me. And so I think that playing and the singing and being together with others in music has definitely had a profound impact on particularly my earlier years of spiritual formation and growth.

Chris: Very fun. Like I mentioned earlier I started playing in high school and actually someone very close to me gave me his [00:06:00] guitar. We would play together for hours and that led me to take music seriously and make it a part of my vocation. And so when Christine and I met and were part of the nonprofit, I had a chance to lead worship in.

Many different contexts and we were in the air flying to Germany actually, when nine 11 happened. We landed and went to our friend's house and as soon as we saw the news and experienced the shock and sadness. From across the ocean, the Germans we were working with were just very incredible to us.

We pivoted our itinerary to hold. Peace concerts throughout the nearby towns. We played on streets at halftime show for soccer games and in a concert hall where, sharing music was not only [00:07:00] healing and an avenue for peace, but also opened up numerous conversations. And so after our.

Sets were over, we would hang out and talk to people and we would pray with people and listen to stories. We met actually met an electric guitar player in Germany and he hung out with us for several weeks and then ended up coming to visit us in the US and he actually lived with Christina and I for about a month.

We had a tiny one bedroom home in Texas, but our laundry room was quite spacious, so we put a futon mattress in there and he lived in our laundry room and he ended up working for the same nonprofit. He met his wife and has been doing meaningful work with music in ways that were beyond his imagination.

When he lived in Germany. I think music has an incredible ability to connect us on so many levels, and so that's a [00:08:00] fun story that comes to mind. 

Tina: It's funny as I'm listening to us, we sound very hippie like with all of these different experiences, but it's true. And again, although I did play some guitar in high school it hasn't sustained me in the ways that Chris has.

And definitely I've leaned more into listening music in my older years than. Playing in my younger years, and so I'll just chime in with maybe another band, obviously Delirious, which we've highlighted, but another band, water Deep, which was also hugely influential. We actually did an entire podcast on them in episode 2 0 9, if you want to listen to that.

But then there was another band from our past that had an impact on a different level. The name of the band is a hundred Portraits, and I liked their music just fine. That wasn't necessarily the impact that grabbed me, but it was more so having to do with the fact that. It was a husband and wife team.

And so as a young single person and then as a newly married person, I really loved interacting with them and seeing their dynamic. Water deep was also a married couple. I would say though that water deep, the actual music meant a lot [00:09:00] to me. Where the other band, it was more the dynamic. With a married couple.

And then we had another husband wife team that we knew Barry and Michelle Patterson, who lived in Texas and actually worked with Chris on an album that he recorded. And so even though I knew I would never be in a band with Chris seeing these various musicians use their gifts in complimentary ways with their spouses was super influential and inspirational to me.

And so again, I think this speaks to the layers and opportunities that music opens up in our lives. Beyond the music itself. Chris, you mentioning having so many conversations with people after peace concerts or events that we would do and music was just an opening thing that led to relationship or again, some of these opportunities where just looking at people's ministries and noticing, oh wow, there's a way that husband and wife teams can do something that's really dynamic and complimentary.

That was really inspirational to me.

Chris: Yes, absolutely. And we talked a little bit about left brain and right brain and I think. Having experiences in Christian faith? I think [00:10:00] music, art I think the contemplative life is all about a groundedness. And one of the things that I really appreciate thinking back on some of this music is, how music was a little bit confessional, right? I come from a Protestant tradition and. Confession really isn't that big a deal. It's not something that is promoted. It's you. We don't go to a pastor and confess things like you do in maybe the orthodox tradition or the Catholic tradition. And so I think one of the things that, thinking back on.

The, particularly the band delirious is that it had just this confessional component to it. You're singing these songs and these songs they made a way for you to say, I, one thing that I was teaching my, my middle child a phrase today. But for the grace of God, there go, I.

And she's what does that mean? [00:11:00] And I said I think we can make statements about people that we observe. We observe a situation and we make a statement. And then we would say. And hopefully I remain humble enough that I don't go down that path. We're talking in the context of driving. ' cause she's driving to school and she's that person is doing this.

I'm like, you're right. And I think one of the things that happens in confession is you're in these songs and these, you're in these gatherings with people and you're singing these songs that have this using these words that maybe we don't resonate with. Very much in our culture, you're using words like sin and falling short, and you're singing about the very possibility of doing that on a day-to-day basis.

I, in the Lord's Prayer it says forgive us our trespasses and keep us from temptation. That's a, that's. Beseeching the divine on behalf of ourselves not to fall into any [00:12:00] path that would lead us down a negative way. And so one of the things that I really appreciated about this music is it was a confessional, keep us on the right path.

And so I think that was very formational for me. And it really made me pay attention to the path that I was on. And, kind, you're looking at the o other people around and you're singing these words and you're kinda like, yeah, I need help with that. And you're winking.

Yeah. But for the grace of God, there go. I. 

Tina: I think too, maybe for me I probably wouldn't use the language of confession, but of prayer and I like that a lot of these songs are not really wordy and very simple and so lends itself to repetitiveness and really meditating on a couple of words or phrases.

And when something is spoken, it's different than, in a song format. It resonates in your brain and you remember it, and you're singing those tunes over and over again. And so just recognizing I'm actually singing these prayers to God and declaring my devotion and whatnot in these really unique ways that lyrically [00:13:00] really captured my heart and I think lent itself to.

Like a sung prayer, if you will. And certainly in the Greek Orthodox Church we also, like our chants were sung prayers and there was a lot of repetition in the Greek Orthodox church. And so I think that was a foundation for me. But then having, again, modern language with modern instruments, I think just took it to a whole other level.

And yeah, I think I would just say that I appreciated that this has become prayer for me, not just. Like consuming music. But actually again, that response. And again, to your point, do I really believe what I'm singing here? Because a lot of times the lyrics are very deep and strong and express a sort of commitment level that, it's easy to just get caught up in the music.

What do really, okay, do I actually really mean this? And then if I do, yeah, I do wanna sing it with my whole heart. So appreciate you lifting that up. 

Chris: Yes, absolutely. Yeah I love that.

And I think, one of the things that I was thinking about the other day about music I was actually thinking about one thing that I've heard somebody say recently is that we actually have too many [00:14:00] stories or we're inundated, we're saturated with, and so we like.

Before you used to have memorization and you would memorize certain passages, but we have, the beautiful thing about technology is you have access to anything that you want. You just search it up and you can find the thing that you need. And so one of the things that I've really appreciated about music is it's like this library that you have.

You can re, you can recall something. And so I agree with you. You're singing these things about about God's love or God's, about theology and music has the ability to just recall itself particularly in times where you really need it. And I really appreciate that about music as well.

I appreciate being able to have this fun conversation with you about blast from the past and the music that's been formational to us.

Now is the part of the podcast where we talk about what we are [00:15:00] into. So what are we into? 

Tina: I am into high school basketball, but I feel like on a whole different level. And so both of our kids have played basketball over the years starting in middle school. And so we've just sat through a lot of basketball games that have, our team wasn't good for many years and so you're just showing up as a parent 'cause that's what you do.

But these last two years, our team has done really well and it's really fun because a lot of the boy basketball moms will come to watch the girls games and be really supportive. People are traveling to see us. We just found out that the boys won their regionals last night, so we're gonna go watch the boys game over the weekend.

And so this fun comradery that I'm experienced as a fan. And I think just really appreciating the school spirit and the fun. Like last Friday night it was one of the playoff games and so many people showed up and we had signs and wore our school colors and there was a lot of just fun enthusiasm.

I think people that hadn't been to the basketball game in years, because again our team used to be pretty bad showed up and they were like, wow, this is actually fun and seeing the spirit. And and I remember, you know what, in high school I [00:16:00] used to go to games all the time and it was a fun thing on the weekends.

And so it was just this nostalgia as we're talking about blast for the past. So I am very much into being a fan in a different light, in a fun way towards high school basketball. 

Chris: Yes. That has been fun. I, I think what I am into recently, besides basketball, because we're doing it as a family I ha I got an album a Vinyl, a Record a few weeks ago.

, It's by Mumford and Sons and the, it's a new album, it's called Prize Fighter, and I. Have really enjoyed the experience of putting the record on and you pull out the insert, there's an insert that has it has photographs of the band in all the different locations that they recorded this music and it has the lyrics in the songs.

It's just taking me back to whenever I used to have CDs and you would take out the jacket and it's this very [00:17:00] tactile experience. And one of the things that I really love about a record is you put it on and you it has to run its course. Now obviously you can lift the needle up and you could go back, but it's not like a CD where you skip back or like it's a little more it's a little more analog.

And so I've really enjoyed. The tactile experience of going through a couple different albums, looking at the photographs, looking at the lyrics, and it's just this beautiful, immersive experience that I've really been enjoying lately.

Well, Thank you so much for joining us today. It was so good to be with you. And until next time, make it a great week.