One of the most established songwriters and worship leaders in Britain Dave Bilbrough is presently touring the country with his latest album New Heart. DEO editor Jane Hicks caught up with him in Worthing...
How did you start writing songs?"Actually, I come from quite a musical family. My mum plays the accordion and my dad wrote poetry as well as playing various musical inofficeents. My sister and her daughters are accomplished violin players. But it wasn't until after I had become a Christian at 17 that I thought about music as a way of expressing myself - I was far more interested in football and, in particular, West Ham United.
"After I became a Christian and started going to church, I found that many of the songs, although very sincerely sung, used words or terms that were unfamiliar to me, particularly having come from a non-church background.
"I remember asking my dad for the old guitar we had underneath the stairs. We had to nail the back onto it and then put some strings on. In those days there weren't many worship songs around. There was Youth Praise and 'smash hits' such as Kumbayah and Can it be true?
"When I first started to play the guitar, it was really to reflect my thanks for what God had done in changing my life. I knew just three chords: D, A and G, and then came the memorable day when I discovered E minor. I used to just sit in my room, officeming those chords, allowing my heart to flow towards God. And out of that came my very first song, Abba Father.
"The second one, Gospel rock and roll, was my most memorable 'un-hip' song:
'We're singing songs with laughter, the Lord is in control, because we're grooving to the Gospel rock and roll. Let's rock everybody, let's rock, clap your hands together, shout and stamp your feet, dig that crazy rhythm, let's jive to the Spirit's beat'! I suppose it's been a growing process to discover the wheat and the chaff; the songs that have lasting value and the songs that haven't.
"I was fortunate because my church really encouraged young people, particularly on the musical side. So, after just a few years, I found myself leading worship in different situations - first with 50, then 60, then 100, and then when I was 19, the Albert Hall.
"Yes, it has been a growing process and still is!"
How did you get discovered?"People around me began to help me focus on where my gifting and calling were. They believed in me in, perhaps, a way that I didn't believe in myself at the time.
"I started in my local church; then, gradually, I began to travel with other speakers - they would speak and I would sing at the beginning of the meeting or at the end. That encouraged me not only to begin to function in a public way but also to see the God-centred lifestyle many of these ministry speakers had. And that was a great inspiration to me.
"Hearing people speak, not just on the platform but outside, also had a big impact in focusing my songs.
"Having written some songs, we then, as a church, did a recording called Fruit Salad which reflected many of the worship songs around the time. It was quite a radical thing. We spent two days recording this very lively congregation. It wasn't very professional but it had a lot of life in it.
"I started visiting a church in Ewell, Surrey, and one day the pastor asked me to put some of my songs onto tape. One member of the congregation who was involved with a record company (which later became Kingsway Music) approached me with a view to putting some of those songs into a recording.
"This was in 1976 when I had only just gone full-time, and I remember feeling that I didn't have enough material for a record. I asked them to give me a little more time and after a year or two I contacted them. So I made my first record: Dave Bilbrough and Friends.
"At this time, there was a great interest in the music coming out of the house fellowships, and it was not long before the first Songs of Fellowship came out. Some of my songs were on that which brought me into contact with the major record company, Kingsway. Thus began a relationship which has lasted for many years."
Do you think you have to be a successful worship leader as well as a writer to get songs published?"I think it helps to be a worship leader as well as a writer because, obviously, you have an immediate outlet for the songs you are writing. But there are some great writers leading conferences who are not necessarily worship leaders - like Doug Horley, for instance, who wrote We want to see Jesus lifted high.
"So I think the two roles can be distinct, as well."
What advice would you give to budding songwriters?"The first thing I would say is, write what's real from your heart. Listen to as many musical styles as you can. Focus yourself around one style as you begin to build up your catalogue of songs.
"When I first started, I made the mistake of trying too widely to reflect different musical styles. I would go from reggae to country, to Latin, to folk, and while that is good because it shows diversity, I was stepping from one thing to the other too quickly.
"So find out what is your style and strength and then really work to it. Listen to the music of that style and develop some of the nuances and phrasing represented in those styles.
"Secondly, keep your songs focused and central to what you want to say and where you want to go with it.
"Thirdly, don't write just for the market, but write what's real for you, and always look to your local congregation to try them out."
How far-reaching is your ministry?"I see my own particular ministry as a bridge-builder between those from different denominations, reminding us of our common calling to worship. Although I'm affiliated with the Pioneer Churches, most of my work is outside of those churches. In a typical year I am pleased and thrilled to be able to visit Baptist, Anglicans, Pentecostals and some house churches.
"I also travel overseas. I've been to the Far East, to Malaysia, Thailand, into Europe and the United States. One interesting and very inspiring trip was to Ghana, West Africa, where I discovered they had so much to educate me in when it came to praise and worship.
"The great and incredible thing is that people all around the world can express the same thing you are feeling so differently. It's also thrilling to hear your songs being sung in other languages and other traditions."
Do you see any special encouragements or break-throughs in the Church overall?"Yes, I think these are exciting times. When I started 20-odd years ago, the idea of Baptists meeting with Anglicans would have been radical. Yet now it's happening and I'm thrilled to see churches working together and respecting one another. I guess we've got events like Spring Harvest to thank for that.
"There is still a great deal of work to do and the Church needs, continually, to become more relevant to society. There is a re-awakening of God's people and a linking up internationally; and understanding that we need each other.
"On the worship side there are some exciting break-throughs. Eight or nine years ago, a worship band was a very stereo-type kind of thing - bass, drums, electric guitar, violins, flutes etc. I suppose Spring Harvest was the model.
"But now we're seeing different kinds of music through innovative, young worship leaders, which is great. It is really important to respect different musical styles.
"A healthy attitude to worship is emerging with an appreciation of a more reflective style involving different inofficeents, such as the folk inofficeents, moving towards the Celtic style.
"Diversity - appreciating different musical styles - is something I long to see more and more of."