Graham Kendrick keeps going

CT: Is this a quiet or busy season for you right now?
GK: There is a lot going on, this new CD is about to come out, I am just about to go on a tour, I just came back from Spring Harvest, so there is a lot going on.

CT: You've picked 28 songs for your new "Very Best Of" compilation.
GK: Yes, it’s quite a packed album. It’s a double album and the vast majority are fresh recordings. It’s not just a compilation of old tracks, it's new arrangements, new recordings and I’m very pleased with how they come out.

CT: What was on your mind when putting them together?
GK: Well, this is something I wanted to do for a number of years, in particular to re-record the songs. For some of them it’s many years since they were properly recorded and obviously styles change and production and so on. So many of the songs have become standards and I think it’s really good to refresh them with new arrangements. It's been done also to let the new generation get hold of them and see what they would do with them, producers like Nathan Nockels, an American producer. He has really refreshed the songs.

CT: What would you choose as your top three songs that you have written, and why?
GK: It’s very hard to choose. I would say the “Servant King”, “Knowing You” and “Amazing love”, the reason being that they have content that people obviously want to sing and drawn into. A message that is the same for every generation, they seem to work. The big test for the song is when the people sing it; will they want to keep singing it? Certainly in these cases people do.

CT: Do you ever have songs that you found hard to write?
GK: The hardest ones? Some of the hardest ones get thrown away. There are songs you just work on for a long time and they never seem to come through in the end and that’s just the way it is for most writers. They will write far more songs than the public will ever hear and you have to at some point make a decision where it’s not happening.

Sometimes a song sort of just dies and rises again in a different form, that’s often happened to me when I abandoned a song and even years later I've come back to it and finished it or re-written or re-used it or part of it to to make it into another song. It’s a process that you cannot really control.

CT: Do you ever look back at some of your songs and think I could have done that better?
GK: Oh yes, with even the most creative people there is always a dissatisfaction, there are very few pieces of work where you say that is perfect in a way like a painting or a sculpture or a poem. And I think a piece of art is never really finished, only abandoned; where you say I can’t do anymore of this, I can’t do it. But that does sometimes happen and later you get a perspective on something and think ‘I would have done that differently if I went back to it now’. But of course by then it’s too late. You have to live with your work in all its aspects, the bad as well as the good.

CT: So what does the future hold for Graham Kendrick?
GK: Very busy, I have a tour coming up in May called the Acoustic Gospels, which is featuring my sing a song writing materials, real story telling songs as opposed to praising and worship songs. There are lots of events and trips. I often get involved in teaching and training in praise and worship. There will be a trip to America a couple of times and Korea, Romania, and then I’m recording a new album in the autumn. I just take it as it comes and I’m grateful for being able to use my time productively.

CT: So no sign of retirement or a break then?
GK: No, I don’t think so. I think I would struggle with that particularly when you have the privilege as I do being involved in something creative. When you’re a creative person you don’t want to stop creating, you want to keep going and so I think as long as I can I will. Also as I think as I get older people appreciate lessons that you have learned, your wisdom and your perspective having been around for a number of years. So I hope I can be able to serve the next generation and the one after.