PRESENCE - OUT NOW

About

Even if you haven't seen Stuart Menzies Farrant live before you're sure to have heard the music at some time or other as he is one of the UK's most radio-friendly Christian singer-songwriters, a claim to fame attributed to talent and years of hard work.

"I've been making music since the late 80s, first as a guitar player with local rock bands, and then as a singer," Stuart says in his home recording studio before explaining how his emergence as one of gospel music's most accessible local talents nearly didn't happen: "After years of performing in pubs and clubs with different small-time outfits, I become disillusioned with striving for success and decided to quit music and settle down to a normal life instead."

Then Reinhardt Bonnke came to England for a Eurofire conference, and Bradford-based Stuart was deeply challenged by what he felt God was saying to him in the audience. Life took on new meaning, and his songwriting reflected this. "My faith became the driving force behind my creativity," he recalls. "I felt I had really got something to say."

His newly found voice to proclaim the kingdom of God started to express itself through music and lyrics - simple songs of praise and love at first which, eventually, were transcribed into the works that would be released in 2003 as Revival, a 12-track CD that earned Stuart his first Gospel Entertainment Music (GEM) Award Best Male nomination and an Ommy award.

The CD Revival's opening title track roars a rocky request to God for an outpouring of His Spirit, while Make Me Blind, this and other songs based on Stuart's own emotions and experiences, is Del Amitri-esque, taking submission as its theme. The CD then takes in soul, funk, pop, house, 70s rock and even the occasional sitar before A Better Way glides meaningfully into a vision of eternity. No wonder radio stations (including BBC Radio Leeds, BBC WM, BBC Radio Humberside, Branch FM and Greenbelt Radio) picked off tracks for airplay.

With the release came a new thirst to perform live, and Christian/ethical news website www.thegoodnews.co.uk was so impressed with Revival, it agreed to organise Stuart's ongoing TGN Tour of schools, churches and festivals.

Rejecting the idea of recording a 'sequel' to Revival, Stuart went back into the studio in early 2004 to work on a new album, not knowing exactly where the project would take him. Taking 1 Kings 19:11-12 as his starting point ("Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by…) he adopted Presence as his title and set about writing and recording, in-between performing dates on his tour.

As the harvest of devotion and passion was gathered in, the first fruits saw Stuart return to his musical homelands, a raw, rocky sound, songs like Look at Him, Kingdom Come, You're the One - which led to a second GEM Award when released as a single -  and In the Presence of the King taking the needle well into the red and combining exhilaration with the over-active hormones of Christian rock.

Rather than make this a tribute to his heavy rock roots, Stuart then looked at the gentler side of the presence of the Lord - the more mellow Tears to My Soul and Heal Me Now touching the listener personally and offering personal testimony as well as beautiful melodies.

Then as weeks turned into months and eventually just over two years, partly due to a busy concert schedule, Stuart entered a third chapter, comprising a small collection of R&B/funk tracks - Carry Me, You've Got a Hold on Me, Jesus Is in the Street - which added an international street-level feel, illustrating that God really is Lord of all, especially as the songs have a crossover quality that makes them relevant to just about anyone.

Finally, Stuart found himself examining the Christian journey, with the songs Lift My Hands and That's Not the Way focusing on the highs and lows of participating on earth in the Church.

The result is a stunning album of 12 tracks - Stuart's best work to date - all revealing something of the nature of God, from the perspective of the new Christian, non-Christian, repentant prodigal, ethical onlooker and mature churchgoer.

When it was time to prepare the artwork for the project, it seemed apt, in retrospect, for Stuart to stand as a lone observer amongst God's creation, his presence in the foreground contrasting with the work of a mighty God, who talks to us through everything he's made.

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