Clem Jackson met up with three members of PHATFISH

Nathan: We are definitely clearer in wanting to give some focus to the band Phatfish, in terms of going out there and doing gigs. We never said we weren't going to do that any more - it was just that we didn't want to presume anything. We wanted to take some time to see what else emerged. Out of taking that step back all sorts of things have emerged. There's Lou's solo stuff, Luke's audio mastering business and Mike is involved in all sorts of diverse things including becoming a magistrate and doing his own musical projects - as well as the development of a training CD called 'Working As A Band'. In a sense the vision never really went away, it was just a case of how we apply it and whether Phatfish was the right avenue for that. As time has gone on we've felt that, actually, there is still mileage in the band as a vehicle to do what we do - to write biblically based songs and hopefully write great music. With Lou's solo work as well it feels like we can compliment each other - we are able to do both.

Clem: For some time after Alan [Rose] left in 2003 you didn't have a regular guitarist but now you have two. How did that all come about?

Jos: I'd been involved with the band for a while, on the sound side, and Nathan was a bit frustrated in not having a regular guitarist for Sunday meetings at church. He was having to pull in different guitarists - I was one of them playing on a Sunday along with Ben Hall who is also now part of the band. So, he decided it would be good to bring both of us in, to train us and to develop the relationships with the rest of the band. I started playing in 2007 and did a couple of gigs and then Ben was brought in and it's all just fitted together. For Ben and me it's been great working with professional musicians; it feels like we've all gelled together.

Nathan: As Jos said, we wanted to bring younger people in and do some training. It was like we either scour the world and say 'Phatfish need the best guitar player we can possibly find' or we find guys with potential, working in our local church, who we have a relationship with already. It really felt like this was the right thing to do because everyone starts somewhere and we saw loads of potential both in Jos and in Ben.

Clem: Any plans for more solo albums from Lou?

Lou: At the moment we're kind of alternating. I did my album 'Promised Land' last year and now we're doing the next Phatfish album, which we start recording next week (February). That's due out in June and then there'll probably be another album from me in 2010. It's nice because it just keeps it fresh and gives us room for a bit more creativity.

This article was first published in the March issue of Christian Marketplace and is reproduced with permission.