The 40-strong SOUNDS OF BLACKNESS are storming the charts and proving that not all the music of the mainstream is godless hedonism. The group gave an in-depth interview to Jan Willem Vink.

Are all the members of Sounds Of Blackness involved full time with the group?

(Gary) "Actually not. Of the members we have 30 singers and a 10-piece orchestra. Of those 40 members we have a 22 piece touring ensemble who do most of the extensive travel and interviews and promotion for the group. And even a number of the tour group maintain either part time employment or have conventional employment. We've got an engineer, a child psychologist, a doctor of plant biochemistry, a couple of bankers and so forth. But Sounds Of Blackness does have a number of people who are in fact full time musicians. But even they may do outside projects. Anne for example is a prolific songwriter and the proof of that, even outside her writing for the group, is that she has written a song on the album of two of her idols, one Gladys Knight, a song called 'Home Alone' and then one for Patti LaBelle and in fact that song is called The Right Kind Of Lover' and that's going to be the first single off Patti's new album and it's going to be featured in Eddy Murphy's new movie called 'Beverly Hills Cop III'. We've been blessed to do outside projects, not only as a source of outside income, but a chance to expand our careers as well."

It must be very hard to organise a group as large as Sounds Of Blackness for touring.

(Gary) "Actually it isn't. There are a few reasons for this. From day one, we've always stressed professionalism, punctuality, responsibility, musical excellence, respect and at the centre of it all our faith. It was our professionalism which opened doors for us. If you asked them today Jam and Lewis would tell you when they first called us in to do an outside project - some tracks of Alexander O'Neil's Christmas album called 'My Gift To You' - they originally asked us to do one song and we knocked the background vocals to that song out in about two hours, and they said, 'Can you do another one?' We started it, then they said, 'Do you guys have a contract?' Then they said, 'We're gonna do a project with you'. That's when they first made a commitment to the group Later in January '89, Janet Jackson was in town finishing up 'Rhythm Nation' and they brought her to the Music For Martin concert and throughout the concert she was really thrilled with the group and just told them the whole time, 'You guys don't wait any longer, put them out, there is no other group out there like this right now'.

But, it took a long, long while before you secured a record contract - your three albums have only been released in the last couple of years. Was the waiting frustrating?

(Gary) 'We are firm believers that things happen when they are supposed to. In God's own time, that is the very best time. Sometimes you can want for things, you can THINK that you are ready for them but you're not. We weren't twiddling our thumbs in the years between the late 70s and into late '89-90. We were in fact on a couple of occasions approached by major labels who were interested in the group. But they were interested in some unacceptable conditions such as changing the name of the group, or just singing one style of music. 'Could you just sing pop or just sing gospel?' That's contrary to the group's whole philosophy. We're blessed with all these styles of music, that's why we're called the Sounds Of Blackness. It took a Jimmy Jam and a Terry Lewis who were coming from the same place that we are spiritually and musically to put a group out with our repertoire and philosophy. But we were blessed in the interim years from when we started to when we were signed to do a number of great things. We performed with the late great jazzman Cannonball Aderley, with the Pointer Sisters, with Roberta Flack, we travelled to San Francisco, to Atlanta, to Chicago. As we do today, we sang in theatres, prisons, churches, schools, community centres, street corners, festivals, you name it. We were quite busy! Though maybe not quite as busy as we are now!"

(Anne) "Before I was even old enough to be in the group Sounds Of Blackness was hard at work. I always knew I wanted to be a part of Sounds Of Blackness, but I was living 700 miles away. But my sister became a part, because she was there attending college. So when I was old enough, I was ready."

Was your reputation so big before you even got signed?

(Gary) "We were approached for a number of different projects. We worked with Prince on a Batman soundtrack before we were signed, with Shelia E, before we were signed, we also did some tracks for Bobby Z of the Revolution, Prince's former band, this is all before we were signed. I guess there was a buzz in the music industry like, 'Hey man, there is this great group out there, one day something's going to happen for them, in the mean time if you can get them in the studio, they really do great work'. All of those are just blessings that we're eternally thankful to God for."

The fact that Sounds Of Blackness are not in the Christian music scene, is that a blessing to the group?

(Gary) "Yes, absolutely, because those that are already healed don't need a physician. What's needed is, as Anne frequently says, someone to go to the highways and hedges and for those who are not going to be in church on Sunday morning to those who do not know the Lord. It's great for us that our music is played in nightclubs and street corners and on school grounds where you are not going to hear the so-called traditional Christian music. It's a specific ministry and blessing for us to go out into the world and have this music and message go there."

So you talk about the Sounds Of Blackness in terms of ministry then?

(both) "Absolutely!" (Anne) "We always say in the group, 'We are ambassadors, just proud to be the instrument that God saw fit to use to share his word to others, to educate, enlighten and encourage in places where his word may not have gone unless he had instruments to take it there.'"

In terms of fruit of your work, what has happened?

(Gary) "We've had many testimonies, even some that were delivered of a spirit of suicide, and those that were discouraged because they couldn't find jobs and then upon listening to the music their hearts were encouraged to pray and trust God and now testify of employment. If one soul is saved, only one soul is saved, then our mission is accomplished."