Weekly > Interviews
The Delays
The Delays made a welcome return earlier this year with their much anticipated third album Everything’s The Rush. The album followed on from the success of previous offerings Faded Seaside Glamour and You See Colours.
Despite being heavy on melody and having a real knack for writing catchy three and a half minute pop songs, chart success has been minimal for the band so far. I caught up with them recently fresh from their video shoot for the new single Keep It Simple which features actor Ewen Macintosh and is released on 11th August, to ask them about the chart succes, the video shoot and their live following amongst other things.
Your third album came out earlier this year, how was it to write in comparison to where you were with your previous two albums?
Recording a track a day was the main difference this time round. We were there twenty days and got eighteen tracks done. Before we would spend about five days a song, so if feels like the freshest album. In terms of the writing, most of it was done when we were between labels so was very free and unplanned. Lyrically, it’s our most personal record so far.
You don’t tend to leave it too long between releasing albums (roughly every two years) is that something you planned and does it put pressure on you from a writing perspective?
The writing never stops, either at home or on the road, so there are always enough songs for an album. If anything its frustrating waiting so long between albums because we end up with a backlog of songs, and it’s nice to be writing from somewhere not so cluttered. Writing and arranging are two of the most exciting things about being in a band, so I don’t feel that pressure.
Has it frustrated you at all that you haven’t had big chart success so far, while you’ve had some fairly modest success, others who seem to be deemed the latest thing waltz into the top end of the charts?
When we’re heard, people love it. It can be frustrating – like every other band, we believe massively in what we do. But our reputation’s growing and growing and our best stuff is still ahead. Not being typical can be a hindrance, but ultimately it’s why people will care in the future.
Ewen Macintosh who was in The Office is in your video for the new single due out in August, how did that come about?
Once the synopsis for the video had been settled, everyone connected to the band started to look for someone, and a friend of a friend of someone at the label knows Ewen and suggested him. Luckily he was up for it and gave a stirring performance.
Did he speak more than his character in The Office did?
Yeah, although he was nursing a leg injury and was in a lot of pain. If you look closely you can see a limp whilst he was jogging. The director was having none of it though and had Ewen jogging around suburbia for hours. What a trooper!
Can you tell us a little bit about the single (Keep It Simple) and why you’ve chosen that as a single?
It was one of the first demos that Fiction heard and got excited about, so it was always a contender. It’s about long distance relationships and the communication breakdown that can come about because of it. Its about trying to remember why you’re in that situation and what brought you together in the first place. It’s a song about photographs!
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Add to favouritesYou’ve always been a band that likes to tour and have a very good live following, why do you think that is and what keeps you motivated on the road?
We’ve always been outside of the scene or movement, doing something to please ourselves, so the place fans of the record can experience anything like them live is to see us, because we don’t really cross over with any other bands. Each gig is a celebration for us and I think people at the shows can feel that.
Ok time to take it out on someone, you can play as support to any band in the world and you are guaranteed to blow them off stage, who is it you would choose to upstage?
Any group of muso’s who value technical ability over soul.
What would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
For me, I would say either our first American tour or watching the recording of the orchestra on ‘Pieces’ on the new album. Or editing the final, completed copy of the first album or playing Glastonbury for the first time, or headlining a festival in Mexico…too many highlights so far, there’s no better life I’d want.
Early on in your career you went through a few name changes as a band, why The Delays and who had the final say on that?
We were called Idoru, after the William Gibson novel, which is a Japanese word. Unfortunately, people kept mispronouncing so we spent weeks brainstorming with some pretty shocking suggestions. We’re all fans of My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, early Verve etc. and were experimenting with guitar sounds. The delay pedals were out in force and there was a bit of a Eureka moment – I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been used before! We also though that it sounded nice when removed from its meaning, like ‘cellar door’. We were all sold on it.
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