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| "You've written an album mainly for yourselves - so it is really overwhelming when you find out other people like it too" |
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I wish I could explain my unfaltering love for Delays, but I can't. I know others who share the love, and I know others still who just can't see it. But I can't tell you why 'Long Time Coming' remains one of my very favourite singles of all time, why I became so excited when debut album 'Faded Seaside Glamour' was initially released back in 2004, and why I am now so excited about the imminent arrival of new long player 'You See Colours' and their upcoming gig at Ministry Of Sound's Crossover night. Perhaps it's because they are masters of one of my favourite sub-genres - what I like to call 'indie-kids-with-computers'. Perhaps it's because they make well produced indie pop that is emotional, moving and happy all at the same time. Perhaps it's because I first stumbled across their uplifting sound during a period when indie was going through one of its 'music to slit your wrists by' stages. But I think it's more than that. I just can't tell you why. I'm not sure my chat with the band's Aaron Gilbert last week provided any answers either, but it did fill me in on where the band is coming from and going to, and when a band is this good, you owe it to yourself to be in the know. |
As I may have mentioned, I am quite a big fan of Delays, and just finding out that their second album will be unleashed in March provided my first musical highlight of 2006 (the day my copy arrived the second). But the good news is that when I chatted with Delays' Aaron Gilbert about his band, his music and his upcoming album, I managed to avoid slipping into the kind of sycophancy you might have expected given that fact. Rather, I got straight down to business, and because I'd never spoken to any of the band before, I started at the start.
"My brother Greg wanted to start a band when he was at school," Aaron explains. "He got together with a few of his friends, and they'd come round our house and play together. Loudly. I was in the bedroom next door to his. I was more into my dance music, house, trip hoppy stuff. I'd be programming things on one side of the wall, they'd being playing on the other. Then one day their guitarist left and I just kind of took his place. I can't help thinking it was fate".
He's possibly right, though it does sound a little bit like the plot of a not altogether un-lame teen flick - indie kid brother in one room, techno head sibling in the other, neither side can succeed until their musical passions are combined. But it wasn't quite as simple as all that might suggest.
"There was a lot of hard work before things really came together", Aaron admits. "The band had been gigging before I got involved, and there was already a lot of label interest. But there was a lot of industry bullshit too. [Rough Trade boss] Geoff Travis was one of the people who showed interest back then, but I think we needed some more time to develop. So after I'd joined the band we went away for a bit, carried on rehearsing, and two years later, when we were really happy with what we'd got, we went back to the industry with a demo. Fortunately for us Geoff was still there waiting with open arms. And things came together".
And that they did. Via Rough Trade came debut album 'Faded seaside Glamour', and with it critical acclaim and a community of overly devoted fans like myself. After all that time and effort - "and lots of blood, sweat and tears" Aaron adds - how did it feel to be so well received? "It's funny with the first album. You have no expectations, because you simply don't know what to expect. You've written an album mainly for yourselves - so it is really overwhelming when you find out other people like it too. In fact it's incredible. I'm still trying to get my head around it now".
That crazy-ness is most apparent to new bands, of course, on the gig circuit. Aaron continues: "We had a mad time on the road with the first album - America, Japan, Australia, Germany - we went out supporting Franz Ferdinand, and then on our own headline tour. It's mad going to the other side of the world and discovering people who know your songs. And it's great to go to countries where people seem even more receptive to what you're doing. Especially mainland Europe. They always seem more open to things that are a bit different. I mean they have some fuckin crazy music out there, they seem more willing to try something that's not familiar".
2004 was the year that Delays arrived, certainly here in the UK, and seemingly further afield as well. Where did they go in 2005? "We took a bit of time off. And I was really quite ill for a couple of months. But after that we went back into the studio, and started writing about everything that had happened to us since the first album came out".
The results of all that writing is new album 'You See Colours', out on Rough Trade this March. It's a great piece of work, with the electro dabblings that made 'Faded Seaside Glamour' so special an increasingly important part of the mix. Given that the electro dimension of the Delays sound seems to come from Aaron's corner, is that a sign that his influence in the band is on the rise?
"I don't know," Aaron ponders. "A lot of the songs start with Greg. Then we get into the studio and jam, we chip away at the original idea, sometimes we hack the fuck out of it. And from there come the songs. I suppose I was more involved this time round because we were starting with a blank screen. Because I joined the band later in the day, a lot of the songs of the first album were already there before I got involved. I could add to them, twist them round slightly. But this time I was there from the outset, and that probably means I had more of an influence."
While the band are obviously greater than the sum of their parts, I'm happy with Aaron becoming a more dominant player in the Delays sound, the electro tinges for me what sets them a part as something really special. "As a band, we have very diverse music tastes", Aaron says, talking about his band's strengths. "Each of us has different influences, and we each change our own tastes all the time. There'll be a couple of weeks when Led Zepp seem like the best band ever, then other weeks when I feel more into Arab Strap or Mogwai or something. I'm sure that diversity is important".
And so am I. I'm still not sure why I love Delays quite as much as I do, but that is definitely part of it. Long may it and they continue.
Some Delays plugging:
Delays' 'You See Colours' was released on 6 Mar 2006 on Rough Trade.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published jan 2006
