Plenty Of Time For Delays

It’s that time of year when the UK is gripped by festival fever and with over 500 to choose from, sitting in a field, drinking Cider and listening to music is one of 2008’s must haves; as are Delays, arguably one of the UK’s most in demand festival circuit bands. With this in mind, Gigwise decided to go backstage at Hyde Park’s O2 Wireless to see what all the fuss is about. OK, so we didn’t get very far and were promptly yet politely ejected by security, but lead singer Greg and drummer Rowley were kind enough to talk to us outside about festivals, their new album and hanging out with Elton John.

It’s been a busy two years since parting ways with Rough Trade and signing to Fiction. But for a band still strangely on the cusp of mainstream success it’s a welcome step in the right direction as is gaining exposure through the festival circuit as Rowley explains:

“It was festivals that got us into music in the first place. We went to Glastonbury when we were at school and in a sense it filled us with ambition. When we first started out, I was always making mental pictures of playing big festivals and big stages in the sunshine. It was never about the sweaty little toilet circuit; we’ve always made music for big stages and festivals and without being big headed we always deliver at festivals.”

Greg agrees: “I find festivals especially the Isle of Wight for instance like one big communal hug. The moment you’re on stage it’s everything you’ve ever wanted and worked towards. We’re our own best advert really, we’ve played to some pretty disparate audiences over the past few months and it’s been quite a nice test with the more electro side of what we’re doing and we eel there’s still an element of spontaneity and that it’s not something we just wheel out.”

May saw the release of ‘Everything’s The Rush’ their third album and first for Fiction. Recorded in twenty days at producer Youth’s (Primal Scream / The Verve) Spanish châteaux, it’s big, soaring, bright, emotional, fragile and personal. The only condition was to record one track a day.

“I had my doubts we’d be able to do a track a day initially,” says Greg. “We’ve only ever recorded in quite insular environments so it was different to how we’ve ever approached it before. It was much more spontaneous working with Youth, it was a challenge.”

Rowley picks up: “The actual live room was surrounded by windows that looked out across mountain ranges, so it was always a pleasure to be there. If we were stuck away in some shit part of London or hung-over after going out it would have been abysmal but that was a ****ing pleasure. We tried to capture how we sound like live. The first two records we weren’t really going for that, it was just about trying to make a great record, but with this one, we wanted to get that same energy. It was ****ing exciting and a lot more pleasurable working that way.”

“We’re not a scratchy little garage band, but we were taken right out of our comfort zone,” adds Greg. “Its good to shake it up once in a while. We want to find each album difficult; we don’t want to find any album easy to make, what’s the point? You’re just covering old ground.”