Interview - Delays

Delays are one of those bands who should be more popular than they are. Singer Greg has an amazingly pure singing voice. One of my colleagues loves them and stole any related CDs off my desk. Cheers mate.

Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

GREG GILBERT - DELAYS

It’s been rather quiet on the Delays front since last Christmas. After their fresh summery indie rock/pop streamed into the lives of many through ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ (2004) and ‘You See Colours’ (2006), not a lot seems to have happened. They sold out Southampton Guildhall last December in a show which one of my colleagues claims is one of his top gigs ever. Then, silence.

But Delays – vocalist/guitarist Greg Gilbert, keyboardist/vocalist Aaron Gilbert, bassist/vocalist Colin Fox and drummer Rowly - have not been in hibernation, far from it. They’ve been scurrying to Spain and back preparing their next album. We phoned up friendly frontman Greg Gilbert for a chat.

Delays are eagerly anticipating their November mini tour and have been playing a couple of low key gigs to warm up, which they enjoyed because of the lack of pressure. First of all was one for Oxjam – they weren’t on the bill but “muscled our way in, we’ve got big friends,” jokes Greg – and then one for their family and friends at Southampton Joiners on Halloween. The night saw an appropriate theme, with the band dressed in neon skeleton outfits, although the hot nylon outfits almost caused a different scare.

“Halfway through the gig I had to call my mate on stage to cut me out this suit because I was going to pass out or something ridiculous,” remembers Greg. “There were a few witches’ hats bobbing about. It was a good atmosphere, it was a good way to do our first gig with a not-too-serious vibe.”

So that meant you avoided hassle from trick or treaters? “I got accosted by some 14 year old kids on the way out and they were like ‘You’re lucky, you’re just leaving’. I went ‘Yeah, I saw you coming’ and they were like ‘Oh nice one!’ I sounded like Larry David you know, proper grumpy. I wasn’t wearing [the neon skeleton outfit] which was lucky. That would have been a bit of a kick in the shins for them really, what with denying the treats and yet wearing the outfit. I was just normalled up.”

If you’re lucky to be seeing them on their mini tour, make sure you grab a copy of super limited EP ‘Love Made Visible.’ “We’re just reintroducing ourselves a little, get back into it,” explains Greg.

If you haven’t seen the ‘Love Made Visible’ video, go and view it. Things got very messy indeed. Was that Delays' proper equipment, because it looked like they might have ruined it? “I was up for that until they actually started to put paint on the guitar, and I started to get a bit ‘Oh shit man!’ I’m not one of them people who likes to trash gear. We didn’t have the money to buy a lot of new gear for such a long time. That’s the guitar I’m actually using live now. Someone stood off camera waiting with a rag ready to wash it as soon as it was done. Ruined our clothes though," Greg says.

Coming up at some point in the future is ‘Everything But The Rush’, the follow up to ‘You See Colours.’ "There’s big change in the fact that everything’s been recorded in a much much rawer, quicker way. We literally went in and just recorded one track each day, vocals and all the little guitar bits just made them up on the day. ‘You See Colours’ was quite laboured over which at the time wasn’t intended, it was meant to be a rawer record, but it didn’t turn out quite like that.”

And no-one lost any discs of tracks this time round? “No, that didn’t happen this time round. So much of it was made up in the studio this time round and you can hear it in the record, it’s a much more vibrant, warmer record.”

Any tracks you like in particular? “I like them all [laughs] ‘Hurray’ is going to be the first single, and that’s kind of about OCD. I found myself tidying up and just doing ridiculous little routines before I was able to go to bed, it got a bit out of hand, and the song’s actually about that, about celebrating getting through a night without it going on. I don’t know if anybody realises that when they’re hearing it live.

”There’s a song called ‘Pieces’ on the album which was actually written ten years ago, one of the first songs we ever did. I don’t know why we didn’t do it previous to this. It’s got an orchestra on it, there’s three or four tracks on the album that had the full orchestra treatment. We’ve got film footage of us playing it like nine years ago and you could put together a really neat video compilation of the evolution of the song. That’s gratifying that that’s on the album.”

'Everything But The Rush' will be their first full-length release on Fiction Records, which they signed to after leaving Rough Trade. Greg tells me why they switched labels: “It just got to the point where we both thought we’d both gone as far as we were gonna go really. It just felt necessary as well. Being without a deal, everything felt fresher. It felt like a whole new chapter opening up, everything just felt like a different colour and Aaron and I had the whole of that from December all the way up to recording this in April. You don’t feel any pressure to write any kinds of songs. It’s a strange kind of freeing up.”

A complete change of tack - I was looking on the Delays' forum and someone started a thread version of Room 101 so I asked Greg what he'd put in there. He starts worrying that he can’t think of any immediate answers.

Place: “Sellafield. I’m kind of an old fashioned kind of a guy. It’s not old fashioned, I hate nuclear power.”

Bands/pop stars: “Thing is all the people you’re unsure about they all turn out to be all right. It’s more the people behind the scenes you’d want to put into Room 101, the Svengali-type people. They’re just manipulative, taking advantage of people with ambition… they’re told what to do what to say what to wear and then they’re discarded. How many disillusioned people do you see on TV, do you know what I mean? Those Svengalis, they’re assholes.”

On the non-Room 101 side of things (if there’s a name for a room containing Good Stuff), Greg has recently been listening to Ray Charles, glam rock such as The Sweet and The Move, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. “I don’t think that documentary [DiG!] does them much justice actually,” says Greg. “It’s fascinating, it’s like a soap opera really, but you come away from it just thinking Anton’s this kind of loose cannon. The records are absolutely fantastic, you get no idea how good the records are from it.”

Back onto Delays' mini tour in November, which sold out pretty fast. The band had been playing Guildhalls, Leadmills, Sugarmills and Opera Houses around the country, but this new tour takes in Barflys and other places roughly a quarter of the size they were at last year. “Oh man. The weird thing is [there’s] so, so much confidence about this album but at the same time you don’t take anything for granted. And the gigs did sell out super-quick and we never advertised it or anything, just kind of on the website, but I think we’re just desperate to get out there and play the new songs to everybody.” Greg points out that the Joiners gig this time round will not involve skeleton outfits, so don’t wear yours or you’ll feel a little awkward.

Do you think you’ll be back at the festivals next year? “Oh yeah. We’re made for festivals, we’re all about the love.” And the burgers, and the mud. “Oh I don’t know, apparently burgers are cancerous aren’t they? That’s what I saw on the news. Don’t eat any red meat or anything like that. But then you again you hear things like last week tea’s bad for you but then tea’s good for you.”

I’m just going to eat chocolate and have done with it. “Why not. That’s all I’ve got in my house at the moment, I’ve got to go shopping. All I’ve had today is two Triples. That was my breakfast. It’s not good. Triples are amazing, they’re the Pelé of chocolate.”

Apart from stocking up your cupboard, what plans do Delays have for 2008? “My main ambition is to get a full cupboard,” jokes Greg. “Next year’s going to be all totally about the album really. We feel that because of circumstances we never got to do justice to ‘You See Colours’ at all and I think there’s so much belief in Fiction, things are already being put in place, more plans than we’ve ever had, more idea about what we’re actually going to be doing.”

There might be dates abroad, but the band will concentrate on the UK first. Greg says the label organises the tour dates and locations, confessing he’d be rubbish at it.

“I have no sense of geography and no sense of mathematics. That’s why I’m a musician.” Thank goodness for that.

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Delays' mini tour starts at Cardiff Barfly on Nov 7th and finishes at Hoxton Bar & Grill on 15th Nov. The 'Love Made Visible' EP is released from November 12th