Entertainment In Focus

05 December 2008 03:51 BST

Delays: There's always things I'd like to change

While Southampton indie quartet Delays have tended to hover under the radar since releasing their stunning summery debut Faded Seaside Glamour in 2004, you'll have heard more of their songs than you realise. Valentine, a thumping electro paean to the Katrina-affected, soundtracked the goals of the month on Match of the Day, while Long Time Coming, a soaring slice of English Riviera pop served the slightly less cool purpose of advertising broadband and jewellery.

Nonetheless, Rough Trade saw fit to drop the foursome after 2006's You See Colours, leaving the Gilbert brothers in limbo until Fiction Records, home to the likes of Snow Patrol, Elbow and Ian Brown, stepped in to save the day.

With third album Everything's the Rush providing a tantalising mix of the Cocteau Twins-esque nostalgic pop explored on album one with the electronic influences of You See Colours, thanks to uber-producer Youth at the helm, things are looking up for Delays. The same can't be said for Office star Ewen Macintosh, who you can see jogging in the video for new single Keep It Simple.

inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley talks to frontman Greg Gilbert and bass player Carl Rowly after their V festival appearance.

So was that the end of the summer for you?

G: No, we've got a few more, one up in Bradford, I think.

Where else have you been throughout the summer?

G: All over the place! T, Isle of Wight… Ben & Jerry's!

With the free ice cream?

G: Yeah, and we met Jerry! We got loads of free ice cream and we were only in a little bus, so there were all these little tubs of ice cream sliding around the place!

So anyway, back to the music. You're on Fiction now, having done two albums with Rough Trade. Are you happier with the new label?

G: Yeah, but it's not like we hated Rough Trade, it'd just reached a natural conclusion and sometimes you just know something's got to change. But yeah, in other ways Fiction are great for us, and I feel like I know the people there more than I did at Rough Trade.

I read an interview and it might have been yourself, or your brother Aaron, but it said that you were never really a Rough Trade band, if there is such a thing?

G: It's not that simple, I don't think, but I never felt like we had much of a presence.

C: Whereas at Fiction there's a big framed photo of our gig at the Guildhall!

So if the first album was 'nostalgic pop', as it's typically referred to, You See Colours was more electronic and Everything's the Rush is a combination of the two, which are you happiest with?

G: I make a real effort find the stuff that I like and the things that I want to change in each album. I mean, by the time we'd finished Faded Seaside Glamour, there was so much about it I would have done differently. I think Everything's the Rush is our more consistent from start to finish, but there's still things about it that I'd like to change.

How was working with [producer] Youth?

G: Very real! Well, it wasn't but…

C: He's one of those guys that's very in touch with his spiritual side and does everything on feeling and whether the vibe's right. We found out right from the start that to get the best out of him we had to judge what sort of mood he was in.

Is that stressful?

C: No, he's actually very laid back and never imposed anything on us that we didn't want to do, he was very open and suggested new ideas.

G: I think there's a personal progression in how we made the albums. The first album we produced with our manager, which was definitely stressful and relationships got fraught! (laughs). The second album was with Graham Sutton, who'd mixed the first album but You See Colours was his first album producing, so there was a sense of DIY…

An amateur feel?

G: It really was. Whereas this album's the first we've worked with a name producer. While we wrote the songs and had the ideas, when we got in the studio, our way of working expanded because it was so different to the first two albums.

Aaron sings a lot more on this album - was that his idea?

C: It was natural, really. If Aaron comes up with something and starts playing around with it, he'll do the singing. It wasn't a plan.

It's not 'this is Aaron's singing album'?

G: No, not at all. I think as well, there's differences album to album. The first album's a big deal because we'd never done it before, the second album's more electronic, so you sort of look at each other thinking: 'This is a bit different'.

Is there a feeling of trepidation?

G: Yeah, but I think a lot of bands tread water, but our favourite bands are ones that challenge themselves regularly.

Such as?

G: A lot of the cliches, Beatles, Beach Boys, but also things like House of Love and Shack, Brian Jonestown Massacre.

C: I think we all like the Verve as well! (laughs) Their first record, especially, had a really atmosphere to it, which is inspiring for us.

Going back to the album - the song Hooray was the lead single and is this big joyful, happy song, but is about your OCD, Greg - is that true?

G: Yeah.

How does that manifest itself?

G: It was taking me about an hour and a half to go to bed every night, because of checking light switches etc, and if I felt like I hadn't done it properly, I'd have to come back and do it again. It got to the point where I'd have to say definitely: "Done!" Mentally, I was putting a tag on everything. I'd have this thing of looking at a light switch and seeing it was off, but not being convinced of it and like I say in the song "I'm a garbage man tonight and I just don't believe my eyes". I'd go outside and feel like I had to pick up the crisp packets outside my house before I could go to bed! (laughs)

How do you cope with that?

G: I went to see a guy because it really f****d up some relationships in my life because I couldn't go away anywhere without having panic attacks. So this guy taught me some Neuro-Linguistic Programming which helped me controlled it. You get a bit of a dosey-doe effect though, you think you're over something and then get pulled back like a magnet! (laughs)

And one final question, Scouting for Girls - nice in the bad sense of the word?

G: Dearie me, that's really confrontational! (laughs)

The Euros have finished now, so I've had to come up with a new end question!

G: Haha, ok! (laughs) Right, Scouting for Girls… it's not my cup of tea but I personally only really dislike a band if you meet them and just know they're bulls**ting. I've never met Scouting for Girls so I don't know who what they're really about. To me, they sound like Supertramp but they might be the biggest Supertramp fans on Earth! (laughs) But if they've made a really conscious decision to get on Radio 1 then that's a different matter! (laughs)

Lewis Bazley

Delays' new single Keep it Simple is out now.