The Delgados - London, UK, Spring 2001
By: Toby L
Reliably informed from a press-release, we're told, 'Outsider Art is the work of self-taught obsessives, eccentrics and untrained visionaries,' and that we can, 'Witness the freak show obsessions of painter Joe Coleman, who creates icons with a dark vision. His modern saints are the misfits, killers and subversive philosophers lurking at the fringes of society.'
You'll be forgiven for thinking, 'Right, I'll give that a miss then,' but only until you know who's involved and what he's really about. The PR-puff continues, 'For the first time, Coleman will transform his paintings into two films - the first, set to the dark Renaissance music of Carlo Gesualdo, will be performed by The Clerks' Group, the second accompanied by a specially commissioned live performance by The Delgados.' It's the last sentence that should make your ears prick up instantly if you have any clue about alternative music and the significance that The Delgados have to play in it these days.
Always a band to redefine the idea of going out on a limb, The Delgados' career began by the launch of their own record label, Chemikal Underground, based in their native Glasgow, Scotland. Designed to promote the quality music out there that wasn't getting a look-in elsewhere, before long, not only had their debut effort, 'Domestiques', been released to critical acclaim, but soon recordings by the now well-established Arab Strap and Bis had surfaced, the latter generating a hit single. On this matter, the label's official website comments amusingly, 'Chemikal Underground became the first label ever administered out of a kitchen to put a band in the Top 30.'
Acts such as the cult-favourites Mogwai, who originally started out on CU, have gone on to great things and the label's reputation has been cast in stone as one of the leading, alternative UK indies - with anything tossed our way from them undoubtedly meriting the term 'class'.
Therefore - skipping forward all that time from late 1994 to now, early 2001, in the huge London Barbican venue - it all seems slightly surreal as to where this band have come from. The Delgados' last album, 'The Great Eastern' brought the band to new heights, and has further enabled them to progress from an act of, originally, a lo-fi reputation to one that compels listeners left, right and centre. Tonight's experimental performance is further evidence that where this band goes from here can solely be something for others to envy and marvel at.
Backstage in the grand dressing room, The Delgados sit amongst pulled-together chairs and radiate nervousness. The swigging of lager may help in the short term, but the pressure to impress an audience of intellectuals tonight must be immense - not to mention the fact that it's one of their only scheduled concerts for the whole of 2001. Still, the idea of a rockfeedback interview leaves them unfazed, so it commences, with drummer, Paul Savage, and singer/guitarist, Emma Pollock, rising to the challenge.
The topics begin with this evening's unusual performance - specifically how The Delgados were made aware of this artist's paintings.
'We actually hadn't really known much about Joe Coleman's work until we were asked to do this,' confesses Emma. 'Tonight is all about a collection of his paintings that are basically portraits, but what he does is choose individuals of quite extreme character. He has done a lot of stuff on very brutal characters and then characters that aren't obviously very brutal like Jayne Mansfield, until you look at the background and you realise that there's an under-belly of stuff going on.
'The thing about him is that he does these portraits and he doesn't just paint the individual, but - around them - he paints details and aspects of their life which he deems that are as much a part of the person as who they are normally. This is because - at the end of the day - people are made by whoever brought them up, by their own experiences and what has happened; the way Joe does it is really interesting.
'The people that are organising this festival tonight ('Only Connect' promoters) asked us if we'd like to do a soundtrack to a film, which is made up of eight or nine of his portraits, just focussed on and around his different work. It's not really just like sitting down and writing a song because you don't have any reference point that's obvious.'
Continuing the response, Paul agrees. 'There's so much detail in his work that I think he thought it would be a good pairing between our music and the way that he portrays his outlook. His stuff just basically goes right into a person... You've really just got to have it either in front of you or on a screen as it moves about, taking you through it, almost like a pictorial history of the person's life and what makes them up.
'We had the job of actually trying to make music to it! The kind of people that are here tonight too... We're not used to this kind of thing! This is mental; we just feel like we're bluffing our way through it a bit!
'I think it's gonna work well, though. We've done a run-through and we've played along to the film in our practice-room and it seems like it's gone OK.'
How long have you had to practice it all?
'Three weeks,' breathes Pollock nervously in immediate dismissal of the question.
Paul utters the unspoken, but noticeable air surrounding this show, 'It's been an intense three weeks!'
'It was weird because we all knew it was coming up and we kind of put it to the back of our minds for a long time because we're far too busy with the label to be always writing,' reveals Emma. 'Soon, the time came when we had no choice but to...'
Suddenly - out of nowhere - her bandmate firmly contradicts what's just been said. 'No - it wasn't like that - you're wrong!'
Emma looks glumly at the floor, only prior to mumbling, 'Oh, OK then!'
'We had been asking for the video for months and Joe had been taking a wee bit longer to get it done and one thing we were sure of was that we didn't know how the video was going to take shape,' reasons Savage. 'We didn't know if it was going to be animation or if it was going to be stills or just one painting for three minutes... We also weren't able to be sure about the pace of the songs or the feel of the songs until the video came along.'
Emma manages to throw one back in Paul's face following the previous disagreement, '... Yeah, but we've still been really busy, ya wee wanker (laughs)!'
On describing the music, though, is there much difference between what's been produced for this effort and what usually combines together to provide the trademark Delgados sound?
'The sound is not too dissimilar to what we normally do,' Emma swiftly replies. 'As the albums have gone on and on, we've brought in more dynamics each time. As the band has gone on, we've just tried to do what we feel is best, rather than worrying about what people might expect. Back when we started, each of us was really influenced by a lot of the bands that were going on in America and what we did was maybe a little more influenced than anything we do now; what we do now is quite free really.'
'There's a bit of beauty in these paintings and there's a bit of beauty - hopefully - in what we've done in the music, but this is probably the darkest stuff that we've ever done,' unveils a pondering Paul.
'I don't know how much of the audience is going to know that much about us,' the female vocalist considers. 'It'd be a bit pricey just to see us as well - it's about twenty quid! I hope what it does do for those in the audience that do know us and the way that our vocals are sung - well, there's no vocals tonight, it's all instrumental - I'd just like them to completely reinforce the fact that, musically, we're a very strong band. Also, I have too much respect for Joe Coleman as an artist to try and re-interpret his stuff in lyrics and singing.'
Following on from this event, has it inspired you to write further new material for your own releases?
'Because of this, we'd like to keep the momentum going, in terms of what we can produce,' the drummer hopes. 'I think that, for this project, this is the best that we've worked and the quickest and most efficient, with the best results we've ever achieved in such a short period of time.'
Emma returns her stance on it. 'The way we write is that usually Alun (also singer/guitarist) and I do something and it's usually half finished and then we bring it in. We don't just write from pure improvisation because, although it may have a good mood about it, it may not have any tunes... I'm a great believer in hooks for every single kind of music.
'Every time we start a new album, because each one before has been more successful than the last - in terms of sales and also on the grounds of how we felt about them - it's slightly harder every time you go to make the next one as you want to surpass the last one again.
'You've got to be honest with yourself when you're writing music... You've got to live with the tunes you've written for a wee while. If you're watching television or walking down the street and you find that the melodies that you've come up with for your songs are constantly recurring in your head then you know what you're doing is fine. BUT, if that doesn't happen, then maybe you've got to have the courage to admit what you're doing is shite!'
It may be blunt, but if every performing artist thought this way about the music that they produce, then maybe the 'Be Here Now's of the world would never have existed... And the world would have been better for it, no doubt.
What about normal touring-duties, though - are you going to be back on the road this year?
Emma is the truth-giver. 'We've made a conscious decision to not do any other shows this year. I think, increasingly, it's quite good to just concentrate on writing new material and not break it up. The problem is that when you play a show, you take about two weeks out of what you're doing.'
'Also, we'll be focussing in on the label,' adds Paul thoughtfully. 'Aerogramme will be having their album out just after the summer and there is new stuff coming from Cha Cha Cohen and Suckle; both of Aerogramme and Cha Cha Cohen's albums are really different and strong, but then again, I would say that! Also, the Radar Brothers are building a new studio and will be sending us some new stuff over hopefully soon (smiles, realising that it may be longer than 'soon').'
On the topic of the label, a new imprint on release has emerged from Chemikal Underground, entitled 'Fukd ID' - just what is this, please?
Emma explains the background. 'It gives us the opportunity to work with bands on one release, rather than having to always involve them in album deals. This was done because you do get situations where you come across a band that are already signed to a record company, but you like their stuff and they want to do something a bit different, rather than just release stuff in the same way that most bands do.
'Sometimes it's just great to put out a few songs that really need to be heard because there are loads of bands that we love who will never be able to release albums on a label as they won't be signed. Also, it may allow us to be able to release a compilation of all of the ID range because many of them are selling out pretty quickly.'
Surely, juggling between being in a band and running a successful, independent label is slightly time-consuming to say the least, so do you still enjoy the aspects of being MD's of Chemikal Underground?
Emma releases a huff of air from her chest. 'It's very hard to become as involved in it as much as we were because we're away from the office a lot and whenever we do go in, we obviously have a lot to do with the bands that are signed and the way things are marketed and so on. I still enjoy going in the office and everything, though because I think I'd be really lonely if we were just doing The Delgados.'
'I think it would be really boring if the label just had a vision,' reckons Paul. 'We keep trying to keep up with what we're doing in the UK - we're not really looking to start up a Chemikal Underground in Spain just yet! We just try to stay alive with the label! It's not like things are going badly - they're going very well, but there are times when you generate too much business and there are too many things to do.'
In the long-run, though, when a quality act such as this Scottish four-piece work on a splendid label of their own, producing plenty of great talent, they're bound to be revered with respect. But, just exactly how would The Delgados prefer to be known for their time in the music-world?
'I'd like people to see our music as something that really takes over when you put it on your stereo, because my favourite albums are the ones that actually, literally just stop me in my tracks,' Pollock says, attempting to envisage the future. 'The best music is the kind of music that you feel you have to surrender to - and that's not background music. The best music is the music you want to concentrate on...'
'I think people will remember us for so many different ways,' Paul thinks aloud. 'I'd like people to say about us, 'They could be really melodic and they could have real dissonance at the same time.' I wouldn't want to be remembered for just one track because all of our material is so different.
'I listened to the first album recently for the first time in ages and I thought I'd hate it because when we did 'Peleton' (the second album) I listened to it then and thought it was crap! But, when I listened to it after we made 'The Great Eastern', it sounded really good, really fresh and I was pleased with it. But, then again, 'Peleton' will probably be the next album I'll hate and say, 'What were we thinking of?!'
Hopefully, that shall never be the case - for all of the work played by The Delgados has a timeless quality unrivalled by anyone else that lays claim to providing an alternative for this day and age. Their most recent LP, 'The Great Eastern', is evidence alone that anything's achievable if you've got the talent to create compositions of a grandiose, brave and beautiful structure.
Of tonight's performance, the response was ecstatic, with an invitation put to the band to recreate the effort in New York some time in the future. And it's no shock they triumphed either. Rarely can musicians seem so sincere with their understanding of art as The Delgados have - and long may they continue their brand of open-minded, epic, sublime and supremely relevant, string-laden classics. If there's one thing that can be guessed about how people will look back to them when they're gone, it's simply that they'll be remembered fondly and missed greatly; appreciate the fact that they're here now.
All Original Artwork: Joe Coleman
Artists in this article: The Delgados