Continuing our series of written interviews with unsigned and independent acts, we had the opportunity to submit questions to band Delta Works.
1) How did the band form?
After Folly den Toom (Guitarist) moved to Brighton from the Netherlands to study music, he started looking for a drummer to jam with. Through Facebook he got in contact with Conor Bradley (now Ex-Drummer) also a music student, who he started playing with regularly. After a few jams Conor brought in his friend Josh Thomas on bass. This trio played and wrote several instrumental tunes with a slightly Proggy, Blues Rock vibe. After getting into a rut and experiencing creative difficulties they decided to change things up, which next to writing more Psychedelic/Prog oriented music, meant finding a vocalist to fill in the new sound. After reaching out on social media once more, Folly got in touch with Joseph Duquemin (Vocalist), who he played with before in a band called ‘Upsilon’. After jamming with Joe they instantly realized there was an unexplainable ‘magic’ chemistry present in the room and decided to from there on forth continue with Joseph as a four piece. With this lineup the band released four songs and started gigging often, in and outside of Brighton. At the start of Summer (2018) Conor unexpectedly left the group which left them heartbroken and without a drummer. Because of this they had to cancel several gigs they had lined up and decided to go on temporary hiatus. After a month, the remaining band member met up and decided this event wouldn’t get in the way of them reaching their dreams and decided to continue the project, despite their collective heartbrokenness. At this point the band are stil looking for a new ‘timekeeper’ and are focussing on writing new music and planning their goals for the upcoming year. In the meantime, they will be releasing two songs: ‘Rivers of Dye’ (release date 14-09-18) & ‘Jager à L’ombre’ (release date not announced yet) which they recorded at Brighton Electric earlier on in the year.
Fun fact: “Their name was inspired by the “Delta Werken”, a series of defensive structures to protect the Netherlands from the water” (Something which is reflected in the bands’ artwork as well when scrutinized)
2) How would you describe your music?
Delta Works aim to write conceptual stories, told through sound. Although they are not a full blown Prog, Metal, or Psychedelic band, these genres are definitely associable with the group. Their music ranges form rock ballad type songs to instrumental heavy metal riffs. This gives them a unique positions as fans of many different eras and genres in music, can all identify with their sound and perceive a sense of familiarity, all the while being able to engage with the part of their music which is unfamiliar to them.
3) Your new single is sounding great, what inspired it?
Their new single ‘Rivers of Dye’ in particular, is reminiscent of 90s bands such as: Soundgarden, Porcupine Tree and Radiohead, but also has a late 70s Psychedelic ‘tint’ to it, comparable to sounds found on Zeppelin’s ”Houses of the Holy” album. What makes this song especially unique, is the use of strings on the recording, which the band had never experimented with before. Furthermore the continuous acoustic guitar throughout the track and several other ‘production’ decisions that were made, give the song a real genuine ‘old school’ ‘vibe’.
4) The video is pretty trippy, where did that idea come from?
The lyrics, story and sounds of the song are centered around the theme of a ‘Psychedelic Trip’ in which a person reaches a new level of ‘self realization’ whilst exploring the doubts, fears and beauty within the web that is his own mind. This is what inspired the video and the stylistic choices that were made for it. Folly is in charge of general media content for the band and starred + edited/created this video all by himself with the help of Kat Põllu who filmed it. As a band Delta Works take pride in supplying a constant stream of high quality band related visual content, such as music videos and vlogs and have built up quite a catalog on Youtube and other platforms . (see youtube link below)
5) Will an album follow this release?
Although the band are currently working on their first album, this particular single is not tied to that and is meant as a standalone track. Interesting to mention perhaps, is that this song was one of the first songs Folly ever wrote and has been part of the band’s setlist since they started inception.