INTERVIEW: Delta Will — Music Musings & Such

INTERVIEW:

Delta Will

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I have been speaking with Charles of Delta Will…

about the band’s latest single, Nothing Is Enough. He talks about the upcoming E.P., Multitudes 1, and mixing a lot of different sounds together; how the band got together and started life; what Toronto is like as a base – I ask if there are any upcoming artists we need to look out for.

Charles talks about touring and reveals whether a U.K. trip is a possibility; how he spends his free time away from music; whether the band all share musical tastes – he ends the interview by selecting a rather good song.

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Hi, guys. How are you? How has your week been?

Charles: Hot! It’s been seriously hot here in Toronto, though it seems to be letting up a little today.

For those new to your music; can you introduce yourselves, please?

Delta Will is a band that would cook breakfast for you and bring you flowers out of the blue. We call our music ‘Existential Pop’.

Nothing Is Enough is your new single. Can you tell me how the song came together and what inspired it?

I wrote Nothing Is Enough as part of a friends’ songwriting challenge in which a bunch of us had to post a new song to a group thread every week. Most of those songs never made it beyond that thread, but this one felt good immediately and I eventually took the demo to the band and we started working on the version of it you can hear today.

I wrote it in a fairly stream-of-consciousness manner so it’s pretty hard to say exactly what inspired it, though it does grapple with the notion of perpetual happiness and living in a world where little screens are constantly feeding our wants and desires.

It is from the Multitudes 1 E.P. It seems like you embraced a lot of sounds and new directions on the E.P. Would you say that is true?

Embracing many different sounds isn’t really new to us. It’s sort of been the Delta Will M.O. from the start. I did find myself listening to a lot of Neo-Soul and modern R&B while I was writing these songs but also a bunch of minimalism and film music. It’s hard for me to parse out exactly what influenced what but, in short; yes, we’re always embracing new music.

How did Delta Will get together? When did you meet one another?

I started Delta Will as a solo bedroom project in 2011. Once I started recording the second E.P., It All Glows, it occurred to me how much I missed the energy and comradery of making music with bandmates and asked some musically-inclined friends to join me. I had met Milan through a video series he directed of bands playing on Toronto streetcars and I met Brandon from playing in mutual friends’ bands. Our drummer, Kevin, is the latest addition and we enlisted him after everyone kept telling us how great he is.

They were right.

Do you all have similar musical tastes? What sort of stuff are you all into?

Everyone’s taste is pretty eclectic. If I were to overgeneralize, I’d say I’m the lone Folk music freak and everyone else is more into Dance music. Everyone can agree that Khruangbin is pretty great (see below).

Toronto is where you are all based. How important is the city? Is it an inspiring place to make music in?

Toronto is absolutely littered with talented musicians. It’s certainly inspiring in the sense that great music is happening all around you at all times. It’s also a booming city where rent is becoming astronomically expensive and artists are slowly but surely being pushed out. Pros and cons.

Do you think there will be touring dates? Can we catch you on tour?

Absolutely. We’ll be touring in Canada this fall and those dates will be announced very soon.

Might you come to the U.K. and perform at some point?

Yes! We’re hoping to cross the pond next year.

If you could support any musician alive today, and choose your own rider, what would that entail?

I’m going to preface this by saying that ‘any musician alive today’ makes it very difficult. I’m terrible at picking favourites. That being said, I’m going to go with Wilco because I’ve met them and they’re really nice guys - and I’ve loved their music for so long.

Our rider would consist of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. Just cookies.