5 MINUTES WITH DELIGHTS AS THEY PREPARE TO PLAY TRUCK FESTIVAL 2024 | INTERVIEW

We caught up with rising stars of Manchester’s indie scene, Delights ahead of their performance at this year’s Truck Festival.

Q: Earlier this year you released your first single since 2022, “Two Times Over” can you tell us a bit more about the track?

For sure! The track is written as an ode to the late 90s/early noughties party punk-era & we took a lot of inspiration from bands such as The Rapture and Cut Copy. We landed on the track from a loop that our drummer Leo Willis made over a year ago now & we’d been really intent on writing and releasing a more anthemic, driving song for our first release back after a little hiatus.

We also wanted to develop what we were writing and take ourselves ever so slightly out of our comfort zone from material that we had previously released. Contextually, the song is written around ideas and emotions surrounding youthful exuberance and lust for life, which we as a band feel reflects where we are both as individuals and as a collective.

Q: You said this is the “start of a new era” for the band, what inspired you to move in a new direction musically?

I think we’ve always found that we’ve tried to develop our sound over the past couple of years just based on what we’re listening to & taking inspiration from that. Our musical tastebuds as a collective have definitely changed from when we first started, which I think can be seen in the music that we make now comparatively to the material we released when we first formed. Also as an outfit, we’ve had chance to develop our sound after adding a fifth member around 18 months ago in Cameron Stephenson – who has really allowed us to develop our sound percussively, and also allow our traditional bassist Ben Kirkland to swap from bass on a couple of occasions with Cam and move onto guitar, which we feel in a live setting particularly widens our sound & allows us to explore new avenues musically and develop further.

Q. Yesterday you released your brand new single, “I Think You Should Know” can you tell us how that ties in with the new era of Delights?

Lyrically, the song centres around ideas of curiosity, innocence and mystique. It also underlines the explorative nature of where we are as a band, from a writing perspective, but from a personal perspective too.

Q: Can we expect to hear some more new music from you this year?

Oh absolutely, we’ve got so much more in the pipeline we’re gonna need a bigger pipe! We’re sat on quite a fair bit of material and can’t wait to share it with everyone.

Q: You’ve just announced your largest headline to date at New Century, as a Manchester-based band how does that feel?

I think we’re still pinching ourselves a little really, it will be a huge moment for us, the biggest and best night of our lives to date. It’s a stage that we’ve had our eye on playing for a few years now and to make that dream a reality will be amazing, and to follow the footsteps of artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks and the Bee Gees and who have played that venue is unbelievable for us. Obviously, it wouldn’t have been remotely possible without the support that we’ve received not just in Manchester but up and down the country as well & we’re so grateful to have the opportunity to do it. We’ve had some ideas of things that we want to do for the show and if they can come to fruition, it could be outrageous! We’re definitely gonna lace the set with some surprises to try and entertain and give the crowd a great night.

Q: You’re playing this year’s Truck Festival, what can we expect from your set?

Plenty of fun, that’s the main thing! We’ve always found festivals to be a bit more of a neutral setting, so we really enjoyed putting a set together that incorporates people that haven’t listened to us before, alongside fans who have seen us a few times. We’re always quite synonymous with throwing in a couple of mash-ups, so keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Q: Are there any other artists you’re looking forward to watching at Truck?

Absolutely, our musical partners in crime Minds Idol are playing on the Thursday night & we are buzzing to see what they have got up their sleeve. We are also huge fans of The Magic Gang and are really looking forward to seeing them before they part ways, that could be an emotional one! Also, no festival weekend could be complete by a bit of morning action from Mr. Motivator! He’ll do us an absolute treat shaking off the previous night’s antics.

Q: What are the three things you’ll definitely be packing for this year’s Truck Festival?

Hopefully we bring all of our band kit to start with! It has happened previously where we haven’t brought everything with us and have only found out about it just as we take the stage, so that would be a start! Plenty of beers will also be on the dietary requirements list & if we’ve got ourselves some comfy camping chairs we’ll be onto an absolute winner.

Delights will be playing The Nest Stage on Sunday at 11.45 at this year’s Truck Festival.

Limited resale tickets for Truck are on sale now, grab yours before they’re gone!

Stream Delights new single here:

Author