In Conversation With #090 - Francis of Delirium
Francis of Delirium have just released their EP ‘All Change’ via Dalliance Recordings, which sees the duo push the boundaries of the grunge genre and give it a fresh modern twist to create something unique all together. They took a moment to talk to us about the release.
So, your debut EP is out now, how does it feel?
Now that there’s a little more space between the release it feels good. We’ve been holding on to these songs for a year so it was strange to let them go. Now it’s just exciting to have people listening to the songs and reacting to them. They feel like a timestamp of my life a year ago, almost like having a picture but in song form which is really cool.
It is titled ‘All Change’, does that hold a certain meaning to you as a band?
The title is meant to be representative of a train that runs back and forth on the same track. When the conductor says “All Change” he’s basically saying the train has arrived back at it’s initial starting point. It’s supposed to mirror how our mind can run back and forth on a track, ruminating over the same thoughts. When the conductor says “All Change” you have to decide whether you’ll get off the train or continue ruminating. That journey is chronicled through the EP. By the end with “Quit Fucking Around” there’s this realization that no you can’t spend your whole life on this train.
It is being released via Dalliance Recordings, how did that partnership come about?
We were lucky enough to play a show with Common Holly in Trier, Germany back in January, which was so much fun, such a great show, and Brigitte writes really powerful music. Common Holly released their latest album on Dalliance in Europe and she posted an Instagram story of us at the show and so Matt and Rich looked us up and liked what they heard so we started to chat and hit it off.
As a duo, there are thirty years between your ages - how did you meet and what made you decide to form a band together?
I went to school with Chris’ kids and they would always do open jam sessions so whoever wanted to play could. I started to take songwriting more seriously and me and Chris would jam out those songs and started to work on them in a more focused way. I wanted to make my own band separate from the jam sessions so it made sense to just continue working with Chris. There’s a genuine openness and we tend to be on the same page about a lot of stuff but also are able to discuss ideas we disagree on in a really productive way.
Do you feel that the age gap between the two of you has helped generate your sound?
Yes for sure. I listen to a lot of what Chris listens to but he has a broader knowledge of the grunge scene I think and I’m coming at it with grunge in mind but also bringing in a lot more of newer DIY sounds and that whole scene. We love a lot of the same music but we’re coming at it from different perspectives so it’s cool to discuss it and see which way the song gets pulled. I think we’ve managed to balance it in a way where the music feels like a true melding of both our sounds.
What would you say are the key influences on your EP?
I would say Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Car Seat Headrest, St.Vincent.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
Probably “I’ll manifest until I get a head rush” it always makes me laugh, mainly because I wrote it kind of as a joke and now I feel like manifesting keeps cropping up and I’m starting to take it a little more seriously.
What next?
We’ve a few things in the pipeline, a show planned for November 19th in London at Folklore which we’re very excited about, supposed to hopefully have some shows in October in Germany and we’ve been working on new music.