Band Of The Week #248 - Delaire The Liar
This week’s Band of the Week is Delaire The Liar - who have just released the highly anticipated EP ‘Self Defence’ via Rude Records.
Delaire The Liar have this to say about “all your labour.”: “bad decisions, misplaced trust, the fetid feeling of resentment boiling into a self righteous justification for violence & larceny. Capital crime, capital punishment, gun in hand and motive enough to cripple any moral standing. 'all your labour.' is desperation incarnate: a trapped animal, bleeding out options and armed to the teeth.”
“Self Defence” is a superb return to form for Delaire The Liar. The newly-revitalised three-piece have created an emotionally rich and complexly layered body of work in an approach that is completely unique to Delaire The Liar. Boundary-pushing alt-rock trio will appear at Burn It Down Festival and Castlefest later this month.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Delaire The Lair - how are you? So your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
We're doing pretty well thanks! It feels like it's been an odd old time for a lot of people recently including us, but it feels very exciting indeed to have this EP coming out and we are extremely grateful to be able to make and release music.
It is called ‘Self Defence’ - what is the meaning behind that?
The EP explores the idea of self-defence across four tracks, with each track addressing a different aspect of self-defence. Rather than focussing on just the physical sense of defending yourself, the songs are exploring practical and emotional ways that we all defend ourselves from others and from society at-large. How far will we go to protect ourselves and those we love? How and when does defending yourself require sacrifice? What are the consequences of defending yourself?
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
We recorded the majority of the EP ourselves in a couple of studios in London. It was written and recorded fairly quickly but was really nice to spend some time working on parts together and frankly, after recording our last EP during lockdown, just nice to be in the same room. Our drummer, Chaz, works in audio aso he engineered the recording and edited everything before we passed everything over to Kel Pinchin to mix - Kel plays with our Rude Records label-pals Modern Error and did a great job of getting them sounding big and punchy. Lewis Johns mastered the EP - we've worked with Lewis a few times now and we can really trust him with our tracks which is a nice place to be!
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
In contrast to previous releases, for this EP we wanted to write something more thematically conceptual rather than biographical, so lyrically the EP is exploring hypotheticals rather than drawing on experiences. In a lot of ways this is more freeing as there is less emotional pressure and it gives more scope for exploring a theme more deeply, Musically we wanted to give this material a more modern rock sound but keep the punk/ emo vibes that really define the band, so lots of this EP is in drop tuning with punchier drum sounds, heavier guitars and more screamed vocals.
If the EP could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
LIke a lot of our music it's all quite intense so probably some intense thriller would work pretty well. Sin City is a film that explores some of the ideas from the EP and was an influence for our photo shoot for the release of bite trap. Another movie we were thinking about a bit while making this was Black Swan - the music is maybe not that appropriate as it's about ballet but it explores someone in a combative environment and the ways they deal with it physically and emotionally.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP - if so, which one and why?
Obviously all the lyrics are our favourites of course! There's a line in bite trap. - 'the new car smell of the body bag' - it's just a cool and leftfield line. Ffin wasn't sure about that line when he first showed the rest of us the lyrics he has written but it fits with the feel of the song so well and gives a darker side to the chorus which sounds quite upbeat musically.
Now the EP is out there - what next?
We have a couple of festival shows in September but we are going to be focussing on writing and recording some new material. We'll take what we learned from writing and recording this time around - it really feels like we're defining the 'sound' of the band and we really want to make everything we produce feel intentional and directed. We will definitely have a new creative direction, new ideas and keep on evolving how and what we are producing with anything new that we do.
