The (Un)Limited Loveliness of
The Delgados
Published by Under The Radar
The (Un)Limited Loveliness of
The Delgados
Published by Under The Radar
It’s four days after the U.S. election, and I’ve missed the chance to ask The Delgados what they think about the results. Later, during their set at L.A.’s El Rey theater, I get at least one member’s answer: When the band concludes “All You Need Is Hate,” bassist Stewart Henderson dedicates the song “to that fuckin’ prick George Bush.” He adds, in a thick Scottish accent, “I cannot wait to get to Texas. I cannot wait.”
The Delgados are from Glasgow, a rich music center also home to Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Arab Strap, Snow Patrol and Franz Ferdinand. Fostering a wealth of independent music, the central Scottish city claims quality as its signature, rather than an identifiable sound. The melancholic-melodic Delgados, who recently released Universal Audio, their fifth studio album, stand as different from the rest as the rest do from each other.
The band also runs Chemikal Underground Records, a successful regional label it created to release its punkish 1996 debut, Domestiques. Chemikal then went on to put out the debut albums by Mogwai, Arab Strap, and Bis. With firm standing on the college charts and a sprinkling of good Stateside press surrounding their fourth album, 2002’s Hate, The Delgados are doing all right -- if not as well as a perfect world would ensure.
They have procured a tour bus, where singer/guitarist Emma Pollock, drummer Paul Savage and I seek silence for our interview. I guess I’d pictured the requisite long, white van of indie rock sub-stardom, but it’s definitely better this way. You see, Pollock and Savage are married to each other.
“Yeah, it’s difficult,” says Pollock when I ask the obvious question, “because it’s all barriers, like, is Paul my drummer in the band or is he my husband?”
“Are you my singer?” chimes Savage.
Their bus affords them a master suite with a double bed, which helps, but it’s tricky still. “I think we’ve taken on more of the burden by trying not to act too much like a couple,” says Savage. “We all do different things and we all act as a band when we’re on tour, and I think that’s pretty damaging from a personal standpoint for me and Emma, something that we have to deal with. It’s like, we’re not gonna shuffle away on our own all the time and be secretive and not involve anybody else. We’ve always made the decision that when we’re with the band, we try not to make anybody feel uncomfortable if we’re hangin’ about.”
Delgados fight, and not just the married ones. Two albums ago, during the making of 2000’s The Great Eastern, relations among the four were frayed enough to warrant drastic measures. With the band as a whole bled of perspective, studio-savvy Henderson and Savage delivered the masters to producer Dave Fridmann in upstate New York, and there began a sonically significant partnership that lasted through the making of Hate. To those two records Fridmann brought his dual signature: When things need to be pretty, apply ear candy liberally; when they need to rock, build a drum monster with mad distortion and booming bottom end. The distinct pleasure of a Delgados record lies in these things so often existing within the same song.
Booked with both The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, Fridmann didn’t work on Universal Audio. Instead, longstanding engineer Tony Doogan guided all phases of the project. Pollock describes Doogan’s contribution to the Fridmann records as “massive” as well.
“The orchestration took such a large part of the sound,” she says of those albums, the credits on which list everything from strings to choir to concert cymbals. “I think we wanted to get back to pretty much using the band that we had started out with. I was curious as to what it would sound like if we started writin’ for just those instruments again.”
“With Hate, you just couldn’t get any more over the top,” offers Savage. “It would be so easy for us to just take the same approach to the writing or the arrangement of these songs. We had to deal with it in other ways and see what happens -- use more keyboard sounds, more guitar, because I think Alun [Woodward, who shares guitar, lead vocal and writing duties with Pollock] and Emma were keen on gettin’ their guitars a bit more prominent.” Accordingly, Universal Audio captures the bold pop majesty of past efforts with textures generated mostly by the four principals. In the end it doesn’t sound like much of a departure.
With so much money spent on recording over the last few years, budget was also a factor this time. Even so, something tells me that Fridmann, were he not already spoken for, would have been called upon in some capacity.
“I don’t even think about what Dave would have done with the record,” says Savage. “It’s almost like fate. I was always quite happy to be told that these were the limitations. If somebody told me we’re gonna do a record, but you can only use your left hand… I know it sounds stupid, it’s ridiculous, but sometimes when you’re under pressure to work in a certain situation, you get the best results, certainly for us.”