All About Manchester - City in Motion

Talk of the town

The band on every music critic's lips these days is Delphic. From the BBC to the Guardian and the Independent, everyone seems hooked on the Manchester trio's special blend of anthemic indie and stadium techno. We get the low-down on the band from lead singer James Cook ahead of their hotly anticipated UK tour.

Firstly, could you please solve a mystery for us - are there three or four band members in Delphic?

There are three of us when it comes to the writing side. Me, Rick and Matt are the writing core of the band. We were together for about a year, writing all of the songs and getting them all sorted, before we took them to the rehearsal room and then introduced Dan to them. He comes in later and adds this groove on top. So there are three when we write and when we take pictures at the moment, but there are four of us when we play live.

You, Rick and Matt also live together, don't you?

Yes, we live together over in Castlefield.

How's that working out for you?

We argue about things quite a lot, but it spurs on creativity, I think. There's a definite connection there.

Because we're together all the time, the thing that we do most is sit around the coffee table talking about concepts and directions for songs, and that's an important part of the song writing process. It's about crafting a song and getting the creative spark, so that's why living together is essential.

We've got a great music collection as well, so we often sit down together to have a coffee and then stick on a tune that we're inspired by at the moment, and it gets us all thinking about different styles. And because we come from different angles, we are able to bring different influences to the band - classic rock, blues, techno.

You were placed third on the BBC Sound of 2010 list. What does that mean to you?

It's obviously an important thing, although we're very aware that these polls can be dangerous and that they don't necessarily speak for what the majority of the British population want to listen to. So I can imagine there are going to be some people out there who will see these polls and say, "Why am I being told to listen to this? It's just hyped nonsense".

But we're thankful that we've been recognised by the BBC, because a lot of great bands have been. For example, Florence was on the same list last year and she's had a really good year.

We've got a marketing team and a management team around us, and we're quite happy to let them deal with the hype, while we get on with writing and touring and doing all the important things that we put above that.

Still, it must put some pressure on you now that everyone is watching...

It's obviously highlighted us quite a bit. And we get some people coming down to shows not because they have been to any early shows or because they checked out our music on MySpace and want to hear it live, but because they want to see what the fuss is about; they want to see whether the hype does translate.

I suppose when you're playing a gig and you know there will be this kind of people in the audience, it does put some pressure on you. But we try to treat every gig as if it were the last one that we're going to do, so we make sure every gig we do is a good one. We just focus on that and if people like it, they like it; if not, oh well, there's other people who may do.

Your debut album has received rave reviews. Why do you think music critics loved it?

The people who got the influences and understood what we've done, gave the album some great reviews. We recorded most of it over in Berlin and have taken a heavy techno influence from it. But as much as we like the minimal aesthetic of techno, we also like good pop writing and we like being able to create tension and release within a song.

And I think the people who really tried to get inside it, which all the best critics will do, liked what we did. All the people who really mattered to us, like all the broadsheets, really got on board with it, so that's really satisfying. We're really happy with that.

And then there are those who missed the subtleties and just described you as the new New Order. How do you feel about this comparison?

I think it's quite lazy. We're a band from Manchester - that's undeniable and we're proud of that. And we're also an indie electronic band - you can't deny that either. So you put those two together and look back through time, and which other indie electronic band from Manchester springs to mind? New Order.

If we were a five-piece from Oxford, we'd be compared to Radiohead, no matter what genre we played. And if we were a singer-songwriter from Iceland, we'd be compared to Bjoerk, even if we sounded like Britney.

We don't mind the comparison because we do like New Order - we think they've written some great songs and they've been part of one of the most important movements that popular music has ever seen. But if you delve deeper into the album, you'll hear influences littered all over the record that really have got no reference to New Order whatsoever. And there are bits that maybe sound New Orderesque.

But people have said our music sounds like a bit of a hark back to the 80s and we were pretty concerned that it would sound like Orbital or Underworld from the 90s, so it's kind of thrown us a little bit, the New Order connection. People will say what they want to say and we'll just get on with what we want to do.

Who's your audience?

I'd like to say it's a wide range of people. We write pop songs and put them into the context that we put them in, and people who generally like pop songs are a younger audience, I suppose, maybe in the 16-24 age group.

But because stylistically we've been compared to New Order and because of the way that our show goes, which is like a DJ set, we have fans who are in their 30s and 40s - people who were there in the 80s and 90s and who are looking for the next big thing. These are old album buyers and they're a great audience to have at a time when not many people are buying albums.

Then I suppose it's also a rock audience. We've got indie influences and we've got dance influences, so it's a big crossover. And I think there aren't a lot of bands that managed to get this crossover right. We're happy to have been able to appeal to quite a few people on both sides, indie and dance.

Were you able to predict with any accuracy which songs would be the most popular before you released the album, or were there any surprises?

One that we've had good feedback from recently is Red Lights. We've just introduced it into the live set and a few people have said that it's their favourite in the album, so that was a bit of a surprise - though perhaps it shouldn't have been because underneath it all it is a pop song with a hook.

And we're really glad that people like Acolyte, the album's title track, which could be seen as hard to get into because it's eight minutes long and has no discernible vocal or melodic line.

You're based in Manchester. Is this a good place to be for up-and-coming bands right now?

Manchester at the moment is showing a face that it's never showed before. It's got bands such as Everything Everything, Egyptian Hip Hop, Dutch Uncles, May 68 and a band I saw the other night, who I was absolutely blown away by, called Wu Lyf - really odd band but great sound.

Wu Lyf are really, really underground at the moment - they've just been doing a few gigs here and there, and they did one the other night at a little cafe in the Northern Quarter called An Outlet, just next to Piccadilly Basin. They kind of just rocked up in there and turned on their amps, and they sounded incredible. We haven't heard anything like this coming from Manchester, ever really.

And Everything Everything - really intelligent pop writing, which is kind of unrivalled in Manchester's history. And then you've got Egyptian Hip Hop, the young upstarts, and Dutch Uncles as well, who have written some real hidden gems of pop songs. Electro pop band May 68 is another one to watch.

So there are lots of great bands coming through across Manchester at the moment that don't sound anything like what Manchester is supposed to sound like. And I think this is an important place to be at the moment.

People are talking about a nu-Madchester. Do you think Manchester is spending too much time looking back?

I think people, older Manchester people especially, need to move on and realise that Manchester is not just about the Hacienda. It's not just about Madchester and the Gallaghers and the Stone Roses.

It's about this insular little city, which has got something about it. It's obviously got a creative spark and it's a place where people... I don't know whether it's because it's quite a melancholic city, but people here feel the need to create music. Local bands are constantly creating great music, but sometimes it gets weighed down by this pressure of being supported by all the old stalwarts in Manchester of the Madchester or Hacienda scene. It's important that people move on and look to the future.

You have a UK tour coming up this month. What should people expect from your live show?

If you're epileptic, don't turn up. If you've got any problems with bright lights, don't turn up. If you don't like loud music, don't turn up. It's gonna be pretty loud and bright - the stage will be lit by probably 20 different fluorescent tubes, lots of strobes and moving panels, and things like that.

We really try to create a Daft Punk or Nine Inch Nails type of show, so the visuals and the audio go together hand in hand. It's an experience, I suppose. And our set is mixed all together, so we don't stop, and that creates a DJ atmosphere.

So if you're in the mood for a good party, then come down and it should be fun.

If you could play any venue in the world, which one would it be?

The amphitheatre at Delphi. I think it kind of fits.

Delphic play Sankeys on March 17 as part of a UK tour. Tickets cost £9 and you can book by calling 0871 2200 260.

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