DELORENTOS are just back from a tour of Germany which included a gig in Hamburg in one of the oldest cinemas in Europe.
Instead of taking a well deserved day off, the quartet launched back into their studio to record some new ideas.
“We were working on music all day yesterday so, it never stops, it’s good. you know.”
All is very good in Camp Delorentos. And an extra day spent in the studio is not hard work when you love to make music as this fine band do, now on their fifth official release in 13 years.
The band is basking in the critical acclaim for the new album ‘True Surrender’.
The story of the record’s path to release is well known by now.
The lads had an opportunity to record in a vineyard in Spain in 2016 and while they were happy with the songs they had produced, the material somehow didn’t relate to where the band found itself at that moment in time.
The recordings were shelved and Delorentos set about reinventing their creative process. They worked with producer Tommy McLaughlin (Attica Audio, Donegal). Delorentos drummer Ross took a lead role in production and the band collaborated with Richie Egan (Jape).
“We had to learn new ways to do things. It was a bit scary,” says Kier McGuinness to Limerick Post this week.
“We are an independent band and if you want to delay your album for a year, that means you are not going to be touring for a year. You are not going to have an income for a year.
“We wanted to push ourselves. We turned ourselves inside out. We learned a lot about production. We learned a lot about instruments. There is a lot more synths. There is a lot more experimental kinds of sounds.”
There is a lush and layered sound on ‘True Surrender’ – think ‘Deserter’s Songs’ by Mercury Rev – and with lyrics that reflect turbulent and changing times politically and in the bands personal lives as marriages and kids have come along.
‘True Surrender’ is a heartfelt and stirring piece of work and melodic and uplifting as you would expect from any project that Delorentos complete.
So what is it that is different about how Delorentos prepared this album? On this record the bass guitar is more of a melodic instrument than a rhythm instrument a sound referred to by the band as “bubble bass”. There are some interesting changes in timing signatures within the songs too.
As the band deconstruct the songs right down to the bones to just the melody and start from the ground up.
“‘Deep in the Heart of Love’ is an example of this. This for the band was a couple of steps on from three chords and a bit of shouting.”
“We change the beat to 4/4 time and sing the song in 3/4 time. The song therefore has a tension in it. It all comes to gather when the bass and drums click together, brings a feeling of release. It’s methodical and it’s a tightrope – all through the album, there are these moments of creating something new and different.”
The band had to re-listen to the album in preparing to play it live. The expanded line up includes Tully on keyboards together with Emily (Kier’s wife) and Orla on backing vocals.
And even the older classic singles have had something of a makeover in this bigger sounding band which will deliver a longer set to reflect on the wealth of music made in the last 13 years.
Delorentos play Dolan’s this Saturday November 3.
