Music Interview

Interview: Delivery Go Full Throttle on FORCE MAJEURE

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You can rely on Delivery to deliver heaps of rowdy, roaring guitars. The Melbourne five-piece are quickly getting their name out there. Their lockdown-born 2022 debut record, FOREVER GIVING HANDSHAKES, a set of spindly, rumbling punk songs, marked Delivery’s beginning of becoming a true Australian phenomenon. They’ve since kept busy, playing tons of dates across Australia and Europe, and have scored themselves a deal with the label Heavenly Recordings. 

Everything is looking up for the band. Delivery continues to reap the rewards of their rapid success with FORCE MAJEURE, their first on Heavenly, and a bold, turbulent continuation of their debut. The new album starts out turbocharged and barely slows down by the end of its runtime. Delivery refuses to let up. With Television-esque walls of guitars and shouty singalong verses, it’s addictive, high-energy rock. I spoke to the group’s founding members, bassist/vocalist Bec Allan and vocalist/guitarist James Lynch, to talk about the new record’s immediacy, more collaborative songwriting, and how touring Europe compares to Australia.

What was different with recording the new album compared to your debut album?

James Lynch: A few things. A big part of our first record, FOREVER GIVING HANDSHAKES, was that we wanted to make an album capturing the live band because we’d been in COVID for two years and hadn’t had many opportunities to play together. That was recorded in our rehearsal room with the five of us in the same room and as live as possible. Whereas this next one, FORCE MAJEURE, I was sort of the one masterminding it, but I was staunchly, like, “Let’s not make an album where we all play live.” Because … I mean, I think on the first album it really works, but we’re a band with three guitars, four vocalists, and obviously a loud drummer and a bassist. There’s probably some time where we can use that kind of scope to our advantage a little more, which is like, maybe we don’t need three guitars playing the same chord in the verse at all times.

The biggest difference was we recorded the drums and bass as the beds of the track essentially live, but spent the next two months layering all the guitars individually and thinking a bit smarter about where everything might be placed within the track. I feel like it was a bit more of a thoughtful process. Maybe the result means that the album’s got a bit more scope of sound.

Did being able to finally record together lend itself to the more collaborative writing process? The thing that stood out to me is four vocalists across the record—if you did, how did you play off each other with songwriting?

JL: Yeah. I mean, the goal of the band was always to be quite collaborative. But equally, we’re a funny band where I think there’s a lot of shared trust. We do this funny thing where we would have a deadline for everyone to submit the songs they wanted to be featured on the album, which means that some of the songs were not collaborative, as someone had one day to finish a song.

Bec Allen: And just did every part themselves.

JL: Yeah.

BA: They’d bring them to the band rehearsal room and for like months, we’ve all contributed to it. So it’s like two levels of different types of collaboration, I guess it’s more of just like an all-in approach, like for any idea on the table. Whether you want to work on it together or do it yourself, we’ll just see how they all sound and what works together well.

JL: There was definitely an approach where everyone could have a say in as much as writing one part or writing an entire song. I guess in that regard, yeah, it was extremely collaborative in the way we recorded it, but not in the way that we were all in the same room at all times.

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Do you see the new record as a continuation or progression from what you were already doing beforehand?

BA: Yeah, I feel like we’ve talked about that a little bit, ‘cause it almost feels like even some of the songs in the second album are like the 2.0 version of a song from the first album. I think we were saying that maybe the first album was trying to show people who we were and hoping they might like us. Once that one was out and we felt comfortable, we played more and we had more time together’ this album’s kind of like pushing ourselves a little bit further and experimenting a bit more and having more confidence. So, I guess maybe a progression? *Laughs*

JL: I feel like it’s both a continuation and a progression.

BA: Yeah. *Laughs*

Yeah, that’s fair. Does that lend itself to the singles that you chose? Like “Digging The Hole” and “Operating At A Loss” signalling “This is Delivery 2.0?”

JL: From the get-go, we always thought “Digging” would be the first single.

BA: That’s funny, because it was written as one of the last-minute songs for the first album. It’s probably also been the song that’s been in our heads for the longest. *Laughs*

JL: That probably speaks to a bit of like, it feels like the most stepping-stone of where the last album ended up as, and then like the starting point of this next album. But equally, the other songs, I mean, it’s been really cool. We had Heavenly on board early on, and they helped pick the singles, saying, “These are the ones we really like.” Obviously, we were pretty proud of the whole album, so when there were certain songs that they were like, “We like this one the most,” or, “We wanna do this one,” we were kind of were, like, “Sure.”

BA: I think it’s hard to choose sometimes because you feel like these personal connections, just so many songs, or maybe like one for some reason, or another for a reason less. It’s easier when someone else is like, “Just do this.”

JL: It’s been cool that we managed, I think in the four songs that have come out so far, it’s shown a fair bit of scope of the new album, but also hasn’t given all the secrets away.

For sure. I’ve listened to it back a few times already and I found that overall it’s really propulsive, like rocking and uptempo. There’s some moments where it cools off a bit to breathe, but it doesn’t let up. Was that a conscious choice? Did you notice that at all?

JL: Yeah, I think we did and we didn’t, I guess. Like, there’s certain kinds of songs we gravitate towards writing. There’s a few songs we paired together that sort of, like you said, cool off slightly but don’t dip hugely. But I also think we had a tracklisting in mind for the album and that’s what the album is. After we sort of settled on that, we played it to someone and they were like, “Whoa, like you’ve really put all the fast songs at the start.” For whatever reason, the whole A-side is bang after bang. I guess that’s just how it played out, but I feel like that wasn’t super conscious, but they’re the songs we were gravitating to.

BA: And I think we tend to play songs live next to each other, too. So then when you hear them live or practice them so many times going into one another, in your brain you’re like, “Oh, that just is how the songs are paired, like they just come together.” That’s like an unconscious bias that goes into ordering the album a little bit as well. I always think of the album as a live set actually.

JL: We’ve been playing most of the album, but we don’t play the slower bits.

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I totally get that, you can hear the bang, bang, bang—all the super propulsive bits. You guys played in the UK recently as well, how was that?

BA: It was fun. We did two tours almost back to back. One was our headline tour, off the back of “Digging The Hole” with the Heavenly announcement. That was in Europe and the UK and was lots of fun. It was really fun coming back again. We hadn’t been back in just over a year and now we have a couple more fans and really good shows. Meeting the Heavenly crew was just amazing too. Then, while we were on that tour, we got offered to come back and play with the Vaccines on their headline tour. Yeah, so we did that for 11 shows and that was really fun. It was good. Also learning, I guess, there’s still a very different level there. *laughs* Seeing behind the scenes of how things like that go, and learning how to play it more confidently on big stages. We were proud of it.

JL: It’s been kind of ridiculous how in the last six months, we’ve played every kind of show available. We’ve played tiny DIY shows to the freak punks from the town. Then we’ve played the nicer venues in town that’s still kind of an intimate club show. And then we’ve played, like, the 3,000-capacity venue. *Laughs* And in the festivals, we’ve played like, yeah, like a proper festival.

BA: And then next week we’ve played like a weird hippie festival. *laughs*

It’s all over the place! You’ve really done everything.

BA: We’ve really done everything in these last six months.

JL: It’s been very, very fun. And it’s kept us on our toes, which is good.

BA: Yeah, we’re not doing the same thing all the time.

That sounds fun as. Do you think your music resonates differently depending on the audience you play to? I know your kind of music is a lot bigger in Europe compared to Australia.

JL: I’m curious if it actually resonates differently, but different audiences definitely behave differently. I know that in Melbourne—if I’m talking personally—I’ve been to some of my favorite shows ever, and the music has definitely resonated, but I’ve probably likely just still stood there drinking a beer or whatever. Whereas if you go somewhere in France or Germany, the culture is just so different. Everyone that’s in the room is jumping up and down. So, I’m not really sure that it resonates differently, but they definitely behave in extremely different ways.

But that’s cool. Also, when you’re on stage, it’s always the most fun whenever you can share the energy. I think we’re a band that, as a rule, if we’re gonna play on stage, we’re gonna try to go as hard as we can. But then it’s kind of a funny thing. You can do that and the crowd can be kind of chill and just standing there enjoying it I guess, or going nuts, but both have their perks.

BA: I think the most important thing is, if we’re having fun, hopefully people feel that. Like, they’re having fun even if they’re not jumping up and down. So, I think the main thing is just trying to have a good time on stage and enjoy yourself, then hopefully that translates into the crowd.

JL: Yeah. To loop to the start of your question, we’re very lucky to be able to play these kinds of songs overseas because there’s a huge audience for this kind of garage punk, post-punk thing. And there definitely is a huge community in Melbourne, too, but not like there is over there where they just go loco.

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Oh, for sure. I also wanted to ask about the album title, FORCE MAJEURE. The phrase carries a lot of weight. What can you say about that?

BA: I feel like we always go through this thing where we’re trying to name the album and try to be really creative about it or think of something really cool. And then we end up just going through all the songs and picking up the best lyrics. “Force Majeure” was a lyric from a song that’s just got into the top three or whatever, then got selected. It’s James’ from “The New Alphabet.”

JL: It’s funny, it definitely wasn’t part of the process at all. I could definitely understand why you might see that title and be like, “That feels like they might’ve thought of that and then tried to make an album like this.” We picked the album name at the very end of the project.

I sing that in a song lyric, and I don’t know if I use it exactly correctly because it’s kind of like a legal term. But I was drawn to it because I think one of its translations is “an act of God.” In the song that I’m singing, I’m kind of singing as a character and the character thinks that they’re like a legend. So I used the phrase like they described themselves as a “force majeure,” which I thought was funny, but then people in the band gravitated to that line. It became a good Delivery album title, but also a good title for this album specifically.

Delivery is a band where we’re pretty self-aware and I don’t think we take ourselves extremely seriously. But at the same time, we sing about a lot of loaded topics and we’re quite passionate about certain things. We’re quite passionate about being a rock band. It’s another thing that you can’t take yourself too seriously about because that’s kind of the nature of the beast. I think it’s like the right kind of title that both had elements of extreme boldness and extreme absurdity that you would call your album “force majeure.” *laughs*

No yeah, that’s pretty interesting. Do the band members come up with writing their own lyrics for the songs?

BA: Generally, I think sometimes we’ll ask each other for a little bit of help to put it at a loss for a word or a line or something, but usually someone will have almost all the lyrics before. I think everyone writes lyrics in different ways. Like, [James will] often come up with the melody first and lay the lyrics on that. Whereas I’ll often write things down and then use them to write the song.

JL: Yeah, we don’t talk that much about our… Not talk about our lyrics, but the lyrics are maybe the least collaborative part.

BA: But we’re very private.

JL: There may be a couple of moments that were sort of more shared.

BA: Like in “Like A Million Bucks,” we kind of went a bit more collaborative.

JL: Yeah. But that’s kind of more when it’s like, you can’t figure it out rather than there’s been times in songs where I’m, like, “I can’t figure out these lyrics. Can everyone help me?” And I spend the whole time saying, “That’s a bad idea, that’s a bad idea.”

It’s good because it helps you come up with what you do when you say it. I think there’s also an element of that, kind of deep down, individually, knowing what we’re trying to get to so you know what’s not right.

BA: It helps in a weird way.

JL: It’s fun being in a band like this where lyrics are quite important and you’re kind of given a lot of free rein to say what you want to say. And then if what you want to say is just gibberish, that’s also fine.

Have you found that someone will write something and someone else will try to sing it?

BA: It’s come up a couple of times that maybe, like, if someone has a different style of voice that might suit the song better. I also think sometimes when you’re writing, well, I guess most of the time when you’re writing lyrics, you write them to suit your voice or style because that is what comes naturally.

JL: It’d be fun to experiment with.

BA: Yeah, it’s never been out of the question.

JL: But yeah, then you can just write some of the worst lyrics and everyone makes someone else sing it.

Yeah, like stitch them up. *Everyone Laughs* Maybe it’s too early to ask, but on future material—what can you see yourselves doing more of in the future? Some of your songs have synths here and there, are you going to explore more of that?

JL: Yeah, we’ve been working on the next album stuff. Not recording anything yet, but just working on some things.

BA: And we have been experimenting a little bit more with the synth actually.

JL: We particularly bring the synth to every show and play one song on it or something. So yeah, there has been some toying around with more synth stuff. There’s been some really amateur playing around with drum machine things.

BA: Overall, whether we experiment with synths or drum machines or whatever, the goal is still to have full rock vibes that add extra or fun elements to enhance it.

JL: We’ve been thinking a lot about where the next music can go. And I don’t know if we know exactly, but there’s a few cool ideas already there.

You can check out Delivery’s FORCE MAJEURE over on Bandcamp!

Dom Lepore
Dom Lepore is a writer from Melbourne, Australia who avidly lives and breathes music. Chances are while you’re reading this, he’s got any song by Underworld stuck on repeat.

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