CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 092: THE DELTA RIGGS
The Delta Riggs are back with the release of new single ‘The Real Electric.’ The psychedelic rockers have been busy performing shows as always but they always promise some more new music on the horizon! Patrick spoke to Alex Markwell from the band about the new single and other topics!
FMM: Congrats on the new single. Your first release of 2022. How good’s it feel to put some more music out there?
Alex: Thanks! Well, It’s been about 3 years I’d say since the band’s last record came out. So, the whole band is really excited about having some new music to put out there. The last three years (with the exception of the obvious two) there were moments where it seemed like a bit of an uphill battle to get songs finished, especially since we are split between states, with all of our time together usually spent honing the live show or performing. There were also moments of minor conflict about working on new music for a minute, but that all dissipated pretty quickly when we’d hang out for a week together up at my folk’s place on the Gold Coast (while they were out of state), set up shop in the living room (which is like a big barn sized space) set up a drum kit, and just started going through a bunch of song ideas we had all compiled over the last little while. Turns out we all thought there was some good stuff in there! Since then, we’ve just been working on building and finishing tracks whenever we’re in the same city and I’m personally stoked with everything that we’re doing at the moment. Feels fresh!
FMM: How long has The Real Electric been in the works for?
Alex: Shit, probably for about 6 months I’d say? It went through a few forms throughout the way haha. The song itself was pretty quick in its formation; however, we went through a few different production approaches until it landed where it is.
FMM: What was the production process like on this track? How did the song- writing for it come about?
Alex: This is probably the most interesting part for me, as it originally started with Monte sending me an email of a demo. He wanted to give it a different sort of flavour than its current form, so one night at home I did a special ops session on it, flipped the chords around a bit, and later when he was down in Melbourne, we hit my studio and continued working on it. We added the section which is now the chorus, and changed it up to be a pretty chill jangly and synthy indie-pop jam. After hearing it (Monte loves show and tell haha, don’t we all?), Elliott suggested using it as a Riggs song, and flipped up some lyrics (penning the song title) and we were starting to think about where it could head sonically, to mould it into a more ‘Riggs -sounding record. The next stage was when Monte and I were hanging out at our mate Reuben Styles’ (Peking Duk/Yoga) bar in Melbs, all doing another little show and tell ‘sesh’, and when this tune came on, he was like, “fuck, this is sick,” and started throwing out how it would sound great with 40 layers of the same vocal and all this other wild shit. I guess that’s how we ended up getting him on board to produce the track with us. A couple of sessions with him and his glorious mullet flowing in the breeze from the bass emanating out of the speakers, followed by a mix from the talented Oscar (Dawson) and there we have it… The Real Electric.
FMM: There’s a few gigs coming up later this month. Will there be an opportunity to debut the new track?
Alex: You’d want to hope so hey haha. Nah, I dare say it’ll be in the set as we’re all pumped on starting to gauge out some new tracks live! They become their own beast again in the live realm. Can’t wait to see what form it takes!
FMM: You’ve been in the music industry for some time now, and there’s a lot of competitors in terms of that indie/rock. Is there anything the band tries to do to set themselves apart from the rest?
Alex: For me it’s all about the songs and the performances, we just strive to dive down into the 2% details of things, sometimes things that you don’t notice at a base level, but hopefully keep things fresh and interesting to listeners. Some of things I like the most in music, is where I listen to a song that I have heard 12399000 times, and then only later discover an element that I never knew was there, or a story behind something that I had no idea about. The most recent moment for that was with an M83 song ‘Midnight City.’ That main hook line that I always thought was some synth or instrument is actually a mangled and processed to shit vocal which blew my mind! I guess just trying out new approaches whenever we record new material, and not really worrying about pigeon holing ourselves in that one genre, and the song writing / production techniques that are traditionally used with that genre. Like using 808’s in a rock and roll band to make the subs kick, not using guitar amps with guitars a lot, but using them with synths instead. That and making sure the songs/lyrics are something that we’re always stoked with putting out there!
FMM: It’s been a few years since the last album was released. Is there a new album on the horizon soon?’’
Alex: I know, too long between drinks in my opinion. There is definitely a collection of songs that we’ve been working on, with the end goal of them forming an album! I’d say we’re going to focus on just keeping the output of music up, and just keep constantly releasing new music, that in the end will hopefully work together on an LP haha. But yeah, amongst getting back and playing shows we are definitely also focusing on the goal of getting a new album out there!