POST-POSITIVE Delta Spirit
May 31, 2009
Having recently completed a high-profile national tour with the Shins, the acclaimed SoCal upstarts let the sunshine in.
BY LAVINIA JONES WRIGHT
Delta Spirit are often grouped in with former tour mates Dr. Dog and Cold War Kids into the neo-‘70s Americana/soul revival because they share the naïve innocence and rootsy timbre their peers have mastered. But there is something incredibly literate and sober about the Southern California natives that sets them apart from their contemporaries. Something contained in the dark stomp-clap sing-along "People C'mon," from Delta Spirit's earthy and sun-drenched Rounder debut Ode to the Sunshine, with its jangly piano and Beach Boys-esque guitars, or in "Street Walker," with its 1960s girl group rhythm and heavy layer of frontman Matthew Vasquez's weather-worn and plaintive voice, proves that although the group's approach to songwriting seems loose, it comes from a very genuine place. BLURT spoke to guitarist Jon Jameson.
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Do you feel like the overall tone of Ode to the Sunshine is hopeful and positive? You're dealing with some heavy themes in your lyrics - abandonment, drugs -but you seem to have an attitude of survival.
The record has some dark themes but a warm, positive feeling... of possibility. I got a book of poetry by St. John of the Cross the other day in Toronto and I find that same paradox there. We try to balance the themes of hope and depression without getting either sentimental or nihilistic. That's what people need to hear these days. We don't pretend to be big-time activists, but we also are trying to live a life free of convenient ignorance.
I heard you were isolated in a cabin in California when you recorded Ode.
Isolation and absence of distraction, we really needed that... a place that we couldn't really leave. Most of the songs were completed before we went to the cabin. We put together the song "Parade" there, and the rest was just recording and production ideas.
You've been accused of "borrowing" from many different musical styles including folk, blues, and soul as well as, obviously, rock. What do you call your style of songwriting?
Post-post-post-punk. We like that all the songs have a different pattern of production. The majority of those ideas came while writing with five of us in a room. With this record we tried to hold back with the production for the most part so that we could keep everything playable. We had been playing most of the songs live for a while so we had a pretty good idea of how we wanted them to sound.
Are there any contemporary bands who you feel a musical kinship with?
We love pretty much every band that our booking agent does. Dr Dog, Elvis Perkins, Cold War Kids, AA Bondy, Clap Your Hands, Port O'Brien. I will add We Barbarians, Dawes, Sparrow Love Crew and Richard Swift to that list. Anyone who says that there isn't any good music anymore just isn't looking in the right places.
What about bands from prior eras? Do you feel you would have found a place in the musical movement of another generation?
I like the Waterboys. I think they had an interesting thing going on. They were like us in the way that it was hard to classify them, but easy to see their influences. They pushed boundaries. I hope we will keep doing the same.
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