Meet: Black Delta Movement interview

We’ve seen them live on numerous occasions and we’ve been spinning their trippy, garage psychedelia on the Backseat mafia turntable for quite some time. So we thought it was about time we introduced you to The Black Delta Movement. We sat down with lead singer Matt to ask a few basic questions about one of our favourite bands…

BM: You’ve been knocking around for a few years now. Can you tell us how you all met?

MATT: Me (Matt) and Dom went to college together so we met there. Dom and Liam went to school with each other and me and Jacob have known each other for years by playing in bands with each other.

BM: There’s a definite chemistry in the band. Did you all hit it off straight from the start?

MATT: Our first rehearsal was mid-July 5 years ago. We all walked in, set up our gear and didn’t really know what to do at first – we then jammed out a couple of ideas and then Rome and Butterfly were born (both of which are among my favourites that we’ve ever written).

BM: Do you all share similar tastes in music?

MATT: We share a lot of music with each other – we’ve had a lot of nights listening to bands like The Black Angels, BRMC, Night Beats, Hookworms etc. We’re heavily influenced by a lot of old and new psych/garage music – things like The Rolling Stones, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Night Beats, Jesus & Mary Chain, 13th Floor Elevators and so on. We listen to absolutely everything!

BM: From the list above, which would you say are the bands that have influenced you the most?

MATT: The Black Angels because of their wall of sound and how they evolve that sound throughout their releases. When we started we had a game plan and thought it was really important to stay creative and not write the same song over and over again.
The same goes for The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Anton is prolific in his songwriting and that’s how we’ve tried to be.

BM: Talking of song writing – how do you guys go about writing new material?

MATT: We generally just play with sounds, sequences and rhythms until we get something that seems to click with us. Lyrics always come last.
Our latest songs have really got us excited – we have a real fire in our bellies to play them which is always a big deal.

BM: The Black Delta Movement – it’s a bit of a mouthful, but it’s very memorable – where did it come from?

MATT: When the band started it was through being influenced by bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Market Karma and so forth so we wanted a long name to go with all of those.

BM: You’ve got lots of influences and I’ve seen you compared to quite a few of the bands you’ve named. How would you describe your sound?

MATT: I’m terrible at describing what we sound like but we generally get told we sound like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

BM: There doesn’t seem to be more than a few days go by without another BDM gig been announced. We’ve seen you quite a few times – for the uninitiated how would you describe your live set?

MATT: Loud.Very, very loud!

BM: I can certainly attest to that. We caught you recently as support for the Jesus and Mary Chain gig in Leeds. It was a pretty amazing gig. How did that come about?

MATT: Us getting the show was all thanks to Alan McGee – he’s been super supportive of us and that show did us the world of good.

BM: It must have been amazing sharing the same stage as, what are in my opinion at least, one of the best bands ever.

MATT: It was a really, really special night for us. Leeds Academy is one of my favourite venues and I’ve seen some of my favourite bands there (BRMC, The Coral, Eels, Primal Scream etc) so I never actually thought I’d get the chance to play there, especially with a band that are such a huge influence on the music we play.

BM: Did you get to meet them?

MATT: We didn’t get chance to meet them, no! We didn’t want to bother them at all – we did watch their sound check though. Ace!

BM: That must have been one of, if not the biggest gigs you’ve played. But, can you cast your mind back to when it all began and tell us about your first live performance?

MATT: Our first gig was Freedom Festival 2010. Looking back it was pretty rusty, maybe we weren’t as ready to gig as we thought we were – at the time it was exciting though. We had our new band finally up and gigging.

BM: Your latest single is a cover version…

MATT: Our latest single is a cover of Kim Fowley called The Trip – the original is such a great song. Of course, I don’t think the song is going for a trip to Skegness for the day. We recorded it with Patrick Pretorius at AOO studios, we’ve worked with him on our previous two EP’s too and it’s an absolute pleasure to work with such a good friend of ours. He’s been a mentor to the band in many respects.

BM: With it been a cover, have you tried to make it more inline with your own stuff, was there a particular way you wanted it to sound?

MATT: We just tried to make it sound like it was finished – there’s a lot of songs we’ve done before where they just don’t quite sound ‘there’ so we’re conscious of that when we write songs now. We’ll sometimes leave the song for a few months and go back to it later with a fresh mind.

BM: You’ve played with loads of bands over the past few years – without putting you too much on the spot, which are the ones that have really stood out?

MATT: We’re friends with a lot of really great bands – off the top of our heads you should check out No Nothings, Fire (The Unstoppable Force) Vulgarians, Cannibal Animal, BREEZE, The Blackrays, Black Market Karma, Avalanche Party, …And The Hangnails and La Petite Mort.

BM: You’re a very busy band – any plans to start slowing down at all?

MATT: We’re currently working on tours for the rest of the year and recording plans so keep an eye out on our website for more details! If you go on to our website www.theblackdeltamovement.co.uk you can find all of our gig details on there plus links to merchandise, instagram, facebook etc etc.