60 second interview: Delays

May 4 2008

Unsung Heroes Delays In No Hurry To Sell Out For Overnight Success

Why is your new album called Everything's The Rush?

A friend of mine was having a baby and we drove her to hospital in labour. She was having this conversation about big life issues and someone said: "What's the rush?" She said: "Everything's the rush." It stuck in my head because at that point we were calling it The Delays or Delays 3.

Do you feel you're a best-kept secret?

I feel like every band - we're the best band on the planet. We wouldn't put out a record if we didn't think it would connect. There's a checklist for sound, look and lyrical content. If you want to be accepted easily, you just follow guidelines and we've never compromised that.

What's your favourite song from the album?

If I had to play tracks to people who had not heard it, I'd play Friends Are False, Touchdown, Pieces and Girl's On Fire. But when you make an album, you don't make individual tracks, you produce your best body of work. It's like your kids - you don't get overly fond of one of them. Having said that, playing Valentine anywhere in the world goes down a storm.

What's the song Pieces about?

That's an older song. We had it before the first album but couldn't get the arrangement right.

It came together for this album. That song was written around Edinburgh. I love it there - it's my favourite non-Southampton city. The plan is to be able to get to a point where you can get a pad wherever you want one - we'll see how this album goes.

What's Girl's On Fire about?

Aaron wrote that. There's a big horn in it. In Southampton we get the biggest liners in the world coming in. Lyrically, it's a space-age love song. It's a nice opener on the album.

What's Touchdown about?

I hope it will be a single as I love it. Aaron has that crazy violin at the beginning and I get to write tunes that sit on top of it. It's about personal breakdowns and a business break-up.

And the song Hooray?

It's about getting over my OCD (picking up litter) but I think a lot of people have an element of it. It's almost like a superstition - like if I don't do this, something bad will happen - but in my case it got a little out of control.

Are you looking forward to touring?

We've got a lot of festivals coming up which is great as we haven't played them for a couple of years. This new album is made for the festivals - the summer, the clear skies. We're going to get a chance to play a lot of these songs live. There's such a good relationship with us and the crowd. We feed off each other. We have such great fans.

The song One More Lie In sounds like it's about a lazy Sunday - is it?

That's an Aaron lyric. A lot of people ask us if it is "one more line" - people take things whichever way they want. It's about a stressful period that everyone was going through at the time. It seems to be where the best songs come from.

Have you got a favourite film?

I'm a film buff. I love Pressburger and David Niven films. I also love Superman 2, especially when he appears at the window and asks the three baddies in the black outfits: "Would you care to step outside?" It still gives me a buzz. Avril Cadden

DELAYS

Singer Greg Gilbert used to be hooked on picking up litter. Thankfully there's nothing rubbish about new album Everything's The Rush, out on May 12.

The band play Dundee's Fat Sams on May 12 and Oran Mor in Glasgow on 13.