What Is There, the first album in six years from Delta Spirit, is out now on New West Records.
NPR Live Sessions/KUTX – KUTX Live at Home: Delta Spirit, Hosted by Laurie Gallardo
Are they a Southern Californian band? Some publications say they’re from Brooklyn. And now that lead singer and native Austinite Matthew Logan Vasquez is back in the area, some want to claim them as a local band. Does it matter? Time works wonders and they’re back together and making music.
The band first formed in California in 2005 and made the move to Brooklyn around 2012. Since the release of the last album, 2014’s Into the Wide, members have dispersed throughout the country (and Canada-where bassist Jonathan Jameson now resides).
Last week the members of Delta Spirit all met in Nashville, TN, in the home studio of Joel Habbeshaw-VP of promotion at New West Records, (and home to this latest album) to play for the first time since their NYE show at Mohawk. KUTX’s Laurie Gallardo hosted the five song set.
DELTA SPIRIT
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Laurie Gallardo: It’s been six years since the last album. I’m absolutely thrilled with What Is There. But I did want to ask you a little bit about the hiatus that you took. Now, according to what I read, the band kind of separated for a little bit to save some friendships. Tell me about that.
Matthew Logan Vasquez: After a decade of touring together our communication was at an all time low. We also needed to find a way to find value in ourselves outside of the group. Each of us in our way grew up a bit. Our friendship healed, and in 2018 we jammed for the first time since 2015. When we came back to it, there’s just way less pressure and and fears more kind of like, well, what what does this sound like now? Is it still fun? And it proved to be the case that it was still fun. So we made a record.
LG: I’ve really been thinking in terms of the band’s journey. You know, six years is a long time and I figured now you are writing from a different place. The dynamics are different. And plus, on top of bandmates living in different cities, what kind of changes have you heard in your music? What do you think you’re feeling now?
MLV: Now it’s a completely different thing because the whole world has been tipped on its head. I mean, the world, for a lot of us felt tipped on it’s head since 2016. But we just continue to explore and go forward, and we’re definitely not the twenty three year old, barely adults that we were when we started this band. We have other things in our lives than just each other. When we first started this band, we were all we had together. And now it’s kind of bringing that all in. We have our significant others that are part of this band family, that have supported all of us continuing on and with the music and our Venn diagrams of influence and things that we love. And that continues to get wider in terms of what we can imagine Delta Spirit to be.
Recorded September 16, 2020
Musicians: Jonathan Jameson: bass; Brandon Young drums; Matthew Logan Vasquez: vocals, guitar, Kelly Winrich: keys, vocals
Set List:
“It Ain’t Easy”
“Home Again”
“The Pressure”
“How Bout It”
“What Is There”
Album: What Is There (New West Records)
