Award-winning and critically acclaimed, The Delines is a band that remains a great favourite amongst AUK’s readers and writers. Their soulful Americana and distinctive sound are perfect for delivering Willy Vlautin’s cinematic narratives about the lost and forgotten, characters on the periphery of society, weary and worn down but persevering against the hardness of desperate or monotonous lives. Amy Boone’s voice is, quite simply, brilliantly engaging, conveying so much emotional resonance. For many, this blend of musicality and poetic lyricism is the heart of the genre. AUK’s Andrew Frolish chatted to the band backstage at the Black Deer Festival, shortly before they performed an incredible set for a large, appreciative crowd on The Ridge Stage. The performance was sublime – full of drama and atmosphere – check out my review of the festival here. In the band’s tent, behind The Ridge, Amy Boone, Willy Vlautin, Sean Oldham, Cory Gray and Freddy Trujillo were upbeat and fun, welcoming and chatty. Many thanks to the band for giving up their time.
Welcome to Black Deer. What’d you make of the festival so far?
Amy Boone (AB): We just got here. We haven’t had a look around yet, but yeah, it looks like it’s absolutely beautiful.
Willy Vlautin (WV): It’s a lovely setting but tricky for us to get here. We just got here, so the timing worked out great.
Will you get a chance to see any of the other acts while you’re here?
AB: We’re probably gonna have to leave afterwards. I’m not sure.
WV: It seems like they got great acts. I wish we could say we were staying, but I think we’re leaving pretty much. We might get something to eat afterwards and then we gotta go find our hotel and all that.
AB: Yeah. Getting outta here at night might be kind of hard too!
It’s your first time here. When you’re playing a festival like this, how does it compare to a regular tour gig?
WV: Well, it’s tricky ’cause you’re playing with a lot of gear you don’t know and it is kind of like rush, rush, rush, wait, wait, wait, rush, rush, rush. And then you play and then you leave. So it’s fun if you get to stay, like if you get to stay the night or, or get to see other bands, then it’s really fun. But if you’re just coming in and out, I’d rather play clubs, I think.
AB: We played the End of the Road Festival and that was good. We got right off the plane and we were running really late and we literally jumped out of the van. I was changing my clothes in the van and got on stage and played, but then we got to hang out.
WV: Then we got to hang out. Got to see Giant Sand. We saw some bands we thought were really cool. We’ve played really cool festivals, like when we opened up for Robert Plant once or Glen Campbell, and we got to see Gillian Welch. You sometimes get lucky where you get the rest of the day. Usually, we’re more of an ‘afternoon band’ and so you get to see all the cool bands at night, so it’s fun.
To listen to, you’re more of a ‘night band’, a listen with a whisky band!
AB: Yeah, yeah, yeah – absolutely!
WV: We always figure at festivals that we’re the cocktail hour band! We’re like four to six. Yeah – give everybody a little break, get ’em ready for the night, a little downtime before they get rocking. That’s exactly it. At festivals, I think we’re the perfect kind of cocktail hour. You know, get everybody a little loose and groovy and then they can go party and get nuts!
AB: Stop talking about cocktails!
Do you find the audience is different when you get a festival crowd or a regular show crowd? How do they compare?
WV: Just, it all depends. I think every festival we’ve ever done is different. Sometimes, you’re not sure if they’re gonna like you and then sometimes you get really lucky and they love you.
AB: Yeah. the Isle of White, there wasn’t a lot of people there and they were really far away. I think we’re a real intimate band. So, as a performer, I like people to be right up close because I feel like I sing to people and they make eye contact with people. If the stage and the audience are too far away, it’s a little harder to get connected. I’m not complaining. I think they’re fun.
How do you select songs for a festival show like this?
WV: Well, I gotta do that! You know, the real bad ones we might cut! The songs that are more subtle, we might leave off just because they get lost maybe.
AB: We have a monologue that I mostly just talk and we’re not gonna do that in a festival.
I guess there are certain songs that work in a more intimate setting on your regular tour, the sort of songs that people really need to listen to – their lyrics, their stories, their narratives. That’s one of the things that I really love about your songs. When it comes to writing songs like that, what’s that process like?
WV: I guess I just start with the idea of the story and hope that it’s something that Amy might find interesting. So, I think about that a lot. Then I usually think of an idea first and then the melody second. I always think of songs like little movies and then the music is the soundtrack. It starts with the story kind or the feel of it more than anything. But if I do write a catchy song, it’s usually music first. If it’s a sort of more upbeat, catchy sort of thing, it’s music first. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Once in a while!
AB: I feel like the record we just finished, that isn’t coming out until next year is a lot about relationships. Does that ring true?
WV: Yeah. It’s like couples on the run. Ragged couples.
AB: In a ragged way, it’s romance. There’s some romantic lines. A lot of tragedy!
WV: But romance!
The song I always think about when I think of your narrative lyrics and the stories in your songs is ‘Surfers in Twilight’ where it’s so concise and tight. That could have been a huge story. It could be a movie. But it’s so spare, stripped down to some key lines and that makes it magical.
AB: And then there’s that clincher line at the end – I think that line is chilling. And then with ‘Little Earl’, it’s like you have a slice of this story, but they kind of drive off into the sunset and, like, what happened? We need a ‘Little Earl 2’.
WV: And that was one like ‘Surfers in Twilight’, I think Amy and I did that live. In the studio, we built around it but that was like our first take. I was in a booth with just an acoustic guitar and then she just sang. I mean, she just killed it, man. Also, ‘All Along the Ride’, that was the first take by you.
AB: I can’t remember that.
WV: I do! Because you’re in there and you’re like, oh shit, she’s nailed that! You might try it again but you’re like, wow!
AB: I like that approach for a song like ‘Surfers…’. Let it do its own thing. Cutting it live is really the only way to do a song like that.
WV: That’s probably one of my favourites of ours.
Yeah. It’s, it’s one of my favourites. It’s the language and the way that an entire life is told through just a few words – that kills me. I think that’s brilliant.
AB: When I first read the lyrics to that song, I was anticipating its ending and I just kind of put my own ending. That’s why, when he looks at her from the back of the cop car and she knows he’s guilty. That line just slayed me when I read it the first time.
WV: Or just that idea that she’s getting off work and she has absolutely no idea. If you see a cop car and then you realise…I once saw my uncle getting in a fight and the cops came when I was a little kid and it just sticks with you. Who is that? And then, oh man, I know that guy! I know the guy getting arrested!
It’s interesting – you say it came off in the first take like that because when I listen to your songs, it feels like they’re so beautifully produced and they’re so atmospheric and cinematic. One of the things I was wondering was when it comes to live shows is how you translate that into a live show. The studio sound is so distinctive.
WV: We work really hard on that. Once we get to bare bones and once you get Amy’s take, then you can build all around it and that’s really fun. Live, so much is Cory on the keyboard.
AB: We depend on Cory to be the icing on the cake for the effects because we’re not travelling with strings and a whole horn section. I mean, it’d be great to!
WV: We got really lucky when we started playing with Cory. We didn’t have any idea. Well, we knew he was a brilliant keyboard player but we had no idea how good a trumpet player he was. We just didn’t know. And, and an arranger. So, we really lucked out having a guy that’s a great horn and string arranger and comes up with fifty good melodies for every song. It’s like, you have to just pick two of ’em, man! You can’t have fifty good melodies in one song!
Having that must make such a difference because, of course, on the tour you’re going from venue to venue, different sound everywhere, different sound engineers everywhere.
AB: Yeah. We played in church last night and churches are a little challenging because of the natural reverb – it sounds real bouncy.
WV: We’ve been getting lucky because lately, we’ve been touring with the sound man and that changes everything too. That helps replicate the studio sound. You don’t have to tell everybody what we sound like. You know, we’re not a rock band. People that don’t know you, you have to really school them on it – this is a little different, but we have a really good sound.
This is a cocktail band!
AB: And back to the cocktails! It’s a mood band. I mean, what we’re trying to create, it’s almost theatrical. Especially when I do spoken word or something.
WV: We create the world of it. And again, we can do it in festivals, I think, because of Cory. He’s really talented dude, man.
When you’re playing your set tonight, what sort of songs are you gonna go for? Are you going to go for recent songs?
WV: We’re doing a lot of new songs. We’re doing things from the new record and songs past the new record. We’re going to do one that we’re just trying to work out right now. I think three or four new songs. We’re always trying to just keep doing something new.
AB: We like trying out songs when we’re travelling. I think a lot of this stuff we worked up in hotel rooms in the past.
WV: Like ‘Holly the Hustle’, off ‘”he Imperial”. I remember we worked that out on the road. We worked out ‘He Don’t Burn for Me’ on the Road. That’s right. It just gives you something new. We’re working on a song right now: ‘Keep the Shakes Down’. That one’s kind of from the road.
Is that the sort of thing you’d just do backstage?
WV: Yeah, if we have time. Sometimes, we’re just sitting at our sound check and we have lots of time. But today we were driving and the lady on the phone tells you to go this weird way. One thing about us being from the US is the skinny roads scare the fuck out of us! Yeah! Guys are hauling ass on skinny little roads where you have to pull over all the time. So, I think today is more like post-traumatic stress drinking and playing. No, no practising today! I’m a little edgy.
AB: I’m still moving! It was pretty crazy. I mean it was like, are we gonna just end up in the middle of a cow pasture? We got to this bridge and we were just like an inch too high to go under the low bridge. So, we had to back up and go another route. It was beautiful but it was pretty terrifying actually.
I know the bridge – one year we were coming here and there was a guy in front of us in a motor home and he must have spent about 20 minutes trying to decide if he could fit under that bridge. He climbed onto the top of the vehicle and he was trying to measure the gap to the bridge.
WV: Just go around!
Exactly. Just go another way. We sat behind him for about 20 minutes, running late. We missed the Felice Brothers!
AB: Oh shit – that’s a bummer!
WV: When I was in high school, I delivered restaurant equipment, like dishes and stuff to casinos. But I was a kid, man. I was 16 driving this big truck. I fucking didn’t even think about this. There was a sky bridge from one casino to the next, and I hit it but luckily it was in the morning and no one knew, man! And the truck was a piece of shit. You know, I just added a little dent to the 20 other dents!
Aside from sometimes writing songs backstage, how do you stay sane when you’re on the road, just going from place to place? You don’t know where you’re going. Don’t know the routes.
AB: How do you stay sane? Just the drink! This is the shortest tour we’ve done. It feels actually strange because I usually have jet lag for about three days and then I start to get into my groove and by the time I do on this tour, we’re gonna be getting back out on a plane again! But I love being in this band. Luckily, I love these guys!
WV: The worst drama we’ve had is that skinny road, man!
AB: We all get along and we entertain each other and make each other laugh. So, it’s not like other bands where you have to be stuck in a van and the band doesn’t talk to each other or doesn’t even like each other. So, that right there makes travelling so much better. We all like to eat. We talk about food a lot.
WV: We like to check shit out. And these guys are like super cool, you know.
You mentioned a new album earlier. You said it’s a romantic album, a tragic album. Is there anything else you can tell us about it?
WV: It’s called ‘Mr Luck and Miss Doom’ We recorded it with John Morgan Askew, who we do our records with. It was probably the longest record to do because he was really busy. Cory did the horn arrangements and the string arrangements. We just finished it. So, we’re really excited.
How on earth do you manage to record new albums and the tours alongside the various solo things you guys are doing? Like Willie’s book and Freddy’s new album. How do you balance those?
WV: I guess it is pretty tough juggling it because Cory’s got a really cool band too. Sharks can’t stop swimming, you know! You just kind of keep doing stuff. I always get scared stopping; I lose confidence easy, so I just keep always working so I don’t think about it. But it’s tough. One thing is we don’t tour a whole lot for a working band, which helps.
So, when can we expect the new album?
WV: February next year. I’m going to keep talking but, sorry, you’re gonna have to watch me dress! You just keep talking to her!
And, as The Delines started to get ready for their show – literally laughing and getting undressed, our chat drew to a close. The band members were all truly welcoming backstage and this was an incredibly warm, good-humoured conversation, full of smiles, laughter and lightness. It was a privilege to talk to Willy Vlautin and Amy Boone together, watching them bounce off one another, sharing their answers and lines of thought. It’s easy to imagine them collaborating the same way on a new song, throwing ideas back and forth. I had the pleasure of meeting Willy Vlautin once before when we chatted about a shared love of boxing and boxing literature. Back then, he recommended the brilliant ‘Fat City’ by Leonard Gardner; it’s a tale much like Willy’s own novels, full of desperation and struggle. At Black Deer, I asked for another reading recommendation and, for those looking for a little summer holiday reading, he suggested ‘Rope Burns’, a collection of gritty short stories set in and around the ring by F.X. Toole. Thanks to the joys of the internet, my new copy was waiting for me by the time I got home from Black Deer. Please keep these suggestions coming, Willy!
