James Roberts - Delta

Despite what his convinctions are, James Roberts has inspired - with aid from brother Patrick - a generation of indiepoppers worldwide. The Sea Urchins may not have been the most important band at Sarah Records but they are definitely one of the most widely known. "Pristine Christine" is going to appear on the long awaited Mute/Rought Trade compilation about all that's been good in indiepop in the last 20 years, San Francisco band The Tyde are covering their songs and how could anybody live without a "Please Rain Fall"? Still, James insists on seeing the Sea Urchins as a youth mistake and would rather talk about his late band, Delta. Who, despite being graciously beautiful and having been on the verge of major breakout, have not enjoyed any kind of success, due to some very unfortunate incidents with the music industry. And now that their album of collected singles "Singularity" has received a ravishing review on NME it seems that the band is no more. Typical. Still, James has a solo album in the final stages of production and it seems we have not heard the last of him. That's good, because life wouldn't just be the same without his wonderful nasal tone.
Oh, and shame to Apricot for not sending him Birdie's cover of "Please Rain Fall". He wrote the song, they recorded it as an homage, is he really expected to buy it by himself?

If you should explain the key elements of the change in sound from the Sea Urchins to Delta what would you say?

I think it was just a bit of growing up (age-wise, people-wise and musicianship-wise). I think at the time we felt the Sea Urchins were stuck in a niche which wasn't really indicative of how we were at that time and was probably getting rather irritating to us. The fact of actually changing the name of the band was part of this.....rather than just ploughing on as the Sea Urchins we wanted to draw a line and start again.

Surely you must know how much of an influence you have been and continue to be over indiepop music. Our very magazine would probably not exist without a "Please Rain Fall" to get inspiration from. But how
do you relate now to what you've done in the past with the Sea Urchins?

The Sea Urchins is a weird bit of history for me. I think musically it doesn't stack up very well against the Delta stuff, not least because there wasn't actually very much Sea Urchins music and what there was sounds very of it's time to me. However, every now and again I hear things like this which surprise the hell out of me that the Sea Urchins still impact on people. It's very nice but I don't quite understand it.

Why Delta? A letter, an outlet to the sea, a car, a symbol, just a name?

A Dave Crosby song.

You haven't been lucky dealing with major labels. Can you tell us what happened with Mercury and what this experience has left you?

We signed, we recorded an album, the Mercury management then got replaced and decided upon a change of tact regarding which bands they wanted and we weren't part of the new plans so they dropped us before the album was released. Left me with an album......not much else.

What are Delta aiming for? To remain a pop band for an elite of music lovers?

Delta are taking a bit of a sabbatical.....one which may last forever........but you never know I guess.

How did the "Singularity" compilation came about? It's wonderful, still it's strange to see it happen in the USA where your two records didn't get published...

Somebody offered to put it out and it seemed like a nice idea so we said OK. Not really any planning or instigating from our side though Guy at Dishy was quite involved.

Listening to "Singularity" it seems you were trying to get away from the SU as much as possibile with early Delta singles: sometimes it's almost psych-blues. But then it seems you have gone back to pop music again with "Slippin'out" and "Hardlight". Do you think this is correct? Were you trying to get away from your earlier works when starting Delta?

Delta definitely were trying get away from what we perceived the Sea Urchins to be at the time we formed Delta. I don't think we subsequently ever consciously tried to get back to anything poppier although I do take your point that some of the later stuff leans that way more than the earlier stuff. I think we just became a little more inclined to mix the sound of the music up a bit in the later years.

Were you entirely satisfied with "Hardlight"? it seemed much more ambitious than Slippin' out although maybe it was trying too hard to please.

I agree. Hard Light is a bit overblown and sounds likea bunch of guys used to working on a shoestring suddenly having some money thrown at them.......which is exactly what it was. I don't think we really had a plan for this album other than to play the songs and get them to sound OK which was all we did when we had very little money to spend on recording. A lot of money/time got wasted thinking and talking about stuff...........very irritating.

What music and authors have influenced you in your teenage years?

I don't remember anything about my teenage years other than musing upon how very very lovely ladies are.

What's your favourite songs amongst the ones you have written, and why?

I really like a song called "Meet On The Peak" which is an old song which Delta never released that I have done for the solo album. I just remember feeling the way I say I feel in the lyrics so it makes me think I at least wrote something honest.

What's your most hidden dream between the ones you can allow yourself to mention ?

I don't want to say too much but there is a very long train, a very damp tunnel and a policeman who looks like my mother involved.

Have you heard the "Sullen eyes" cover on the Tyde album? and "Please Rain Fall" made by Birdie? What do you think of other artists covering your songs?

Have heard the Tyde one (which I like very much) but never knew about the Birdie one. The Tyde version is the only cover version I've ever heard of until now so other people doing our songs is not really something which has cropped up. I love the idea of people doing it though, it's very complimentary.

You said a solo album is in the works. Why this decision? What will it sound like?

Solo album was really just borne out of a time of Delta apathy and the fact that there was an opportunity to do it. Not actually sure what it will sound like - part of the ethic of the album has been to give it away to others to add to without my interference.

And will we see another Delta album?

Another Delta album.......wouldn't count on it but you never can tell what lengths a mid-life crisis might drive us to....maybe even recording together again in a bid to reclaim our glorious youth????

Salvatore, Alessandro

Links:

Elephant Stone Website: www.elephantstonerecords.com
Delta@indiepop.it: bands/delta.htm