Her.ie Chats To… Delorentos

It's been a busy year for Delorentos, with the release of fourth album Night Becomes Light and a double nomination at this year's Meteor Choice Awards. The Dublin foursome have been stalwarts of the Irish music scene for some time but garnered rave reviews for their latest offering, an achievement that frontman Ronan Yourell attributes to "taking a few more risks" in studio with producer Rob Kirwan. While predecessor Little Sparks was "a big step" for the band's collaborative songwriting, Ronan says that the current album is their most honest "in terms of our ability to express ideas and things that are closer to home". "When you are younger, there are certain areas that you are not comfortable to go to. With Night Becomes Light, I think that’s evolved again so it feels like the most open album in terms of subject matter and I think that’s reflected in the sound too. It’s relatively raw," he explains. "When we started this band, I was excited about the potential of the band and the four individuals and I felt if we could, in any way, do a good job of representing these four personalities and perspectives on an album, we’d be doing really well. I think we’re now hitting into a vein where that’s starting to really come through." It hasn't all been plain sailing for the band, who announced their shock split in 2009 after Ronan decided to leave the line-up. However, a stint in the studio to finish what would have been their second and last album reignited a fire within Delorentos and prompted a change of heart. The resulting record, You Can Make Sound, was hailed a success and Ronan reveals that it "was a case of the pressure just getting too much, rather than any issue with what we were doing musically" that caused the temporary breakdown. "Personally, I just didn’t feel like I could do it at the time and then everyone took a step back and said ‘okay’ but when we went into the studio to make the album, we realised that, away from all the other distractions, we loved it too much and we didn’t want to stop. It did give us a chance to talk about how we did things and say ‘if this band exists, it’s got to be good for the four individuals that are in it’. It’s very much about the four of us and it was a bit of a watershed in terms of setting us off in a new direction, both as friends and creatively." Having four songwriters in a band is quite unusual and Ronan admits that while the combination of ideas is "really exciting", there is often competition between the members to produce tracks that will make the final cut for release... which can lead to some "challenging" conversations. "Everybody want to be involved and when you can only have twelve songs on an album, not everything that everybody brings in terms of ideas can make it on. There’s definitely moments where you might be upset about a particular idea or something that was important to you, where you felt that you had a breakthrough in your own expression but ultimately, the connection has to be there for every individual. "We’re getting better at communication with each other, we have a lot of trust that when we get to the end of the process, the album will be the right album. It’s gone beyond even saying anything at this stage, there’s a whole series of nods and winks and eyebrow raises!" After a series of false starts, 2014 also saw the band sign a long-awaited record deal with Universal, with Delorentos joining a wave of Irish acts recently being snapped up by label bosses. The development is a positive sign for an embattled music industry and Ronan says that while the business has been facing economic difficulty in recent times, he believes that the output from Irish musicians hasn't suffered. "In the times when none of us had any money, we really relied on our creative arts and people who generally do things for very little. They kept going and inspired us through tough times so it’s nice to see that industry rising as well as all the other ones. It’s lovely to see someone like Hozier… we were lucky that at the time we were recording Night Becomes Light, he was also making his record with Rob so we got to spend a little bit of time with him and as well as being super talented, he’s just a really lovely, genuine guy and it’s really cool to see somebody like him having this massive success. "If you listen, as so many people are doing, to Hozier’s album, it’s all about the soul and the message. It sounds great but it’s more about what’s genuinely unique about him as opposed to fancy production or a hugely overblown image. That’s a really positive thing, particularly for the next generation of younger Irish artists coming through. It’s cool to have someone like him to look up to." Show Me Love by Delorentos is nominated for Song Of The Year at this year's Meteor Choice awards. Voting is open to the public here until Sunday March 1st.