Outside Comfort Zones with Delanie
Interview by Piper Rosas
Graphic by Emily Lantzy
Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Delanie and discuss her debut EP, Comfort Zone, before it was released on June 8th, 2020. Delanie is only seventeen years old and makes music out of her bedroom. With years of covers released on Twitter leading up to this EP, these five personal instrumental masterpieces are sure to not disappoint. Her previously released singles are also available on Spotify and Apple Music, including “Let Go,” “Like U,” and “I Don’t Know How to Love You,” which will be included on the new EP. The tracklist for Comfort Zone is “I Don’t Know How to Love You,” “Ketamine,” “Coming of Age Movies Lied to Me,” “Tuesday Mourning,” and “Static.”
Hello! To start, tell me about you, your music, this EP, and where it all began.
I’m seventeen and I make all my music completely by myself. I’ve always wanted to be a musician. It’s always been my biggest passion and what I wanted to do with my life. The EP is about the biggest things I’ve gone through. The songs that I’ve written so far kind of define where I’m at in my life right now the best. I tried to make them all very different from each other to show a wide range of sounds.
How are you feeling about this release?
I’m really excited about it! I’m excited for everyone to hear it. Compared to the singles I’ve released, it’s a lot more grown-up and evolved. But, I’m also really nervous because it’s so personal and there's so much intimate stuff I talk about on it that just random strangers are going to be able to hear. Very mixed emotions.
How do you think fans will react? Are you mostly nervous or excited for people to hear it?
I’m definitely excited for them to hear it; I just want to know what everyone thinks. A lot of people are probably going to want to know what certain songs are about and that makes me kind of nervous because they are so specific. Overall, it’s an excitement. I’m just excited for it to not be only mine anymore, because I’ve been working on it for so long.
What was your writing process like for the album and how long have you been writing it?
Writing all of these songs, I wasn't necessarily writing for an EP. It’s just been what I’ve written over whatever span of time I decided to put together. The oldest song on there is “Ketamine,” and I wrote it when I was fifteen. The newest one is “Static,” and I wrote that about two weeks before I turned the EP in. So it’s over a span of a year and a half I think.
How would you describe your sound and can you credit any music inspirations?
I guess I’d say like alt-indie/alt-pop/indie-pop is the best way to describe it. I could definitely say a few artists that have inspired me and influenced me. Definitely The 1975; that’s a really big one. Yungblud, 5 Seconds of Summer - there’s tons. I’ve gone through such a journey with the type of music that I listen to. I feel like I’ve been influenced by everything.
Which song took the longest to write? The shortest?
All of them came pretty quickly. I wrote “I Don’t Know How to Love You” in twenty minutes. “Static” took maybe like two days. They all came really quickly and they were all really natural.
Which song did you enjoy writing the most?
Probably “Static,” because it’s the most different from all the other ones. I feel like that one is the most experimental one for me. I had the most fun messing around with how I was going to do that one.
That’s actually my favorite song from the new EP. With it being such a touching and emotional song, what was going through your mind when you were writing it?
I was just messing around with it. I had the guitar picking part for a day or two and I really had no idea what I was going to do with it. It was like 3AM and I just sat down and decided to just see if anything would happen. I ended up making almost the entire instrumental for the song the same night that I wrote it, which never happens for me. Usually the recording process takes a lot longer than the writing process does for me. That whole song fell together all at the same time, which was really exciting.
Did you run into any unexpected troubles when releasing this EP or any other previous music?
I had a lot of trouble recording “Ketamine.” That one is the oldest and it’s one of the most personal to me. Not just because it happened to me but it’s about something that happened to someone really close to me that affected everyone around us. I felt a lot of pressure to get that one right. I recorded the whole thing and I deleted the entire song and I started over. And then I deleted it again. That song took like four versions to get right.
I know you said a couple of your shows got cancelled due to the pandemic, do you plan to do any shows when everything is over?
Absolutely. Touring is one of my biggest goals right now. Obviously that can’t happen right now, but as soon as I get the opportunity, I would love to. I love playing shows, they’re so fun.
You can listen to Delanie’s music on Spotify and wherever else you stream your music. Make sure to follow her on social media to stay updated on news regarding the recent EP release and any upcoming music or post-COVID tour plans!