Delilah
Delilah’s had a fantastic couple of years, coming of the back of her top five charting debut album with an armada of festival appearances.
Now she’s working with Mastercard for their new Priceless Remakes competition, which will see her fans trying to recreate one of her music videos for the chance to work with famous director Emil Nava.
We spoke to the singer about the prospect of having her fans recreate her video, the success of her debut album and making an impression as an artist.
To start off with, are you looking forward to see what your fans get up to trying to emulate your video?
Definitely. I think it’s not only entertaining for me, but Mastercard are giving my fans a fantastic opportunity to have fun and have free reign with one of my videos. On top of that, the winners get to come to the BRITS with three of their friends and get the whole VIP package.
The winners will get to work with Emil Nava, who you’ve worked with before. What’s he like to work with?
Emil is amazing to work with and he comes from an amazing line of directors, as I’ve worked with both him and his older brother Jake. He’s made a great name for himself though in the music industry, especially in the UK over the last couple of years. He’s done work for Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, myself, Jessie J, so the winners are definitely going to be in good hands.
Your debut album got some fantastic reviews and was really successful. What was the reception to it like for you?
Amazing. My album was very organic, we hadn’t pushed it to the same degree I guess as a lot of albums that were released around the same time. We sort of gave it to the fans and let it grow naturally and to go top five with a record that hadn’t really had much mainstream press was really exciting. No TV ads or live performances, it’s all been from people coming to the gigs and seeing it live.
You produced your album as well. Was being involved in that side important to you?
Definitely, I think it’s the only way I know how to work nowadays. I just think that for it to be a true artist’s record, I had to be involved in all the parts.
You’ve worked in the past with people like Chase and Status and Wretch 32, so what made you decide not to have anyone come in and guest on the album?
A couple of reasons. I guess one was that I didn’t want to ride of anyone else’s work. I felt like I’d had great associations before this record and I wanted my first album to, in a really narcissistic sounding way, be all about me and allow my fans to have something to do with only me. I felt like giving them twelve songs written by me, produced by me and sung by me gave them a real foundation as to why they should even bother being fans. I felt like there’s time to do features, I’ve got so many great friends who are amazingly talented, but you can only debut once. The greats like Sade never had people feature on their records. It’s not perfect. It’s a first record and that’s also what I like about it, it’s not a perfect, cold sounding record. It sounds like a debut.
Last year was brilliant for you, as you got to play at some of the biggest festivals out there. What was that like for you?
2012 was incredible, I couldn’t have asked for a better year. I got to travel all over the country, perform at some great festivals and had some great responses. It was really good practice, as I’ve got a great band now who are really tight, really invested in my growth and love the music and that’s something that takes a while to find if you don’t come from a band to start with. I found three really great guys though and to spend time with them, tour the country with them and watch everyone be excited about the journey ahead is really exciting thing.
You got nominated at the MOBOs too. What was that like?
It’s always really nice to get recognised. I didn’t go in expecting to win, as even getting nominated at this stage is lovely. I feel like album one was for the true fans and the critics maybe, whereas album two will be my introduction to the people who haven’t gotten their ears to the ground in the same way.
The nominations to the BRIT awards were announced last week, what are your thoughts on them?
I guess I was a little disappointed, but I wasn’t expecting to be nominated. You never do. It would have been nice though! The categories are strong, there were some names I was really shocked not to see in there. There were some recurring names as well, which I guess is nice for those getting them, but if there are seven nominations you kind of want to see seven different artists ad give the public the option to choose from those people rather than narrowing down the odds. I think that some deserve it, but I always believe in giving the public as many options as possible.
Weird as it sounds, is it true that you used to be insecure about your voice?
Yeah. As you can hear, I’ve got quite a husky speaking voice and it was much lower when I was younger. It was something I had to get used to. My voice has changed so much, only the other day I was listening to demos of myself when I started to sing and the strength in my voice that’s there now just wasn’t there. That’s something you can only get through practice.
So, finishing up, what’s the plan for 2013 then?
My second album will be released by the end of the year, so that’s my main focus. I’m actually in the studio as we speak, so I’ve been in here non-stop recording for it. Hopefully another headline tour, I did two last year, I don’t know if I’ll be doing that again this year, but there’ll definitely be one. Then, I’m going to venture off into Europe and the rest of the world, present knew music, videos and more of the same really.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
In celebration of MasterCard's 15th year as partner of The BRIT Awards, Rita Ora, Conor Maynard and Delilah are giving music fans the chance to star in a Priceless Remake of one of their music videos and feature in The BRIT Awards 2013 TV advertising breaks. Fans will get to shoot it, sing it and be their favourite artist for the day, as well as meeting them at The BRIT Awards on the 20th of February. Enter at Somethingforthefans.co.uk