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Delicate Awol have just released
their 1st album following a couple of singles on their own Day
Release Records. We had a quick chat with ex-pat vocalist
Caroline Ross who was in good spirits:
"We had such a great review from Stewart Lee in the Sunday Tmes... and just won tons of Stoli vodka in a womens mag comp, so the tour is shaping up nicely!"
First then, the band's tenuous eligibility for a Jockrock feature?
"Yes, Iam a true blood Scot, it's out! my nan, by the
way, is Isabella Stewart from Stonehaven and is 96! Our drumers
Tom and Ben, and bassist Michael are from east london, Jim the
guitarist is from huddersfield, and Jo our trumpeter is studying
in london"
now."
That's quite a lineup - how do you see yourselves, a band or more of a collective?
"Thats always a hard one - we do see ourselves both musically and in terms of friendship, as part of the loosley termed 'London post-rock/ alternative' scene. Rothko, Billy Mahonie, Geiger Counter, Monsoon Bassoon, etc are bands we love and respect. But there are great bands all over the uk that have inspired us, especially the Delgados re the label, Mogwai, obviously, Kyoko of Bristol with their Mobstar label... there are excellent bands like Mountain Men Anonymous and Teflon Monkey - that scene in Cardiff is cool too."
"Then theres also Constellation and the Godspeed conection; to be honest, that label inspired us to make ours. We have been in contact with them over the years, and they got us a gig in Canada, at Casa del Popolo, and gave us advice. The whole Montreal thing is very exciting and politically aware, which is good. In fact we are going to put out Bruce's (the drummer of Godspeed) music on the Day Release autumn singles club.
"Apart from what was mentioned above, the stuff all the guys in the band are into really varies! - Miles Davis, Can, Cocteau Twins (best ever Scots band in my humble opinion), Joy Division, Low, Smog, Eno, Alice Coltrane, Tortoise - the whole Chicago thing in fact!, Nick Drake, Bill Wells, Brokeback, Spacemen 3, Kristen Hersh" (list goes on for another cpoiple fo pages...)
Give us some band history.
"We started off as Ripley, then Vaughan, then Delicate AWOL, but each with different members, tho me and Jim were the same each time.... then we split up with our last rythm section on the December 1999 tour, in Glasgow; me and Jim played King Tuts on our own. There was no way we would cancel, as I always wanted to play there. We answered an ad in Loot (London listings mag) from Tom and Mike that they were looking for a project to play with and as soon as we played together here at the studio we knew it was going to work.
So the lineup is more stabele than before?
"Well, 18 months later and we are still together and really happy, both as people and musically."
See Delicate AWOL live at
Glasgow 13th note 16th June
Aberdeen Glow 303 17th June
Hear a track from "Our Genome: "she
was loaded in an everyday kind of way"