Julien Delaye is a French singer-songwriter from Marseilles. Former frontman of the metal band Caedes, rock band The Coyotes Dessert then Canis Majoris. The pandemic having passed by, he finds himself alone with his snippets of compositions and a new acoustic guitar which will make him return to his first inspirations. Mixing Dark Folk with gritty rock, he delivers hypnotic melodies, sometimes tinged with a dark romanticism. A solitary project, entirely designed, produced, recorded and mixed alone, freeing itself from codes and trends, that could be described as Art Rock. But that’s for you to say...
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Julien Delaye, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Hi Kamil, I'm very happy to be on Lost In The Manor too. If I remember correctly, I think I wanted to start learning to play guitar after all my evenings listening to the Seattle scene, from Nirvana to Pearl Jam, but I absolutely wanted to play Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. Before that, I really started listening to music on my walkman CD with Queen from the Freddy Mercury Tribute at Wembley, which I watched on repeat.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Yes, indeed it's quite difficult because I'm a freelance graphic designer, I work at night in a car park and I have two children... But my night job allows me to have some time to write lyrics and think about new melodies that I record while singing on my phone, they are quite funny to hear. Then during the day I record these ideas in my home studio.
Your latest release is 'Ancient Monster'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
Yes, because of the pandemic, I didn't have a band anymore, so I pulled out these little melodies recorded on my phone. It was originally a project with just an acoustic guitar and vocals but some of the compositions seemed a bit empty. So I started to add plug-in organs on Protools but then I bought some electric organs and pianos then I bought a bass then I bought some preamps and I started all over again...haha
Where did you get the inspiration for this EP?
It's hard to say because some of the melodies were found a long time ago and I think they come from many years of music. For the disjointed structure of the songs, I could cite early Queen albums or Mars Volta but for the arrangements I was listening to the Arctic Monkeys' Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino a lot during the process.
How long did you work on the 'Ancient Monster'? Was it an easy process for you?
It was quite long, about 2 years. As I said before, I re-recorded several times and the ideas for the arrangements came during that time. The problem is that I'm not a sound engineer, but doing everything myself, I spent a lot of time mixing by learning from Youtube and testing many plug-ins. I was also juggling with creating visuals and clips, which also took a lot of time.
How do you know when a work is finished?
That's the problem with working alone...you don't know when to stop. But if the song is good then you don't really listen to it, like you hear it in the street. It's in the box!
Can you write what was your best performance in your career? How do you remember it?
I think it was with my last band Canis Majoris,in a small venue in Marseille. We could see that the audience was receptive even though nobody knew us, a great show. I'm not very talkative on stage, but tonight everything was fluid, even my jokes.
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
You really have to learn to cope. Now you're not just a musician but also a community manager, public relations director, advertising expert and even a programmer. It's very difficult and in most cases you have to pay. I didn't think about this at all when I started music but it has become so co-competitive. But it also shows that a lot of people are creating!
Who is your favourite musician?
It's really hard to say but I will go for Chris Cornell.
What are your plans for the future?
My goal is to release five more songs quickly and to put together a band to defend the project live. Hopefully before 2024! See you then!!! Thanks again.