Sounding Out: Delay Trees

Back in September of 2010, Delay Trees released their self-title album in their home country of Finland. In the months that followed, the album gained attention outside of Finland and the band saw the album get released in other countries. This past month, American label Friendly Fire Recordings, released the album here in the states.

When I spoke with Rami Vierula, the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band, he said with the release, Delay Trees have realized a dream that they would not have thought possible a few years back.

“It has been so exciting just the fact that Friendly Fire wanted to release our album in the States….It is a big thing for a Finnish band to get a release in the US. Most of the artists and popular culture that we lived with growing up came from America. And America holds a special place in our hearts, that is also why I am singing about dreams of America on Cassette 2012.”

I had read in another interview Rami describe the band’s music as ‘a quiet melancholic city with a strong Edward Hopperian mood around it.’ I asked him what it was about Edward Hopper’s works that inspired him. He said that the first time he saw an Edward Hopper painting, he was drawn in.

“It struck me as a very pretty and very serene picture, but it also had this weird melancholy around it. I think that his painting speaks the same language as some of our music in that it's minimalistic and it is very concentrated on the mood and the atmosphere in the picture, and there are very small, tiny, spaces that can take the picture into another sphere.”

Rami said that while the world of painting art inspires him, the cinematic art form is closer to his heart. “Sometimes I watch a movie and it leaves a feeling or mood inside me that I just want to somehow use. When I was a teenager, I went to see Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. It left this weird mood in my head and it forced me to create something.”

Rami also pointed to the Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni as another filmmaker that has had a dramatic impact on him as an artist and musician. “I never got into Antonioni’s movies, story-wise, but his imagery really affected me. He has this style that is very, very slow…..slow takes and big, almost panoramic images. I remember when I was writing the closing track of the album 4:45am….it is about an auto-biographical situation or happening that I lived through….I sort of wanted to think about it as an Antonioni movie, so the sounds are sort of static all the time and there is this mellow dreamy canvas that the melody and lyrics fall on.” Musically, his hope is that songs, like this one, create many images in the listener’s head.

4:45am   

There is definitely a story being told in the dynamics of the music. Quiet tender moments give way to walls of sound that crescendo and then fall back down. These changing dynamics are all intended to help create a cinematic feel to the songs, says Rami.

Rami said that the downside of Delay Trees’ music, like the slower art cinema movies that he loves, is that it really requires a commitment of time to fully let it create an atmosphere for someone to go inside. Rami said that for this reason he is jealous for bands like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart who can make wonderful pop songs that are instantly understood. “Our music is very different. But we have to do our music this way even though it may not be the wisest thing to do.” He laughed. “It is definitely not the most popular.”

One of the things that I appreciated about this album stylistically is the clarity and crispness of the vocals. They are placed right there on top and they are not buried in a wall of sound. I find it to be refreshing and I like the juxtaposition it creates between the vocals and the sound and texture that is taking place in the background.

“We love the dream pop style, and bands liked The Cocteau Twins or Slowdive, especially Slowdive. I really like that their lyrics and vocals had this clarity. On this album, we were aiming for something for people to be able to approach and grasp onto a little bit more easily than just a wall of sound in the vocals.”

Rami said that when the vocal are clearer it can definitely give the straight emotion from the singer to the listener. “I am not really sure if our album or my vocal performance does it,” he laughed, “but at it’s best it can do that.” He said that they wanted to maintain the vocal clarity for the lyrics as well.

Lyrically, I told Rami that the main character or protagonist in these songs seems to be really struggling to make sense of his world and find any happiness. I asked if there was hopefulness for this person or these people.

Rami said that he does not like to explain lyrics too much. Leaving open spaces for people to interpret the lyrics is important to him. It is what keeps people coming back to books or music or film over time. “I do think that is why people listen to albums over and over again or go see movies that they have already seen..they want to make sense of it and dwell in the mood that the movie or music creates. And that is what I have wanted to do with my lyrics.”

When I pushed him, Rami did talk a little bit more about his lyrics. Some of the songs he said are about the depression that the everyday life creates because of the unemployment in the country or just the long winters.

Photo By Aapo Huhta

I joked with him that it is warm and sunny out now and reason to be happy. “Well, yeah, and I love the weather now, and I’m quite a happy guy, but during the summer time I usually don’t write very much. It happens during autumn and when it starts to get darker and colder. Now it is full of light and it is warm and it will be this way for the next four months, but when it is six months of darkness and coldness it can get in your head.”

“I don’t know if it is part of being Finnish….we are quite a melancholy people. In America, you do have a much more optimistic way of dealing with life and futures. I do think that it can be quite hard for people to listen to our music, but we don’t want to make it hard. It is just my feelings and stories that I, or people around me have gone through." In Finland, he said, many find his lyrics melancholy, but hopeful.

I asked Rami specifically about the song About Brothers, which is a wonderful song and a band favorite. “This is really about my feelings about ending a relationship with a friend of mine. I don’t have biological brothers, but I do feel that he is a brother of mine. When you come to the point of people having kids and moving to other towns because of their jobs or lives, it feels like the old friends that you had are not the same anymore because of what life makes them.”

About Brothers   

With the album having been out now for nine months, I asked Rami if the band has started working on new songs.

“We actually booked a studio weekend a month or so ago and recorded an EP. It was exciting to go and do something without any pressure or goals.”

Rami said that it has been hard to write new material. I asked if it was harder stepping away from the older material or finding a new space in which to be creative? Rami said that it was a bit of both, but he was not sure which was harder.

“In Europe the record was very well received critically. It creates a pressure for making new music. Should we follow the same pattern with new songs or not? I think that we are over it now. We want to be pressure free and keep things fresh for us as well. I am not sure which one is harder, the space for creating new music or clinging on to the old music."

Without sounding patronizing, Delay Trees feel a bit like ‘the little Finnish band that could.’ They are a band with a lot of passion, a lot of talent, a great debut album, and a humble and hopeful way about viewing their future. With the American release of their album, they hope to find a wider audience to help propel them into the future, but they know that the future is ultimately what they make of it.

“We really do love being in the band. We have a good time together and there is such a passion for all of us. If it does not happen, and I am pretty sure that it doesn’t, you keep going on and keep hoping that good things will happen elsewhere. Sometimes it is a slower path that you have to take, especially when you are a dream pop band from Finland!”