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by Scott Zumberg & Michael Foster
September, 2003
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Dictionary definition of Delirium: A temporary state of mental confusion and
fluctuating consciousness resulting from high fever, intoxication, shock, or
other causes.
Auralgasms definition of
Delerium: Hypnotic electronic beats fronted by the most gorgeous female
voices in music.
Bill Leeb, of Frontline Assembly fame, formed
Delerium in the early 90s with his Frontline band mate, Rhys Fulber.
After a string of instrumental electronica albums, they had a breakthrough with
Semantic Spaces. The song Flowers Become Screens, featuring
Kristy Thirsk made the album a hit.
Delerium had thus carved their niche in music, and re-defined a genre.
Their 1997 release, Karma, featuring Silence (vocals by Sarah McLachlan) became
a worldwide hit.
Delerium followed their formula with 2001's Poem and then 2003's
Chimera. Both albums feature a bevy of gorgeous female voices including
Kristy Thirsk, Leigh Nash and
Kirsty Hawkshaw. In 2003
Delerium took to the road for their first ever tour. By all accounts
(including OURS!) it has been a smashing success.
Tell me a little about each of the projects you and Rhys have been involved
with. Who was in what?
Obviously the big ones are Delerium and Front Line Assembly. Front Line
Assembly was the first band- it’s had different members too (Michael Balch,
Chris Peterson, Rhys Fulber). Basically, Delerium was a side project I started
in my bedroom. I thought just doing hard electronic music got a little boring.
I had always like World Music too. I started fiddling with sounds and so forth,
and so Delerium appeared.
Delerium was originally just my project. Rhys was involved for a while. When he
did Conjure One, which was just his project, I did Poem. It was probably the
second best album we’ve had.
Noise Unit was me and Rhys, and Mark Verhaeghen (of The Clinic). Intermix was
just me and Rhys. We don’t really do those anymore. We just try to focus on our
main things. When we were making music way back then it was a novelty to put a
record out. Now, with Computers and CD-Burning, there are a million releases.
Most releases you see in the store only sell 2 or 3 Thousand copies. To me, it
is a waste of time to make music like that.
How does Front Line Assembly differ from Delerium?
That’s easy. The biggest difference is that it’s me doing the vocals. Delerium
is female vocals and it’s all about spirituality. It’s about enhancing your
surroundings; Front Line Assembly is more aggressive and has a much more
cynical look at the world. It’s not about love and getting in touch with
yourself. It’s more about pointing out the ironies in the world and how crazy
things are out there.
Was there any rift between you and Rhys when you didn’t work together?
I’ve never had an argument with Rhys in my life. We started working together
when he was 16 years old, so if anything, I felt like his older brother. As far
as when we stopped working together, I think that Rhys felt like he had worked
with me for such a long time, and he wanted to go out and make a name for
himself. Delerium and Front Line were always my things. I started them and I
own the names. He felt like he was always a bit under my wing, and he needed to
go out and do things for himself. Nothing was said, it wasn’t weird.
What was your connection with Balligomingo?
I only did one track. He didn’t even use it, so I didn’t really have anything
to do with the record. He got Kristy to sing for him, some of the songs are a
rip off of Delerium. Garrett seemed like an Ok guy. He came to Vancouver and
wanted to use the same person for artwork. He got Greg to mix the record. He
did everything except have us write his music for him.
After a series of instrumental albums you first broke through with Flowers
Become Screens featuring Kristy Thirsk on vocals? Was that your first vocal
track? What do you view as your biggest track? Flowers become Screens or
Silence?
Flowers, was in fact our first vocal track. However, Silence is so much bigger
than Flowers will ever be. Silence went to #1 in 5 Countries and sold over 1
Million albums.
Who has been your favorite vocalist to work with? Are their any artists on your
wish list?
I’d say Leigh Nash has been my favorite. I’d love to do an original track with
Lisa Gerrard. I’d like to do a track with Tori Amos or Sade as well.
Is it strange for you or the fans, touring with a select group of
vocalists…having songs not sung by their original vocalist?
I thought at first it might be, but it turned out not to be that big a deal. We
always knew we couldn’t bring everybody out. Every night we’ve played, we’ve
had to come out to do encores. Almost every show has been a sell out. We’re
overwhelmed with all the people showing up. When we do the signings after,
everybody is so positive and loves the shows so much. Nobody even asks about
it. What we thought might be an issue, is not an issue at all. People have been
telling us they are really happy that we played old material as well as new.
Kristy was there from the beginning when Delerium took off, and she has a lot
of fans. Having her there really ties that bridge.
How did Shelly Harland end up on the tour when she is not somebody you recorded
with previously?
She came through Nettwerk in NY. She actually did a track for us (that Chris
and I did) that is going to launch Delerium on iTunes. So we have her now on an
official Delerium song. She’s working out really well.
When you write a song, do you write it with a specific vocalist in mind, or do
you choose one after the song is written?
You can’t even approach them until you have a cool song. The first sing they
always say is send us the song. I’ll write the song and when it’s done…I’ll
say…somebody like this might be interested.
How do you go about choosing vocalists to work with? Are you familiar with
their work? Are they recommended to you? Do they submit their work to you?
Nettwerk is the third biggest management company in the world and they are in
contact with everybody. I hear and see things, and spend a lot of time there in
Vancouver. I get to hear vocalists and their demos. I usually talk to Mark, our
A & R guy, who puts me in touch with anybody I want. It’s a marriage made
in heaven.
How is Chimera doing for you, as compared to Semantic Spaces and Poem?
Those records still sell really well, and so does the new one. That’s the nice
thing about Delerium; it’s not too fashionable and not trend-driven.
Do you get much support from radio and MTV? How else do you get your music out
there?
Silence was the most played song In Europe in 2001-2002. It was a massive
track. BBC Radio 1 played it at New Years to bring in 2003. We got asked to be
on Top of the Pops with Robin Williams. It was Sarah McLachlan’s biggest song
Internationally. We’ve had that success.
Our new track (After All) is getting a lot of play in radio stations in Canada
and Much Music. We also just got added to MTV2. We’ve gotten a lot of love.
We get a lot of our plays in clubs as remixes. We are in the top 3 in
Billboard’s Electronic charts.
I don’t think that matters much anymore though. There are people who just like
what we do, whether radio plays us or not. When Hip Hop artists have one big
song, and go on tour; nobody shows up. That one song gets played over and over
but nobody cares about the band. We are like Dead Can Dance, in that, all these
people show up every night. They know everything and love everything that we
do. It’s the perfect scenario, so we don’t have to worry so much about radio
play in America. Maybe it will come and maybe it won’t, but we have a big cult
following and don’t have to depend on it.
Where do you stand on the downloading issue? Are you in favor of it as an
outlet to reach prospective fans, or do you view it as stealing?
I don’t think downloading music is cool. I don’t think it helps all these bands
that say it’s great and it will spread the word. Spread the word to who?
If you ask people that have been in the music business and understand what is
going on, I think they will all agree with me. New people that are naïve think
that it’s all fun and games may go the other way.
The record companies and the media build up the artists like Jennifer Lopez as
glorified stars with all of this money. They are portrayed in the videos like
that. Everyone thinks these people can afford it and who are they to worry
about a few dollars being burned. That’s only about 2% of the Music Industry,
though. The rest are barely making a living or struggling in debt. They are
average people that have to work hard and tour hard to make an average living.
The average guy thinks that because you have a CD out and have played a few
live shows, that you’ve somehow made money. They don’t realize that you have to
split that money with songwriters and singers and publishing companies. The CD
sells for $18 and the artist makes $1.15.
Bands that used to sell 40-50,000 albums are now only selling 30,000. That
means that rather than making an OK living, now they aren’t. People that don’t
want to buy aren’t going to support you anyway. Somebody that burns your CD
isn’t going to go out and buy a T-shirt. We’re going to lose $100,000 on the
tour. We just wanted to put a face to the music. This last album cost us
$300,000 to make, so why should you get it for free on the internet? I have to
pay back the record company, so I am working my ass off touring and losing
money on that too.
You wouldn’t walk into a store and say, ‘This guy’s rich, he won’t mind if I
take a few chocolate bars. I’ll just tell my friends how good the chocolate
bars are.’
What does the future hold? Is a new Delerium record next or do you go back to
one of your side projects?
Rhys and I have been working on a new Front Line Assembly release. It’s going
to be mixed as soon as we come off this tour, and released in January. I’m
going to do another Delerium album as well. After that, who knows?