Delphic overcame the demons of New Order, Orbital and The Chemical Brothers on their way to breaking through, writes Patrick Brzeski

Delphic’s rise to next-big-thing status in the UK rock press has been so fast and effusive that they can’t help but be a little cynical about getting hit with the ultimate approbation for a indie-dance outfit from Manchester: endless New Order comparisons.

“We know how the English press and public work”, says lead singer James Cook via phone from his Manchester home where the band is enjoying a brief respite from the summer festival circuit. “If you’re a five-piece from Oxford, you’re immediately like Radiohead. We’re a three piece from Manchester who play electronic indie music, so we’re automatically the next New Order.”

Although initially flattered, it wasn’t long before they began to find the compliment a little frustrating, says Cook. “Because there are things that we see in our music that are much more glaringly obvious than New Order – like the influence of 90s dance acts like Orbital, Underworld and The Chemical Brothers, which is more of what we’ve actually tried to explore – but people haven’t picked up on that.”

These aimed-for influences might have been more overt, had the band been less sure of their intentions during the production process for their debut album, Acolyte. After Cook and his bandmates – Matt Cocksedge on guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Boardman – had finished an album’s worth of demos and began taking meetings with labels, they had the aplomb to insist that interested parties introduce them to Chemical Brother Tom Rowlands for a potential collaboration as a precondition of any contract. To the bandmates’ bemused surprise, Polydor saw enough promise in Delphic’s early material to gladly comply. “So we tried to produce a song with Tom but it didn’t quite work out,” explains Cook. “It just sounded like the most awesome Chemical Brothers song ever, but it didn’t sound like a Delphic song.” With no little brio, the young band turned down Rowland’s demo, and leveraged their new connections to reach out to another hero, Paul Hartnell of Orbital. “But that didn’t work out either,” says Cook. “We were fortunate to have a very strong idea of what a Delphic song sounded like, and that wasn’t it.”

With tensions mounting within the band, after a failed attempt at producing the album themselves in a secluded Liverpool studio, they awoke one morning to find the solution waiting in their inbox. “Our song Counterpoint [easily Delphic’s best song and biggest hit] was given to Ewan Pearson behind our backs,” remembers Cook. “He did a mix and sent it to us the next morning and we were all blown away.” Pearson, who has been a prolific Berlin-based DJ, producer and remixer since the mid 1990s, delivered the programming and production acumen the young band required to realise the sophisticated, shimmering synth packaging they had always envisioned for their songs. “In a way, he was our saviour. He’s a wonderful, charming character but he didn’t want to dump Ewan Pearson on it. He just wanted to produce it all in a delicate and beautiful way.”

Although Acolyte has been out for less than a year – and the band have toured relentlessly since then – Delphic are eager to return to the studio. “The only thing on our minds at the moment is album two. We’ve had it conceptualised for a long time and we’ve had a title since before the first album was finished. We’re very happy with the album, but we’re aware of many ways in which it is a first album, and a little naive.”

As for signs of growth, Cook points to the time the band spent in Berlin finishing the recording of Acolyte. “When we were writing the songs for the first album we were listening to a lot of our favourite old records, like Underworld, Soul Wax, Daft Punk – groups that are on the very surface of dance music.” But Cook says their months in Berlin were something of revelation, as they gained exposure to the deeper roots of dance music. “We delved further into the very depths of techno and where that comes from and where it’s at today; but at the same time, we’re taking what we do, which is a more organic side of dance music, and we’re trying to find a hybrid for it.” Cook signs off from Manchester with the closing comment that every music writer hopes to hear: “And with that, you’ve gotten a bigger insight into our second album than we’ve ever given anyone.”

Delphic play HITEC on August 10. Tickets: 3128 8288; www.hkticketing.com 

Kevin Baird sounds older than you’d expect. On the phone, as the bassist and the rest of his Northern Irish band hang out in Geneva airport, he’s calm, media-comfortable and affable, showing all the hall marks of someone well beyond his years. Someone that’s about 24. “Three of us are all 20. But Sam [Halliday] and I will both be 21 in a week,” he says excitedly.

Since the release of their debut EP in early 2009, so much has been made about these art-pop wunderkinds’ age that it’s become a bit of a sticking point for the trio from Bangor.

“We hate the way [age] becomes a factor in our music, when people say, ‘they’re very young. It’s great that they’re doing this at their age’”, he says. “We’d rather not be complemented for doing what we do so young. We’d rather be complimented on what our music sounds like.”

But in many respects, their age and their sound are inextricably associated. Their debut Tourist History, released on French electro label-of-the-moment Kitsune last year to plaudits, is brimming with a youthful spirit, melodic lines as bouncy as their energetic programmed drum beats (which in turn are as bouncy as caffeinated adolescents on a trampoline), a sonic aesthetic that’s a mix of Foals, Bloc Party and Phoenix, and most of all, head-boppers like Something Good Can Work, I Can Talk and Undercover Martyn that linger well beyond their three-minute run time. From this description, you might be thinking, “That sounds catchy”. Indeed, there are few bands that are producing such unshakable melodies as TDCC. But do they ever find themselves skirting the ‘too catchy’ threshold?

“Melody’s a very important thing, and we think that’s what makes a great song. I don’t think there’s such a thing as too catchy, unless it got ridiculous. An awfully awful catchy,” he says. “Some of our early stuff, we got a bit carried away with ridiculous pop songs that we decided to go away from. If another band played these songs, we would hate them.”

TDCC’s brand of pop has earned them one foot in the door to the cinema club of the big time, making the long list for BBC’s Sound of 2010, hailed in the blogosphere and remixed by the illustrious likes of Passion Pit.

And rather bizarrely, in trying to cement that position, they’re taking an expected route. “We were writing some new songs the other day, which are quite different from what we’ve done before. Still very Two Door Cinema Club, but one was quite a summer ballad – it’s quite a strange concept.”

TDCC fans shouldn’t worry too much yet – their follow-up album won’t happen until well into 2011. This summer at HITEC, it’ll just be that irresistibly catchy pop. 

Mark Tjhung

Two Door Cinema Club play HITEC on August 10. Tickets: www.hkticketing.com; 3128 8288. Hear their first single Something Good Can Work on the Time Out Podcast.