A CONVERSATION WITH... D3LTA
On the brink of the release of their debut album Mad About It, Greek-English talent D3lta divulges the stories behind the album’s tracks, their international influences, and the joy for what comes next.
Photo by Imogen Mosley
I’m D3lta. I'm half Greek, half English. I currently live in London, but I was born in Athens. I love music. I mean, that's a very broad introduction. Every time in interviews, that question always trips me up. It's like when you introduce yourself, there are so many things that you want to say, so you get a bit flustered.
Who would you say who you are as an artist and who you are as a person? Do they intersect, or do you have a bit more of a separation between the two?
They do intersect in the sense that I am, for instance, a very curious person. I love to be creative and experiment in my music as well. So who I am as a person transcends into my music, my values, and my lyrics. For example, when I'm writing a song, I do perceive it a lot as a story, a mini sort of three-minute movie, and figuring out its meaning. Is there a take away with the song? Do we learn something from it?
I also love weird matches. Like I grew up in Greece and I did music in Greece in the beginning, but I had my hair painted orange in such a conservative sort of environment. That's something I really love and enjoy being different or doing something that's slightly unexpected.
Like with my latest single, ‘Mad About It’. It came from me wanting to step outside my comfort zone and be different. My manager had a conversation with major labels in Greece, and they're all in a room together listening to my record, and they all felt like they knew what to expect from me now. I hate that. I think it's one of the worst things as a sort of comment on my music or artistry. So I wondered, ‘what's the most different thing I can do now?’ I had never used analogue synths in songs, especially as an intro. I love how weird the intro is. When it comes on, it's as if something is glitching.
It’s also why I thought I would apply to Eurovision. Because I'm not a Eurovision artist, but I think that's what's interesting about it. If I was a Eurovision style artist, it's like, OK, a Eurovision artist at a Eurovision song contest. It does make sense. It's not as exciting. Whereas I thought, ‘what if you saw a band that you wouldn't expect on that stage?’
So in Greece, there was this massive competition this year called Sing for Greece, and 250 artists applied. I came out third in the public vote, which is insane because it was actually the only English-speaking song. The other two were like Greek influenced songs. What I loved about it was on YouTube, all of the comments and stuff were like, ‘oh, this is too good for Eurovision’ or ‘this isn't a Eurovision song’. To me, it was a massive compliment. When I applied, the national channel didn't allow the whole song to come out. It allowed only 10 seconds to be released. Then two weeks later, we had an actual competition on TV. And because people hadn't heard the whole song, and it's very hard to judge by listening to 10 seconds. I did this where I went around Athens, and I was interviewing both tourists and Greeks to listen to the song and rate it as a Eurovision song. The reactions were insane because it's not a Eurovision song. So when you prompt someone by saying ‘can you rate it as a Eurovision entry song?’, they expect to hear something specific. You can see their faces change because it really wasn’t what they expected.
If somebody was to listen to your music for the first time, whether by vox-pop with you or by something else, what would you say is the through line between all of your songs?
I think there is a very strong nostalgic thread through most of the songs. Sometimes I feel like I'm almost witnessing the world as a spectator, rather than being more in it. Being half English, half Greek is an interesting cross, especially because I don’t think I look that Greek.
When I grew up in Greece, to the Greeks, I was English. To the English people, though, I'm not fully English either, as I was the Greek to my English circle of friends. I've always felt like a bit of an outsider, and I think that feeling translates into the music. And it's interesting especially seeing people at my live shows,who dress differently, or are bold, and I love that vibe. I think it's because that's what connects all of us. In the last year, I’ve been seeing fan pages on Instagram and TikTok, which is cool because I get to see who those people are.
When it first happened, I couldn’t believe it. It’d be like a girl from a city in Greece, someone from a city in Wales, but they're all connected through the overall vibe of doing what you love, and going for it unapologetically.
I think that feeling does come across in my music. I do have very different songs, which are a testament to me being whoever I want to be at that moment. I don’t get very fanatical about being in a genre or what they represent, because that’s not what I’m about as an artist. If that works for someone, that’s great, but it’s not for me.
When you write your songs, do you find that writing in English allows you to express yourself differently than you would if you were writing in Greek?
I grew up with my mom in a very English household: we would speak English at home, we had British cable, everything like that. I went to a Greek school, so I was learning Greek and all my friends were Greek. When I started writing music, I perhaps felt a bit more vulnerable. English was the language that came through, and it was more instinctive to write in.
So I never sat down at 13 and thought, ‘I actually want to play whatever show is in England, so I must start writing in English.’ It was very much a natural thing. I have written songs in Greek as well, but I do gravitate more towards writing in English. Emotionally it hits a bit more and cuts a bit deeper. Maybe because it's a language I would speak at home with my mom and my brother.
I've interviewed a few people who write songs in different languages, and that idea of how different personalities and traits show through in different languages does happen a lot, so you’re not alone with it. How do you feel like being in Greece, and having those influences, influenced your sound though?
When I moved to London, I started collaborating with different writers, and I know that when I write or perform in Greece my music sounds very Brit-rock but when I write with English people, they point out how my melodies have an interesting twist. The sounds that excite me, I haven't been as overly exposed to so I become very excited by stuff that like you wouldn't be as excited if you lived here for your whole life.
For instance, I mentioned analogue synthesisers earlier, and I think if you grow up in the UK, you probably have heard a lot of it happening before. If you're in an environment that has a more traditional sound or the music is very different, you think you invented something. Even if you haven't, like the excitement of you thinking that leads you to discover something that's more unique. It gives you freedom, too.
I think that being from a traditional Greek setting, the fact that I haven't been exposed to stuff actually helps massively. Although you can hear music on Spotify and discover artists, it's different than being like hearing it out and about. Not to stereotype Greece, but if you heard an artist in a cafe, it would most likely be a Greek artist or a Greek beat.
It's easier to pull from your imagination if you don't have something that has been done a million times before blasted in your ears constantly. I think if you're from here, it's harder to step outside and think of something that hasn't been done. To exaggerate the point, if you're the first person who has a camera, you can do anything and it’s brand new.
Whereas if you've seen a million movies, you're like, ‘yeah actually this has been done by everyone before’, so it doesn't feel as exciting. When you're excited, you actually might stumble on something that's cool.
Photo by Imogen Mosley
So with your new album, how are you feeling with putting all of vulnerability and excitement out in a format like that?
When we set the date, I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. We have so many things going on with releases, shows, and everything, that I haven't even had time to process that it’s real. I’m so happy because this is my first album and it’s an amalgamation of songs I've written for the past four or five years. It’s the journey up until this point. I think that even though it's written at different times, when you listen to the whole thing, you really do get a good picture of who I am as an artist in this era.
I love singles, because they’re amazing for getting people to discover your music. But then there are some songs on the album where it’s more like you’re having a conversation as we are now. What I love about a conversation is that you're able to go a bit deeper. And that's what an album is to me. Some of my favourite artists, some songs are not necessarily catching the person's ear, but by listening to those songs and paying attention to the lyrics, I get to know who that artist is. I love that people will get to experience that side of me, too.
Through all these years of songs, is it more so a concept album or a collection of songs?
I’d be lying if I said I had a consistent concept. I wrote all of the songs, and there is a common thread, but it really covers such a broad spectrum. That’s what I was trying to figure out when I was thinking about what the title of the album should be. And the reason why the title is Mad About It is because it can be interpreted in so many different ways.
To me, it's about being passionate and it's about all of these feelings, like anger, passion, and love. Because it was originally written in my twenties, it covers a very intense, very emotional period with extreme lows and extreme highs.
I have a song called ‘Animals’, which is a 150 BPM, very fast rock song. At the same time, the album has another song that's a very slow ballad that was written about a friend of mine who was going through a very hard time. It’s all about these very drastic and different, but experiences that I've had in this time.
I think that's the very common thread: living everything very vividly.
A lot of these feelings were felt for the first time when I was writing them: first love, first massive breakup, first whatever. I love that all of those feelings are the first capture of them.
Were there any song or songs that you struggled while you were writing it, but now that you're really proud of?
A few, for sure. First, it's a song called ‘Kids’, which was written about the coming of age and disillusionment of the world around us with everything that's happening now. We live in a world where we've normalised a lot of shit. It's about wanting to write something about it. Because I was feeling that just two years ago, there was a war starting in Gaza. A fucking, genocide. Artists were speaking out about it, but then again, I feel that it was as if we were turning a blind eye to insane atrocities. Just in an instant. I feel that we almost scroll through and don't pay enough attention. It was very hard for me to feel this sadness and anger and try to capture them into a song. When it's something so serious as a topic like that, it was a bit of a struggle to express it in a way that I felt did the thing justice. But at the end of the day, I expressed what I had to say.
In my songs, I never place a finger on anyone. I always put myself in the same position, as I am part of a society, and I am also watching a video of something horrific, and then the next video is a dance on TikTok.
It’s about watching the world as a spectator, watching myself do these things, and saying in the song that the kids will be all right, because it's always very easy to say that someone else will handle it. Whereas I think that we should do more about it.
Another one was ‘Cloud’, which was about a friend who was going through a very hard time. At that time, I read this random interview by John Lennon, who said that a lot of the times when he wrote songs, he later realised that he was actually writing them about himself. I thought that was such an interesting perspective, because it was a time where a friend of mine was unwell, and he was coming to my place almost every day, chatting about the problem. He had a very solid reason for not being well, with some really tough shit going on in his life. And without realising it, I was also instigating my own emotional state. So I wrote this song, which was a very cathartic moment when writing it and recording it. Sometimes when you write a song or you record, you have to go to an emotional place that's very vivid and really lived through, and that's where it was difficult. But then, when I listen back, it's my favourite song on the album by far. I feel that there's an honesty to the song. It's not trying to be a hit or something.
Do you feel like you acknowledge any of your hidden traits in your music?
If I'm super honest, not as much as I could. I do place myself and I acknowledge when I'm at fault as well in a relationship. It’s not always a given, but that's as far as I'd go. It's actually a really good thing to explore. For instance, one of the songs I've written that's not on the album, is a song called ‘Happy Out Of Love’. It was a diss song for my ex. When I was writing the song, I felt so mean. ButI wanted to write it and worst case, I wouldn’t release it. But then we played it at the gig, and everyone went fucking crazy. So when we released it, everyone resonated so much. I would love to actually explore my own negative things. Yeah, that's actually a fucking brilliant idea.
Looking back on all the moments you’ve captured in writing your album, what’s been a moment of joy for you in your career that you want to share?
The past six months have been pretty insane because I've been releasing music for some time but I've only been consistently putting out music for the past year. What I truly feel very honoured and humbled by is how I've witnessed people connecting with songs, knowing lyrics, and bringing gifts. When we did a UK run, there was a girl and she brought a postcard which said ‘can I sing this song with you on stage?’ I brought her on and she knew every word!
But I think this whole year has been a joy. When you're creating something, the best thing is when you see someone else connecting with what you're writing, creating, or singing. This year has been amazing specifically for seeing some people creating fan pages, and me texting them, and seeing what the music means to them. The best feeling ever is when someone says I was going through a hard time and I discovered your music and it helped. A girl texted me two days ago, explaining that even though she’s had Spotify since 2018, her top artist of all time on Spotify is me and she discovered my music six months ago. That's so crazy and it's incredible.
When you see that, when you know it means something to someone, it keeps you going and gives you some energy to keep exploring. That's what I love about music. You're gonna have the best writers in the world try to manufacture something, but you connect more with bands who sing something that you don't even fully understand. But it's honest. When someone goes to an honest place emotionally, it truly lands. That's what I've noticed a bit in my music this year. I'm so glad I actually went there. It pushes you to explore different areas, like toxic traits or things we hide. But you have to explore everything because we all have these sides of us, and it's what makes us human.