The Delines

The idea for The Delines came after Willy Vlautin of the band Richmond Fontaine heard singer Amy Boone (The Damnations) sing one single ballad. He was so moved by her voice that he secretly wrote songs with her in mind for over a year before approaching her to start a new band.

Luckily for all concerned, she liked what she heard and The Delines were formed, with Fontaine’s Sean Oldham on drums, Freddie Trujillo on bass, Vlautin on guitar and multi-instrumentalist Cory Gray on keyboards and horns.

Vlautin himself is no stranger to critical acclaim in the US, UK and mainland Europe, enjoying cult success and rave reviews from the New York Times, Washington Post, Uncut, MOJO, Hot Press, Rolling Stone, the Wall Street Journal and more, as both a novelist (with seven books under his belt) and as the former frontman and songwriter for the Americana outfit Richmond Fontaine (who made eleven studio albums). Three of his novels have been turned into feature films: The Motel Life, Lean on Pete and the upcoming Netflix movie The Night Always Comes (starring Vanessa Kirby). Fellow writer Ursula K. Le Guin stated that “Willy Vlautin is one of the bravest novelists writing. An unsentimental Steinbeck, a heartbroken Haruf, Willy Vlautin tells us who really lives now in our America, our city in ruins.”

The band’s 2015 album Scenic Sessions was originally issued as a Rough Trade and tour exclusive in 2015, the original 1000 unit pressings selling out immediately after The Delines appeared at the End of the Road Festival that September. With copies of what swiftly became a fans favourite subsequently selling for over £150, Decor have decided to reissue the album as a 10th anniversary LP in a limited edition of 1500 on bottle green vinyl. Its release coincides with this tour.

Discussing the genesis of Scenic Sessions, Willy Vlautin explains: “In the early summer of 2015, The Delines were still a young band with only one album out (Colfax, 2014). Amy Boone, who lived in Austin at the time, flew up to Portland for some summer shows and to cut a single for an autumn tour. We were thinking three songs at the most. The problem was that I kept bringing in new tunes and our producer suddenly had time open up at his Scenic Burrows Studio.

We decided to try something I’d never done before and record the songs as we were trying to figure them out. I brought in the best of the batch I was working on: Cool Your Jets, Gold Dreaming, Sirens at Night and I’m Just a Ghost. We recorded them fast. We cut Gold Dreaming in two takes and I remember Amy singing I’m Just a Ghost in one and it just floored us all. Our single quickly turned into an EP.

Amy then brought in an acoustic demo of her tune, I Wasn’t Looking, so we recorded that. I’ve always been a big fan of Sparklehorse, so we tried Sunshine. Cory then brought in two instrumentals, Saloon Six and The Piano Player Always Drinks For Free. Suddenly we had a full record!

The band always thinks of Scenic Sessions as The Delines at summer camp. We recorded it during a minor heat wave, it’s loose and a bit rawer than most of our other records, and there’s a no-pressure easygoing feel to the session that really comes across. It’s a band favourite, too, because while recording it I think we all knew we were becoming a real band.”