Beaumont Music Festival: Delta 88 interview

The 18th Beaumont Music Festival kicked off Friday evening with Delta 88 being the first of many all-Canadian performances on June 20 and June 21. 

Delta 88, like the car, is a four-piece Edmonton-based alt-rock band. Coming off their recently released single, “The College Try,” released on June 6, the band is gearing up to release their second album. 

“Is this where we announce the album? It hasn’t been announced just yet,” Jon Pries, the band’s lead guitarist said. And after a moment of deliberation, the band said “the upcoming project is gonna be titled Centre of Breath. It comes out August 8.” The band will be playing a release show at the Rec Room as well, they added. 

The new release is going to be a lot “lower energy,” they said. The band’s guitarist and vocalist, Adam Howard, added that “it’s a hard 90 degree turn, but it’s not going to be something we’re doing forever.” 

“Centre of a Breath is more of a momentary passion project for us, it’s more contemplative,” Howard said. On what spurred the project, and what’s being contemplated, the band’s drummer, Jonas Hazelaar, said “no comment, but in terms of writing the project, we just wherever it seemed to take us.” 

“Album two is a continuous thought process from start to finish. It’s a cohesive piece,” Howard says

“The entirety of the second album was written within a three-week span,” the band’s bassist, Marshall Hughes, added. 

“The main difference between album one and two is that album two is a continuous thought process from start to finish. It’s a cohesive piece. Album one is more so just songs we had at the time that we wanted to get out, and we had so many of them it was more like an album than an EP,” Howard said. 

On the Edmonton music scene, the band said “it’s tough. There’s not a ton of great venues to play where people will actually show up to listen. And it’s hard to make connections. The artists in the city are also a little bit less collaborative and a little bit more competitive because there’s so few opportunities.” 

Howard added that “it’s connection based, which is great once you’re in, but being on the outside sucks.” 

The band highlighted The Rec Room and The Aviary as two of their favourite Edmonton venues to play. 

They finished off by shouting out the Beaumont Music Festival. “It’s really fun if anybody wants to come check it out next year. Everyone behind the scenes is a blast, they’re so awesome. It’s been a great experience for us,” they said.