THE DARK
WORKTAPES: PART 4
June 2016
Last Words
Eric has moved to Nashville and he’s gotten right to work collaborating and connecting with other artists. He’s in writing sessions nearly every day of the week. We miss him in Raleigh but its awesome to hear about all the new people he’s meeting and art he’s creating! He sent us over this song after a session with Billy Montana and Ashley Gorling, whose sultry alto tone is definitely doing justice to this moody duet about love that has run its course. I’m not sure what will happen with it but sometimes a song ends up on an album years after it’s been written… - Liz
November 2018
I Go To Work
“I Go To Work” started with a piano part based on a minor inversion of Pachelbel's Canon. Eric and I began singing a call-and-response with the idea of a young person waking up in the the low-country, watching the morning sun filter through their window and feeling challenged by a world that seems to root against their success. Still, they get up everyday with the memory of their own parents’ hard work in mind and stride into the conflicting sense of both pride and oppression that comes from a life where work feels like the only thing that makes us worthy.
-Ian
December 2019
The Beast
We sat down to write "The Beast" after all the other songs for The Dark had been collected and agreed upon. Though we were already in love with the material for the album, we felt we were missing that haunting, witchy, slow burn, call-and-response magic of Bottom of the River. We started humming to ourselves, banging the big red drum, and crafting a song based on the idea of an ageless witch walking toward the final showdown of good and evil, set in the chaotic Armageddon of William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming.” - Ian
THE DARK
WORKTAPES: PART 3
June 2016
Take Off Your Shoes
Ian’s got a new one in progress that sounds swampy and gritty. I know we’re about to go back out on the New Moon Rising tour but I look forward to recording this one.
November 2017
Pay No Rent
This new song Ian and Eric have brought to the group has a Celtic feeling. Ian mentioned that when he thinks about death, it’s a comfort and a relief to know that once we’re in the ground, we don’t have to pay rent anymore. I think this is going to be a really nice one to do live because it gives me the feeling we’re singing it together in a pub. I hope we DO sing it in a pub someday.
December 2017
Badlands
Thematically this new one Eric has worked up feels like a close cousin of Twisters and Outlaws. It really speeds up and sort of explodes in coyote vocals at the end too. You know I love a good coyote vocal.
THE DARK
WORKTAPES: PART 2
Thursday June 18th, 2015
All Good People
It’s been a crazy-busy year so far, we’ve been in several planes, time zones and countries. Our 2nd album is finally out. We went to Australia and all over the UK doing radio visits, promoting “After It All” and playing a mix of club shows and festivals in London, Brighton, Liverpool and the Netherlands.
Now that we’re back in America and off the road for a bit, we’ve been working on new material in Raleigh. We focused on a song Ian brought to the group that calls out racial injustice and violence against Black Americans. By yesterday we had the first verse, chorus and background harmonies down but we ran out of steam so we decided to break and come back the next day. Then last night, the Charleston Church Massacre happened. A white supremacist, 21 years old, walked into one of the oldest Black Churches in America, appearing as though attending bible study, and he killed 9 innocent people in their place of worship.
When we met up today we sat together for a few hours talking, crying, trying to figure out how or if we could make a difference. People marched on Birmingham and Selma and all over this country fighting for Civil Rights in the 60s and now here we are in 2015, taking a huge step backwards. As a white progressive band from the Carolinas, we feel like we have to say something.
A lot of us had phone interviews promoting the album and upcoming Southern leg of the After it All tour. But it felt wrong to be self-promotional in the midst of a hate crime occurring 24 hours ago. We kept the interviews, but what we mostly talked about with the journalists was the shooting at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, the changes that need to happen in America and the conversation we all need to be having about Racism as a sickness in this country.
We finished recording it today. It’s called “All Good People” and we’re putting it out tomorrow as a direct response to the shooting. Our first stop on the Southern leg of the tour next month is Charleston.
NPR PIECE (about “All Good People” published June 19, 2015)
November 2015
Shadows of Vegas
Being home for a bit working on new music feels great. We’ve got another desert inspired piece we’ve been workshopping. SOV makes a statement about the haves and have-nots and the imbalance of wealth in America. Britt and I do a sad coyote part at the end. I love a good coyote vocal. I have a feeling it won’t be the only one. We haven’t decided who’s singing lead yet, but it’s got a Fastball meets Tom Petty meets “Sunny Came Home” vibe.
January 2016
Come Back Alive
The band is working on something super different. CBA is in 5 and to me it immediately evokes running through the woods at night, running from a force of evil. Eric had a haunted vision at 2am of a child being kidnapped and then returning later. He said he could see images of the mother and child in a remote location. He couldn’t sleep, so he recorded the idea. Classic Eric.
THE DARK
WORKTAPES: PART 1
October 2013
Somewhere in the Desert
WOW. The last couple weeks while we’ve been off the road, the six of us have been messing around with a song that feels like a Rock Opera. There is such a sense of place to this song. The vibe is sand swept, the lyrics are filled with lust and the sound is HUMUNGOUS. We finally got a recording of it in today and I know we’ll be blasting it in our speakers whenever possible. This one is going to be so righteous and awesome live!
April 2014
Goddamn Shame
We’re basically living in LA right now in temporary apartments while we work on new material. It feels a little strange to be out here this long, but we’re getting a ton done and doing a lot of artistic exploration. Today, Ian brought us a song he’s been working on independently and we workshopped it as a group for the first time. Ian slays the vocal and I think it’s powerful to hear a male share such a vulnerable perspective. It’s called God Damn Shame and it is a TEAR jerker. Can’t wait to see where this one ends up.
January 2016
Never Coming Back
Over the past few years Eric has been playing a finger picked guitar part whenever there’s a quiet moment during rehearsal. I love how sad and French it feels. We aren’t sure what it’s called yet but I do know it brings up feelings of abandonment and losing someone you love without getting to say goodbye. It feels very raw and sometimes almost too sad to sing, because for me it hits close to home with what I went through with my dad. I am up for the challenge though, and almost think it will be helpful for me. I’m looking forward to trying it out on the road once we lock in the verses.
*Bonus work tape of Never Coming Back has a different verse & title:
Trail’s Gone Cold
HANGOUT FEST 2013 - DEBUT OF CHASING TWISTERS
Hangout Fest is one of the fondest, most vivid memories I have with Delta Rae. We rented a beach house and the white sands and calm waves of Gulf Shores, AL knocked me out. One morning before soundcheck, we even watched dolphins swimming in the Gulf while we sipped our coffee. We also had live music experiences that I still travel back to in my mind today. We got to see Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play live. I’ll never forget the feeling of yelling out the lyrics to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” with thousands of others, barefoot on a beach under the stars. It was so much fun and amazing to think that festival was “part of our job.”
The Day We Met Atay
Hey, Adam!
It was awesome to meet you in Orlando at The Plaza. Listening to the board mix of the show blasting through the speakers was incredible!
We’ll never forget it. Hope to stay in touch!
Love, Liz
Our First
Holiday Concert
Congratulations to everyone for putting on such a beautiful & unique holiday concert.
From decorating the entire room with garland, to Grant playing electric upright bass in front of an audience for the first time, it was clear to all who attended that we put our hearts into this.
The biggest thing to celebrate though is helping people in need. By charging admission in the form of non- perishable goods, Delta Rae donated OVER 250 CANS OF FOOD to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS and GREAT WORK!
Bottom of the River Song and Video
Hey Guys!
I love how the recording of Bottom of the River turned out.
Who knew you could do so much with stomping and a couple trash cans in the kitchen? Onto this music video. My job at the Pre-School has come in handy because the parents have so much of the stuff we need!
So far I’ve gathered:
a kiddie pool
chains
2 axes + other farm tools
7 pairs of black work boots
20 lanterns
Grant will pick up the hay bales since he has a truck. Can’t wait to see this come together at Duke Homestead…BOTTOM OF THE RIVER, LETS DO THIS!
See ya after work. Love, Liz
Live In Lutherville
Dear Jeff,
Thank you for having us play at your home last week. It was one of our first house concerts and was such a great time! All our best and we hope to see you soon.
-Delta Rae
The Chain (cover) in the bathroom…
Early Experiments
Hi friends and fam!
We are writing to share some exciting news… we finally have a band name! We’re going with Delta Rae for a while. What do you think? It’s the name of the main character in a book my mom is writing. We are really stoked about it. Wanted to share some early song experiments so you could get stoked too! Happy Fall Y’all!
Love, Britt
Making the Delta Rae EP
Songs From Durham
Hey Britt and Liz! So excited you guys are moving to Durham next month… Ian and I made this mix for you to listen to before you get here. These are some of the latest songs we’ve written. Some might be for the band, but we’ll find out when you get here! -Eric
