Quaint Delusions Interview
Q: Can you talk about the history of Quaint Delusions?
A: We weave an origin story on our website wherein the three “original” members (Roger Hughes, Steve Dicks, and Michael Starks) got together sometime in late 2017 and tried to recruit each other to join each other’s bands. All three guys were veterans of the Tampa Bay music scene. But rather than anyone joining an existing band, we just started playing together for the fun of it to see what would happen. What happened was, an embryonic/proto version of Quaint Delusions began to evolve. We got lucky and drummer Kevin DeHart came to us through a Craig’s List ad, and then we got luckier still when Steve suggested that multi-instrumentalist David Lane join the band as a lap steel player.
At some point we needed a name and after much deliberation Mike came up with Quaint Delusions (as in wanting to be a rock star can be a quaint delusion). An internet search revealed that the name had not been taken, so we grabbed it for ourselves. QDs for short, which is kinda funny because cute we ain’t.
Q: What are some of the themes and concepts you wanted to explore with the album?
A: With “Anything Real?” we weren’t really looking to explore anything specific or consistent in some over-arching way. Mike is the main songwriter, and If there is an undercurrent/recurring theme, it would be (consciously or subconsciously) related somehow to environmental issues/climate change. “Lite Brite Sky” is an example – it’s a dark take on light pollution, from the perspective of a moth that wastes its life away one night flying around a street light, while most of humanity remains blissfully unaware of that particular drama playing out every night. “Anti-Lover” is about needing some kind of “other” to feed one’s psychological (pathological?) need to be consequential. “Killing What I Can’t Even See” seems to be mostly about landing on empathy after cutting a widely destructive swath thru life, either intentionally or through just plain ignorance. “Powers That Be” ponders the question: Are false prophets and other slick-talking miscreants allowed through the pearly gates? Probably not, but if so, would you want to spend eternity with them? “Vexing #9” is about our lack of progress in addressing climate change, but could apply to whatever one finds vexing. Choose your vexation and apply liberally. The song “Anything Real” pretty much questions reality and, by extension, everything else.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: Highly variable. Kind of all over the place. As we mentioned, Mike is the main songwriter. Sometimes a glimmer of an idea will pop into his head that, on a good day, gets fleshed out quickly, but often will be beat into submission over an extended period of time. Sometimes a song starts with a drum pattern upon which a chord progression is placed, often simultaneously with a vocal melody that might start as something mumbled but that later evolves into lyrics. Typically the music comes along before the lyrics, but not always. The vocal melody (mumbled or otherwise) almost always comes into play early in the process, and often dictates whether the song will move forward or just be abandoned. One song – “Mr. Chaos” – started with just the title (as in, wouldn’t “Mr. Chaos” be a cool name for a song?). “Vexing #9” came into existence simply because Mike thought the words “vex”, “vexed”, and “vexing” sounded cool, with potentially dark implications, so why not mold that it into a song? Sometimes lyrics will be labored over seemingly forever, and sometimes they’ll fall out in an almost stream-of-consciousness way. It’s a good thing when that happens! For the song “Loaded”, Steve wrote the music (and recorded most of it) and Mike then added the lyrics. Steve didn’t necessarily intend it to be a political statement, but the lyrics pushed it into that realm.
Q: Can you talk about the history of Quaint Delusions?
A: We weave an origin story on our website wherein the three “original” members (Roger Hughes, Steve Dicks, and Michael Starks) got together sometime in late 2017 and tried to recruit each other to join each other’s bands. All three guys were veterans of the Tampa Bay music scene. But rather than anyone joining an existing band, we just started playing together for the fun of it to see what would happen. What happened was, an embryonic/proto version of Quaint Delusions began to evolve. We got lucky and drummer Kevin DeHart came to us through a Craig’s List ad, and then we got luckier still when Steve suggested that multi-instrumentalist David Lane join the band as a lap steel player.
At some point we needed a name and after much deliberation Mike came up with Quaint Delusions (as in wanting to be a rock star can be a quaint delusion). An internet search revealed that the name had not been taken, so we grabbed it for ourselves. QDs for short, which is kinda funny because cute we ain’t.
Q: What are some of the themes and concepts you wanted to explore with the album?
A: With “Anything Real?” we weren’t really looking to explore anything specific or consistent in some over-arching way. Mike is the main songwriter, and If there is an undercurrent/recurring theme, it would be (consciously or subconsciously) related somehow to environmental issues/climate change. “Lite Brite Sky” is an example – it’s a dark take on light pollution, from the perspective of a moth that wastes its life away one night flying around a street light, while most of humanity remains blissfully unaware of that particular drama playing out every night. “Anti-Lover” is about needing some kind of “other” to feed one’s psychological (pathological?) need to be consequential. “Killing What I Can’t Even See” seems to be mostly about landing on empathy after cutting a widely destructive swath thru life, either intentionally or through just plain ignorance. “Powers That Be” ponders the question: Are false prophets and other slick-talking miscreants allowed through the pearly gates? Probably not, but if so, would you want to spend eternity with them? “Vexing #9” is about our lack of progress in addressing climate change, but could apply to whatever one finds vexing. Choose your vexation and apply liberally. The song “Anything Real” pretty much questions reality and, by extension, everything else.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: Highly variable. Kind of all over the place. As we mentioned, Mike is the main songwriter. Sometimes a glimmer of an idea will pop into his head that, on a good day, gets fleshed out quickly, but often will be beat into submission over an extended period of time. Sometimes a song starts with a drum pattern upon which a chord progression is placed, often simultaneously with a vocal melody that might start as something mumbled but that later evolves into lyrics. Typically the music comes along before the lyrics, but not always. The vocal melody (mumbled or otherwise) almost always comes into play early in the process, and often dictates whether the song will move forward or just be abandoned. One song – “Mr. Chaos” – started with just the title (as in, wouldn’t “Mr. Chaos” be a cool name for a song?). “Vexing #9” came into existence simply because Mike thought the words “vex”, “vexed”, and “vexing” sounded cool, with potentially dark implications, so why not mold that it into a song? Sometimes lyrics will be labored over seemingly forever, and sometimes they’ll fall out in an almost stream-of-consciousness way. It’s a good thing when that happens! For the song “Loaded”, Steve wrote the music (and recorded most of it) and Mike then added the lyrics. Steve didn’t necessarily intend it to be a political statement, but the lyrics pushed it into that realm.
Q: What was the recording process like?
A: The process has been similar for all three Quaint Delusions albums. For “Anything Real?”, the basic approach was to record everything one track at a time, mostly in Mike’s home studio (aka the DC Barn), although Steve’s bass tracks were mostly recorded at his home studio. Guitars, bass, keyboards, and lap steel typically were recorded direct (no amps/mics involved). Vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums/percussion were recorded using mics. The drums (and a handful of backing vocals) were recorded at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, FL. Many of the lead vocals were double-tracked, but with one of the tracks kept low in the final mix such that the double-tracking was not obvious. Backing vocals were typically stacked to fill them out a bit.
The record was mixed and mastered at Morrisound, the lone exception being an alternate mix of Lite Brite Sky (called “Lite Brite Sky – Weg Mix”). That version was created by our friend (and Mike’s long-time collaborator) Robert Wegmann. Robert created the mix on his own, adding various stylistic and weirdness elements that made the song quite different from the original mix. The alternate Weg Mix appears on the CD but unfortunately it’s not on the vinyl version due to time limitations with vinyl.
Q: Do you currently play live?
A: Yes but not much. We might play 4 shows a year at our most torrid pace.
Q: What else should we know about the band?
A: We really enjoy playing with each other. Band practices can be almost as much bulls***ting and joking around as actually playing music. And since each band member tends to be very political and opinionated, we benefit greatly from the fact that our individual politics align tightly. Collectively we have all the right answers for all of society’s ills! Also, the addition of David Lane and his lap steel playing had a profound influence on the overall sound of the band that really wasn’t anticipated, but was obvious once we stepped back and looked out our recorded output as a whole.
A: The process has been similar for all three Quaint Delusions albums. For “Anything Real?”, the basic approach was to record everything one track at a time, mostly in Mike’s home studio (aka the DC Barn), although Steve’s bass tracks were mostly recorded at his home studio. Guitars, bass, keyboards, and lap steel typically were recorded direct (no amps/mics involved). Vocals, acoustic guitars, and drums/percussion were recorded using mics. The drums (and a handful of backing vocals) were recorded at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, FL. Many of the lead vocals were double-tracked, but with one of the tracks kept low in the final mix such that the double-tracking was not obvious. Backing vocals were typically stacked to fill them out a bit.
The record was mixed and mastered at Morrisound, the lone exception being an alternate mix of Lite Brite Sky (called “Lite Brite Sky – Weg Mix”). That version was created by our friend (and Mike’s long-time collaborator) Robert Wegmann. Robert created the mix on his own, adding various stylistic and weirdness elements that made the song quite different from the original mix. The alternate Weg Mix appears on the CD but unfortunately it’s not on the vinyl version due to time limitations with vinyl.
Q: Do you currently play live?
A: Yes but not much. We might play 4 shows a year at our most torrid pace.
Q: What else should we know about the band?
A: We really enjoy playing with each other. Band practices can be almost as much bulls***ting and joking around as actually playing music. And since each band member tends to be very political and opinionated, we benefit greatly from the fact that our individual politics align tightly. Collectively we have all the right answers for all of society’s ills! Also, the addition of David Lane and his lap steel playing had a profound influence on the overall sound of the band that really wasn’t anticipated, but was obvious once we stepped back and looked out our recorded output as a whole.