Interview Reeperbahn Festival: Bartleby Delicate

Interview Reeperbahn Festival: Bartleby Delicate – „I just follow the vibe of the song.“

Bartleby Delicate im Interview – Fotocredit: Sam Flammang

Wir haben uns mit dem Luxemburger Songwriter Bartleby Delicate im Rahmen unseres Reeperbahn Festival Specials unterhalten.

Am Freitag, den 21. September um exakt 21:00 Uhr steht der Songwriter Bartleby Delicate auf der Bühne des Kaiserkellers.  Zur Zeit arbeitet der Singer-Songwriter aus Luxemburg an seinem ersten Album.

Please just introduce yourself in three sentences.

Bartleby Delicate: I am Bartleby Delicate, I write poems and play music. Currently, I am in the studio working on new songs. I describe my genre as DIY folk as I like the alienation of the singer-songwriter aesthetics with electronic sounds and an unconventional recording process. Basically, I try to reproduce on my next record what is happening every day in the rehearsal room where I know that no one is watching.

In 2017 you’ve started your solo project after singing in the band Seed to Tree. If you recap the last 12 month could you please figure out your milestones you’ve reached until today?

Bartleby Delicate: I had the chance to play my first concert as support act for Giant Rooks, I played the Great Escape Festival in Brighton, I went on a 12-date tour through Germany supporting my friends from Bender & Schillinger. My favourite memory of a concert was probably when I released my first EP during a sold-out show in my hometown Luxembourg. I wouldn’t consider any of this to be a milestone but these were definitely highlights of the last year. I hope the milestones are yet to come.

On the one hand you have the advantage that you know how the business works and which steps you have to take to come from A to B as a musician. But how is every new beginning a like leap into the cold water?

Bartleby Delicate: It was a different experience to be alone on stage. Performing in front of an audience as an individual rather than as a collective, gave me a new perspective on the concept of being on stage. I felt this as a very different experience with different challenges and opportunities. The one-to-one connection to the spectator is the key for me. I always need to find a way to communicate with the person in audience through music and storytelling.

In April you’ve released your first EP “Whatever We Find Suitable to Compare”. Can you tell us a little bit more about this record, what was your intention in writing these four songs etc.?

Bartleby Delicate: The EP was the first quest for the studio sound of Bartleby Delicate. The songs evolved while playing them live and I decided that these four songs should introduce to a wider audience what Bartleby Delicate sounds like. The lyrics of the songs are somehow questioning the human condition – what does it mean to be an individual nowadays in a globalised world. I think on the EP are more questions than answers but this may reflect quite well where I am at in my process. I hope that it will still take me some time to find answers because I wouldn’t know what else to write about.

Bartleby Delicate im Interview – Fotocredit: Sam Flammang

How was the reaction so far to your first record as solo artist?

Bartleby Delicate: I don’t know if I am the one to judge as most people tend to only give you positive feedback, especially in a small country like Luxembourg. So far I felt blessed with the critics. I also consider the invitation to play Reeperbahn festival and other showcase festivals as a big compliment. The EP was the start and I am now very motivated to record the first full-length album.

Your sound as songwriter is really refreshing. How do you handle to stand out from the other countless songwriter?

Bartleby Delicate: Well, thank you. To be refreshing is a good start I think. I just follow the vibe of the song and the first intuition I have when I start writing it. If you always take the arrangement decisions according to the song and not to your own doctrine, the result will always be something new. Most of the time this leads me to something unexpected. I think the envy to surprise myself while writing, helps me to keep my songs refreshing. Therefore I am always looking for weird instruments that most musicians wouldn’t use. This keeps me inspired.

The year is almost over. Have you already achieved your goals for 2018?

Bartleby Delicate: Yes, even though I did not really have any concrete goals at the beginning. The project was too new and I needed to experience how people would react to my music. But this was a really cool start that gives me a lot of power for the future.

Have you not achieved one of your original goals you’ve setted up in the beginning of the year?

Bartleby Delicate: I could not be disappointed without any clear vision of where this was all going. I think the lightness played its role that everything went well this year. I will try to keep this attitude in 2019.