Before their show at Ottobar on Thursday, New Jersey band Delicate Steve sat down at the vegetarian restaurant, The Yabba Pot, to talk to The News-Letter about their music, touring, and their favorite ice cream flavors.
The News-Letter (N-L): Are you delicate?
Steve Marion (SM) (guitarist): (laughs.) I guess so. I get that a lot, and I still haven’t figured out a funny response to that question.
N-L: How do you guys like Baltimore?
Rob Scheuerman (rhythm guitarist) (RS): It’s a cool city. I like it a lot. We actually played here twice before at The Hexagon.
SM: My friend was telling me about this weird thing in Baltimore where people ride around in their ATV bikes, four wheelers, you know, and take over the streets.
And I was watching a trailer for the documentary he’s making and it talked about this weird group of dirt bike riders . . . and there were little kids who were talking about how they wanted to be that when they grew up.
It was kind of sad, actually.
N-L: What were your musical influences growing up? What do you listen to now?
Steve: Ponytail, Alice Coltrane, The Dirty Projectors, Yeasayer,
Adam Pumilia (bassist) (AP): Fleetwood Mac.
Mickey Sanchez (keyboardist) (MS) : Beyonce.
SM: Oh, Beyonce is awesome. And The Shags.
Booker Stardrum (drummer on tour) (BS): Yeah, put The Shags at the top of the list. Dustin Wang is probably my favorite artist right now.
He’s actually from Baltimore — he plays the guitar. And he was originally in the band Ecstatic Sunshine, and then he was in Ponytail for a while.
Now he’s doing his own solo stuff. But, yeah, everything he’s ever done has been just incredible.
N-L: What is your favorite Beyonce song?
SM: Probably “Rockstar.” That song is great.
N-L: Do you guys like “Single Ladies”?
AP: I love that video, man.
N-L: What would you categorize your music as?
SM: I would say we’re instrumental pop music.
BS: Yeah, but you don’t want to constrain yourself to that genre.
SM: Yeah, no. But, we definitely play that.
N-L: How’d you guys decide to start the band?
SM: We had this music cooperative, collective thing going. We’ve all known each other for a while and we’d all record music and we’d play each others’ stuff for shows as a band.
And then I recorded some of my own stuff, too and I’d never thought it was going to be a live thing.
Now we’re playing my music, but we’ve played everyone else in the collective’s music.
N-L: How’d you get the name Delicate Steve?
SM: A friend of mine was making fun of me and I guess I didn’t want to do something or go somewhere and he was like, ‘Oh man. I’m Steve. I’m soo Delicate.’
And so when I had to give the music I name, I remembered that and I was, like, let’s call this Delicate Steve.
N-L: What’s your favorite song to perform?
SM: It’s not so much what song as it is certain parts of songs. There are parts in each that are better and more open to structure. I like that.
N-L: What do you like about performing?
RS: It’s great when you’re hearing everybody else and they’re all really sounding on. It’s like, when you know you’re in the zone.
SM: There’s different things . . . It’s fun to feed off the crowd. But, even if there’s no crowd, you’re learning.
Also, none of us have been playing with one band for this long and the initial fun of playing the song is being replaced by what we can learn about the song.
And that’s really great. Improvising is cool, too.
N-L: Do any of you sing?
SM: Christian Peslack sings on the recorded version of the Ballad of Speck and Pebble.
But, when we perform, Mickey and I sing.
N-L: Are you all vegetarian?
BS: I’ve been vegetarian all my life.
SM: I was a vegetarian for two months. Mickey dared me one day.
He was like, ‘I bet you can’t be a vegetarian for a week,’ and so I just did it as a challenge.
N-L: Do you guys like touring?
M: It’s been really fun. Fang Island [the band they are touring with] is awesome.
It’s the first time any of us have done a tour.
N-L: What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
SM: Chocolate . . . actually, anything chocolate.
BS: Ben & Jerry’s makes this coffee ice cream with like, candy bars in it. What’s it called?
RS: Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.
BS: Yeah, that’s it. See, ice cream with candy in it is just cheating.
