Delphic talk 'freaked out' debut LP

Tipped for big success in 2010, the pressure of finishing their debut album saw the Manchester band "completely freak out" and leave the country.

Delphic [L-R]: Matt, Rick and James

Look at Delphic and they're all monochrome cool, steady heads and studious calm - a band, seemingly, in total control.

Underneath that, they've been boiling.

"We completely freaked out when we finished the album," says guitarist Matt Cocksedge.

"We'd been working on it for so long and it's been like this huge monolith in our heads. This massive impenetrable, immovable thing and then it was done and it just disappeared.

"Then everything which we'd built up around it just collapsed in on itself and we just legged it off to Paris and didn't tell anyone."

Musical perfectionists

Introducing...Delphic

Delphic release their debut album in January

That was back in October when they finished their debut album Acolyte, due out in January.

"I haven't come to terms with that in my head yet," adds synthsmaster Rick Boardman (James Cook completes the line up). "I'm still thinking of extra bits which could be done to it."

"It's bad," says Matt. "Because I'm the one who has to break it to him that it's finished and he's not ready to hear it."

BBC Sound Of 2010 longlist

To say the Manchester trio - who all still live together in a flat in the city - took care over their first official offering would be brutally underplaying it.

"Perfectionism kind of crosses the boundary into being a complete control freak," explains Cocksedge.

Heavily into their dance music, the trio headed to Berlin to record the album during 2009 with producer Ewan Pearson.

"It's kind of the epicentre of the techno world which is really appealing for us making what we see as some kind of weird indie techno cross over," says Cocksedge.

"It's quite a poor city and it's got this graffiti all over it. So many parts of it are just battered but there's just a real mood in Berlin you can just pick up on."

The result is a record that's a much Underworld as it is Bloc Party, a giddy meandering dance-indie album.

Introducing...Hurts

Manchester resurgence

Now that the huge pressure valve of the album has been released they're in a confident frame of mind.

"Acolyte means believer," explains Cocksedge. "It's quite an optimistic word and we felt it summed up the album. I think the album is optimistic and definitely looking up rather than looking down."

One other thing looking up is the broader health of Manchester's music scene - Delphic are joined by Hurts and Everything Everything as a handful of north west artists likely to do well in 2010.

Delphic are good friends, and big fans of both.

"I'm just looking forwards to seeing Theo the singer in Hurts - we've seen him before in other bands and stuff - he's always been a star waiting to shoot off and actually be a proper recognised one," says Cocksedge.

"Manchester's known about it and he's been a little well kept secret."

Delphic's debut album Acolyte is released on 11 January.