Lewis Del Mar on Deaf Institute: ‘The biggest disco ball per ratio for a room is right here in this room’

Lewis Del Mar, a duo from Queens New York City, finished their US and Europe Tour this week at our very own Deaf Institute here in Manchester. Describing and pinning down the duo’s unique song is a difficult task and one I wouldn’t dare to embark upon. All I will say is if they were a cocktail it would be some sort of twist on a long island ice tea – refreshing, exciting and a little bit dangerous.

During the gig singer and guitarist Danny Miller exclaimed “This is a beautiful club. You guys in Manchester are so lucky to have this awesome fucking club” before continuing with one of the most effortlessly cool and beautifully intimate gigs I’ve had the pleasure to attend.

Upon meeting the duo before the show it was clear that these two were more than band mates, during the show they introduced themselves as “That’s my best friend Max Harwood and I’m Danny Miller”. The importance of their friendship is something that’s evident not just in the interview but also throughout their album and the gig. A gig in which Danny offered his wine to the crowd “Does anybody want some wine… bro you’ve not even given me a cup” and performed on the bar.

The tone for the night was set by duo when Danny said  “We’ve been all over the world and the one thing everyone has in common is they don’t know what the fuck’s going on, with the world and with politics but we’re here to have a good time tonight.” Here’s what they had to say when I spoke to them before the gig.

Hey. So this is the end of your tour, do you have any plans in Manchester?
D-  This is the last show on our tour so we fly home tomorrow morning. So I don’t think we’ll get to do much in Manchester.

M- Unfortunately this time.

D- We’re gonna play the show. I wanted to go back to Soup Kitchen, I like that place.

M- It was really good, I could go for some soup kitchen

D- And there’s a place around the corner that serves like really good tea…

M- I remember that place…

Both – Yeah we don’t know what it’s called.

D – Hopefully we’ll have more time to explore next time.

You should still go out after the show tonight…
D- I want to find a bar that’s near here and I want shout it out on stage… just be like Yeah meet us there

Well there’s always Big Hands, If you’ve only got one night in Manchester you should experience Big Hands.

D- Let’s fucking do this. We got really drunk last night…

Oh yeah, you were in London last night weren’t you, how was that?

D- Yeah we sold out the show in London too, like this one is nearly sold out I think. MAJOR WIN. We had to stop the show because so many people were singing the words and we couldn’t hear. We’ve got these mics that face the audience and we had to turn them down. It was like ‘oh my God’.

That must be incredible going from releasing Loud(y) online two years ago, and that just absolutely took off, then two years later you’ve been touring the world and just released your self titled album Lewis Del Mar, this October. How’s that journey been?

M- It still feels like a process, we’re still developing. There’s a sense of accomplishment from releasing the album and a sense of something finishing but overall we’re still developing and growing and focusing on experiments now.

D – It feels like a very natural thing, just figuring stuff out as we move forward. I think that stuff takes time, it’s been a very logical progression and I think you can hear that on the album as the sounds developed.

Speaking of your sound, when listening to the album I was almost overwhelmed by how you’ve blended electronic, acoustic, reggae and heavy base with the sounds of New York and yet it still sounds very natural rather than constructed. How’ve you done that?

D – Thank you.

M- I think there’s a couple of unifying elements to our sound, the acoustic guitar and how it’s played, the latin rhythms and the samples from New York City. We take these sounds from all these different places but it has some fundamental Terms/Tones.

D – I think the reason it sounds so natural, it sort of just comes from Max and mines very core identities. That’s why it’s able to blend so seamlessly because we’ve known eachother forever, and our personalities are already intertwined. Where it comes from from a sonic perspective is an outward personification of our personalities, where there’s my natural tones and Max’s more industrial and gritty and sample part. They also coincide with our roles in the band, so the natural fusions is very much to with it being very natural musical manifestations of us and individuals.

M- Absolutely, like the reason they are the core sounds is because they’re fundamental to us.

Have your musical influences changed whilst you’ve been touring? Do you listen to music different on tour compares to when you’re at home or in the studio?

M – I think for me personally one of the really cool things about touring, is depending on the city and the environment I’ll listen to different things and expose myself to new sounds

D – totally, I think we pick up a lot of music wherever we travel to. Like sort of what Max was saying, we listen to music very contextually. Hear how things make sense in different places.

Do you have any favourite Manchester based bands?
D- Who’s Manchester based? The Smiths? That sounds really obvious though. I think I listened to The Smiths a lot when we were here last. We need some more Manchester bands to listen to.

So the name Lewis Del Mar came from Lewis being both your father’s names and Del Mar being spanish ‘By Sea’. How did that come about?
D- The band being named after both our father’s kind of speaks to the global context with which Max and I view our music and where we’d like it to settle eventually. I think that two best friends came together and formed this collective art project, and our backgrounds and families are like totally different, I think there’s something about that that spoke to the general energy and coincidences of the world. Also we wanted something that sounded like an author’s name, because we both studied literature growing up. It just sort of felt right to us to name it after one imaginary person.

How did you find Leeds and Reading this summer?

D – Really Great

M- Awesome

D- Playing the UK festivals is very different to the ones in the states. Like everyone here is there to have a really really really great time, which isn’t not the case in the states. But sometimes they become a bit of a fashion statement and sceney. Whereas Reading and Leeds it was like shitty weather and ready to get fucked up.

Do you have a dream festival stage to play?

M- A dream festival stage, hmmm?

D – I’d love to play the Pyramid at Glastonbury, that would be pretty crazy.

M- Overall I prefer the venue experience.

D – I think Primavera is probably a close second… I think.

Why do you prefer a venue to a festival?
M- One you get the actual fan-artist relationship that’s a really special thing. People come that have really engaged with your music and for us to see that, when we’ve put our lives into that music it’s a really special thing. Whereas at Festivals it’s more about people discovering new music and having a good time, which is also beautiful, but for me it’s not the apex of what live music can be.

D – You feel like you’re more setting an atmosphere, like people are there for a general experience.

Can we expect to see you back over this side of the pond this summer?

D- I don’t think we can say yet.

M – But you can expect a general Lewis Del Mar presence this summer.

D- We’re hoping to be back this March.