The Daily Gamecock

Nashville rockers The Delta Saints discuss latest album, West Coast inspirations

Nashville rockers The Delta Saints have always stayed true to the blues and kept with that tradition when making music. For almost a decade, The Delta Saints have flown under the radar as one of Nashville’s most promising acts. Now, they have a new album out called “Monte Vista”that was inspired by the golden haven of California. 

One of the biggest comparisons for their new album, singer Ben Ringel says, is that the band had written the album all of last year and had only six days to record it this year.

“The nature of recording it so quickly and not having a chance to second guess what we’re thinking or feeling, it was all very gut instinct,”Ringel said.

How the band wrote and recorded its album was different than what they were used to, but Ringel said the change of pace was good for everyone.

“Where as before we were writing based off a jam, based off an instrumental which didn’t leave a whole lot of room for the vocals,” Ringel said. “Where this record was very much write the melody, write the chorus or write whatever is the most impactful part, the most melodic part is and use everything else to support and paint with that melody.”

The Delta Saints want to take this new approach to recording the new album and let it take over its drive in the future. “That theory, that outlook is kind bleeding over into every aspect as far as being more focused,” Ringel said. "Challenging ourselves to write better to tour better to look at our live shows in a deeper way, more like microscopic way.”

The finished product has The Delta Saints making their most accessible album to date. The band's whole catalog is worth looking into, but “Monte Vista” strikes hard with power chords and unflinching rock hooks. The album’s producer Eddie Spear has worked with artists like Arctic Monkeys and Jack White, so the band looked for his youth and experience to carry the album on a technical level.

“There’s a brotherly band rapport,” Ringel said. “It’s really incredible meeting and getting to work with someone relatively young who can say something even as a suggestion and back it up.”

The call of California also had a hand in forming “Monte Vista." Guitarist Dylan Fitch has family in La Jolla. The street they live on is where the album’s name comes from.

“The West Coast is something that’s romanticized all over the world... You fall in love with the idea but think about the reality of it as well,” Ringel said.

That’s not to say the group has forgotten Nashville as a source of inspiration, they just see California as a feeling too tempting not to capture.

“There is a similar feel,” Rigel said comparing Nashville to California. “But I think that the feeling of California is irreplaceable, I don’t think anyone will truly capture it.”

Not much has changed about the allure of the west coast since Jack Kerouac wrote about it with so much sentiment 60 years ago with the novel “On the Road."

“Very much a spirit of restlessness, it’s the place to escape to ... that spirit of restlessness that really inspired the record,” Ringel said.

One of the brightest spots on “Monte Vista” comes from the song “Space Man,” a tribute to the late David Bowie.

“We didn’t set out to write a tribute to David Bowie,” Ringel said. “I was really blown away by the diversity of his work ...The guy was unendingly creative, he was so vigilant in keeping to his vision, which is so hard to do now.”

Ringel remembers how he had to keep up with himself when writing this song.

“This song somewhere in my subconscious was just ready to get out," Ringel said.

He didn’t think the song was right for the band, until he played it for the rest of the band and everyone agreed it needed to be on the new album. Ringel recalled that he was happy to get something so personal to him out into the world.

“It was a better song than anything I’ve ever written at that point,” he said.

The Delta Saints will be touring through the midwest starting on June 9 in Kansas City and hope to back in the Carolinas by the fall.


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