The Beatles went from “Love Me Do” to “I Am the Walrus.” Radiohead from “Creep” to “Lotus Flower.”
So maybe Delta Spirit can be cut some slack for experimenting a little bit on its most recent album.
“Any band worth its salt grows and changes,” said Delta Spirit lead singer Matt Vasquez during a recent phone interview.
| If you go |
| Sweetlife Food & Music Festival |
| » Where: Merriweather Post Pavilion |
| » Featured artists: AVICII, Kid Cudi, the Shins, Explosions in the Sky and more |
| » When: Noon Saturday |
| » Info: $75; sweetlifefestival.com |
Delta Spirit plays Saturday at Merriweather Post Pavilion as part of the annual Sweetlife Festival. The band will perform on the Treehouse Stage.
Rooted in Southern California and now mostly based in New York, Delta Spirit released its third album in April. The self-titled work is a little more electronic and a little more danceable, a departure from the band’s first two albums, 2008’s “Ode To Sunshine” and 2010’s “History From Below.”
The band made an effort to move away from the Americana/folk label it had received.
“It just sucks when you write songs for a song’s sake, and you weren’t even thinking it was like that,” Vasquez said. “People want to explain why they like a band. Those kind of things can kind of hinder a band because it’s just like, oh, they’re just another one of those bands. We’re not just another one of those bands. Nobody is just another one of those bands, unless that’s what they’re trying to do. I don’t know anybody that’s trying to fit in a niche.”
Delta Spirit — which also includes Jon Jameson, Brandon Young, Kelly Winrich and William McLaren — recorded “Delta Spirit” in Woodstock, N.Y. The band spent a full month together working on the album.
“It’s a live-and-work situation,” Vasquez said. “That’s very important for our band. We’ve never not done that. We spent a full month just arguing and working on songs.
“When you get out in the woods and you have the mentality of making a record out in the middle of nowhere, it brings a different feeling,” Vasquez continued. “There’s nothing to think about other than what you’re doing.”
Vasquez likens the band’s dynamic to more of an egalitarianism than a democracy.
“Our band is so much a family,” he said. “People take the lead sometimes, and people get behind the person that takes the lead, but when the leader’s out of line he gets whipped back into place.”
Delta Spirit sits at a crossroads. Still an up-and coming-band with things to prove, the group has three full-length albums to its name and an evolving sound.
“We’re having a good time,” Vasquez said. “It’s just been a natural build for us. It’s been great.”
