PRUK caught up with Dundee’s favourite troubadour, David Delinquent, after a run of summer festival shows with the IOUs, and ahead of Scottish dates in support of their debut album, Scandal.
After over 20 years of operating with a DIY ethic, perhaps the most surprising thing about the forthcoming release of Scandal is that it will be released via Kilmarnock-based label, 13 Deluxe. David explains:
“We were going to do it just us but we talked with a couple of labels. This was always potentially going to be the case that we were going to bring the debut on a label, but it had to be right for us. And the people that I spoke to, even immediate conversations, they weren't the right people…then we got chatting to 13 Deluxe and immediately there was just an immediate connection with them. I want to do everything myself, but physically with the vinyl and that, I just can't. The label had to be somebody that was going to work as hard as I do. And they definitely do.”
The shift to a label is possibly even more surprising considering how David had his hands burned in one of his earliest bands, The New Times. After being discovered by Alan McGee (founder of Creation Records and responsible for bringing the likes of the Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Oasis and The Libertines to mainstream attention), they were on the cusp of being the new darlings of the NME before being ghosted.
“We were going to be massive. That's the biggest lesson I have ever learned in my life, was how ruthless the big-time music business is. I don't think I really took it in. I was like, well, fuck it, he doesn't like it. We weren't meant to get signed, we weren't meant to go on tour. That band would have lasted a fucking year had we gone on tour, because I didn't really like the music we were playing. I didn't really believe in what we were doing.”
Following a split in 2013 and brief reunion the following year, David formed Delinquents who amongst other things had 3 glorious sets at Rebellion Festival.
“That was a fucking ride and a half. It was the most mental time, but it was brilliant. It taught me so much. It taught me to be brave. It taught me to not give a shit at all, ever. I got so caught up in it, and it was so like, we were fast and hard at what we did musically, and we lived the life of just wanting to be everywhere and having to carry on and just having a good time. Even in the attitudes of the band there was no in-between. It was hard to manage that. With Delinquents, you would either get in, they're on fire, and they're one of the best bands in the fucking country, or this is dog shit and people are walking out. And it happened. 70 people the end of the night with the last band on, there's two left because folk have walked out. And then I've had other gigs where people have come to me and gone, you guys are one of the fucking best fucking punk bands in fucking Britain, and tell me all this fucking nonsense. And then part of me was like, oh, this is fucking great.”
Like so many bands before them, Delinquents shone bright and fiercely but for too short a time.
“Members of bands like Bad Religion and Black Flag were buying our album and taking photos. And obviously at the end, we had COVID and shit happened. I had an onstage fucking meltdown after enjoying myself too much backstage at Punktoberfest. I just lost my shit on stage and felt like there was too much tension in the band for it to continue. And then at that point I was like, I can't live the life of being in Delinquents anymore. I need to go and do something. I need to take a fucking proper break, because it was full steam ahead up to that point. We did a show in Dunfermline the next day. We were fucking excellent because I, I think to be honest, subconsciously I was telling people in the crowd, this is the last show.”
While Delinquents may have imploded, it wasn’t long until David Delinquent and the IOUs were formed.
“That year's break, I was meant to take, it had been eight months. I showed JP some songs. I hadn't even picked my guitar up for the first three months. Me and JP and [Scott] Sweeney were just going to the studio to fuck about a bit. I wasn't really doing anything. It only became a band when I showed JP those songs. And [JP] went, oh, so we're starting a band then? Then Andrew MacDonald went, I need a band to play for this fucking Bell Rock thing. I spoke to JP and Sweeney was like, can we just call ourselves this just now? Can we go and do this gig and just see how we go on? And then fucking the rest is history.”
“We've done some incredible things. This is the best band I've ever, ever been in. I've never had so much fun in my life. Going from playing bills with GBH, Discharge, and then the following week playing with the fucking Sugarbabes. Doing shows with the Vapours and Mark Laff of Generation X. Just unbelievable stuff.”
Back to the current and David is taking no prisoners.
“Getting to release an album on vinyl, being on a record label, being able to do those festivals. Being on a festival bill with Ash, one of my favourite ever bands. It’s the stuff of dreams. I'm a hardened veteran at this stage. I'm wise. I know what I want and what I want to take from these things. It's not me as a naive person going, oh please sign us. It's not like that now. I ain't begging for anything. I just don't see the point. I'm not selling myself for fucking anything. I'll continue to do things the way I want to do them.”
Catch David Delinquent and the IOUs at their short run of Scottish headline shows.
Scandal is available for pre-order via 13 Deluxe on vinyl and CD.
Photo courtesy of DM Captures
