Delphino (Nov. 2019)

 

Photo from Facebook: From left to right, Max Sanchez, Emma Sutton, Aaron Scannell, Sam Dwyer, Jeff Halpin (no longer in band), and Adam Russell

Delphino Talks Albany And Their Journey

By, Joshua Reedy on Nov 13, 2019

Albany is home to a litany of talented and creative musical groups, but few have achieved as much as indie-rock/pop band Delphino. 

Delphino is a 5-piece made up of Adam Russell (vocals), Aaron Scannell (bass), Emma Sutton (drums), Max Sanchez (lead guitar), and Sam Dwyer (rhythm guitar/keys). The band has a wealth of material under their belts, including an EP streaming on Spotify titled Rapture. Apart from performing songs such as “Annabelle,” “I Miss the Dog the Most,” or “Take Me Home” the band also runs the Byrdhouse, one of Albany’s few independent music venues. 

The band performs primarily at the Byrdhouse itself, but has also played at various local venues such as the Low Beat and Savoy Taproom. Delphino spoke on the origin of their band name, moving to Albany, and the nature of rock music.

(Note: Emma Sutton was not present for this interview)

X: What is the story of you guys meeting?

AS: I’ve known Adam Russell, this guy, since before I was even born.

AR: Yeah, Aaron came to my house before I came to my house.

AS: That’s not even a joke, that actually happened.

X: So your parents knew each other?

AS: Yup

MS: I met Adam in like, first grade?

AR: Yeah, first grade.

X: So what was the first ever iteration of Delphino?

AR: So it was Jeffrey Halpin and I, who is only here in spirit.

X: Yes, I’ve met him, he’s played at the Byrdhouse.

AR: Yes, he’s a lovely soul. Delphino continues in memory of Jeff (he’s not actually dead, just at college). Jeff and I just lied about being in a band, we’d just tell people in middle school that we were in a band. We had played Scar Tissue or Holiday by Green Day maybe once in like, seventh grade. Until 10th grade we were like ‘Yeah we’re in a band.’ And then Rachel actually, a friend of ours, asked ‘Oh are you guys looking for a drummer?’ 

SD: And that’s how Emma was born!

AS: Delphino started out as a lie, and it’s only gotten deeper and deeper.

SD: And we only had like, one practice all together for a whole year.

AS: I was there playing ukulele while you guys were playing music.

AR: So it was ninth grade, I guess it was ninth grade that Rachel introduced us to Emma not 10th grade.

X: So basically, you (Adam) and Emma were they original members?

AR: Emma, Sam, Jeff and I. Sam joined at the same time as Emma. I said ‘Sam do you know the White Stripes?’

SD: And I said, ‘Who are the White Stripes?’

X: So after Sam, who of you two (Max and Aaron) joined first?

MS: We also kind of joined at the same time.

AR: Well yeah but there was that year gap after that one practice when we were like, ‘alright yeah let’s just keep lying about being a band.’

X: Ok so, where does the name Delphino come from?

MS: It took us a long time to come up with a name.

AS: Do we still have a picture of the list?

MS: No, I don’t think so. We all came up with four ideas. Before Delphino we were SO KO, and we couldn’t agree on how that was spelt either. 

AR: Then Delphino, I mean, it is kind of named after the Mario thing but If you guys remember this: it was also named after that stuffed animal I got.

X: So you guys are all originally from Saratoga, what was the process of coming to Albany?

AR: That’s actually funny, oh my God, you guys remember Harrisburg? We almost went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I made like, a whole powerpoint explaining to our parents why they should let us go (to Harrisburg). So I read, wait no-I definitely did not read, I listened to an audio-book about music industry stuff and it talked about how Harrisburg is the travel capital of the U.S. and how if you’re a touring band you can basically get to anywhere in the central U.S. within four hours by plane or by driving or train and it’s like, 150 miles from five of the biggest music capitals in the U.S. But we ended up here instead.

X: So did you guys play shows in Albany before coming here?

AR: No.

SD: Wait yes, we played the Low Beat.

MS: We played mostly in Saratoga, places like Gaffney’s. Our first show was at Gaffney’s, open mic night, we played three songs.

AR: We played “I Miss the Dog the Most,” “Lately,” and “Take Me Home.”

X: So back to Albany, was your first living situation in the Byrdhouse?

AR: I was just going to Saint Rose first.

MS: You (Adam) lived in Albany for a year living in a dorm.

AR: We were still based out of Saratoga then, we didn’t take a break that year, normally we have 50, 60 practices a year but I’d say it was around 25 that year. 

X: So when did you all start living together (In Albany)?

AR: That was August 2018. That was at our last residence before this one, I was the only one there for the first six months. 

X: So when did you guys decide to use your space as a venue?

SD: I don’t think there was a particular moment where we decided.

AS: Cause when we moved into a place like this, we always just kind of had the idea of ‘oh we could play shows in the basement’ and it just evolved into this.

X: Where did the name ‘Byrdhouse’ come from?

AS: The first time we were really exploring Albany, we walked downtown and started walking through Washington Park and we saw a birdhouse and that was that.

AR: Well you (Aaron) named it.

AS: Yeah we were trying to come up with good names for it and that’s what happened.

Delphino performs at the Byrdhouse in Oct, 2019. Photo: Joshua Reedy

X: So your first show was October 2018, right?

AR: Yeah, it was a Halloween show. I remember none of us had really high expectations for what this (the Byrdhouse) was gonna be but then like, all of our friends were in town and at the show and all brought together. 

X: So describe recording stuff like your EP.

AR: So early on, other EPs we just all recorded live together.

MS: These were EPs we just put out to our school.

AR: 11th grade we released a record that we don’t have out anymore called Funny Cide. And then Rapture was senior year and that one we did it differently, we recorded track by track in a garage. 

X: So that’s the closest you have to studio stuff?

AR: Yeah well we’ve had something in the works for a while, should be comin out before I’m 30. Rapture was supposed to re-work tracks from Funny Cide, then eventually the plan was to re-do Funny Cide, which was our debut LP.

X: Do you guys have any dreams or plans for future production?

AR: I don’t know if I wanna put it out there, but we got the guy who produces Parquet Courts to master it (upcoming project). Um, Johnathen Schenke yeah, he’s the one who did Light Up Gold and Sunbathing Animal. We hung out with them (Parquet Courts), I handed them our CD that had ‘the competition’ written on it. We played video games with Andrew Savage like, in an arcade. 

X: Can you guys describe an average practice?

SD: Hectic, We have done 15 minute practices and four hour practices.

X: You guys obviously all have different tastes, give me one album each that really inspires you, starting with Max.

MS: Banned In DC, the Bad Brains record. Or how about Alien Lanes (by Guided by Voices).

AS: Sound & Color.

SD: College Dropout by Kanye.

AR: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? by the Unicorns. Or of course, Is This It? by the Strokes.

X: Do you guys have favorite Albany bands?

AR: How good is Lemon of Choice?

AS: I was gonna say them.

SD: I would also bring up Safety Meeting just because they’re always playing.

AR: Safety Meeting and Ugly Muppets have been very sweet to us.

MS: Everyone in the community is wonderful. 

X: So, before we close, would you guys say you are hopeful for the future (the band’s and for Rock in general)?

SD: I’d say you don’t have to be hopeful for the future because there will always be a future.

X: Anything you guys want to say in closing?

AS: Byrdhouse for life. Support your local music scene!

AR: I don’t know man, yeah, just support your local musicians, if there is anyone who wants any help doing anything creative the Byrdhouse is a good hub for that and we wanna put that out there. 

MS: Come to the Byrdhouse if you haven’t.

SD: Be good, in general.  

Delphino have a show with Raspberry Jam and the E-Block on November 17th at the Byrdhouse. You can follow them and the Byrdhouse on Facebook and Instagram: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1427277570913830&ref=content_filter

https://instagram.com/delphinoband?igshid=hou3vbwaotck

https://instagram.com/byrdhouserecords?igshid=jopqb047hgal