DEL A MITRI
Fatal Attraction
DEL AMITRI ARE BACK WITH FATAL MISTAKES – THEIR FIRST NEW ALBUM IN 19 YEARS – AND ANY FANS WORRIED THIS MOST MISUNDERSTOOD OF BANDS MIGHT HAVE BEEN TEMPTED TO CHANGE THEIR GAME CAN REST EASY: “IF ANYONE CAN MAKE A GREAT DEL AMITRI RECORD, IT SHOULD BE US,” JUSTIN CURRIE AND IAIN HARVIE TELL CLASSIC POP.
PAUL KIRKLEY
Del Amitri finished recording their new album shortly after midnight on Sunday, 22 March 2020 – one day before Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson announced the first UK-wide coronavirus lockdown. Which, for a record that was all about getting the band back together in the same room to lay down their first new material for almost two decades, was something of a close call.
“The record was designed to be performed as live as possible in the studio, so it would have been horrible to try to do it in a lockdown scenario,” says frontman, bassist and principle songwriter Justin Currie. “In fact, we only realised afterwards that it’s the first album we’ve ever made that doesn’t have any session players on it. Everything was played by the five of us.”
“It felt good,” adds Iain Harvie – guitarist, co-writer and Justin’s Dels wingman for the best part of four decades. “Everyone was totally on their game. It felt pretty straightforward, actually – 18 years didn’t seem like a great chasm.”
The result, Fatal Mistakes, recorded over three weeks at a country pile in Gloucestershire with producer Dan Austin (Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six), is a classic Del Amitri record, mixing rootsy rock’n’roll with bruised, world-weary remorse. And that was a very deliberate choice.
“We were definitely trying to make a Del Amitri record,” says Justin. “Iain and I spent a lot of time in the 2000s and early 2010s trying to make music that we thought was Del Amitri, but which nobody else seemed to think was Del Amitri.”
So there was definitely a remit: what constitutes a Del Amitri record? “That was quite a liberating thing,” says Iain. “A bit of focus is always good. It’s kind of an alter-ego,” he adds, of his role as one fifth of the Dels – alongside Justin, long-time keyboard player Andy Alston, second guitarist Kris Dollimore and drummer Ash Soan. “And it’s quite interesting stepping back into that alter-ego.”
“When you get a bit older, you’re acutely aware of your limitations,” notes Justin. “We know what we’re really good at, and what we can’t do.”
And what they can do is make a great Del Amitri record? “Well if anybody can,” he smiles, “it should be us.”
The march of time since their last record is explicitly acknowledged on album opener (and forthcoming single) You Can’t Go Back, a love song that also nods to the fact that neither Del Amitri nor their fans are getting any younger. It’s an idea the promo video leans into by having the band made up as old men, being pushed around in wheelchairs under tartan blankets.