Inside The Bubble: Exclusive Interview With The Delerium Trees

One of the bands roasting the indie circuit in Scotland with the waviest vibes you can find is The Delerium Trees. The captain of this vessel from Aberdeenshire is Drew Jarvie. Drew is a master of the craft who is navigating the world of music in his own way. The band recently released a fantastically put-together album we really enjoyed. We caught up with Drew to talk about the band and what he’s been up to in his part of the world.

The Artist

Bubblingbox: First things first, tell us about the name of the band, how did you come up with it?

Drew: The name is a pun on ‘delirium tremens’ as the two original members of The Delerium Trees both suffered from depression.

Bubblingbox: What are the band members? Who plays what?

 Drew: I play brass, keyboards, bass, drums, programming and sing everything in the recordings except guitars where Jack Fox takes over. We also have Wyatt Pauley, from the Pauley Laine Band and George Abbot, from Journey North assisting on guitars for tracks on the new album.

The Place

Bubblingbox: You come from Turriff, Aberdeenshire, which is a very small town in Scotland. Tell us about the music scene there and how you all got to know one another?

 Drew: The Scottish music scene is fairly vibrant and has been since the 1980s, the indie scene equally so. Aberdeen is our nearest city, but nowhere is too far in Scotland, Inverness is also reasonably close, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow all reasonably close.

The live version of the Trees pulls in musicians as and when I need them. In this aspect, I’m lucky as I’m a full-time professional musician, teacher, and lecturer so I meet loads of like-minded people. I also do a lot of session work which also helps.

Bubblingbox: When it comes to your last EP Underneath This Sun, what was the concept behind the album?

 Drew: The album before Underneath This Sun, ‘Swimming With The Ghost Angels’, had quite strong themes in the sung songs and underlying themes in the lengthy instrumentals so I decided to lighten the mood. It was also used to bring more brass into the songs, 4 of the 5 songs have brass, and also encouraged me to strum a guitar.

Bubblingbox: How did 2020 change the band? Has it affected the creativity of the group?

 Drew: It probably helped in that I’d much more time at home, all teaching was done online, so I’d more time to write songs. I also enjoyed working with Wyatt Pauley, co-writing several songs that have appeared on his albums something I hadn’t done before. Creativity wise The Delerium Trees will release a double album and an instrumental album. There are also songs for EP and plans for an all-brass EP.

The Future

Bubblinbox: Being from such a small part of the world, what is your plan to expand your listenership? 

Drew: We can only keep plugging away via radio stations and social media until we can get back to playing gigs. However, we are looking at different genres i.e. Scots Traditional, various musical periods, and orchestral music as well. However, like a lot of bands we use the internet a lot.

 Bubblingbox: Where can people see you perform?

 Drew: Hopefully later in the year in maybe smaller acoustic form and with an all-brass group as well. Next year it might well be The Delerium Trees as the rock band with loads of other stuff.

Bubblinbox: Are there plans to collaborate with any other bands or musicians?

 Drew: There are, indeed, the collaboration with Wyatt Pauley will continue as he is not only a fine musician, but he has also become a good friend as well. Last year he was supposed to be recording over here, but sadly like a lot of other things, it was canceled. Hopefully, it will be re-arranged. Plus, I play a lot for brass bands and orchestras so plenty of collaboration there.

 Bubblingbox: What do you want your fans to know about you?

Drew: We will be back live and we two new albums coming out during September, fingers. All announcements will be on the website and the various social media.

We love that Drew is taking charge of his career and taking on the global music scene one chunk at a time. Drew is a special musician with wings to soar. He is elevated by a deeply inspiring love of the music he creates. We thank The Delerium Trees for their time to chat with us. We wish them the best in all endeavors in the future.