Feel Good Festival: Delphina Kings

Feel Good Festival: Delphina Kings

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Ahead of their first time playing at the Rochdale Feel Good Festival, Rochdale Online spent some time chatting with Delphina Kings, an alternative and indie rock group originating from Manchester and Warrington.

The band is made up of 24-year-old vocalist and guitarist Chris, drummer Pete, 22, and bassist and lyricist Andy, also 24.

The trio have been friends for a long time as Chris and Pete are brothers and they met Andy at high school.

“We’ve been writing songs together since 2009 under other names, but we’ve been together as the Delphina Kings for just over a year. We really only got our identity together around four months ago, actually,” Chris explained.

When asked about their sound, the self-proclaimed ‘children of the 90s’ highlighted elements from grunge and Britpop to indie rock, citing influences from Oasis, Joy Division, New Order, Nirvana and The Pixies.

Chris said: “We take everything from the 90s and smash it together but make it more modern. Our influences came from the music we grew up with. It really was a eureka moment when we decided to play music we like.”

Songs featuring on their setlist include their own material, ‘Kid Calm Down’ their most recent single and ‘Like You’, which is ‘good fun’.

They commented: “It’s chaotic and weird, very Blur-esque and strange. We like it so we hope other people do too.”

Speaking about Rochdale, Chris said: “It’s our first time playing in Rochdale, hopefully it will go well. We have to win people over, which is always intimidating as we don’t fit just one scene.”

“We’re not used to playing in such an ornate place; we’re more familiar with more dark and dingy bars.

"I’m always nervous before gigs but it keeps you on your toes. With festivals, there’s an element of mystery and we hope for the best, but it always works out.”

The trio have played previous festivals including Liverpool Loves, Warrington Festival and Warrington Music Festival.

There’s also a quirky back story behind the origin of the name.

Chris and Pete explained: “We’ve done tracks with Sugarhouse before and one of them became a dad. He was looking for some durable and practical shoes and came back with these ‘Delphian Kings’ shoes.

“We’d been looking for a name for ages and he suggested the name to use. We actually liked it and suggested it to Andy who also liked it.”

Andy added: “I read it wrongly though as Delphina Kings because I have dyslexia. I thought it read better and we preferred it.”

In the upcoming months, Delphina Kings plan to release new material through Spotify, having previously released tracks exclusively through Soundcloud. They plan to keep playing shows and dream of being signed to a record label with a ‘good track record’ but ‘who understands us’.