The chances are you may have unwittingly been humming along to The Delights "Society" and "My Little Girl" as you bought the latest Top Shop poncho or got your fashionista haircut in Toni & Guy. As well as going through the traditional route's of MTV2 and Glastonbury gigs, The Delights have decided to get their tracks out to the masses in the highstreets each day through some novel marketing coop. Sounding like the darker cousins of the Magic Numbers this boy / girl quintet plan to tour the length of the bredth of the country once their piggy bank is cashed up. Designer Magazine caught up with The Delights Anna Bernard.

Q: Firstly, you're being played in Top Shop and Toni & Guy. What's it like making music for people to buy and get haircuts to?
A: As we have set up our own label and are doing all the promotion and management ourselves, it is really exciting to have our music video played in these shops all around the country.  It is certainly a boost to our confidence getting the video accepted and we can see signs that all the hard work is paying off.  I have been in Topshop a few times when the video has come on and it made me really proud to see people nodding their heads along to the song!
 

Q: Like eye-patched pop trumpet Gabrielle, you're inspired by dreams. Elaborate?
A: Well, we all have a dream that we would like to fullfill which is to make a career from our music.  This is something which we are really passionate about and that in itself is our inspiration.  We are working really hard on our music and the management side of things so I think our dream is the driving force behind the band.
 

Q: The Delights hail from London. Aren't all Londoners supposed to be worshipping Pete Doherty at the moment? Where did the Delights go right on avoiding Doherty shaped objects?
A: Although we live in London, we don’t come from London. Two of the band members are from the North East in Middlesbrough and the other two are from Australia and South Africa and I guess that’s why we have different influences and sing about different things.  We are not totally averse to Pete Doherty but I definitely wouldn’t cite him as an influence as none of us own any of his CD’s. I think he’s a great songwriter but I haven’t particularly been taken in by all the hype surrounding him, in a way I think that put me off a bit.
 

Q: To Designer Magazine you sound like a darker version of the Magic Numbers, but what are your influences?
A: I guess we do have similarities to The Magic Numbers, there are 2 girls and 2 boys in the band and we all sing but this is something we have been doing since before they came out. We really like them but yes, we are much darker and heavier (not in weight but in sound, sorry couldn’t help that, but actually having seen them live they are not even that big!).  The darker edge to our music is influenced by musicians like Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and The Pixies.  We listen to all sorts of music though, old and new.  Some recent stuff we have been listening to would be Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, Maximo Park and some not so recent stuff would be Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan.  One thing we like about all of these bands is the fact that they have an edge which makes them different and stand out and that’s something that people say about The Delights.
 

Q: You've played sold out gigs across London. Have you played with any other interesting London bands we may / may not have heard of?
A: We have really been enjoying gigging recently as we have played with some great unsigned bands. Some bands I could mention are The Molotovs, I Love You Goodbye, The Red Fishes, and The Flews.  We also supported Rough Trade Records’ Band of Holy Joy at The Union Chapel when they reformed and they were crazy. They have a great sound a bit like Arcade Fire and there’s about 15 of them in the band playing all sorts of instruments.

In the past we have played gigs where the bands are really up themselves and won’t talk to you. For example when we supported Dogs Die in Hot Cars they just ignored us when we tried to make conversation with them.  I don’t see the point in that. The whole point of making music and being in a band is to have fun, also it makes the gig more enjoyable if you have had a laugh with the other bands. They seemed like they were having a really shit time just thinking they were really cool. The funny thing is we didn’t really know anything about them at the time, so their arrogance was a bit wasted on us and where are they now anyway?
 

Q: Are there any plans to do a UK tour?
A: Yes without a doubt, but I am down to my last £20 so not just at this minute! Our CD comes out on our own label on the 19th September (available from our website www.thedelights.com - or for overseas sales, ww.roughtrade.com/site/index.lasso) so I think we will raise a bit of money from sales to support our UK tour shortly. Or of course when a label takes us on, they can organise it!
 

Q: What can we expect from The Delights debut album?
Expect some really cool vocal arrangements, some rocking guitar riffs and some number 1 hits thrown in for good measure!