Following a whirlwind 2009, synth masters Delphic show absolutely no sign of letting up. With the release of critically acclaimed debut Acolyte already stamped down as an early achievement, 2010 looks set to reap even more  success for one of Britian' most refreshing and unique acts. Yet, despite such widespread praise, frontman James Cook is certainly not getting carried away. For all the positives the past twelve months have brought, the emphasis remains on improvement and evolution for the hard working quartet. Talking new tours, nineties television and cups of tea, it is clear that Delphic's feet remain firmly on the ground.  

4or The Record: Congratulations on Acolyte. It's got a great reception, you must be very proud of it?

James Cook: Yeah we are, we really feel we've achieved something. When we look back at the start, about two years ago, an album was the Holy Grail, a dream. And now we've achieved it we've gone through that process, in terms of writing the songs, and it's been a real journey. But we're really happy with it all. In terms of the artwork, the videos, the songs, the track listing, we're really happy.

4TR: Do you have a particular favourite track from the album?

JC: If I'm being honest I haven't listened to it since we've finished it, and that kind of surprises me. I used to watch programs like Live & Kicking when I was a kid, and they had these big bands on who would say “We don't listen to our own music”, and I couldn't understand it. But I understand now, it kind of goes past that. It's almost as if I know it so well, I don't need  to listen to it, I've kind of moved on from it. But there's lots of high points on there. We're very fond of “Acolyte” as the albums centrepiece, we felt it was quite bold to put a nine minute instrumental in the middle of an album. But, we're fond of it, it's a cheeky little tune.

4TR: You're just about to kick off a UK tour, how are you looking forward to that?

JC: Yeah we are. We've got a new bus with fourteen bunks, which is quite exciting, a different bunk every night I think! But no it's very exciting, there's a lot of places that we haven't played before, a lot of places I haven't seen before, like Northampton, Dublin, places like that. There's definitely a lot of excitement around the band about it. We've got a show that's a real wall of sound, something that's exciting and explosive and we work closely with our lighting guy so we've got something that's really entertaining.

4TR: As you say you, have very unique live shows with the lights and the wall of sound. Was that something that happened naturally or did you set out to create that from the start?

JC: The shows, as opposed to the album, are centred more around the live elements we have, like the drums especially. Live we have Dan (Hadley) our  drummer, and he really has a huge impact on the shows. We mix all the live shows together, so it's kind of like a continuous DJ mix really, and that's good because we're not the sort of band that likes to chat on stage, we find that inappropriate for our music, and like to keep a flow to the set. Lighting wise we just knew from the offset, watching bands like Massive Attack, that we wanted to have this fusion of the aural and visual dynamics on stage to make it an actual show rather than a band accompanied by a few lights, so even if you're out in the audience, you feel part of the whole thing. We work very closely with our lighting technician, a cheeky little cockney lad! He's very creative and we're proud of that combination.

4TR: I'm sure you've heard a lot of the comparisons between you and other successful bands such as New Order, what would you say you offer that makes you unique and sets you apart from these comparisons?

JC: If you scratch under the surface, you'd see there's an obvious film on top of this “cup of tea”! If Delphic were a cup of tea there'd be a film on top, and that film is that we are a band of four guys from Manchester, obviously the same as New Order, and we write songs, which is the same as New Order. But I think that's as far as the comparisons really go. Sonically, we take a lot of influence from Berlin Techno and Pop acts from Cologne. We're really inspired by that whole scene; really slick, minimalist stuff, and that's something we tried to employ on the album. We also take a lot of influence from people like Bjork and Radiohead. It's hard for me to say really, maybe that's something for the critics to do. Ewan Pearson (Acolyte producer) brought a lot to the record through living in Germany, which it made it important to include those Techno influences.

4TR: You were in the top three of The BBC Sound Of 2010 behind Ellie Goulding and Marina And The Diamonds. You are all very original artists, would you say that indicates a shift in people's music tastes?

JC: I think it's important for music to move on, for things to keep developing. In the late nineties we went through a horrible phase of people trying to recreate Brit Pop. In the late noughties people tried to be the new Strokes or the new Libertines, and things just get boring if no one pushes on. So if no one makes people aware of bands that are doing something different, then nothing will change or develop. I don't know if the BBC are the real pioneers of all that, but it's good that they are doing it. But it can be a real double edged sword, as much as it builds awareness about you it can really hype you up. I think we've managed to stay away from a lot of that, we try and keep ourselves removed and not worry about it too much. The British music industry and it's audiences can be quite crushing, they can really get stuck into the hype, so I think it's important for every artist in that poll to just remove themselves from it a little bit, but it is important to make people aware of new directions of music.

4TR: You played a fair few festivals last summer, where can we expect to see you this year?

JC: This year should be a lot more enjoyable really. Last summer was like putting our toe in the water, but this year we start off with Coachella which is something we're really looking forward to. In terms of other festivals in the UK we've got Radio 1 Big Weekend to be confirmed, hopefully Glastonbury which will be great for us, T In The Park, maybe Oxygen. We've also got Creamfields, Reading and Leeds and of course Bestival at the end of it all. There's lots of things cropping up that we're really excited about, we hope to have some real fun this year.

4TR: It's been almost a year since the release of debut single “Counterpoint”. You've had a lot happen since then, where do you see yourselves a year on from now?

JC: I'd like to think we've finished the album cycle now. For example Florence And The Machine has done fantastically well, and she's still got another single to come which is a testament to the song writing on the album, but I don't think I'd like to tour our album for what would be another 11 months. But in reality that is probably what will happen. On another level, in 11 months time we'd like to have another release out. At the end of this year we aim to have either an EP or another single out, and by January we'd probably hope to have a large portion of the next album under our belts, so we'd like to keep things snappy and keep on writing. Hopefully we'll be trying new things and changing ourselves in different ways.

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