An Artful Release: Delaney Bailey on Emotion, Touring, and Making “Concave”
- Emma Zoe Polyak
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
On Concave, Delaney Bailey allows her world to grow larger. Her debut album finds the Chicago-based songwriter moving beyond the intimate bedroom-pop sound that first introduced her to listeners, embracing bigger production and an artistic vision rooted in Romanticism.
In conversation, Bailey proves just as thoughtful about the ideas behind the music. From the vulnerability of sharing raw lyrics in the studio to the journey that took her from posting songs online to touring with a full band, she approaches her craft with a sense of curiosity and reflection that mirrors the emotional depth of Concave itself.
Emma Zoe Polyak: How has it felt since Concave’s release?
Delaney Bailey: It’s been good, the response that I’ve seen so far has been awesome, and I’m really, really thankful to have the fans that I do. They’re amazing!
EZP: You also went on tour toward the end of last year. What was that like, getting to actually meet so many of your listeners?
DB: It was great! I have a bit of a complicated relationship with touring. I love performing, and I love being able to meet people in real life – because my career started during the pandemic, none of it really felt real until I performed live. So, I love seeing people’s faces, interacting with them, and seeing how they react to my music in real time, but I just don’t necessarily love the traveling part of tour.
EZP: I can understand that. I’ve never been on tour, but everything I’ve heard sounds like long nights, little sleep, and always being somewhere new.
DB: Yes, it can be a lot, but it’s fun.
EZP: Do you change your songs at all when you play them live, or do you try to keep them close to the recording?
DB: It depends on the song. I do like to keep the acoustic ones pretty close to the originals. If it’s more of a bare-bones song, like “Wella” or “j's lullaby,” or songs from the EP we were girls together, I try to keep them as close to the recording as possible and not add much. But with the more heavily produced songs, I think it’s fun to switch them up a little and make them sound fuller in the room.
EZP: Did you have your full band with you on that tour?
DB: Yes, which was great. It’s much more comforting having other people on stage. As someone who’s a bit of a nervous performer, I love being able to look to my left or right and know that my friends are right there.
EZP: Speaking of nervousness and anxiety, a lot of the lyrics in Concave felt super vulnerable to me, which made me wonder: how does it feel when you’re writing those lyrics? Is there a part of you that thinks about how people might respond to them, or are you just focused on getting those emotions out in the moment?
DB: I don’t really think about it while I’m writing. I started writing music as a kind of therapy during my freshman year of college to get through a breakup. I had done theater and choir in high school, so I was just looking for another outlet to put my emotions, and songwriting seemed like a good one.
It’s been that way ever since. I write to get emotions out that I don’t know where to put, so I put them in a song. It lets me step back from that emotion and place it somewhere that isn’t just in my own head.
The only time I feel a little embarrassed is when I bring a song to a producer. It’s not because I’m uncomfortable with the producers I work with – it’s actually the opposite. When I bring a song into the room, it’s usually closer to when the event happened than when the song eventually comes out. So, it’s a little vulnerable being in that room with another person and saying, “Okay, here are my raw emotions.”
But once we start producing it, we listen to the song so many times that it almost loses meaning for me and it begins to separate from the emotion I felt when I first wrote it. By the time I release the song, it feels like I’m releasing that emotion.
EZP: That makes so much sense. I feel like sometimes it’s easier to be vulnerable with strangers than with someone you know, because you won’t have to continue knowing them after that moment. And I imagine it would be difficult if those songs didn’t lose some of their emotional weight over time.
DB: Exactly.
EZP: I read that you tend to approach music almost like visual art, and that was really interesting to me. I was wondering if you could expand on that a bit.
DB: Totally. For this album, I wanted to base it around art history. I started doing that with my EP Chiaroscuro. I was an art major in college, so I missed being connected to that world. With that EP, I based the concept around the visual art technique of intense light and darkenss.
With Concave, I centered the album around the Romantic movement in art history. That movement is about breaking away from tradition and emphasizing nature and the power of nature, with references to medieval themes. I tried to mirror that in the music. The production was a lot bigger than my previous music – something you could really dig your teeth into. I think that reflected the power and scale associated with Romanticism.
With this album, I also placed less emphasis on my voice during the production process. Before this album, I focused heavily on how my voice sounded, but with these songs, I was thinking more about the production itself. I think that was a good choice. I like having imperfect moments with my voice on projects like this. Especially now, when everything can sound perfect with AI and editing, I like hearing imperfections and knowing a human made something.
EZP: I think that shift in focus comes through in the songs. Did the concept of Romanticism come later once you had a few songs written, or was it there from the beginning?
DB: It definitely came after I had already written “Lion.” I sent it to my manager and asked what he thought, because it sounded very different from the music I’d made before. He suggested building an album around it. After that, I started doing some research. This was my first big project where I really wanted to have a clear vision. With my other projects – like Chiaroscuro – I did something similar, but on a much smaller scale.
I looked into different art movements and techniques, and I even debated going with Baroque, but I ended up choosing Romanticism because I liked the idea of the production mirroring nature. I also went into the album wanting to write music that I’d be excited to perform live, which I hadn’t really done before. I leaned more into production-heavy ideas with that in mind.
EZP: Going back a bit, you mentioned that you started writing songs in college as an outlet. How did that grow into releasing music and eventually touring?
DB: I feel like I got really lucky. Imposter syndrome is definitely real, but I remind myself that people connect to my music, and I deserve to be here.
It started during my second semester of college. I was going through a breakup and started writing songs. I showed them to my friend Gracie, and she told me to post them on TikTok. At the time, TikTok was still kind of half Musical.ly, and it was still a joke to be on there. I started posting, thinking nothing would happen, but people really resonated with my music. Then, the pandemic hit and everyone downloaded TikTok, and I already had about 5,000 followers.
I posted a snippet of my song “Loving and Losing,” and people kept asking me to record and release it. I didn’t know how to do that, and I couldn’t afford it, but some followers asked for my Venmo, and around twenty people sent me enough money to get started. I used that money to buy recording equipment and learned how to record through YouTube tutorials. I recorded “Loving and Losing,” “Coffee Stained Smile,” and “Jay’s Lullaby” on that setup.
After that, I just kept posting and making connections through the internet. I didn’t have any connections in the music industry outside of that, so it really depended on getting eyes on what I was doing – and a little bit of luck.
EZP: It’s nice to hear the positive side of social media. I feel like most of what we hear now is negative, but then there are these amazing moments where your music just reaches the right people.
DB: Yes!
EZP: What does your writing process look like?
DB: I keep a Notes app on my phone where I write down anything that inspires me – quotes, random thoughts, anything like that. I’ve had it since around 2020, and it’s huge now.
Whenever I feel ready to write a song – I definitely have to be in the mood – I’ll scroll through that list and see if something sparks inspiration. Then I move to a notebook where I write the full lyrics.
I usually start writing on acoustic guitar, but lately I’ve been trying to write on piano instead. I have this $50 keyboard that I’ve been using. Because I never had formal guitar training, I sometimes feel like I keep falling back on the same chords and melodies, so I’m experimenting with other instruments.
So, the process is Notes app, then notebook, then guitar or piano.
EZP: That Notes app sounds amazing. I love the idea of having a collection of everything that’s inspired you over time. It must be cool to look back and see what stood out to you then versus now.
DB: Totally
EZP: What have you been listening to lately?
DB: I’m pulling up my playlist right now. I mostly just keep one giant playlist, so sometimes I barely know the artists’ names. I’ve been trying to listen to more albums in full, but usually I just find a song I like and add it to the playlist.
Lately I’ve been listening to Weyes Blood, The Japanese House, The Marías, a Chicago band called This House Is Creaking, Joni Mitchell, Japanese Breakfast, a band called Loving, and Hayley Williams’ new album.
EZP: That’s a solid group! What’s next for you?
DB: We’re doing some live recordings of songs, which will be fun. Hopefully we’ll also go on another tour this summer. In the meantime, I’m just writing. Always writing.
