Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, Sweet Delirium is the New Music Monday highlight!
Sweet Delirium is a musical project that began as a Nanaimo-based acoustic duo who have since moved down to Victoria and filled out their sound, which is now firmly rooted in shoegaze, with hints of post-punk, jazz and R&B.
On Sunday, April 6th, the now four-piece band released their first album, Sweet Nothings—a culmination of songs written over the past eight years.
Sweet Delirium is comprised of Irene Paule on vocals, Tev Uslu on guitar, Liam St. John on drums and Gregory Bertato on guitar and synths.
Paule says they first started playing music with Uslu back in high school while living in Nanaimo.
“Around senior year Tev and I did a lot more jazz stuff together and as we moved to Victoria for school, we thought we would just continue it, performing at open mics and having some fun,” Paule told Victoria Buzz.
During this time performing as a duo, they were writing a lot of songs, some of which have made their way to their Sweet Nothings release.
The band filled out a bit more in 2020, when Sweet Delirium signed up for a battle of the bands and realized they could have had a more full sound for the performance.
“We did well, but we realized we were missing some pieces,” said Uslu.
“But then COVID happened and we took a little break until 2021 and that’s where we found Liam on Facebook.”
St. John was new in town and had made a post saying he was looking to play music in Victoria. Shortly after he joined the band, he brought along another friend of his, Bertato, who was new in town and looking to play.
“We were a full band in 2023, that’s when we felt fully established,” said Uslu.
Since that time, he added that they have been working on their recently released record and playing as many shows as they could in Victoria.
For Sweet Nothings, the band says that they were largely inspired by one another’s abilities to collaborate and give freedom to create.
“I just love playing with all these guys, I’m happy to be in this band,” said Bertato.
“Aside from me and Liam’s relationship, from playing together back in Ontario, to have that vibe here in this new light with these terrific people from Nanaimo, has been very open arms, very welcoming—just feeling the love and jamming is a joy.”
“We are just very inspired by each other,” St. John added.
As this week’s New Music Monday highlight song, Sweet Delirium chose track two of their new record, “My Sweet Mania.”
Paule says that they write many of their songs about situations they have come across in their own life.
“‘My Sweet Mania,’ the idea for it was to leave it up to people’s interpretations,” Paule explained.
“But I was thinking, lyrically, mania could be a person, a mood or whoever you think it is.”
They added it was primarily about a time in their own life when things felt a bit chaotic, and the best way for them to work through that was to write it down.
“It’s mainly about just going through the motions with something so intense and not knowing how to go about it. And with the instrumentation, the kind of vibe I get from it is almost like a homesickness,” said Paule.
Uslu added that this was a fun one to record because Bertato was on guitar, as he wrote the lead riff that helped give the song shape in its earliest stages.
“I remember he came to the band with this gorgeous guitar line and then me and Liam got the beats and the shots and stuff—it turned into this really sweet song, almost melancholic,” said Uslu.
Bertato said he was inspired by the noughties—meaning the 2000s era of rock music—such as bands like Sum 41.
“I just had sort of a thought that we could do something like that, or at least our version of that,” Bertato explained.
“My Sweet Mania” and the rest of Sweet Nothings was recorded in a very DIY fashion, and produced by Bertato over the past year.
Preview the album below:
To listen to “My Sweet Mania” or the rest of Sweet Nothings online via Sweet Delirium’s Bandcamp, Spotify or Apple Music page.
Sweet Delirium says that they shot a really fun music video for “My Sweet Mania” as well, and that it will be released on April 11th.
Over the weekend they played the album’s official release show at Fort Tectoria to a sold out crowd with Juniper Smile and Silverware.
They don’t currently have any other show dates solidified but hope to be playing more this summer in Victoria and up island.
Sweet Delirium is also currently working on their second record already and hope that they will be able to release that soon too.
To find out about more releases and show dates, follow Sweet Delirium on Instagram.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Diploids collaborate to create their brand of experimental jazz
- New Music Monday: Niloo releases first single from upcoming album ‘Valentine’s in Kamakura’
- New Music Monday: fivefootnine’s debut EP focusses on friendship foundations
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“The support that CFUV gives to musicians is invaluable,” said Uslu. “We’re extremely grateful for all the support they’ve given to us and the local scene.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Sweet Delirium in the comments below.
