Delerium's 'Chimera' takes flights of fancy
With unrest in the Middle East, the United States mired in Iraq, and other problems plaguing the world, Delerium's Bill Leeb believes that he needs to make positive music that enriches listeners' lives and gives them a bit of a lift.
He's not after insipid, Pollyanna-ish pop, but a swirling mix of influences that draws from all points on the musical spectrum. He wants the band to transcend standard three-chord rock, and he does that with style on Delerium's fourth record, the sweeping "Chimera," a bold blend of world pop, electronica, New Age, and old-fashioned acoustic pop.
"When I started Delerium, I wanted it to enhance your surroundings and be part of the spiritual side of your life," Leeb says from his home in Vancouver. "I remember the band Renaissance and they had an ability to thrill. Well, I wanted to take that a step further and add choirs, classical influences and other things that you don't expect from basic pop music. This is not trend-driven or part of what is fashionable. You have to use your imagination and immerse yourself in the music."
Delerium's fourth record follows an extended break. The band had a huge international hit with "Silence" in 2000, which featured the soaring vocals of Sarah McLachlan. Leeb and his partner, Rhys Fulber, parted ways as Fulber pursued a solo career and side projects. The collaborators were the masterminds behind the influential industrial band Front Line Assembly in the 1980s.
"A partnership is like a marriage," Leeb says. "We worked together for 12 years and Rhys moved to California a few years ago and decided to work with various artists . . . We grew apart for awhile but it was not a falling out, just a separation. Once we started talking again, it all seemed to click and we thought to add to our experience together, we should tour, and that is what we are going to do for the first time as Delerium."
Fulber says he and Leeb are always looking to come up with ideas that will add different flavors to their music.
"Bill and I started Delerium 13 years ago as an alternative to the industrial sound that we were doing at the time. After experiencing different things on our own, we came back with new perspectives for `Chimera.' With the new record we challenged ourselves to make the record more song-based, which for us was more of a challenge than taking the soundscape approach we had in the past."
Among the most compelling aspects of "Chimera" are the various vocalists who appear on the record. Most prominent are Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, who appears on two tracks, Julee Cruise, who expands her range on the enchanting "Magic," Zoe Johnston, Jael of the band Lunik, Rachel Fuller, and Delerium veteran Kristy Thirsk. All bring a rich color to the musical tracks as they leap and dance around the mystical beats.
"What I am always looking for is an angelic quality," Leeb says. "That's what I would call the Delerium voice. When we hooked up with Sarah and had such a big hit with `Silence,' that certainly made it a lot easier for us to hunt out who we wanted to work with."
Leeb and Fulber send the vocalists the tracks and the singers contribute the lyrics, almost all dealing with love's sweet melodies and life's lilting moments. "We want to make it a true collaboration, so we want the vocalists to be fully involved, and by writing the lyrics they embody the song when they perform it," Leeb says.
Fans of Front Line Assembly will surely dub Delerium's sound as New Age Pablum. But Leeb is not worried.
"We've done many things and I'm sure that we will do many more different kinds of sounds before we're done," he says. "Does it bother me that people call us New Age? No way. We were on the New Age charts for six months right behind Enya, but it's just a label."
"People need to figure out a way to define something," Leeb adds. "But with all of our dance remixes, we know we have alternative people who like what we do and we tap into the electronic chill-out movement as well. But again, those are just labels, they don't mean a thing. Listen to the music and decide."
Delerium plays Axis on Sunday at 8 p.m. Call 617-262-2437.
