Interview With: Shanley Del

Below is an excerpt from the interview.

EN: One song that you've written on the album is called 'Just Like You' looking at two sides of every aspect of a person's life. Are you one thing and another all the time?

DS: Absolutely. I mean I'm a woman - we're very fickle, or at least I am. That song started as a poem and I was thinking about the contradictions I experience in life, month to month, day to day. I was feeling quite bad about it and thinking that perhaps I should be more stable, but then everybody's like that. It's not just women, it's not just me, and the world would be pretty boring if we were the same all the time. So while it's frustrating and infuriating to be like that it's what makes the world go round.

EN: How much do you want your music and your songs to reflect you?

DS: I don't know if I ever could have music that reflected me totally because there are parts of myself that I'd like to keep to myself, parts that I haven't figured out yet and that I couldn't express.

EN: Do you see yourself more as an interpreter and entertainer rather than someone who uses music to get rid of demons?

DS: I did a very cathartic album first time up, after the break-up of my marriage. I felt like those songs were real heartbreak songs and it was very cathartic, very therapeutic, to get up every night and sing my heart out. You can be in the worst mood and go on stage and vent your spleen to people who've paid to come and watch, and you feel much better afterwards. But I'm fairly happy now and hopefully that comes through in a brighter sound in the music.

EN: Another side of you is the performance side. Are you very comfortable with that - you seem to shine on stage?

DS: I love singing for people. You can put up with a lot of frustration and despair in the music industry sometimes and what has kept me going is that I love singing for people. That overwhelms everything else. So that's my bottom line. And I like to showcase songwriters who aren't performers becuase otherwise their work would go unheard.