Eating An Apple

"It’s like eating an apple,” singer Elliott Hammond says of the reception so far to Delta Riggs’ second record, Dipz Zebazios. “Some people wanna eat the skin and some people just wanna go deeper. In some cases we’ll just dice it up and give it to them with skin and other cases they’ll peel it themselves.”

“I don’t know if that makes sense,” says bassist Michael Tramonte. “He’s stoned as though.” We laugh.

Sitting at a pub in Sydney’s Surry Hills with The Music, Hammond hides behind vintage shades and a jaunty Gallagher-esque cap and vest, while Tramonte slumps in a black shirt. They order burgers and beer, and as knives and forks clatter on plates, they talk shop, finishing each other’s sentences, talking over and under and through each other.  

They’re a self-described “working-class band”; most have day jobs on top of their touring and recording schedules. “We’ve got a cost of living, y’know, that we have outside of the band,” says Tramonte. Hammond continues, “You’ve still got to take your girlfriend out for dinner on a Wednesday night.” Tramonte concludes, “Pay your rent, pay your bills, buy your drugs. All that shit.”

But they’re not “doing a Sticky Fingers in Wagga Wagga”, living the ‘sex, drugs and rock’n’roll’ lifestyle. (“That shit’s gay as,” says Hammond.) Tramonte admits, “Yes, we all play rock’n’ roll, have sex and do drugs. But we don’t wear it on our sleeves.

There’s bands out there that completely plagiarise shit and I don’t actually have a problem with that.”

“We’re like the English gentlemen of the rock’n’roll community.”

Hammond goes on, “We don’t think that we’re more important than anyone – not even in bands – but just anyone in general. The band is awesome, we love playing in the band, but it’s not a platform for us to be cunts.”

“We’re just a bunch of polite dudes who use our manners and love our mums.”  

Some of the subject matter for their latest record focused on celebrity culture. Hammond opines, “We kind of feel like Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus are like a fucking joke. We find that funny that they call themselves artists and say this shit is art. And to us it’s like it’s just a fucking cash-grab.”

They’re fans of and influenced by Beastie Boys, Primal Scream and Oasis, as well as Australians REMI and Violent Soho. “We listen to heaps of the good ones,” says Hammond. “There’s shit ones too. There’s just bands right now that are either doing good things for rock’n’roll or bands that are watering it down and making it more like Thirsty Merc.”

And Hammond’s not worried about sounding too close to their influences. “If you like it because you love it and you think it’s sick, just fucking go for it. Don’t hold back. There’s bands out there that completely plagiarise shit and I don’t actually have a problem with that.”

The boys are keen to head back on the road again. “It’ll be really good. We haven’t done our own tour for a while so I’m excited to just see who comes,” says Tramonte.

“Maybe Kyle Sandilands will come. Maybe Karl Stefanovic,” Hammond muses. “He’ll come,” Tramonte is certain.