Kieran Webber
Director and Founder of CLUNK Magazine, CLUNK Events, and other CLUNK affiliate businesses. You’ll probably find me tucked away somewhere sending emails, listening to music, and creating content.
Manchester based Deleter talk about how they formed, life in the industrial city of Manchester, and much more
The internet is an incredibly powerful tool and at the moment it may seem it is used for nothing but bad things, fro AI slop through to dividing nations. However, nestled between this is some minute bit of light, a place where creatives can meet, talk, and in the end create. This is how the Manchester based band Deleter came to be. The band met via joinmyband.com and since that fateful day back in 2024 they’ve been making music as a group. Strangers united by a passion for music that met online.. kinda beautiful really.
We caught up with the band to discuss these humble beginnings, life up North, their latest single ‘Anaconda Walkway’ and a whole heap more.
Kieran: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! How have things been?
Jack: Yeah, good thanks!
Kieran: Any highlights in 2026 so far?
James: Having our debut single out will definitely be a highlight. For such a long time the band felt like a hypothetical idea so to finally have something concrete for people to listen to will be amazing. It’ll definitely start feeling more real. Traitors finale was pretty mint too.
Kieran: So, how did you all meet and when was it clear you needed to start creating music together?
Jack: Me and James met on joinmyband.com, I found Sam on Vampyr, which is basically tinder for musicians, and I think I just slid into Cam & Cash’s DM’s out of pure desperation, not entirely sure how I even found them! So yeah, it wasn’t the classic “we met in college” narrative, it was a fairly inorganic process of connecting with strangers, which can always feel odd at first, as you’re aware that you’re all committing to a fairly big thing together. But we’re all super tight and all share the same passion for it.
James: Things have happened quite slowly. I joined almost 2 years ago now and the first thing I was struck by was how dense and detailed Jack’s ‘Vocalist Needed’ ad was. We had a lot of the same taste and it looked like our ambitions lined up well. Turns out we’d been to a lot of the same gigs together.
Kieran: Was there a specific vision or sound you wanted to create or did it form naturally?
James: I mean musically Jack gives us all a starting point but in terms of lyrics I write strictly with no agenda. A lot of the lyrics are improvised for weeks and weeks until I hit upon something that I deem to be interesting. I never want to be limited by a mantra or mission statement. Some weeks I wanna write about political division or masculinity, another week it might be my favourite coat or cartoons and I want to have that freedom.
Jack: Yeah, each song I write can be vastly different from the last, I’ve found that the heavier side of my songs don’t always work in Deleter, so I’ve got into a good rhythm of knowing what makes a good Deleter song. Me and James are huge Do Nothing fans, I’m massively into Foals, Radiohead, Everything Everything & QOTSA, so all those influences certainly seep through, but all in all we want to make music that can make you dance, cry and head-bang all at the same time – playing around with different genres and moulding them into your own take in an attempt to come up with something new and fresh.
Kieran: We live in a country that is very ‘Southern’ centric, particularly when it comes to music. Is this something you think about or consider as artists based in the north?
Jack: I’m actually the only Southerner in the band, so I naturally find myself sticking up for the South. That said, I don’t think either side is inherently better than the other – but being in a band in Manchester, you definitely feel the weight of everything that’s come before.
James: I rarely think about the north/south divide personally. I’m as close as it gets to Mancunian in the group and I try not to think in those terms. The country can feel southern-centric, given that London is the capital – but even generalising about a city as vast as London is difficult. It’s really a collection of boroughs and towns, each with its own mentality and tastes. Manchester has a deep history with inventive guitar music but it also has routes with classical music that is rarely talked about. The UK’s oldest professional orchestra was formed in Manchester in 1858. So personally I think it’s fair game.I have influences from all over.
Kieran: What are five things that separate the north from the south?
James: I mean the north has deep roots with the industrial revolution so I think we have this obsession with class and with pride. There are some hard people from this part of the world and I think that attitude sometimes seeps into the music, especially if we are talking about bands. There’s a real sense of lineage and of place. My dad always talked about how personal listening to The Smiths was because Morrissey often references all these places he grew up with. I think there’s this cliche about northern warmth. I don’t know how true it is, I’ve met some really nice Southerners.
“There are some hard people from this part of the world and I think that attitude sometimes seeps into the music, especially if we are talking about bands.“
Jack: Thanks!
James: You’re welcome! We like gravy on our chips too. Which I think is considered a crime down south. I think that’s 5 things?
Kieran: Manchester is having a bit of a boom in many areas, including music. What do you feel is the appeal of the city right now?
James: We are definitely seeing more development. We were talking the other day about how much more cluttered the skyline is. I don’t know what all these high rises are for, like offices and flats? Maybe people priced out of London are moving to Manchester, I don’t really know. Oasis have also had this cultural moment. It was important and I think it happened when we needed it. I was there and it was one of the best nights of my life. At the same time though there’s more to Manchester than britpop and Madchester. All that stuff is amazing and as someone that’s lived here my whole life there’s more to this place than those 5 bands that everyone talks about. Go to Afflecks, there’s some mad goth shit there. Some amazing comic book shops. really old, beautiful pubs that are like time machines. Curry mile is mint. Manchester has a lot packed into a small space and I want it to hold onto some of its history and not a glass and metallic utopia.
Kieran: You recently released your latest single ‘Anaconda Walkway’. Can you talk us through this release and what it means to you?
Jack: A lot of our songs are actually quite tech-y and complex, so Anaconda Walkway felt like the perfect gateway song for the listener as it’s a fairly simple two-chord riff.
James: The lyrics are quite esoteric and inclusive, which hopefully will make you wanna listen to it more than once.
Jack: Yeah, we’re really chuffed to have it out, and hope people connect with it.
Listen to ‘Anaconda Walkway’ here:
Kieran: You teamed up with friend Stephen Harrison to produce this track. What was it like working with him and how did it help form the sound of this release?
Jack: Really good! Stephen is actually our drummer Sam’s best friend, and was best man at his wedding, so it was really easy-going. I’m always in awe of producers who have such a flow and rhythm in what they do. Myself and our bassist, Cam sort of fancy ourselves as producers too so we were constantly chewing his ear off with questions. It’s a great opportunity to try things out, like recording a bass-line through the pre-amp of a Teac Tascam 244, stuff like that is always fun. The studio was previously owned by The Fat White Family as well, so there’s a cool history, as is with any great recording studio.
Kieran: Lastly, what is in the pipeline for Deleter?
Jack: We’ve got 3 more singles banked that we’ll be releasing all the way up to May, and we also have a live video session booked which will be out around April time. Other than that we’ll just be gigging as much as possible and hopefully have an EP out by the end of the year.
Discover more from Clunk Magazine
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
You must be logged in to post a comment.