Eliza & The Delusionals On Meeting Your Heroes

Eliza & The Delusionals‘ second studio album Make It Feel Like the Garden has just arrived in all of its luscious indie-rock glory. The ambitious 18-track LP has been crafted together with a number of dreamy interludes, but the release day centrepiece is a brand new single dubbed ‘Lately’, which features guest vocals from Silversun Pickups’ lead singer and guitarist Brian Aubert and co-production from grunge icon Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage).

To celebrate today’s release, the band have shared some sage advice for what to do when you get the chance to meet your heroes. Take the ‘Lately’ music video for a spin and suss their top 5 tips down below.

Eliza & The Delusionals – ‘Lately’ Ft. Brian Aubert

Eliza & The Delusionals: We’ve been lucky to tour with Silversun Pickups a couple of times now throughout the USA, and they’re some of the kindest people we’ve met (in and out of the music industry). They set the bar so high for how to be a band. They’ve been so welcoming and supportive of our music and our band over the years, and Brian [Aubert, singer] featuring on ‘Lately’ was such a special moment for us.

We were finishing the tour in Nashville and since we’d been writing some of the album between the shows we thought we’d ask Brian if he wanted to feature on one of them. We didn’t expect anything of it, but Brian was really keen on the idea. The song hadn’t even been written at that point, we just knew that we wanted him to be a part of something and the idea would come eventually. When ‘Lately’ came into fruition at Oscar’s studio, we knew the song would be perfect for Brian to be a part of. We sent our version of the demo, and Brian wrote the second verse and recorded all of his parts with Butch Vig at his home studio. We immediately fell in love with the finished version of the song. The whole thing was a real dream come true and we’re so lucky to be friends with Brian and the entirety of Silversun Pickups.

5 Things To Do When You Meet Your Heroes

Cry and piss your pants – This one is controversial but works a treat when under pressure. Have you ever been told to pack more underwear when leaving the house? Well this is why and I couldn’t agree more! If you do ever find yourself in this position please try your best to stay in control of the situation.

Facetime a friend and stick the phone in your heroes face – Once again controversial but when in a pinch there is nothing better than pulling this one out of the bag. Startling at first yes but a real crowd pleaser that is sure to get everyone up and about. I would suggest using an iphone as to not scare off your hero with some other inferior phone brand.

Play them a song on a small instrument – If you lack confidence this one is sure to bring you out of your shell! Make sure you don’t just play a small portion of the song as you want your hero to know you have endurance when it comes to performing. If you do happen to stumble and forget a line, fear not my bullish friend! Simply start over from the very beginning as your hero will have the time to spare for such a dedicated fan such as yourself.

Try and swap phone numbers – If you were to meet your hero and not get their personal phone number you would be doing yourself a disservice. Meeting your hero is one thing but being able to keep in contact for days, weeks, and years to come is something else both you and your hero will be able to cherish.

Ask for a lock of their hair – A real classic among the bunch. At the very least a lock of your heroes hair will surely get you on your way to feeling like their #1 fan. What if my hero is bald you ask? Fear not my friend… In this situation to avoid the risk of sounding silly, simply ask your hero to pose for a photo with a clear background so you are able to photoshop some additional hair in later on once you’re home.

To celebrate the release of their new album, Eliza & The Delusionals will be hitting the road for a national headline tour performing songs from the record for the very first time to fans across Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane this August.

You can peep all those dates and details down below.