MNZ Interview: Delaney Davidson

Delaney Davidson recently spoke to myself (Juliet) from his Lyttelton base ahead of the release of his new album, Baby Heavyweight, and an upcoming 14-date national tour. The record – his eleventh solo release – was reportedly “born in a kitchen in Switzerland,” and sees Davidson once again collaborating with producer Merk (Mark Perkins), pushing further into the shadowy, groove-laden territory hinted at on 2024’s Out Of My Head.

We began by talking about movement, his reputation as being half-man-half-wheel, the restlessness, curiosity for travel, years of touring. He suggested it may have something to do with the stars he was born under, or perhaps a mum who migrated to New Zealand when she was four. “This idea of coming from different places…you’ve got these weird pools inside you, the waters of home. “Ko wai koe?” is definitely a really interesting way to phrase “Who are you and where are you from?”

The question of movement came up again in relation to the groove running through this latest album, Davidson is like a train or a heartbeat, moving through and around the tracks. Bringing that liveliness on tour are stellar bandmates Heather Webb, Cass Basil, Alex Freer and Ryan Fisherman, set to carry the texture and tension of the recordings around Aotearoa.

The songs on the album were constructed with a story in mind – a retelling of the Fall, Lucifer’s expulsion from heaven. “It feels like a story I’ve been trying to tell for a long, long time and so much of it is autobiographical,” he says. In Davidson’s version Lucifer gives up immortality in exchange for belonging, the one thing he doesn’t have. My mind swings back to our earlier conversation about restlessness, that searching instinct, homesickness perhaps?

The story also reaches beyond the personal into something archetypal: the hero’s journey, the epic narratives that cut across cultures, communities and time itself. Stories of being human and the shared experiences that connect us – rejection, exile, loss, love, redemption – as a kind of scaffolding laced through lives.

That thread led into a conversation about Davidson’s ongoing relationship with Tame Iti and his whānau, and the idea that art in Aotearoa could be more openly collaborative between Māori and Pākehā – more like sport somehow: less sealed off, less anxious about ownership or getting it wrong. “There’s this terror as an artist that you might be appropriating or misinterpreting and it’s really paralysing, that fear,” he says. “But if you’re in constant conversation with this stuff, you’re not fixed, and you’re open. It’s a conversation.”

With our conversation winding down and basking in Delaney’s eloquence, I’m reminded of lyrics from an old Kris Kristofferson song:

But the silver tongued devil’s got nothing to lose/ I’ll only live till I die

We take our own chances and pay our own dues/ the silver tongued devil and I

Davidson is a master storyteller, and, as with his music, he is shaped less by fixed definition and more by paradox and nuance. Like the Lucifer in his story, if redemption exists, it may lie in the sense of belonging he creates through his art: not by turning away from the human condition, but by returning to it again and again, confronting ourselves in the hope of getting closer to home.

Details for Delaney Davidson’s Baby Heavyweight NZ Tour are below.

This nationwide tour is made possible thanks to funding from NZ On Air and the support of the NZ Music Commission.

Tickets available via Banished Music: https://email.banishedmusic.com/t/j-l-yddhhrit-iuttjlgdr-p/

Banished Music Presents: Delaney Davidson – Baby Heavyweight NZ Tour

Fri 03 July – Auckland Cabaret Festival, Wintergarden at The Civic
Sat 04 July – Auckland Cabaret Festival, Wintergarden at The Civic
Wed 08 July – Last Place, Hamilton
Thurs 09 July – 4th Wall Theatre, New Plymouth
Fri 10 July – St Peter’s Hall, Paekākāriki
Fri 17 July – The Boathouse, Nelson
Sat 18 July – Meow, Wellington
Sun 19 July – War Memorial Centre Concert Chamber, Whanganui
Fri 24 July – Errick’s, Dunedin
Sat 25 July – James Hay Theatre, Christchurch
Thurs 30 July – The Small Halls Sessions, Hawke’s Bay (DUO)
Fri 31 July – The Small Halls Sessions, Hawke’s Bay (DUO)
Sat 01 Aug – The Dome, Gisborne (DUO)
Sun 02 Aug – Ātea, Whakatāne (DUO)

Photo Credit: Sabin Holloway