Delaney Silvernell – an Interview by James Mullen

GLENS FALLS – Delaney Silvernell has been on an incredible trip through music, from humble beginnings as a high school wunderkind to attending one of the nation’s top music schools to moving to Hollywood to pursue her dreams. In 2018, she appeared on The Voice and managed to stick around for a bit, while her support system cheered her on from back in the North Country. Through it all, there’s one thing that’s remained consistent: pure, raw vocal power. You’d be hard-pressed to find another vocalist who sings with as much conviction, flush with strength and resonance that will nourish your soul with R&B stylings.

Last month, Delaney came through the region for a bit of a homecoming on her first ever tour and I was fortunate enough to catch up with her backstage at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls; here’s our chat about her evolution as an artist, the challenges of life as a working-class musician, and finding the moments in music that inspire us to go on!

RRX: You’ve been on quite the musical journey over the years, from Queensbury High School to Berklee College of Music to being a contestant on The Voice and now even independently releasing music; what has that journey been like for you, and how have you grown and evolved over time?

DS: Oh, man, it really feels like The Voice… it was about five years ago that everything was happening, it really feels like another lifetime, you know? Especially now doing the independent musician thing and really having a more grassroots effort towards things; I think there’s a lot more longevity with that too, so there’s something to be said there but it’s been super dynamic just taking everything as it comes and doing our best year by year really! This is kind of the first time I felt like I had a team with me. I think it’s needed.

RRX: I noticed some growth in your sound from your last EP to your new EP; You’ve got a lot of soul and R&B influences, there’s some pop, and on the new stuff there’s definitely some indie and folk elements as well… tell us a little more about that.

DS: Totally! I work on music all the time with my friends, and it’s never been like “okay, now I’m gonna do this genre”; I just kind of make whatever resonates with me, so my recent EP “Blue Dream”, the first couple of tracks are like this indie folk-pop sort of vibe and then the second two are very much R&B and soulful. I have a lot of reservations about that because it’s a little hard to market, too. All of the blogs are like “What genre is this?”, where it’s definitely a mixture.

RRX: They always wanna put you in a box.

DS: Yeah, definitely! And that’s great for, you know, commercial stuff I suppose but I also want to be performing and releasing things that sound like me and all of those things are present in my influences and the way I internalize music.

RRX: It’s so important to stay true to yourself and put out music that you really enjoy; it’s most important, I think.

DS: Absolutely.

RRX: So, you’re a homegrown artist with deep 518 roots but you’ve also been living in Los Angeles for years now; how does the culture differ, and how did that impact your growth?

DS: Um, it differs quite a lot and honestly adjusting to LA culture is still something I very much struggle with. It’s such a grind, hustle culture to the point where people burn out very quickly. I’ve been there for about five and a half years now; I think coming from a place like this and then going to a place like Berklee, that was a big jump and then it was an even bigger jump from Berklee and being in the bubble of college to, like, being in LA and trying to grow my career but also trying to, like, grocery shop. You know, all the basic things that keep you going as an adult and as a human being. It’s a lot to balance, for sure.

I do think that being in LA has connected me to a lot of musicians and people in the industry who’ve taught me a lot, whether or not that was intentional on their part or if I’m learning from them in another way; I think that exposure has done a lot for me.

RRX: Yeah, it must be really awesome to get out there and chase your dream, and at the end of the day be able to say you did it while also surviving as an adult on your own at the same time. It seems like a very liberating thing.

DS: Yeah, it is… yes and no. Liberating in a lot of ways, but I feel it can also confine you in other ways, too. It’s a matter of where you place your commitments as well.

RRX: Definitely; You’ve had your fair share of great moments in your young career already, working alongside Adam Levine and Kelly Clarkson and recently headlining a show at The Troubadour in LA. Is there a moment that stands out as particularly resonant for you?

DS: Yeah, actually. In the past couple of years I’ve gotten to work with a man named Paul Williams. He was extremely famous and award-winning back in the 80s and prior. Now he’s 83, and he’s just getting back into doing shows after COVID and he’s asked me to come in and sing; he wrote a lot of songs for The Carpenters, you know Karen Carpenter, and he also wrote the soundtrack to “A Star is Born” with Barbara Streisand. For those female-focused songs he’s asked me to come on and sing with him, and so I’m getting to represent these incredible vocalists in this way with Paul and his original band. They’re all, like, 70-plus year old men and they’ve welcomed me as a part of their band which has been really, really cool. Performing with them stands out to me a lot, because they are some of the only extremely accomplished and older men in the music industry that I’ve felt respected by. Finding a group like that and knowing that it exists has been really important for me, to stick with being in LA and to stick with that whole culture.

Just having the honor of being able to sing those songs; it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced stepping on stage and the audience starts clapping as soon as the song starts because once they recognize the song and it’s something they feel so deeply that they start to clap before I even sing…that’s a beautiful feeling that I never even considered. These are songs from their childhood, you know, and I wasn’t alive when these were put out but still being able to step into that role has been a real honor for me too.

More by James Mullen.