Delaney Hafener – An Xperience Interview

Image: Delaney Hafener of the Belle Curves at No Fun, August 7, 2025 – photo by Timothy Reidy

By Liam Sweeny.

If one voice can lead a group of people, then what can be said of a voice that can lead a group of musicians? Delaney Hafener has not only found a sound that belongs on Billboard, but has also managed to navigate and deploy a pool of talent that never stays the same. Please welcome Delaney and her creative Faberge egg, The Belle Curves.

RRX: Tell me a little bit about yourself and also your primary creative vehicle, The Belle Curves.

DH: Where to start? Well, I’m from Long Island originally. I moved up to the 518 area about two years ago, and I started The Belle Curves in 2019. Originally, it was supposed to be a solo project. My old band that I played with in high school and college was kind of fizzling out. And I was like, “I wanna be in control entirely of my music.” And so it started out as a solo project, and then as I started fleshing out my ideas, I pretty quickly realised that I needed other people to help me bring things to life and that there’s only so much that one person can really do. It kind of morphed into my thing, but a lot of different musicians come and go, a sort of rotating cast of characters, but I try to have a pretty consistent live lineup, and each recording process is a little bit different, so, yeah …

RRX: You said there’s a different lineup of musicians that come in and out. Are there some you could name that tend to come in and out the most often?

DH: When I was playing on Long Island and really up until the fall of last year, the primary lineup was Nick Balzano on the drums, Sarah Gross on acoustic guitar and vocals, my dad, Bill Hafener, on electric guitar, and a lot of times my friend Joe Leon would play keys or drums depending on whether or not Nick was available. And then moving upstate, my life went through a lot of changes. My friend Sarah moved to Nashville. Joe started a master’s program. A lot of stuff happened. So now the live lineup is a four-piece, which is a lot easier to wrangle, and we’re all in the same area. Right now, the live band is Jeff Wager on electric guitar. I play bass and sing, obviously. Sabrina Trueheart plays acoustic and sings, and Dylan Travison plays the drums. But then the album is like a whole other mix of people, so it’s a lot of the Long Island folks, Nick and Sarah and Joe, and then Josh Murray and Evan Murray. Josh played guitar, and Evan co-produced, and he’s the producer, multi-instrumentalist guy. So, yeah, that’s everyone, a lot of people. You know, it takes a village.

RRX: I always have a tricky time with genres because some people stick to them, and some people are like, “What’s a genre?” So one of the things I read was that you create queer country and Americana.

DH: Yeah, I was thinking that, like, the country stuff is kind of taking the back seat. The new album really doesn’t have much on it.

RRX: I was gonna say I didn’t really hear much country on the new album. I heard it as almost like a poppy sound for the new album. Not pop, but the kind of music that you just expect to have national acclaim.

DH: I think with the current stuff, I usually describe it as a power pop. Or it varies between a power pop thing and a folk rock thing, like Tom Petty or Big Star. It’s a lot of Beach Boys, too, so I definitely like it when we say pop; I think of the Beach Boys and an art pop kind of thing.

RRX: It sounds really good, and I’m just expecting it to be on Billboard. It sounds like the kind of music you expect to see there.

DH: Thank you.

RRX: You play out all over the place. Where are some of the places that you’ve gone that you really liked?

DH: I live in Troy, so I’m at No Fun a lot, going to shows, and also we’ve played there a ton. It’s a really great community, and a really great scene there, so that’s kind of starting to feel like home base a little bit. But there’s a place out in Oneonta that we’ve played a few times called B Side Ballroom that I really love playing at, and out east on Long Island, near where I grew up, they’re carrying the only torch for keeping any kind of space for original music on Long Island.

RRX: Oh, wow.

DH: Yeah, there’s really not anywhere to play on Long Island if you’re playing original music. It’s pretty tough, and that was part of the reason that I moved upstate. Long Island is not huge, but it’s big. It’s not small. People think Long Island is one place, but it’s really not. Long Island is like five places. And only one spot actually plays original songs.

It’s pretty tough. There are folks swimming upstream and making it happen, but it’s not easy. Whereas here, like around Troy and Albany, I’ve felt so welcomed, and it feels like there are people who will come and see your band again if they like it, regardless of whether or not they know the songs already. When that first started happening, it was so foreign to me.

RRX: OK, here’s one. No Fun. We’re gonna have three bands. The Belle Curves is one of the bands, and the Belle Curves gets to pick the other two bands. You get to pick the other two bands.

DH: Oh man, like local bands?

RRX: Yeah, local bands.

Well, Sabrina Trueheart has been playing with her band a lot lately, and her stuff is really cool, so we’ve played shows together before. I always love seeing her play her solo stuff. Evan Marre – his project is called Russel the Leaf. I love his music so much, so I would probably go for those two.

RRX: There’s a type of music out there that you’ve never played before, and you don’t even know it that well, but it’s something that you’ve always wanted to try to learn, not because you wanted to play it professionally, but just because you just wanted to know how to play it. Is there any kind of music that you wish you knew how to play just for poops and giggles?

DH: I love old-time music, like folk music and really old-school country. I love that stuff so much. I play acoustic guitar, and I can keep up on guitar, but I would love to learn how to play fiddle and really get deep into the weeds of learning old fiddle tunes. I just love that stuff so much, and I never really took the time to dig into it.

RRX: Most people I know who are musicians or any creative thing tend to be good at all creative things. I’m a musician, but I’m also a writer, and I’m also an artist. Are you like that?

DH: I think so. Actually, just last night I started learning how to knit, off of YouTube, to have something. That’s a little bit low stakes. I’ve dabbled in various visual arts. Like, I love to watercolour when I have the chance. I also like decorating my apartment. I do homemaking and home decorating as a pretty significant creative outlet for me, and it’s a living project. It’s fun to thrift and visit estate sales and … more.

RRX: When you do your house and you decorate, do you do it in such a way where you’re gonna be able to sit down and be charged with that kind of energy, and then put it into the creative work that you do?

DH: It’s a very different thing than songwriting or painting or anything like that, because it’s a little bit more on a whim. 

RRX: Is there anything coming up in the near future or the far future?

DH: Near future big news is Tulip Fest. Officially not embargoed on that news anymore, so yeah, we’re playing Tulip Fest on May 9th, which is very exciting. It feels like a big feather in the cap for this band long-term. Long term, I don’t know, I’m just gonna keep doing this and seeing if people are into it, which it seems like they are. So, you know, keep making music. 

RRX: I hope you guys keep doing it because, like I said, you guys are amazing. 

DH: Yeah, thank you.