Pic:Michael Donovan
A man with more AKAs than Prince, Teren Delvon Jones, is a seasoned rapper and hip-hop artist. Over the years he has gone by the monikers “Del the Funkee Homosapien”, “Sir Dzl” and “Del the Ghost Rapper”, amongst others.
Del is touring Australia at the end of this month with the outfit “Deltron 3030”, which also includes Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Skiznod the Boy Wonder (turntablist Kid Koala). They will be playing at The Gov, in Adelaide, on the 26th February.
We spoke to Del from his home in California, just prior to his upcoming tour.
So what music was Del brought up with, and what attracted him to the hip-hop genre?
Growing up, I was listening to all sorts of music: Jazz, reggae, classical. I was a gifted student at school and I wrote poetry and stuff. But the RAP really got my attention. It was more street. I was into performers like Richard Prior. So I liked RAP coz it was more dirty stuff.
In 2010, Del released an album called “It Ain’t Illegal yet”, and made the bold move of having no fixed price for it. Listeners could pay what they wished, but certain prices attracted certain other incentives, such as the chance to collaborate. What drove that marketing decision?
I make music all the time. I study music theory. I take it seriously; you know what I’m sayin,? Sometimes you just want people to hear something. These days you can put your album on Sound Cloud. I want people to be aware of what I’m doing: to see how I’m developing.
The Deltron 3030 project: What brought the three of them together and where did the concept come from?
The concept came from me, and it just grew over time. I kept adding themes that would then become another character. Then I started working with the other two, and they added their pieces. It just grew from there.
Deltron 3030 was put together for a concept album in 2000. The next album didn’t appear until 2013. Why the long hiatus?
We never designed it to come out with another album. In fact the first one didn’t even do that well when it came out. It just became popular over the years. It was just meant to be a concept album. But with the second one I wanted to concentrate more on the sci-fi themes rather than the technical stuff.
With the up-coming tour of Australia, what can we expect?
This will be more like a rock band, with lots of instruments on stage. Not like a conceptual thing.
Is there anyone particular Del would like to collaborate with, or any genres he’d like to explore, in the future?
I’m into electronic music; that’s where my focus is at. It’s expanded greatly now. There are things I can get easily now that I couldn’t before. But there’s no point in aiming for genres, because that’s all busted wide open.
You, know, at the core, my work is soulful, funky music.
We are looking forward to seeing Del bust those genres wide-open, here in Adelaide.
By Tracey Korsten
Witness the Deltron 3030 live experience across Australia in February 2015
BRISBANE – Wed 25th FEB @ The Hi Fi
ADELAIDE – Thu 26th FEB @ The Gov
MELBOURNE – Fri 27th FEB @ The Hi Fi
SYDNEY – Sat 28th FEB @ The Hi Fi
PERTH – Sun 1st MARCH @ The Bakery
Tickets on sale now from: http://www.metropolistouring.com/tour.php?tour=2015_deltron3030
https://delthefunkyhomosapien.bandcamp.com/
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