Interview: Delacey Shares Vulnerability and Creative Process on 'The Girl Has A Dream'

Written by Gordon Beck, Photography by Lissy Laricchia

Delacey is a master of moody songcraft. She started her career in the mid-2010s as a writer for other artists including The Chainsmokers, Demi Lovato, and Halsey – the latter earning her DIAMOND certification with her hit “Without Me.” Just as the pandemic hit, Delacey took a new direction with her career by becoming a standalone artist with her album Black Coffee, drawing praise from Billboard, American Songwriter and more. Now 2023 marks a dramatic return with her album The Girl Has A Dream which serves as an unfiltered journey through thoughts, desires, dreams, and insecurities while spotlighting her airy vocals and raw, relatable lyricism. Her sophomore album is packed with achingly thought-provoking tracks, each finding real-life inspiration – from bad therapy sessions and anxiety attacks on plane rides to gut-wrenching heartbreaks, and even death. Surrounded by an artsy café in downtown Manhattan, I had the chance to sit down with Delacey and chat about the vulnerability in her lyricism, her creative process, and the story of how she came into her own moving to NYC as a broke and depressed 19-year-old. 

Gordon: You moved to New York on a whim with a friend after dropping out of school. What was that like?

Delacey: I was 19 or 20. I think I was 20 because I had a fake ID. We were really broke, and we just did it. We lived in like the crappiest place. It was so gross. There were rats living with us. There wasn't a kitchen in it. We didn't even have real beds. But those were amazing times, and I was so inspired. I mean, I was really depressed. But this city has always been an inspiring place for me. That's why I keep coming back to make music here. My debut album I made in Brooklyn. And then the new one was in upstate, but I still haven't made a full record in my hometown, which is funny.

Gordon: You went on to work with a lot of major artists, like Halsey, The Chainsmokers, Justin Bieber, G-Eazy, to name a few. Do you feel you had a big break moment? 

Delacey: I don't feel like I had one big break. My career has always been slow and such a struggle. I can't really look back and be like, this was such a big moment for me and everything changed. There were a lot of little moments that did that. My first pop cut was with The Chainsmokers. That was a big deal for me. I was only 19 at the time. I didn't even know songwriting for other people was a thing. I was living in New York City, and I wrote that song, and sometime after I decided to move back to LA, back home. I ran out of money basically. One of my friends acted as my manager, and he sent that song around, and it randomly led to me getting a publishing deal at this small label. They signed me as an artist and a writer. It was a pretty shitty deal, honestly, but it was a big deal to me. They gave me like a $15,000 check and I was like, I'm rich.

Gordon: You're currently becoming just as much a standalone artist as the people that you've written for. You have an album already out, and the next one is right around the corner. What has the transition been like for you these past few years? 

Delacey: The pandemic was really hard for everybody. I feel like that goes without saying. I hear from some people that their whole life changed for the better during the pandemic, and they realized what they really wanted to be doing with their life or some inspiring, amazing story. I'm really happy for them. That's not what happened to me. I was supposed to go on tour. I put out my debut album that I worked what felt like my whole life to do the day of the first shut down. That's honestly the least of what happened to me. I suffered a lot of loss during the pandemic. I ended up coming out of it and I'm okay now, but it was a really hard for a few years. And that's why I say this album feels like three years in the making, because I started it September 2020. So much happened to me in my personal life that I couldn't make music anymore. Like the universe was telling me that I shouldn't be an artist. But the album just kept coming back to me, and people kept streaming my music, and that was beautiful in spite of me giving them nothing.

Gordon: Do you have plans to properly go on tour now with the new one?

Delacey: I hope so. I definitely have plans to perform lots of live shows for people because I didn't get to do that with my first album, which was heartbreaking.

Gordon: You have a pension for vulnerability. You put your flaws and your insecurities out there and you inspire other people to do the same. What is that like for you?

Delacey: I go to music for every different kind of mood. I've been like that my whole life. I go to writing as a way of catharsis. It helps me. I don't even do it on purpose. It feels kind of like my way of communicating. It's a way that I'm the most open. In my personal relationships, I don't like to talk about my feelings that much. That's what's really funny. When it comes to my music, I say everything so plainly and flat out. 

Gordon: Have partners ever found out about something from your songs? 

Delacey: Oh yeah. It's been a constant problem in my relationships of like, what are you trying to say in this song?

Gordon: You did some of the production on this new album. Have you done that before? 

Delacey: As a female in the music industry, it’s not the norm unfortunately. Women are so often not considered the producer. When I look back on my whole writing career, I was a part of the production of basically every song I've ever been a part of. I co-produced the new album with my collaborator. He is like the biggest advocate for females, and he basically only works with women. I love him. He's amazing. The music we make together is very collaborative. It's not even a question, you know? The writing and the songwriting, the lyrics, the melodies, the production. And all of it. Luckily, my artist project is something that I have a lot of freedom to be a producer on because it's hard out there for women. If you're a dude in the room and you play the guitar on something, you’re automatically given production credit. If I'm a female in there doing that, it doesn't happen. 

Gordon: You traveled to a remote cabin upstate to record. Tell me about that process. Do you have a relationship with upstate New York?

Delacey: I do now. I never did before though. I honestly had never been up there. But I'm obsessed with it now. It was covid, and it was peak quarantine times. But it was nice because it just made us stay focused. We would be up till 4:00 AM having the best time. We put the drums up in the loft because that's the only place they fit. The piano was in the corner. We had to move some furniture, which we scratched the floor a little. It wasn't good. Airbnb. We set the speakers looking out at the lake and the trees, and we didn't really move anything. I love how we kind of captured a sound just by our environment. The reverb was so natural. Big ceiling, stone wall right here.

Gordon: One last question, do you have any advice for young artists that want to move to the city?

Delacey: Don't do it. And then if you do it anyways, you were meant to do it. I was told not to, and I did it anyways because I just had to. And if you just have to do it, you'll do it anyways.

That night after the interview I was invited to hear Delacey perform at an intimate venue nearby. Amidst red, velvety curtains in a dim, brooding speakeasy, Delacey took the stage in all black and stockings to give a performance that sounded as haunting live as the finished album recordings. The Girl Has A Dream is out now and waiting to share its creator’s most vulnerable moments. You can catch Delacey live at Austin City Limits on July 18th, details found here.