Kieren Gallear aka DELS talks to Moving On about his career and the creative freedom he gets from taking art and music and making them his own.

Kieren Gallear aka DELS is an astonishingly multi-talented rapper, visual artist and director who has a unique, holistic approach to his work, fusing visual imagery with music in a way that leads the listener through an experience which is more than just auditory. His new album, Petals Have Fallen has just been released and Moving On visited him at his recording studio to find out all about it.

“Petals Have Fallen is a very personal record. The title is about the urge to protect something precious that will ultimately fall apart – it’s more intimate than my first album, GOB. I wanted people to find out more about me and I’m super proud of it. I felt like I was invincible before GOB came out – I wasn’t thinking about the future. I feel there has been a growth in me as a person.

“For this record, I worked a little bit differently. I recorded GOB in my Mum’s back garden in a studio shed that she built for me – this time I was in a proper recording studio with other people. The content of my new album is really personal – I’d written about the death of my grandfather and my best friend so recording these in a studio with other people there worried me at first. It was emotional.

“I write in my own space and my mind works in a visual way. I have loads of visuals pinned up on the walls, films on in the background and vibrant visuals to get my mind moving – that comes from having a design background. I can’t imagine music and visual art without each other – when I hear sound I see pictures and vice versa. They are different entities but go together naturally – they work with each other.

“Music has always been a big part of my life – I grew up surrounded by music and my mum and dad were always searching for the next new thing, whether it was new R & B, house music or jungle, it had to be new.

“I graduated with a degree in graphic design and I worked in a design studio when I finished university, making music for fun. A guy I worked with there encouraged me to push my music work because the design industry will always be there. It’s always good when you come out of uni, to meet someone who encourages and inspires you and I love the creative freedom which comes with putting art and music together and making them your own. I wouldn’t be able to choose between visual art and music and I still work as an art director.

“I play with a live band which is quite unusual for hip hop – a lot of shows are just the artist at the mic and a DJ but I wanted the music to dictate how a live show should come together- I’m still working out how the next record will be put together live – people want to see musicianship when they go to live performances.

“I don’t see myself as a political artist but I think music is really important as a tool for capturing moments in time. You can use it to inspire and to explore your own emotions. 149, a hidden track on the album, is about me being on the 149 bus, going through east London. It’s a story told in reverse, about civil unrest and ends up with me being in a room, watching the news after Mark Duggan got shot. That was my way of documenting that moment in time but I wasn’t making a political point, I was just capturing an important piece of history. I do feel lucky that I have a voice and the opportunity to be heard.

“My music is diverse, which is reflective of me. When I was a kid, I couldn’t settle. I’d be doing boxing one minute, then karate, then basketball – always trying different things and that’s filtered through – my musical taste is so broad. When I went to uni I was exposed to bands I would never have listened to before I went and this has given me a varied sound palette.

“My advice to young people interested in making music is to just make music the way that you want to. Don’t try to emulate what has already been done – it doesn’t feel genuine. Follow your heart and do what you want to do.”