Premiere: The Calm Chaos of Nick Delffs’ “Running Moon”

Nick Delffs © Ingrid Renan
Nick Delffs © Ingrid Renan
Recommended If You Like: Dire Straits, Lord Huron, Bruce Springsteen
A rush of restless energy and passion envelops Nick Delffs’ relentlessly driving new single “Running Moon,” an honest outpouring of intimate thoughts and humble feelings that immediately capture the heart and arrest the soul.

Come on baby there’s a world outside
Everything is moving in and out with the tide
I saw the moon and it looked alive
Spirit is restless and out of control
I guess there’s nothing you can do but let it go
Just let it go
Listen: “Running Moon” – Nick Delffs
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Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Running Moon,” the latest single off Nick Delffs’ upcoming debut album Redesign (out July 21, 2017 via Mama Bird Recording Co). The former frontman to Portland’s The Shaky Hands opens his solo record with incredible form, inviting us to share in his world through a warm, pulsing mix of guitar and piano.

Redesign - Nick Delffs
Redesign – Nick Delffs
I love the way you talk to me
You put me down then you set me free
You had your way with my body
And what did you find there?
Was it anything new?
I just can’t help but wonder
What am I to you… What am I to you?

Evoking the likes of Lord Huron, Springsteen and Dire Straits, “Running Moon” sports an infectiously upbeat tempo over emphatically intimate lyrics. Delffs’ words speak to several recent life changes: He became a father, he relocated to Idaho, he took up an assortment of new jobs, and so much more. All this and more come together in shaping the identity that flows clear as day through Redesign, and comes in strong on “Running Moon.”

Delffs explains his album opener thusly: “When the moon is full and low and you’re in the backseat and it’s running alongside you. Years later you are running under the blood moon having an identity crisis. Picking up the pieces. Staying strong.​” This is the poetry of a man who has been venturing from, and toward himself all his life; we feel instability in the chorus as he sings,

But don’t be violent with a fragile man
If I’m climbing down this tower I’m gonna need a hand
Need a hand
Lend me a hand

yet such instability is countered with a spark of contentment – Delffs may deny it, but he seems comfortable in the chaos. At least, his music is.

If life is a balancing act, then we are all striving to understand ourselves and our ultimate context. The struggle is that we are always changing; we are developing, growing, learning and adapting every day of our lives, such that should we ever come to fully understand ourselves, surely we will be at a loss again, tomorrow. “Running Moon” evokes that evasive attitude toward stagnation – movement is key to survival.

When the moon is bright
and I feel alive
Don’t wanna die
when the moon is bright
and I feel alive
in the strange new light
running wild

It’s time to join the ratrace: Get in the car, rev the engine, and drive. Nick Delffs’ “Running Moon” captures the relentless spirit of youth in its second season, embracing the world for better and worse in an ecstasy that is sure to be greeted with thunderous applause.

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:: pre-order Redesign here ::

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Redesign - Nick Delffs

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cover © Ingrid Renan
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