It’s nothing short of a fanboy’s dream come true to work with your idol, so it’s certainly curious to hear that incoming Splendour In The Grass visitors Delphic pulled the plug on recording sessions with one of the biggest acts in modern dance music, and their own personal heroes, The Chemical Brothers.

Speaking to singer/bassist James Cook of the Manchester dance troupe this week, ITM probed (tee-hee) the Delphic leader about some of the group’s influences, with Cook citing the Chems at the top of the list.

“The Chemical Brothers have been really important to us,” Cook began. “I remember waiting all day in the front row for them at Glastonbury in like ’02 or ’03 and just being blown away by their live show. And when we were first getting approached by record labels we said that we’d only sign a contract if the label could start a conversation between us and The Chemical Brothers to get Tom Rowlands to produce the album. And I couldn’t believe it but it actually happened, and Tom got in touch and started working on [big first single] Counterpoint.”

So just what the hell happened? According to Cook, the near-perfect pairing of Delphic and The Chemical Brothers just “didn’t quite work out in the end”.

“It was unfortunate because what he did just sounded awesome. It sounded too awesome, it was like a Chemical Brothers track,” he said. “We were very focused on what Delphic should sound like and, as much as we admire them, it wasn’t what they sound like. It was the strangest experience to almost be working with them and then to turn it in.”

Man, to think what could’ve been! Sniff, we ‘spose Ewan Pearson isn’t too bad a choice then. (*Kicks empty can down street*)

There’ll be more Delphic goodness on the way with ITM’s full interview forthcoming. In the meantime, check out the Delphic sideshow dates below along with the video for Doubt.

Delphic’s Splendour sideshows:

Sunday 1 August – The Corner, Melbourne
Monday 2 August – Uni Bar, Adelaide
Tuesday 3 August – The Gaelic, Sydney
Wednesday 4 August – Grand, Wollongong