Delaney Bailey
A fine artist will imprint emotion on canvas with strong and intentional brushstrokes.
Though she may not exactly be putting brush to canvas, Delaney Bailey imprints heavy feelings of heartbreak, betrayal, isolation, and uncertainty onto her music with alternately ethereal and expressive vocals. Her dynamic voice feels right at home layered into the fabric of otherworldly beat-craft, expansive sonic vistas, and living and breathing soundscapes.
Amassing hundreds of millions of streams and earning critical acclaim, she paints a portrait of who she is on her 2025 full-length debut LP, Concave [AWAL].
“To me, paintings look like they have sounds, and music sounds like it could be a painting,” she observes. “The new material is based on romanticism. In the context of art, romanticism is the celebration of nature’s power and the glorification of emotion, individuality, and rebellion against tradition. The people are depicted super tiny, and the landscapes are the focus. The album is full of big and interesting moments meant to parallel the power of nature as portrayed in romantic artwork. The songs are about struggles I’ve dealt with in the past and present—whether it be grief, relationships, and motherhood with a question mark. Conceptually, I’m being introspective, dramatic, and emotional. My goal is to create a world for listeners.”
Growing up in Indiana, Delaney uncovered her passion for music early on. Given that she was named after Jimmy Buffet’s daughter, it’s perhaps no surprise. She went from listening to Norah Jones and Adele to My Chemical Romance, Pierce The Veil, Nick Drake, Lorde, and Grizzly Bear. Simultaneously, she honed her voice by singing in theater and choir throughout high school. With seven siblings, she had an unpredictable and interesting childhood, to say the least. As such, she developed keen empathy and a heightened sense of understanding.
“Since I grew up around so many different individuals, it became an important skill to learn why others were feeling the way they were and, in turn, why I was feeling how I was,” she goes on. “I knew what mood everybody would be in based on what was going and how to navigate it. I’ve always had an ability to look internally, and I don’t take it for granted. Maybe it contributed to me growing up a little too fast, but it makes for good songwriting.”
In the middle of freshman year at Indiana University Bloomington, she endured an intense breakup and chose to write songs as an outlet. Her early uploads resonated online, so she bought a professional Focusrite audio interface (thanks to her followers sending money in a show of support), Ableton, and a microphone.
Launching her career, she dropped “Loving & Losing,” and it exploded online. In its wake, she picked up the pace with “Coffee Stained Smile” and the This Is About You EP highlighted by “Finish Line” and “For You.” However, the songstress reached critical mass with the breakout “j’s lullaby (darlin’i’d wait for you),” amassing 128 million Spotify streams and landing on The New York Times’ “Best Songs of 2022.” Her prolific streak continued with (i would have followed you) [2022], what we leave behind EP [2023], and Chiaroscuro EP [2024]. HitsDailyDouble applauded the latter as “a poignant reminder that even in the depths of pain there is always a glimmer of light to lead the way,” and OnesToWatch christened her “a natural-born storyteller.”
2025 saw her hunker down and assemble what would become Concave. Nodding to everything from the aforementioned romanticism movement to Imogen Heap and eighties dark like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and Voyage of the Unicorn, she approached the process with a clear-eyed intent.
“I wanted to have more of a vision,” she reveals. “Before I started working on the last EP, my grandma passed away. It made me realize nothing really matters except for the people in your life. I took a pretty long break from writing before she passed. Afterwards, I had all of these emotions I didn’t know what to do with, and it was nice to have an outlet. Chiaroscuro is the difference between lights and darks in painting. I continued the theme of bringing art history into my art.”
She introduces this era with the single “Lion.” Pinned to a gothic house music rhythm, bass pulsates beneath icy vocals accented by sparse synths. Delaney’s hypnotic high register practically hovers on the hook until handclaps accelerate the tempo. She softly laments, “It’s clear there’s no way out of this, life is seeming somewhat cavernous.”
“As a woman, ‘having children’ is thrown in your face quite a bit,” she sighs. “I’m only 24, and I’ve experienced it a lot. I was in a relationship where I knew the other person wanted children, and I didn’t know if I did or not. ‘Lion’ is about not knowing if I want to bear my own children and being angry at others who have this expectation. It’s one of my first angry releases. It’s starkly different from what I’ve done before, so I wanted the first release to pack a punch.”
Speaking of, “Wake Up” further evinces her evolution. Layers of vocal transmissions warble robotically as she sets the scene, “Get drunk and ruin the party, walk home alone.”
“I love vocal stacking, maybe it’s the concert choir kid in me,” she smiles. “‘Wake Up’ is about realizing you’re in a depression hole and nobody can get you out of it except for yourself.”
Then, there’s “Retainer” where she explores a critical moment of self-awareness in an effort to heal. “You’re realizing something’s wrong and you don’t like where you are,” she elaborates. “You’re trying to discern whether it’s just anxiety or something else to worry about it. You also recognize you have to get over it.”
Ultimately, Delaney continues to progress both personally and artistically, making an emotional masterpiece of her own.
“I’m moving forward,” she leaves off. “Releasing this comes with a wave of relief. I’m able to get past all of these feelings. If you listen to this, I’d just love for you to feel seen.”