An alt-rock band with a lot of pop sensibility, Northlake came into existence after the dissolution of Burning Bridges, a metal band bassist Devlin Manning and guitarist Dylan Ackelbein started in their mid-teens.
“It was a four-piece band with about 20 members,” Manning says with a laugh. “It was more of a pet project. With this one, we are taking it a lot more seriously. Like, this is what we want our careers to be. I want to be 80 years old, hooked up to oxygen, wheeled out in front of 80,000 people in the stadium, you know? I want to be doing this for the rest of my life.”
Making the switch from metal band to alt-rock was a trajectory Burning Bridges had been on before calling it quits, but the real switch happened when Manning and Ackelbein found singer Austin Deloach hanging out in a small studio in Fort Worth.
“He didn't even work there,” Manning says. “He just hung out at the studio and ended up singing like a couple of harmonies and one of our tracks. We got his Instagram and then didn't talk to him for two and a half years. Then the pandemic happened, and I think we all were kind of done with that project by then.
“After, like, another failed audition, I see Austin singing a Matt Maeson song [on Instagram], and I immediately sent it to Dylan at five in the morning, and I'm like, ‘Who is this guy?’ I didn't recognize him from the studio.”
Unknown to those who'd later become his band members, Deloach was in a real time of crisis in his life and nearly missed his opportunity to be a part of the band because he simply didn’t have enough money to answer the call to tell him that he was in.
“I was homeless at the time, and I was living in my car,” Deloach says. “I didn't have enough money at the time to pay for my ... phone bill. So, I couldn't talk to anybody, basically. I don't remember how I got in contact with the guys again, but I did. I started coming to practices, and a month later, I let Devlin know what was happening.”
“We had no idea that he was living in his car,” Manning chimes in. “I said, ‘No, you're not. Come on over.’”
The two have been living together ever since. Being in a band that comprises old friends and new roommates was a welcome change of pace from the revolving door of bandmates Manning and Ackelbein had seen during their time with Burning Bridges.
“It definitely makes it easier, but I also think it makes it harder sometimes,” Ackelbein says. “I think it makes the music better, but it makes some things difficult. Not only do we have to balance a professional relationship, but it's also a personal one. The cool thing about us being good enough friends is that we understand that we can be jerks to each other whenever we're writing a song because we're just trying to do the best job that we can.”
"I want to be 80 years old, hooked up to oxygen, wheeled out in front of 80,000 people in the stadium, you know? I want to be doing this for the rest of my life.” – Devlin Manning
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The band’s new song “Capo” is about inner turmoil, told from the perspective of someone who feels lost and is hopelessly trying to find inner peace through bad relationships and substance abuse without ever truly understanding who they are. The song’s title was once just a placeholder for an untitled song — named as such because it's the only Northlake song in which Manning uses a guitar capo, a clamp that's placed on the guitar neck.
“When I write songs, I never really know what the hell I'm writing about when I'm writing it, but when it's done, I can kind of see what I'm talking about,” Deloach says. “I look at these grudges that I'm holding on to, and kind of move past them and deal with them in a healthy manner. This one is a lot about me living in that car and smoking two packs of cigarettes and just freaking out about not knowing where to eat. It's definitely about my inner demons and fighting myself.”
The band describes the song’s new video as very "Twilight Zone-y" with its hidden messages and double meanings that complement Deloach’s lyrics about facing oneself as one’s own worst enemy.
Out of the ashes of the old rises something new. For Manning and Ackelbein, it was a new band rising up from one that had crashed and burned. For Deloach, it's the new life for which he'd struggled to find.
“It’s definitely like season two in my life,” Deloach says. “I've been waiting to be able to express myself. I feel like I'm not really focused on becoming something anymore. It's more just finding myself through music, being able to focus on all the music knowing that I'm actually going somewhere, and I don't have to force it onto people. People are just kind of going to it. It's relaxing honestly, and terrifying.”
Watch the premiere of "Capo" below:
