{"id":2246834,"date":"2026-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2246834"},"modified":"2026-11-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-475","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2246834","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tDELILAH MONTAGU IS DONE CHASING PERFECTION<\/span>
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As she prepares to close her three-part EP series, the London-born, LA-based singer-songwriter talks letting go, protecting her peace and finding her way back to the little girl at the piano.<\/h3>\n
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\"Delilah<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

There\u2019s a particular kind of bravery in leaving a song alone. For Delilah Montagu<\/a>, a self-confessed perfectionist who can lose hours to the smallest detail, it has become the defining lesson of her latest work. Every track on her new EP, \u201cThe Bird, The Sky, and All the Reasons Why\u201d, was written in a single day. When she and producer Phil Simmonds went back to re-record a lead vocal or change a lyric, they found themselves returning to the original every time. Whatever they had caught in those first few hours simply couldn\u2019t be made twice.<\/p>\n

Arriving next month, the EP completes a three-part journey that began with \u2018The Bird\u2019 and continued with \u201cThe Sky\u201d. Together, the projects explore growing up, womanhood and freedom, all set against her move from London to LA and the obstacles she met along the way. Looking back across all three, Montagu says she can hear many different versions of herself, a fitting reflection for music that captures moments in time rather than following a polished plan.<\/p>\n

First comes \u201cBe A Friend\u201d, the latest single from the project. On the surface, it\u2019s about what it means to show up for the people around you. Underneath, it\u2019s about learning to offer yourself that same kindness. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019m still figuring out,\u201d she admits, and that honesty runs through everything she shares here.<\/p>\n

Many listeners first met Montagu\u2019s voice through her GRAMMY-winning collaborations with Fred again.. and with Black Coffee and David Guetta. Her solo work offers something more intimate: a songwriter using music to understand her own life as she lives it. That process is closely tied to her spirituality, which she describes less as one particular practice than as a way of staying connected to herself and the world around her. \u201cSometimes I\u2019ll write something and only realise afterwards what I was actually trying to say,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

LA may be where she has done much of her growing up, but Montagu remains a Londoner at heart, something that\u2019s easy to forget. It\u2019s there in her sense of humour, in her urge to walk the city and ride the tube whenever she returns, and in her partnership with Simmonds, a fellow Londoner whose gift is reminding her why they started writing something in the first place.<\/p>\n

Now, as the trilogy draws to a close, Montagu is making peace with some difficult truths: that you can love people deeply and still disappoint them, that not every painful feeling needs fixing right away, and that a song can be finished before it is perfect. Above all, she is reconnecting with the child who simply wanted to sit at a piano and write about how she felt.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the EP\u2019s release, she talks about LA, London, letting go and all the reasons why.<\/p>\n

Listen to\u00a0\u201cBe A Friend\u201d\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Congratulations on \u201cBe A Friend\u201d, which arrives just ahead of \u201cThe Bird, The Sky, and All the Reasons Why\u201d next month. As this three-part journey comes to a close, how does it feel to finally be sharing this new music, and what does \u201cBe A Friend\u201d mean to you at this moment in your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite surreal, actually! I think when I was making this music, I was so wrapped up in the process that I didn\u2019t\u00a0 stop to realise what I was creating. Looking back at these three projects, I can hear so many different versions of myself, and I love that. \u201cBe A Friend\u201d feels particularly special to me because I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about what it really means to show up for people, but also what it means to show up for yourself. I think I\u2019ve spent a lot of my life learning how to be there for other people, and more recently I\u2019ve been learning that you have to extend that same kindness and understanding to yourself. It\u2019s something I\u2019m still figuring out, but that\u2019s what makes the song feel so relevant to me right now.<\/p>\n

So much of this EP was shaped by your move from London to LA. Once the initial thrill had settled, what did the city ask of you that home never had?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think LA really forced me to get to know myself. When you move somewhere completely new, away from everything familiar, you suddenly have to figure out who you are without all the people and places you\u2019ve always known. London will always be home, but I think there\u2019s something quite liberating about starting again somewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had to learn how to be comfortable on my own, how to trust my instincts and how to build a life that actually felt like mine. It wasn\u2019t easy, and there were definitely moments when I felt completely lost, but I think those moments ended up teaching me the most. I feel like I\u2019ve grown up a lot here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What about you remains unmistakably London, and where do you find yourself drawn to first whenever you return?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My sense of humour is probably the most London thing about me. I love how British people don\u2019t take themselves too seriously, and I think that\u2019s something I\u2019ll always hold on to.<\/p>\n

Honestly whenever I go back, I just want to walk around everywhere, get on the tube, see my friends and spend time in all the places that remind me of growing up. There\u2019s something really comforting about knowing a city so well. I love LA, but London will always be my home<\/p>\n

Your creative partnership with fellow Londoner Phil Simmonds has run through this entire trilogy, from The Bird, to now. What does he understand about you as an artist that others might miss, and how has that trust changed the way you work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think Phil understands that for me, the feeling always has to come first. I can be incredibly particular about things, and I have a tendency to overthink absolutely everything, but he has this amazing ability to bring me back to why we started writing something in the first place.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something really special about working with someone who knows you so well creatively. You don\u2019t have to explain yourself all the time, and you don\u2019t have to be afraid of having a terrible idea. I think that freedom is so important. We\u2019ve made so much music together now, and I think the trust we\u2019ve built has allowed me to be much more instinctive and less precious about the process. Sometimes the most beautiful moments happen when you stop trying to make everything perfect.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve spoken about being a perfectionist, someone who plans everything and protects her work fiercely. Is there a moment on this EP that an earlier version of you would have fixed, and what did it feel like to leave it exactly as it was?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every song on this EP was written in a day, and we made a conscious decision to keep the original vocals and stay as true as possible to what we\u2019d created in those first few hours. There were definitely moments when we went back and tried to re-record a lead vocal or change a lyric, but every single time, we ended up coming back to the original version. There was something about the feeling we\u2019d captured in that moment that we just couldn\u2019t recreate.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been a perfectionist, especially with my music. I can spend hours obsessing over the smallest details, re-recording vocals and convincing myself that something could always be better. So this project really challenged that part of me. It\u2019s taught me that just because you can make something more polished doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re making it better. Sometimes the little imperfections are what make something feel real, and there\u2019s something really beautiful about capturing a feeling exactly as it happened. It\u2019s been a huge lesson in letting go, trusting my instincts and knowing when to walk away and let a song exist as it is.<\/p>\n

Your spirituality is such an important part of who you are, what does that practice look like in your everyday life, and how does it guide you when you\u2019re writing through something painful?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, spirituality is really about trying to stay connected to myself and the world around me. It\u2019s not necessarily one particular practice, but more about the way I try to live my life. I\u2019ve spent a lot of time looking outside myself for answers, and the older I get, the more I realise how important it is to be able to sit with yourself, even when things feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Music has always been a huge part of that for me. When I\u2019m going through something painful, writing gives me a way to understand what I\u2019m feeling without necessarily needing to have all the answers. Sometimes I\u2019ll write something and only realise afterwards what I was actually trying to say. I think there\u2019s something quite magical about that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m learning that not every difficult feeling needs to be fixed immediately. Sometimes you just have to allow yourself to feel it, and often that\u2019s where the most honest music comes from. Self-confidence, womanhood and freedom all run through this record, as does the idea of protecting your peace. What does it truly mean to you, and what has it cost you to honour it?<\/p>\n

For a long time I confused being a good person with making sure everyone around me was happy. I was so worried about disappointing people or upsetting anyone that I didn\u2019t always stop to think about what I actually needed. The hardest part has been learning to be okay with disappointing people. But I\u2019m beginning to understand that you can love people deeply and still make decisions that are right for you. For me, freedom is being able to live honestly, without constantly feeling like you have to explain or justify who you are.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve described this project as a return to the child who simply wanted to write a song. As you bring the trilogy to a close, what do you think she would make of the woman you\u2019ve become?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think she\u2019d be quite amazed, to be honest. Not necessarily because of anything I\u2019ve achieved, but because I\u2019m still doing the thing I loved most when I was little.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re a child, you don\u2019t really think about whether something is successful or whether other people are going to like it. You just do it because you love it. I think as you get older, especially when something you love becomes your career, it\u2019s quite easy to lose sight of that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been trying to reconnect with that little girl a lot recently. The one who just wanted to sit at a piano and write songs about how she felt. I think she\u2019d be proud of me.<\/p>\n

For anyone discovering your music for the first time through this EP, which song would you play them first, and where in the world would you want them to be listening to it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think I\u2019d play them \u201cchanged but nothing\u2019s different\u201d. There\u2019s something about that song that feels like a really honest introduction to who I am as an artist. Feeling like everything has changed but everything has stayed the same all at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved the idea that music can make you feel understood, even when you\u2019re completely alone. Some of my favourite moments with music have been when I\u2019ve heard a song and felt like someone I\u2019ve never met has somehow managed to put into words exactly what I\u2019m feeling. If my music can give someone even a little bit of that feeling, then that\u2019s everything to me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t9 November 2026\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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Feature Interview<\/a><\/div>\n
Music<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tWonderland Loves<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland DELILAH MONTAGU IS DONE CHASING PERFECTION As she prepares to close her three-part EP series, the London-born, LA-based singer-songwriter talks letting go, protecting her peace and finding her way back to the little girl at the piano. There\u2019s a particular kind of bravery in leaving a song alone. For Delilah Montagu, a self-confessed perfectionist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-2246834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2246834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2246834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2246834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2246834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}