A Conversation With Delaney Young
Following the release of her debut EP, I caught up with Delaney Young to discuss songwriting, inspiration, a Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and much more.
Hi Pal,
About Delaney Young: Delaney Young is an indie Christian singer-songwriter based in Chicago. With a background in classical piano, her music marries the aural aesthetics of mellow indie-folk with the chordal structures of alternative/indie/jazz, all with an emphasis on unconventional, evocative lyricism. Her songs explore themes of love and loss, faith and mystery, home and self.
Introduction
Rarely do I review albums or EPs unsolicited these days, but Delaney Young’s compelling music prompted an immediate response. I knew I wanted to discuss the project with her, but I first needed to ensure my understanding and appreciation of her EP remained independent.
Having gained her perspective, I'm struck by the profundity of her life experiences and her remarkable gift for discerning deep spiritual insights within everyday occurrences. This interview offers a rich and captivating exploration, and I hope you find it as resonant as I did.
The Conversation
Q: Hi Delaney. How are you doing, and how is 2025 going for you so far?
I'm doing really well. 2025 has been a full and vibrant year so far. It hasn't been particularly restful, but it's been filled with new experiences and a sense that the Lord is bringing freshness and new things into my life. Recently, I've had the opportunity to play at some friends' weddings, release an EP and a single titled “As I Am” with The Gospel Coalition, and participate in a songwriting retreat with talented musicians in Holland, Michigan. I'm also currently working on more songs and music. Overall, this year has felt incredibly full, life-giving, and creative.
Q: What has the reception been for you in the weeks that “Sufferwell” has been out?
The response to this EP has been amazing, a clear display of God's grace through people's reactions. As an artist, your relationship with your own music shifts throughout the lengthy production of something like "Sufferwell," and by the end, I felt somewhat detached. While I was proud and excited for its release, the initial resonance had faded. I was a little unsure how it would be received. However, I've been deeply touched by numerous accounts of these songs meeting people in their struggles, articulating their unspoken feelings, sometimes for months or even years. It seems the music has offered companionship during dark and difficult times.
This is the hope I have for my music: to be a companion and a friend. My ultimate desire is for it to glorify God and to reassure fellow Christians that they are not alone in their faith journey, encompassing not just the joyful mountaintops of new beginnings but also the difficult valleys, feelings of emptiness, and spiritual darkness.
My initial motivation for writing music stemmed from a perceived gap in Christian music—a need for more songs addressing struggle, wrestling, and suffering. Many songs seemed to focus on only a small portion of the Christian experience, neglecting the significant aspect of hardship. The life of faith can indeed be thorny, challenging, embarrassing, lonely, and disappointing. While the Bible extensively addresses these realities, much of our Christian music hasn't fully reflected this.
Perhaps it's simpler to create songs with clear-cut, factual messages, like "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back." That's wonderful, but what about the times when we contemplate turning back? Where is the music that sustains us, supports us, and provides language and a walking stick through those moments of wavering? These experiences are common, and I know I'm not alone in them.
The overwhelmingly positive reception has been incredible. I was inundated with messages upon its February release and continue to receive heartfelt messages from both acquaintances and strangers who felt compelled to share how "Sufferwell" has impacted them. This has been so encouraging, and I've witnessed God's kindness and the power of connection through it. Often, the intricacies of music production can become all-consuming, causing the broader vision to blur. However, these responses have clarified the true purpose of my music: the ripple effect of God speaking through me to touch lives, using my limited abilities and time to bless many. It's a miraculous multiplication, and I am profoundly honoured to play a part.
Q: What was the inspiration behind the song “Sufferwell”, and why did you choose to use it as the EP name?
The song "Sufferwell" originated on the final day of the Camino de Santiago, a historic pilgrimage hike in Spain dating back to the 5th century. Traditionally, Christian pilgrims walked this route, sometimes from great distances like France or even Jerusalem, to visit the burial site of St. James. Over time, various routes have emerged from this original path.
For me, the Camino was a long-held bucket list item that I incorporated into a personal pilgrimage of backpacking, writing, reading, and reflection. Instead of the typical 40-day journey from Southern France, I undertook the last ten days in Spain.
The experience was profoundly engaging both mentally and spiritually, a common draw for many pilgrims seeking to process trauma or joy, reconnect with faith, or encounter spirituality anew through the daily act of walking and contemplation.
However, I was equally struck by the physical demands of the journey. Walking 12 to 13 miles daily led to blisters, sore feet, aching legs, and exhaustion, requiring considerable endurance to continue each day. This physical aspect prompted reflection on the tendency, particularly within the Western church (though not globally), to overspiritualize life and our divine calling, often neglecting the significance of the body – its diseases, disabilities, and limitations – in our worship and service.
These thoughts on the nature of suffering, both mental/spiritual and physical, in the pursuit of Christ continued as I walked. While acknowledging the disparity between temporary discomforts like blisters and chronic suffering, the Camino sparked a connection. On the final day, at a cafe specifically for participants of the pilgrimage, offering instruments, therapy, and creative outlets for processing the journey, I found myself in a quiet courtyard with guitars. Picking one up, I began writing, and "Sufferwell" emerged almost fully formed, with the verse and chorus arriving within an hour. The bridge came later as I sought to complete the song for the EP, delving into its core meaning. This deeper exploration, revisited with my producer Daniel months later, proved crucial to the song's final form.
The bridge's lines synthesised the song's ideas, and looking at the broader project, I recognised a unifying theme: "the scars of our devotion to the notion that God is not far." These are the physical and mental marks of seeking God, of striving in faith, with the inevitable stumbles and resulting bruises. They are the scars of a journey of stumbling discovery.
This realisation led to the overarching concept of "suffering well," which ties all the songs together. The prelude, "Into Your Hands," embodies this surrender even before hardship arises, committing ourselves to God's care, relinquishing expectations of life and what we think we are owed. This act of surrender, I believe, is the first step in suffering well.
"Prodigal" then offers the familiar story from the Father's perspective, extending a complex invitation. The lyrics acknowledge the difficulty in admitting our spiritual or physical destitution. Recognising our lack and the depravity it leaves us with is essential to truly accepting God's paternal love.
"Yet" is a pivotal connector, presenting numerous "ifs and whens" before posing the central question: Will you stand again and rejoice despite your circumstances? It's a rebellion against despair, defeat, and disillusionment rooted in Habakkuk 3 (which almost became the song's title). This song marks the crucial pivot: acknowledging lack, surrendering to reality, and then choosing to rise and declare, "yet I will rejoice."
Following "Sufferwell," the EP concludes with a reprise of "Into Your Hands." This cyclical structure is deliberate, beginning with surrender before the unknown and ending with renewed commitment after experiencing various forms of suffering. Musically, the final track is intentionally lower, deeper, grittier, and more grounded in the key of G, reflecting the weight of the journey and the experiences encountered.
Q: How do you blend your classical music training with indie folk sensibilities in your songwriting process?
I don’t have a method or foolproof formula. My classically informed background, combined with my appreciation for indie folk and singer-songwriter styles, results in a naturally occurring blend in my songwriting.
This fusion isn't something I consciously create or control; it simply emerges when I write. However, when it comes to production and orchestration, I tend to think on a grand scale, often envisioning extensive string sections, horns, and layered vocals.
I have written a few minimalist, acoustic pieces, but I also enjoy indulging my classical inclinations and nerdy side through more symphonic arrangements and production choices.
Q: I know it’s a pretty short EP, but do you have a favourite song on it? If yes, can you tell us about it and why?
Yes, I do. My favourite song is Prodigal by quite a distance, and the Lord has made me laugh, considering how much people have responded to Sufferwell. While I liked "Sufferwell"—even naming the project after it—"Prodigal" resonates with me deeply. It feels like my own child, born from an intimate moment with the Holy Spirit, almost like a blackout experience.
I wrote "Prodigal" unexpectedly in a sanctuary in Scotland while living there for a month. I had intended to write a confessional song, in the vein of Psalm 51, but instead, a message from God to me poured out. Not a song from me to God saying, "I’m sorry, I’ll do better, it’s my fault", but a song from God to me in His voice saying, "I love you and I love you best when you have nothing left and just come home and tell me why you’re angry, let’s talk it out".
I felt like a vessel for the Holy Spirit during its creation, and the chords and words all came out in one sitting. When the song was done, it felt like I woke from the trance, so to speak, and just started to sob because it was so moving to me and was exactly the message I needed to hear from the Lord at the time.
Even when I thought I needed to fill the space between me and God with more words from me, it was this moment where God reminded me that he speaks first and more loudly and sweetly and when I try to fill those silences, the better words are from Him. I am attached to Prodigal because it is a part of my story and does not feel like something I created, finished and put on the table. It feels deeply personal and has shaped my relationship with God.
I also remember telling my producer that I wanted the song to make the listener feel like they need to start sprinting down the street towards an open field. I had been listening to Jon Guerra’s album, Ordinary Ways, a lot during that season, and he has a song called “Let A Little Light In” with a closing bridge that is so dynamic that there are only a few times I have listened to it without breaking into a run.
It feels and sounds like freedom, and I told Daniel [my producer] that I wanted Prodigal to feel like that and needed a moment like that in the song where the momentum has built, the crescendo is there, and everything is making the listener want to do something joyful and exuberant. We accomplished that, if I can be so bold as to say. During the second verse, and especially when it breaks into the chorus at the end after the third verse, it’s so energetic, inviting and contagious, and I hope people hear that in the song the way I do.
Q: What do you hope that this album does for the listener?
This EP is offered in the hope that it might become a companion to listeners on their winding path toward Christlikeness. Recognising that this journey is rarely straightforward, often cyclical, and sometimes even regressive, my aim is for this project to provide space for such non-linear experiences. I pray these songs will offer a vocabulary for their relationship with God, whether it’s a graceful surrender or a more resistant one. May they resonate with the diverse ways individuals encounter God and respond to Him.
Furthermore, I desire this music to hold a profound truth, extending beyond personal experience to align with the scriptural, traditional, and historical understanding of God. I hope that it avoids simplistic portrayals of both humanity as God’s image bearers and of God Himself, instead enriching and contextualising our relationship with Him, especially during times of suffering.
Q: What portion of scripture has been a comfort to you lately?
Genesis 28:16-17; the entire story of Jacob’s ladder in the dream, and the exclamation he makes when he wakes up.
After having this dream from God where God so clearly tells Him, “I will be with you, I will not leave you, your people will be multiplied across the earth, and the promises I’ve made, I’m going to keep…” Jacob wakes up from his dream, and says this simple and human-sounding sentence that has been a real encouragement and delight to me recently. He says, "Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not know it. Surely this is the house of God and the gate of Heaven…"
It's probably true that we could say "God is here, and I did not know it" countless times each day and never be mistaken. Whether we're at work, pumping gas into our cars, or changing a diaper, this statement would hold. It highlights the dual reality that God is omnipresent, yet we are often oblivious to His presence.
This verse and Jacob's story as a whole have been a source of comfort. Consider Jacob, a man who wandered, suffered, and took a winding path. After wrestling with God, he experienced a vivid dream filled with promises and the nearness of God. Upon waking, he uttered a statement that resonates deeply with all of us: God was indeed there, even when he wasn't aware.
That’s all for today. If you’re new to Delaney Young, check out the links below.
Listen to Delaney Young here:
Sufferwell EP (2025) — All Links
Connect with Delaney Young
Instagram | Website
Feel free to leave a comment. Also, I am always open to hearing from you, so feel free to send an email to me at stismavo@gmail.com