Doomed Confessionary: Fabian Pauls & Sebastian Bauer (The Delayed)

The Delayed is a heavy psych rock band from Rosenheim, Germany. They have released their self-titled debut album on June 6th, 2025.

Since their beginnings in a garage, The Delayed have evolved from their garage rock roots into a distinctive voice in heavy psych, proto-doom, and blues rock. With their unfiltered, introspective style and a clear nod to the ’70s, they create music that runs deep – raw, emotional, and honest. The band’s inspiration draws from the dark and beautiful facets of life: love, rebellion, war, world-weariness, and the abysses of the human soul.

Their music merges the best of past and present: long, improvised solos meet socially critical lyrics, while their songs unfold a deep, meditative pull. Whether dark, psychedelic, or rebellious – the music of The Delayed stands as a counterpoint to the superficiality of modern times. With their authentic, raw live presence, The Delayed are more than just a band – they are an experience.

Can you please say a few words about your band?
Fabi & Basti: We’re The Delayed from southern Germany and we do heavy psych rock influenced by the great rock bands of the 70s and some contemporary psychedelic and stoner rock artists. We want to create music that transcends the superficial sounds of our time and create a real experience again in times where music is too often treated as purely a consumer good. We draw our influences from the good and the ugly sides of life: Nature, love, relationships, personal struggles, psychedelic experiences, war, rebellion and try to create music that is as multifaceted and real as existence and the universe itself.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Fabi & Basti: The biggest challenge for us as a band was to form a bond that lasts the years. Since we two have started the project back then in 2016, we had a lot of changes in our rhythm section and we always needed to stick together through the good times and the bad and really focus on the project itself and what could possibly grow out of it and to this day “what would be best for the band?” is kinda our mentality when we’re dealing with hardships. Another big challenge is doing anything on our own. We have no label, are our own managers, producers, mixing and recording engineers, designers etc. This is of course a lot of work, but it’s a challenge in the good sense and we preserve our independence and our ability to do what we want as artists.

What can you be most proud of so far?
Fabi: We have achieved everything we did so far just by ourselves as independent artists and I think that’s something to be proud of – a lot of hard work, but rewarding. Also to have been able to share the stage with many great artists that once were just idols for us. To be able to connect with so many cool people sharing similar philosophies and to share our common passion music and art in general has been a really great experience over the years and still is and we’re proud to be able to do this.

Basti: Starting as a total amateur two man couple in a tiny little garage to sharing stages with nearly all of the artists we love within the recent heavy rock scene and even releasing an own record on vinyl that touches other people (no matter how many) is something I’m very proud of. In particular however it’s the milestones of the process, that are sometimes hard to believe. When Fabi and I started the project back then, none of us has ever been taken a mic to sing or even played super skilled on our instruments. We jammed with Fabi’s old but gold Ditto-Loopstation to even be able to evolve in a live setting and try to layer other instruments such as drums and bass by ourselves. Also we did our first steps in finding into the multitrack recording world, what later as a 4 piece led us to record nearly every rehearsal and create the »Live Outta Basement« live tapes.

It was the biggest achievement back then to find other guys to play together and to achieve a gig near a Döner Kebap-waggon, where it wasn’t them that wanted us to play there (*laughs*). I’m very proud to see, that we could come to this point with doing the whole thing by ourselves. However specific external help would sometimes be highly appreciated, as you can’t focus on all things at the same time.

What was your biggest regret?
Fabi & Basti: To not have focussed on one thing more and earlier (in this case the music). Because as you grow older you realize how valuable time really is and even if we still have time to create a lot more, we do realize our band members are already (at least partially) in the upper age spectrum of emerging rock bands and a lot of time went by where the focus was on a lot of different things, so you could not really excel at one. It’s a lesson we probably should’ve learned earlier, but at least we think we learned it now.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Fabi: I couldn’t pinpoint a particular tour or concert, they’re all (mostly) equally great. It’s always fun traveling around with friends, band members and just have a great time, meet new people, see new places. You’ll never know what you get and I think that’s great. It gives you a sense of „experiencing new things like a child again“ feeling and I really like that. Of course, playing with bands we used to listen to the last 10-15 years (for example with Pentagram, 1000Mods, Sacri Monti, Siena Root, Radio Moscow, Wucan,…) are always a highlight.

Basti: For me it was the two Free & Easy-gigs at Backstage Munich with Pentagram and Wucan as well as the gig with 1000mods at Zauberberg Passau. The crowds have been incredible there. Nevertheless I’m with Fabi. Every gig has something special. To getting in touch with other people – no matter if other bands or attendees. Getting to know each other and learn from each other is a very valuable thing.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Fabi & Basti: How few (even bigger) artists actually manage to make a living out of music. Covid wasn’t really helpful either. And how small in terms of “who-knows-who” the scene really is, which is also very cool.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Fabi and Basti: The classics: 70s rock and proto-metal. There’s always something new to discover in there and it’s timeless music.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Fabi: This may come as a surprise, but it’s actually a quote of a German movie about two German gangster rappers, who I listened to when I was younger. It’s about how to deal with writing blockages and goes something like: “If you don’t know about what to write, just take the things that fucked you up the most in the last time and put them on paper.” I would personally extend this to “and influenced you the most in the last time”, but that has stuck with me and I come back to it whenever I don’t know what to write about.

Basti: Even if it’s not out of the genre, a quote out of an Oasis-song “True perfection has to be imperfect, I know that that sounds foolish but it’s true.” Stay human, engage yourself but also find the release. That’s what keeps you authentic and even productive in my opinion. And last but not least, a band relashionship is a social thing. You’re part of the chain. It only works when the parts fit together and no part tries to be the chain itself.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Fabi: Cigarettes. I pretty much layed off anything that you could call guilty pleasures especially when I grew older, but nothing beats a cigarette to just sit back and relax for a minute and to get a clear head…

Basti: Sitting next to Fabi watching at him like an angry bird in his cigarette relaxation moments.

Can you say something more about the current music scene in Rosenheim?
Fabi & Basti: The music scene in our city is relatively large for a town with around 60000 people, there’s a lot of bands and concerts but it’s mostly punk and related genres. Not much of a Psych Rock scene here, but we try to hold it up ourselves. The scene in Germany in general is relatively large and there are a lot of smaller and also more influencal bands here. We also try to connect the scene more by doing our own small festival in the bavarian forest (El Ritual Festival) with friends and bands we grew to know over the years. So god will, we will do it again in 2026 for the fourth time.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Fabi & Basti: The gigs for this season are mostly done. We played Blackdoor Festival near Passau which was a highlight and a lot of gigs in Germany. We’d love to do international gigs, though we will probably also take the rest of the year to write new stuff and work on a new album. But there will still be a few concerts left in Germany this year. Just check out our website or socials, we keep them updated regularly.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
Fabi & Basti: To be honest, we already achieved far more than we had hoped when we started back in 2016. Everything after a certain point has just been the cherry on top. That being said: We’re just going with the flow and looking where it takes us, while we do what we love: Writing music, playing gigs and creating stuff.

How can people best support your band?
Fabi & Basti: Just come to our concerts and connect with us. If you want to support us, please send us locations to play, people to meet, share our music if you like it. And of course there’s the obligatory merch section on our Bandcamp…

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Fabi and Basti: Keep the rock scene alive, don’t rely on someelse to do it for you, learn an instrument, form a band, create stuff. Because that’s what it’s all about, right?

Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well