While preparing for an interview with The Deltamen — a band of full-time Vanderbilt students that writes, records and produces their own music — I kept asking myself, “How on earth do they balance this?” Group projects are already difficult, but working day in and day out to produce an album while rehearsing for full-length performances seems nearly impossible. 

This question lingered as I sat down with junior Joey Lau to discuss his experience as a member of The Deltamen. Throughout the interview, the answer to my question became immensely clear: They are not concerned with balance. Instead, they’re driven by the sheer joy that comes from playing music together. 

“It’s just simple,” Lau said. “Simple music. And we try our best to make people happy.” 

So allow me to take you into the joyful world of The Deltamen.

The band has been together for about three years now. Senior Dodge Wang performs as lead singer and rhythm guitarist; junior Steven Ye as guitarist; junior Trevor He as bassist and keyboardist; senior Fin Lee as drummer; and, finally, junior Joey Lau (‘26), who plays just about anything and everything. Since their first EP, the band’s music has been a passion project to celebrate their shared Chinese culture. 

This past year, The Deltamen released their debut album, “Deltamen 2,” which Lau said was almost entirely recorded during lunch breaks. Their unique sound incorporates inspirations from The Beatles’ recording techniques, Japanese city pop and even hints of classical music. To get a glimpse of what makes The Deltamen’s music so special, Lau suggests first-time listeners tune into either “Strawberry Cake” or “Thunderstorm” from their latest album.

Beyond recording, The Deltamen have performed at many student organization events. Additionally, The Deltamen have become very popular with international students on campus, who, as Lau said, “might not always understand the lyrics but love the feeling it brings them.” During our interview, Lau expressed his immense gratitude. 

“We make friends, and we manage to play music,” Lau said.

However, even for The Deltamen, the joy of music still comes with its challenges. Since their last interview, the band has struggled with balancing their goal of making it big with their core values, ultimately deciding to stay local rather than touring. They embraced this challenge with resilience and continued to stay true to themselves. 

The Deltamen took this same mindset when it came to preparing for the graduation of two of their members this semester. They plan to ‘reduce to a trio’ to continue playing the music that they love, according to Lau. 

Luckily, Lau, Ye and He are all versatile musicians who can play numerous instruments, so they plan to finish all the music they have started to record for an album set to release in 2026. In the meantime, the joy that is The Deltamen’s music can be found on almost every streaming platform. More immediately, the band is preparing for their on-campus concert at the Rothschild College Black Box Theater on Feb. 1.