Delicate Steve

About the Artist

Delicate Steve’s performances are wordless conversations—except the guitar’s doing all the talking, and it has a surprisingly vivid sense of humor. Steve Marion, the one-man engine behind the project, crafts instrumental music that somehow feels lyrical, using expressive, effects-laden guitar work to tap into emotion with uncanny precision. Live, he’s a kinetic presence: loose, joyful, and entirely unselfconscious, often grinning like he’s in on a cosmic joke no one else has caught up to yet. Songs like “I Can Fly Away” capture that spirit of wide-eyed freedom, which feels fitting for someone who spent his early years holed up in his bedroom studio, recording multi-instrumental tracks that blurred the line between rock, Afrobeat, and electronic whimsy. One legendary tour story involves him opening for Mac DeMarco and winning over skeptical crowds without singing a single word—a feat most singers can’t manage with three encores. There’s an oddly spiritual atmosphere to his shows, like you’re attending a sermon on the joy of sound, led by a preacher in beat-up sneakers and a Fender.