By: Bridget Sinden
Award winning Canadian musician Partick Kordyback otherwise known as Delta Sweet has been on many musical journeys in his over twenty year career. From Pop, punk to now country, he’s done it all. Growing up in Alberta, country has always been a part of him, and his latest release ‘Smooth runnin’ is cementing him yet again as a natural born story teller in the genre. We got to catch up with Patrick earlier this month to talk about all things country and what Delta Sweet has in store this summer.
Q: Your new single, Smooth Runnin’, has such a nostalgic feel. If you could plan the perfect “Smooth Runnin'” road trip this summer, or any summer, where would you go?
Delta Sweet: “I’d like to play as much as possible. Country music is as popular as it’s probably ever been right now, and that’s a beautiful thing. It’s also incredibly competitive.
So to answer your question, I want to play everywhere I possibly can. I’ll be doing Country Thunder this year, Big Valley Jamboree, and then I’ll be out in Ontario in September with my old band, Stereos, playing Sauble Beach. I don’t know if that’s everything for this summer, but hopefully next summer there are even more dates. My goal is simple: I just hope it keeps growing. More shows next year, more shows the year after that. If that’s happening, I can’t complain, it means I’m doing something right.”
Q: What inspired Smooth Runnin’, and what does the song mean to you?
Delta Sweet: “The song actually came from my best friend, Daniel. We started our old band, Stereos, together in a basement with our buddy Rob, and he’s about as authentic as they come. He grew up on a horse farm, loves old trucks, and now lives out in the Arizona desert.It’s kind of a running joke among our friends because I’m not exactly the stereotypical country artist. I grew up in the suburbs, and I was the kid who’d cry if I didn’t get the right hockey skates every year. I’m not a tough country guy, but Daniel absolutely is. He started telling me these incredible stories about buying and selling old trucks. One story that really stuck with me was about a woman who couldn’t match the highest offer for a truck. She explained that her grandfather had owned that exact model before he passed away, and it carried all these family memories. Daniel chose to sell it to her anyway because he understood what it meant. That’s what the song became. On the surface, trucks can feel like a cliché topic in country music, but they genuinely matter to people. They’re tied to memories, families, and entire chapters of people’s lives.
I really believe country music has to come from an authentic place. I knew I couldn’t tell those stories as honestly as Daniel could, so I basically forced him to sit down and write it with me. Melodies come naturally to me, but lyrics can be harder, and I wanted the words to come from someone who had actually lived those experiences. If you can tell a real story well, I think you’ve got something.”
Q: You come from more of a rock and pop-punk background, and you can still hear some of those influences in your current music. What drew you to country music, and what keeps you here today?
Delta Sweet: “I’ve actually been writing and recording country music since 2008. Back then, I tried doing a one-off country song with Stereos, and by 2011 I was taking it really seriously. I recorded six or seven songs for a country project that ultimately never came out.
At the time, that was incredibly disappointing because I’d invested so much time and energy into it. But looking back, I’ve realized that life has a funny way of opening doors when they’re supposed to, not necessarily when you want them to. When Stereos reunited in 2021, it eventually became clear that it was time for me to pursue my solo project and finally explore something I’d been trying to do for more than 15 years.
Growing up in Alberta, country music was always around me. What I love most about it is the storytelling. It communicates real life in a way that I don’t think many other genres do as consistently.
Country is definitely having a moment right now, but I think that’s because people are craving honesty. They’re drawn to music that feels genuine, raw, and authentic.”
Q: What’s next for Delta Sweet?
Delta Sweet: “Listen, I am not going anywhere, I’ll tell you that music is very hard, and, you know, you have good weeks and bad weeks. My biggest benefit that I have is that I’ve done this so many times that I don’t get too high or too low, and so just consistently releasing music and watching this thing grow, it’s already grown so much in the under two years that I’ve even been doing this as a solo. And, you know, it’s really tough to lose sight of that, but I’m now sitting on so many songs, and I just can’t wait to get them out. That’s the plan, just more music, more live performances, and you know, one day, we all learn that what we think is cool is no longer cool, and I just hope I’m further away from that than, you know, maybe. I think sometimes.”
Delta Sweet’s “Smooth Runnin” is available on all major streaming platforms, add it to your summer road trip playlist now!
Stay wild, stay free, stay smooth runnin
