Talk show con i Talk Show – il nuovo EP “Touch the ground”
La band britannica Talk Show ci racconta il suo nuovo lavoro “Touch the ground” prodotto da Joe Goddard e Al Doyle. Un EP nato durante la pandemia dopo aver fatto tabula rasa dei pezzi scritti precedentemente
Con l’aiuto della Missing Piece Records, i Talk Show, sulla scia della grande scena post punk/new wave conterranea, pubblica una raccolta di sei brani frenetici e agiati. Ispirati a “House of Jealous Lovers” dei Rapture uniscono il punk, alla dance e all’industrial. I Talk Show non si lasciano troppo trasportare dalla popolarità che il genere trattato gli regala: il loro sound è in continua evoluzione ed irrequieto accompagna gli irriverenti slogan lanciati dalla band sul palco.
Abbiamo scambiato quattro chiacchiere con il frontman della band, Harrison Swann, che ci ha dato qualche informazione in più sull’EP:
Hi, welcome to Distorsioni Sonore! “I wanted to write something big but less dark and focussed on those noughties bands coming out of New York. They were absolutely having it. Honestly I can’t wait to play to play this to a crowd”. Despite your intent to write something less dark “Leather” still seems to me a very critical work towards the world around you, have you converted sadness into rage?
Because I’ve always taken direct inspiration from my surroundings and the literal geographical space I live in (a concrete city), I use a lot of slogans and lines stolen from adverts or commercials. I think we all begin to tune out to the actual words and text that is in our face every single day, and so I like the idea of trying to use words from an advert about soap and twisting them to be whatever I want them to be about. Genuinely it’s not always meant to be a negative light, but to the listener, it can be if they want it to be. I hate explaining or force-feeding things to an audience. I want to always leave it open for interpretation. So I wouldn’t say sadness or rage. It is however, always passionate.
Compared to your previous EP “These People”, “Leather” is further away from pop and classic rock, it is closer to the electronic and dance of the 90s; how did this transition happen?
After the lockdowns, I just wasn’t listening to the same music anymore. I wasn’t feeling inspired by the same things anymore. I found myself watching “Boiler Room” sets on YouTube, and footage of Tricky and the Beastie Boys. Subliminally, it was stuff I had always loved and been inspired by, but maybe I just hadn’t realised how I could actually incorporate it into what we were doing. There’s no going back now though ahahaha
You write real poems, you can guess the rhythm of the songs simply by reading the text; how did you come to this type of writing? What is your relationship with literature?
I’d love to pretend to be really cool and say I read loads, and that I’m really into literature but quite frankly I’m rubbish at it. I do love John Cooper Clarke, that was a real ‘eureka’ moment when I first discovered him, but I think applying what I write to more electronica/trip hop inspired stuff, started to finally make sense for me. I love the use of repetition. Saying something over and over again, even strips its meaning, it becomes more about the hook than the words.
In “Cold House” you talk about “Automatic normal people”, inside the musical world do you notice the same phenomenon?
I think that line can be used about a million different things. That’s the whole reason why I like that line, and chose to open the song with it.
In “Leather” you repeat the mantra “I wanna get loose”, what is your idea of freedom?
Doing what you love, with the people that mean the most around you
The video clips of the two singles have about the same subject and both are set in the outskirts of a city, was it a deliberate choice?
Absolutely. We didn’t grow up by the beach, we don’t live in the countryside. For these songs in particular, the lyrically themes are related to cities and a metropolis, so it was key the videos reflected that.
Do you have a tour planned? Will you come to play in Italy?
We always love being on the road, playing live is the most important thing for us as a band. We played a one off show in Milan back in 2019, which feels like forever ago. I’m sure we’ll be back in Italy soon!
a cura di
Lucia Tamburello
