Interview: Inside the creative mind of TALK

Canadian rocker TALK has created quite the buzz with his quick rise post-pandemic world. After the noteworthy success of his Platinum single “Run Away to Mars” and viral hit “A Little Bit Happy,” the artist has created visually-lush commentary about mental health, love and acceptance. In recent weeks, TALK has finally unleashed his debut album Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees via Capitol Records/Range Music. Executive produced by Justin Tranter (Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Halsey), the album is a creative journey into the buzzing mind of TALK, illustrated through vulnerably raw emotions and escapist conceptualizations.

Music Existence caught up with the artist in the wake of his album release and after the announcement of his upcoming North American headlining tour. TALK sets the record straight on country misconceptions, concept album ideas, and the aftermath of going viral. You can read our entertaining conversation with TALK below.

Music Existence: Where did your name TALK originate?

TALK: It is a pretty straightforward answer, there is two places. When I was trying to become an artist, a little less than ten years ago, I decided I wanted to be an artist and make music. I didn’t have a name, well, I had my real name. I needed an artist name, I thought. So I put together a list of all these names and I kept liking the names that were one syllable. I like one syllable, it’s easy. I wasn’t considering SEO in search functions at the time when I picked TALK. In hindsight, that may have not been the best idea, but I’m trying to change the top search for “talk”. It comes from that I talk a lot, clearly. And that was my favorite Coldplay song. I love so many of them, it’s hard to say that that’s my favorite Coldplay song. But Coldplay was such a big part of my life, and I credit them with saving my life and so I wanted to keep a piece of them with me while I was becoming an artist.  

That’s amazing! I had heard you were a huge Coldplay fan, but I didn’t register you were name-checking a song from them. 

Yeah, it wasn’t a massive hit, it was a kind of hit. But yeah, I loved that song when I was coming out of high school and it just fit me. When I would read on the list, there was like a hundred names or something, I was obsessing over it and that one just worked. And I’ve been that since like 2014, 2015. So, almost ten years. 

I love the one syllable names too. It rolls right off the tongue.

It does, it does. But sometimes people think it’s Todd. People call me Todd a lot. Or Top, people call me Top sometimes. Because they don’t read it, and I say, ‘Hey, I’m TALK’ and they go ‘Hey, what’s up Todd’. Stuff like that, I don’t know, it happens but it’s fine. I don’t care. 

How much of TALK would you say is a persona or a put-on stage presence? 

I spent a long time pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Not necessarily actually pretending to be someone completely different, but not fully being myself. And I just eventfully gave up on that. I’m far too lazy to pretend to be someone I’m not. So, this is me really. On stage an extra 15% eccentric-ness maybe or like intensity. But this is just me. I’ve got too much going on in my head to try hard at pretending to be something, so this is just me. 

Yes and that really shines through, especially in your music. Your personality and charisma too. That’s something that people cling to and what they’re looking for in an artist, because there is too much that’s not like that out there. 

Exactly, people pretending about everything and I just don’t want to do that. And that’s what I look for in friends, that’s what I look for in people and friends and people I work with. So yeah, I think I’m kind of who I want to be. 

That’s great. And you’ve had a couple of crazy years. Finally, your debut album is here with Capitol Records. You got to work with Justin Tranter as well, which is a huge deal. What was the creation process of this album like? Some of the songs you had released previously, so was a lot of the material in a final state or did you and Justin go in and start from scratch? 

We really started from scratch. I mean, “Runaway To Mars” was released in 2021 and we kind of consider it the first single for this album. But all the rest of the songs were written for the album and were singles off of this album. It was an incredible time. They are an amazing writer, I went to their house and we had a conversation about what my goals were. We already had priorities that were aligning with styles of music and stuff. As soon as I said, ‘I want to be Meatloaf and Beyonce and Taylor Swift all together’ they were like ‘That is incredible. I am so in.’ And the rest is history after that. We started working together and I love them so much. Such a great mentor and great friend. Yeah, it was incredible.  

Obvious question, per the title. How did the concept of this record come to be? Did it come from Lord of the Flies, was it an idea floating around in your head before going in to make the album?

There’s multiple levels to this. I forgot this until right now. When I was in grade 10, we had to read Lord of the Flies. However, I slept through most of that class. I was a big sleeper in grade 10, I think I discovered weed or something, I don’t know. But my English teacher for that class was the first person to encourage me to sing. I was a drummer at that point and I played bass and guitar and stuff, but I didn’t really sing. My brother was more of a singer than I was. He’s older. She was like ‘Why don’t you sing?’ And I was like ‘My brother does it, it’s not cool.’ We weren’t that close at the time. And so she was like ‘Well why don’t you try? Play me something.’ So I played her “The Scientist” by Coldplay on piano on her desk. And she was like ‘Dude, you’ve got to sing.’ That gave me the confidence to do it. That wasn’t necessarily a huge part of the Lord of the Flies thing, but it’s all related. Full circle. The lyric really came up while I was writing a song called “Wasteland” that’s on the record, where I just said “Lord of the flies and birds and bees” then I was like woah, that’s an album title. We’ve got to go with it. And it was the second day of writing. We picked that and we went with it. I was this astronaut figure who is in space and the idea was that I was crashing to earth and everything was gone. It was the apocalypse and everything was growing over and forest-y, and I was the astronaut that becomes the Lord of the Flies and Birds and Bees. He finds himself again and wants to guide the people and teach love, all this kind of stuff. It seemed like the perfect thing. 

That’s amazing! Do you consider it a concept album because of that, or was it more just guided by those ideas? 

I think there is a side of it that is. I think a concept album as your first album is difficult. Especially with so much that was going on in my life outside of writing the album, everything was going a million miles an hour. I didn’t have the experience or the organizational skill to develop that idea creatively further. I was kind of like, that was the idea originally. This was a concept album. This is a Broadway show. This is a whole thing. And it still kind of is, but I shifted my focus to make sure I was executing all of my responsibilities at the time. What I unfortunately got kind of lost in a bit was the concept and the story. So at a certain point I realized that it was in my interest to make the best thing I could and to just make every song with love, and if it didn’t perfectly line up then it doesn’t perfectly line up and I’m gonna be forgiven for that. It’s not the end of the world. I’ve got tons of more albums to do the story concept thing. I think the most important thing to me though was that it followed a theme and the whole theme was that no matter what happens, never give up. That really shines through in the whole record and I was really happen with how it turned out. 

Yeah absolutely, it definitely has those themes of resilience that really grounds it, but it still does have that mysticism too. 

So I went back and I ordered the songs in a story. They are intentionally positioned. I’m gonna mess it up if I try to do it now. It’s essentially heartbreak, into running away, into being alone, into coming back and everything is gone, into the grass is always greener but “This Is It.” And then I won’t give up,  I won’t let the sun “Set On Me.” It’s a loose story, but it’s intentional. 

That’s awesome! That ties into one of your biggest inspirations, Meatloaf, with that sort of rock-opera sense but still has the bits that everyone can relate to and it’s not too far-fetched as a concept. 

Yeah, and I think I want to do that again. I really want to do the concept thing. I dream a lot, I have a very vivid, too vivid an imagination. It’s always going, I always have stories in my head, so I really want to re-explore that thing. I think it could have been here, but I am really happy with how this ended up and came together. 

But it’s great you’ve already got the next ideas!

Yeah, I’m always ready. Unlimited ideas. 

You said you play drums and bass as well, but I read years ago that you even played in a country band. 

Okay, I’ve been setting the record straight. This is the important part. This is a PSA. Okay. Is it true that I played in a country band? Yes, that is correct. It has turned into quite a bit of the game telephone where I have said this once, then I read an article when my album came out that said I played in a country band for ten years. Okay, so this is what happened. I needed a job and needed money. I also needed experience. So I accepted a offer to play with some of my friends and a country artist. Am I a big country music fan? I love the good stuff, like everyone else. But I wouldn’t consider it having affected my music in any way. I will say one thing I did learn from it is that I did realize I wanted to be a front man when I played in this band. I was playing bass but I was like ‘No, I gotta be up front. I will still play bass, but I’m the guy. I need to be the guy.’ So that influenced that part of it, but I have been kind of spreading false information saying that I’ve never been in a country band now, that’s what I started to say. But the truth is what I’ve just said. But if you confuse people enough, maybe they’ll just stop talking about it. 

Well there you go, you’ve set the record straight. Though, probably to add a little more confusion to the mix, you are opening for Shania Twain, the queen of country. 

So I keep booked for country opening acts! This is the thing, this is the advantage that I have. It’s hard to put me in a box. It’s hard to put what I make into a box. So it has played to my advantage and I’ve gotten opening slots. I opened for Luke Combs a couple years ago, and did I really fit that? No, I don’t so personally, sonically. But the vibe is still the same and I make music for people that just want to love and laugh and have a good time. I think that’s why it crosses over pretty well, because it’s the same kind of energy and love and emotion. If there are promoters reading this, please continue to book me for country acts! I actually have a great time playing them. People just get super drunk and then they love everything. I actually have the most fun at those gigs. 

Yeah absolutely! Music lovers just love music, it is a universal thing. Your music certainly appeals to a wide variety of music lovers. Going forward for potential other records, would you ever try a different genre? You certainly have the diverse background. 

Yes. I think there could be a country record at some point. I really love Post Malone, I’ve had a framed picture of Post Malone since like the beginning of his career. He really inspired me because he wasn’t afraid to be different and do his own thing and do what he loved and make music that he loved no matter what people were saying about him, which is kind of how I viewed myself. He’s been a role model and I think that he needs to do a country record. I think it’s overdue. I really thought that he was gonna do it a couple years ago. I think he will at some point though. And so I think that I could do it too. I think even Americana, I love Americana stuff. Just like Noah Kahan, Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, that type of stuff. I love all of them, I love all their music. Billy Strings, too. But yeah, I’m sure it’ll happen. I’ve just got to get bored of this first. 

On “A Little Bit Happy,” one of your lead singles, I love the line “Turns out all of my highs are making love to my lows.” That is really powerful. How do you get to that place of acceptance and optimism? It’s something that is so uplifting about your music and really is a central theme that ties the whole album together. 

Yes, I think, I mean that one was genius. I can’t take full credit. Justin Tranter is just a god, and that was a real combination of our brains. I absolutely love that line so much. But the meaning, I think the most important thing is that I’m honest and very self-aware. When things are happening to me, I see the big picture. I feel like as a songwriter that makes turning situations or feelings into songs a lot easier. I’m not always in it, I can think about the whole situation and see it from that side. That’s how I have been able to turn a lot of thoughts and feelings into songs. With that one, it was the start of going viral when I wrote that, with “Mars”. When you go viral, something happens with the original kind of algorithm you’re in, where it just explodes. So you have people that would never care to look at you, be served your content. When that happens, you get a lot of mean people. And I’m not exactly the cookie-cutter pop star, and people would pick out the things about me that they didn’t like. Talk about them like I wasn’t even there, even though they’re in my comments. That whole thing starts, and it happened so fast. I wasn’t prepared for it, but I definitely am now. When you are reading that much mean stuff about yourself all day, it can really get to you. So I was feeling just bad about myself in general. I am very fortune that I have a partner, my girlfriend, who really makes me feel amazing all the time, very handsome and that I belong here. So I wanted to write a song that referenced that. That if I could see myself through her eyes, that I could be a little bit happy. So that is where all that came from. So it think it’s that analyzation of the situation and the emotions that enable me to talk it though to people and figure out how I feel about something, then turn it into what you heard. 

That’s really great, so sweet. Kind of on the other end of the spectrum of looking inward, I feel like on tracks “History” and “This Is It” feel really powerful in maybe a state of the world perspective. Is that something you pay close attention to when writing as well?

Yeah, I think it’s general energy. “This Is It” was to go with “Wasteland,” where it was like “I’ll take you to the wasteland, then this is it. This is the wasteland.” And it wasn’t like this world is it, it was like the grass isn’t always greener, don’t close your eyes, you’re gonna miss it, that was basically the idea of the song. It’s supposed to go hand-in-hand with “Wasteland.” And then “History” was the first song written, well second technically. “Afraid of the Dark” was first. The first that me and Justin wrote together was “History.” It was kind of this idea of a spooky, confident song with love undertones, whether it is love for yourself, like a ‘I’ll love myself on the other side of this’ kind of thing. ‘I’ll see you later, I’m going to go try to make this happen and I’lll see the rest of me on the other side,’ kind of thing. There’s a lot of undertones here, but it is kind of a spooky, love, rock ballad. A rock banger, I guess you’d call it. 

You kick off your headlining tour in February across the US and Canada, bringing a bunch of these songs to life that you probably haven’t had the chance to play yet. What are you most looking forward to on this run and what should fans expect?

Yes, so I haven’t played a show yet—  well technically one of the Shania shows was the day the album came out, or the day after— but my fans that are coming to the headline shows haven’t had a chance to see me once hearing the album. I was playing a lot of those songs just to people that haven’t heard them before. So I’m really looking forward to seeing which ones have, I don’t know what people really love the most right now. It’s so early, like who knows what people are listening to and love. We haven’t played “Set On Me,” I’d love to do that with just the piano and me. I think that would be amazing. My band is actually in the other room. A lot of us live together, and they’re getting ready to rehearse and figure out what we’re doing. But yeah, just any of the songs that we haven’t done live. We haven’t done “Talking to Aliens” live. “Fall for You” we have. They’re kind of split down the middle like, we did some and haven’t done some. On the tour, I think we are going to play the full record.  

TALK’s debut album Lord Of The Flies & Birds & Bees is available now. Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees 2024 Tour Dates are on sale now.

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