Riding the current post-punk wave, Talk Show recently dropped their debut album. The South London four-piece released Effigy, and it’s a quick fix of 90s flavoured post-punk. We spoke to frontman Harrison Swann to ask about the album, inspirations and their upcoming tour.
How does it feel to finally have your debut album out?
Honestly it’s a real mix of emotions. I’m really proud of us for getting this far, because anyone that knows us, knows it’s been a long time coming.
Effigy has received such a positive reception and deservingly so, how has it been seeing all the buzz about the band and the album?
It’s really pretty gratifying I won’t lie haha. It’s pretty special to be able to present something like this to the world after we spent a long time refocusing who we were as a band, and what we wanted to sound like. For all that time and effort to amalgamate into our debut ‘Effigy’, I couldn’t be happier.
There’s a lot going on in post-punk at the minute but you’ve found a sound that stands out, how did you settle on this direction/sound for Effigy?
We were probably known for making music in a slightly different style and direction, but those old ways were getting boring really really quickly. We all knew something had to change during lockdown, and we just went with it. A big turning point for me was probably realizing I was writing music to please other people rather than myself- which in turn was pleasing no one. I just thought fuck it, na I’m gonna go for this and push myself. We’d all already massively evolved because we were listening to different music, and consuming different types of art or film, the rest all felt incredibly natural. There’s certainly no going back now.
It feels like you’ve drawn on a lot of influences going into this album, what were some of the main points of inspiration for you as a band?
We started to really focus on in creating an atmosphere and a mood, rather than just having a botch of tunes with some artwork that all loosely/poorly fit together. Writing the music, and deciding the artistic direction/look of the album happened simultaneously. I was watching a lot of films like ‘Enter the Void’ and ‘Fallen Angels’, which have such a clear and distinct feel to them. They’re claustrophobic, they’re dramatic, they’re highly strung, I felt like there was just so much to work with for inspiring the album.
Songs like ‘Catalonia’ and ‘Closer’ have a 90s vibe while still feeling distinctly modern, was the 90s a source of inspiration for the album?
Yes. I mean not the typical lad-rock bucket 90s you’d normally expect from a Mancunian, but yes. I was listening to a lot of the darker stuff from that era. Tricky, Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails. Again it just felt like there was so much more to draw from, all of it has got a really cinematic feel to it.
At times Effigy steps into concept album territory, was this something that came naturally or was it a planned idea?
Personally I wouldn’t call it a concept album, I felt like the initial intentions and inspirations for the album came naturally and we just went down a rabbit hole with it. I tried pretty hard to make sure that we left certain questions unanswered, and never gave anything away too literally within the lyrics. Otherwise I believe you ruin the experience for a listener to fully gain the most from a track and interpret what’s relevant for them.
With an upcoming tour how excited are you to get back out there and play these new songs?
We purposefully choice some smaller, more intimate venues, to get up in peoples faces, and have the shows these shows absolutely bouncing. Genuinely I cant wait
The new tracks feel like they are designed to be played live, were they worked on while on the road?
Yeah, we’ve always written with the intention of playing them live. When we’ve been testing material on the road, if it doesn’t work live then we always change it.
It’s not only the music that’s striking with Effigy, you’ve got a great front cover as well. Where did the image come from?
We took the photo on a rooftop in the middle of East London, hiding away in the shadow of gentrification.
Stream/purchase Effigy HERE
Purchase tickets for Talk Show’s upcoming tour HERE
