Crawley-based trio TALU return with their glistening new single ‘Take You Home’, providing yet another kaleidoscopic offering.
Brought together by their love for Bombay Bicycle Club, The Wombats and Foals, members Will Martins, Nathan Hill and David Richmond formed TALU, creating sleek indie laced tracks inspired by their favourite bands. I chatted to TALU about their new single ‘Take You Home’, dream band to support and their first musical memory.
How did you guys first meet?
NH: So Will and I met about ten years ago at school – I still remember his quality bowl-cut hairstyle from those days! We knew of each other’s musical projects and I think I originally filled in on drums for his band at the time. Bar a few short gaps, we’ve been playing music together pretty consistently since then!
We’d known David for years through the local music scene and friend groups. A few years ago we were all living in the same town and hanging out a lot, so when our current project came to end, we decided to move in together and form Talu. We were fortunate to live with Will’s girlfriend Lauren, and next door to our friend Alex – who both provided BVs on some Talu releases (including Take You Home!).
Tell us about your new single ‘Take You Home’. What was the inspiration behind it?
WM: The core of Take You Home is about two people in a relationship, who are trying to lift each other up and show each other how much potential they have.
Modern life is so busy, there are so many distractions and sometimes just surviving is hard enough. But the sentiments in TYH are about challenging and supporting your partner to continue following their dreams.
“I can’t take you home” actually means to not run away or back down from difficult, yet positive, challenges.
How would you like your sound to develop? Do you have a direction in mind?
NH: We love a good pop song – and that’s probably never going to change, however, we’d really like to work on doing some more experimental stuff and hone down on what really makes Talu unique.
We’ve actually just bought a new modular synth setup, so we’re looking forward to being able to get back writing together and to experiment with that.
We’re so used to using virtual synths on a computer that it will be nice to have something a bit more tactile to work with.
Are there any artists or bands that you take guidance from?
DR: There are SO many bands that we use to inspire us. We have a big Talu Inspiration playlist that we keep adding to, so when we do write, we can listen to that and discuss what aspects of the songs we like and what we’d like to take inspiration from.
Of course, the final song never sounds anything like the original – but we find it useful to get started and from there we just let inspiration take over.
There are the usual suspects from the indie genre, but also a lot of stuff you wouldn’t necessarily expect, like Drake, Georgia, Kendrick Lamar, Peter Gabriel – all sorts.
After lockdown is over and we’re back to normal. What band would you love to support on tour and why?
WM: Bombay Bicycle Club would probably be the absolute dream. We grew up listening to them and we’re massive fans.
We went to their show in Brighton before lockdown happened and they just blew everyone away. They also just seem like our kind of people.
Who has the worst habits?
WM: David, for sure. How long have you got?
What was your first musical memory?
NH: I’m not entirely sure whether this is a legit memory or just because I’ve seen a photo of it – but my 4th birthday when my parents bought me a mini drum kit sticks in the mind! I don’t think they quite knew what they were letting themselves in for.
DR: I remember watching my friend play guitar at a school talent show – I was hooked straight away. Fortunately, my dad used to play, so I went home and “borrowed” his guitar, and the rest is history.
WM: I think it was when my mum started taking me to our local church to get piano lessons. I don’t think I was keen at the time – but I’m really glad she did now.
What has been the best advice you’ve ever received?
WM: A producer we worked with on a previous project once suggested that we shouldn’t be so afraid to let other people into our creative process. Until that point, we had tried to do as much as possible ourselves – write, record, produce etc. I guess we just wanted to find our own sound.
But since we started Talu, we’ve been making a conscious effort to try and collaborate with more people. We’ve started working particularly close with Sam Winfield at Studio 91 – and he now produces all our tracks. This has been a brilliant experience so far, and it’s really helped to shape and develop our sound.
If you weren’t pursuing a music career. What else would you be doing?
NH: We’d probably be considerably less poor than we are now! Though to be honest, we all have day-jobs to be able to self-fund all aspects of the band. So we’d probably still be doing similar things, but have considerably more evenings and weekends free!
We’ve dreamed of running a studio for many years, so even if we weren’t in a band, we’d probably put all our extra efforts into that.
