It’s easy to feel spoiled by TALK when every song feels personal, as if they are written specially for the one who presses play. “In my head there’s supermodels. Four am and empty bottles. Hands are stained with old regrets. I cut the seams to sow the dress.” TALK sees through the plastic covers of the world. He gives attention to truth and real stories that are often hidden underneath the fabulous wraps. “Set On Me,” like all the rest of the songs from TALK, carries a weight in its ascendence.
Nicholas Durocher, aka TALK, first announced his arrival to the music scene with the hit single “Run Away to Mars,” but Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees is where he truly shines in all force. Filled with personal reflection, unfiltered emotions, and meaningful stories, the album explores social and personal themes that are current to today’s world and make the listeners feel spoiled. His music uplifts, at the same time, feels like the soundtrack of a diary. Every song is easy a tear-jerker that you can take something away from.
”Talking To Aliens” explores isolation and loneliness in fuzzing, rock-coiled explosiveness. Angst comes to haunt your soul in this powerful exploration of the duality of inner and outside world. “When I’m talking ouuuu, feel like I’m talking to aliens. Too many people one room. Feel like I’m talking two languages. I can’t escape. Like I’m on fire.” He talks about imposter syndrome and social anxiety in a raw and intimate way, while the sonics create a strings of stirring resonances.
TALK is a hard-hitting hit maker with distinctive aesthetic and style. From cover art to album title to his unapologetic sonic palette and ground-shattering vocals, he has a natural crowd-attracting quality that seem to unite people through music. He’s giving it all in his songs, breaking the fourth wall and reshaping the world as he goes — an artist with king power in his blood.
Written by Katrina Yang
Press Q&A with TALK
Q (The Sweaty Palms Podcast): Many songs explore self reflection, growth, and the wisdom that comes from getting older and wiser. What made you want to write an album about these themes?
TALK: I think I’ve just been through such an intense last five years, just emotionally…Before all this stuff happened in the last three years, I was pretty lost. Once I found myself and what I knew I needed to do, and had proven to myself that all the hard work over the last decade of trying to do this was paying off – I just felt like I had to do myself the favor or the courtesy of telling my own story to myself.
Q (Sob Story Magazine): How do you incorporate emotional resonance into your creative process?
TALK: I think the most important thing is they [the songs] come from the heart. And I think nine times out of ten, this is all I feel or have felt…It’s like you’re writing a story, but the emotions involved in those things are very much from my heart…I think that’s why a lot of people have resonated with what I have to say because it’s all true, and it all feels really authentic
Q: How do you see your music contribute to the pop music scene and what makes it unique?
TALK: The goal was to make something unpredictable. We wanted to make something spooky, but love-based, but like horror, love song, powerful, power ballad with guitar solos and breakdowns and all sorts of stuff. We basically went into it with no rules, and we knew it was really good when we left.
Q (Lettuce and Cheddar): What is the inspiration for “Set On Me”?
TALK: It started in a session with my guitar player, Connor, and a couple of our buddies. It was starting kind of slow. We weren’t inspired by anything that was going on yet to write a song to. We had watched Midsommar, maybe a week before. So I told him [Connor] that I wanted him to play what it sounded like to be tripping on mushrooms in Sweden, like when the sun won’t go down in the middle of the daytime. And he was like, okay, and then like played that guitar riff.
Q (The Sweaty Palms Podcast): What is the inspiration behind “Afraid of the Dark”?
TALK: I’m very close to my grandmother. She has gotten sick. I was supposed to leave for LA the day before an ambulance came and took her. The choice was between going to LA to write an album or staying behind to make sure she’s ok. She told me to go.
I was like crying in the studio while writing, trying to hold it together. When I went to record, I called her for advice, so we have all this footage of me talking to her…I got to show her the song, and she cried. It was very sweet. Then, I got a high school kids choir to sing it with me for her. We brought her to the school, and it was only her there, and she still didn’t understand that we were doing it for her until a CBC interview. She was watching it and then realized that we had done everything for her, and then called me crying.
Q (View Media): How do you keep your vocal in shape while touring?
TALK: The most important thing is sleeping. If I sleep eight hours a night, my voice is good. If I sleep five hours a night, my voice is bad. If I drink, my voice is bad.
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