Melbourne duo Strange Talk create electronic music with a sense of adventure that sends tingles down listeners’ spines.
2014 saw the band taking the electronic scene by storm within Melbourne and beyond with their music that was instantly caught in ones head. They return today with a new release ‘Love Elevation.’
On the song the duo stated: “‘Love Elevation’ us our attempt at creating an electronic RnB slow jam infused indie/pop song. The title was inspired by the chord progression, which constantly feels like it’s elevating taking steps up, then restarting again, almost like a helium balloon constantly rising.
Stream ‘Love Elevation’ by Strange Talk:
“Its was one of the quickest songs to write off the album but production took a little longer to really get right as we wanted it to sound simple but constantly evolving.”
We caught up with Strange Talk to learn more.
How did your artist name come about?
The name Strange Talk came about by a few weeks of brainstorming. If I recall correctly our first ever EP was recorded and completed before we even had an artist name – after a few weeks of throwing a few options around, ‘Strange Talk‘ stuck and we felt it suited completed music we had at the time, so we rolled with it!
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How would you describe your music to your grandma?
Has times of ‘doof doof’ but times of not so ‘doof doof’ – but dont worry Gran, rest assure we still listen to and draw inspiration from ‘The Beatles’!!
Tell us about a few of your tracks; their titles and what they’re about?
The album was reworked and tweaked numerous times over a 12-18 month period with each track having it’s own creative journey. Most tracks were worked on in our own seperate spaces then we would come together in the main studio to combine our ideas, replace sounds and record final vocals.
There were some songs that never really changed from the original demo form – ‘Love Elevation’ is an example of this. This song was our attempt at creating an electronic RnB slow jam infused song. The title was inspired by the chord progression, which constantly feels like it’s elevating taking steps up, then restarting again, almost like a helium balloon constantly rising.
There were also songs like ‘Starlight’, which we changed the chorus lyric and concept about three times before sticking with ‘Running Through The Starlight’ as the main hook. All of the tracks on the album were a shortlisted selection of many other ideas and songs we had sitting in our archive, some of which were written a few years back.
‘Down Low’ is an example of this, having first written this back in 2018. This song is about the love/hate relationship many people experience with social media use and wanting to live a stealthy life without getting caught up in putting everything you do in the spotlight.
Check out ‘Down Low’ from Strange Talk:
Often throughout the creative phase of recording an album it can feel like everything is in bits and pieces that dont make sense, but it really feels good once you have a final folder with a bigger body of work that all fits together !
What do you love about your hometown?
The bars, cafes, restaurants, live music scene and overall edginess is something that is programmed into us as Melbournians. Having spent much time abroad over the years, Melbourne is so good for us to come back to, reset and stay grounded!
Career highlight so far?
There’s been a few so it’s hard to choose, however collaborating with Snapchat when the platform was just launching was pretty special. We were approached by Evan Spiegel the founder, who was fan. Our newly released single at the time ‘Young Hearts‘ was used in the first Team Snapchat ad campaign which got blasted to multiple millions of users – I remember that night my phone was blowing up with texts telling us to check Snapchat.
We ended up having a fun night out with Evan and a couple of his buddies in LA after where he mentioned that he’d just turned down a huge offer from Facebook that day too! It amazes me how successful the Snapchat platform has gone onto become!
Fave non-music hobby?
Exercise, running and eating out until we cant move!
What’s on your dream rider?
Some kind of rare Whisky, red wine, Playstation setup, American style fried chicken, Snickers ice cream bars and that’s about it really – we’re pretty easy to please with riders, but I guess since this would be a ‘dream’ rider let’s throw in a Porsche 911 just because!
Dream music collaboration?
The Weeknd, Max Martin, Philippe Zdar (RIP), Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Mark Ronson, Jacob Collier.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Working with the artists above!
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Cyndie Lauper – ‘Time After Time’.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Mistakes are proof that you’re trying, never be afraid to fail.
What’s one obsession you have that no one would guess after listening to your music? Roller-coaster theme parks…we both LOVE roller-coasters. The bigger they are, the badder they are, the faster they are….the more we wanna ride it!
