Perth post-punk quartet NEW TALK have unleashed their second album, Time & Memory. Truly expanding and exploring these two key concepts through their signature overwhelming sound and experimenting with new textures and form, Time & Memory came after a period of dramatic live growth for the band.
This included playing a string of festivals – Falls Festival, SOTA, Baybeats (Singapore) and Concrete & Grass (China) – and shows with Stiff Little Fingers, Future Of The Left, Amyl & The Sniffers, WAAX, Jen Cloher and Ecca Vandal, to name a few. We chatted to the band ahead of their ALT//FEST performance at Badlands Bar on November 12.
It’s been over a year since the release of your sophomore album, Time & Memory. How has the material grown for you, as a band, over time?
I think playing it consistently over the past few years has really shown that the creation and release of the record, as protracted as it was, was creatively one of our finer moments in time. Sometimes, while playing the material live or reflecting on it, there are little moments that step forward and you say to yourself, 'gee, when did we think of that??’.
Has the context behind the album changed for you at all? Or has it solidified?
It’s always difficult to continue to relate to a work you’ve created, as it is essentially a document of a past you, one that continued to grow and develop. I think the central themes of slippery time, elasticity of experience and big dumb sounds continue to resonate.
Can you describe the song you most connect with personally on the release and the story behind this piece?
I think collectively it is Frida, as it was the purest distillation of what we have been striving for our entire existence as a band, while also pointing in further paths we could travel.
What’s one of your favourite live experiences for the band in the past year and why?
I think being able to share the record with a variety of different subsets of people, while all having genuine reactions to it. has been great. Our show with Mark of Cain recently comes to mind, where we were able to contrast their work, but also be able to relate to everyone in the room was pretty neat!
Is the band looking towards new material now? If so, can you give us a taste of the direction it is heading?
It has been a slow process to even entertain the thought of new music, but we’re getting there. I think because this year marks our 10-year anniversary as a band, we’ve been digging through the archives and making it a point of reflecting on what we’ve achieved and how that can point us forward. Essentially; more songs that are loud, probably about death and with wonky textures abound.
What would be your ideal contemporary Australian gig (in an ideal world) and why?
I mean, we get to play one – Drowning Horse as loud as possible in a room as dark as possible!
ALT // FEST is on Saturday, November 12 at Badlands Bar. Tickets available now here.