Taking things up a notch with latest anthem Wasting Time, Leeds sextet Talkboy state their case for being one of Yorkshire’s hot indie prospects ahead of their debut EP release this summer.
Having recently joined forces with Leeds label Come Play With Me and LAB Records, the fledgling six-piece have so far ticked off supports alongside Our Girl, Another Sky and Bully. There are a number of festival appearances (Blue Dot, Live At Leeds, Y Not, Long Divison) lined up this summer where they’ll be showing off their well-earned reputation as a strong live act.
Mesmerised by their latest tune, we caught up with vocalist Katie Heap to find out more about the band…
Talkboy – Wasting Time
SYNC: Please tell us a bit of the background to Talkboy; who you are, how did things get started, and what exciting things have happened so far?
KATIE: Talkboy consists of myself, Calum, Tim, Charlotte, Tom & Jake – we all studied at Leeds College of Music, and with it being a small building, everyone knew everyone. Some of us did our Masters there which is where Tom, Cal, Jake and Tim started a project while Katie, Charlotte, Jake and Tim had their own band from a few years before.
So at the end of 2017, we decided to merge the projects, and that’s how Talkboy was formed. Since then we’ve been lucky enough to play festivals such as Live at Leeds and Gold Sounds where we got to play on the same stage as some of our favourite bands/artists including The Big Moon and Phoebe Bridgers. We’ve supported some amazing bands such as Our Girl and Another Sky, and we’ve recently signed with Come Play With Me and LAB Records who we’re really excited to work with.
SYNC: How does the band’s songwriting process work? Does one of you typically take the lead or is it a more collaborative process?
KATIE: It is quite a collaborative process – generally one of us will bring the bones of a song to a rehearsal and from there we’ll develop and arrange it together. The last two singles were written by Tim, so he demoed out his idea and from there we developed them as a band. Between the six of us we have a pretty varied range of influences so it’s cool to see how the songs develop from the initial idea to the finished product.
SYNC: How would you describe your sound and where you come from musically?
KATIE: Our sound is an amalgamation of influences. Genre wise I’d say we were indie-rock but to be honest, we try not to get too bogged down in the genre and focus more on the songwriting. We definitely have a cross over of interests – bands like The Big Moon, David Bowie, Boy Azooga, Arcade Fire, The Beatles – loads of different influences between the six of us. The problem with that was finding the best way to incorporate all these influences whilst retaining our own sound. We had been in bands for a good while before Talkboy was a thing, so I think that let us experiment a lot and gave us a better idea of where we wanted to go from the start.
Talkboy – Someone Else For You
SYNC: What was it like supporting Our Girl?
KATIE: We’re big fans of Our Girl so we were pretty damn happy when we got to support them. And they were so lovely as well. We also discovered Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard who were Our Girl’s support for their tour and they were brilliant. We actually did an acoustic set which was fun – the harmonies got real. We’d love to play with them again.
SYNC: Finally, what are the plans for the near future? Any new material or further live dates on the way?
KATIE: In terms of new material, we’re releasing this new single – it’s my personal favourite so far so I’m really excited for this one. And we get to release it on vinyl with Come Play With Me – the song was actually chosen out of a few submissions from other Leeds bands by a panel which included Abbie McCarthy (BBC Radio 1), Roisin O’Connor (The Independent), Dave Martin (Leaf Label), Diane Wagg (Deluxxe Management) and Simon Rix (Kaiser Chiefs).
Then our first EP is due out in Summer! So far announced for live dates are
Stockton Calling on Saturday 20 April, Live At Leeds on Saturday 4 May, plus Blue Dot, Y Not and Long Division.
Interview by Narzra Ahmed
Sync. 