Ahead of his release with us on October 17, we had a talk about “music” in general with this great artist. London-based Talal is an awesome talent you ought to know. We are happy to have him on the label, as he has this brilliant sound.
With the release “Vice”, he invites you on a captivating journey with a harmonious fusion of nature’s rhythms and electronic beats. Stay tuned and enjoy his interview.
Connect with Talal on Soundcloud | Facebook | Spotify | Instagram
Talal – Vice (incl Inessa Remix) available via https://music.tanzgemeinschaft.com/talal-vice
Hey hey, thank you for your time. What have you been up to lately?
I was just in Sarajevo in the recent past for an event and had a great time seeing the city/country.
Give us an insight into what we can expect from Talal over the next few months.
There is a release on John 00 Flemings Joof that just came out and is doing well in the charts. Fortunately, it was selected as #3 in Beatport’s September progressive charts. Mid-september I did a remix for Albano on a California label Mioli Music. Albano is a great artist, a month back he did a remix on a release I had with the France-based Family Piknik Music, and we had the pleasure of meeting/playing at the Family Piknik festival in the south of France which was a great experience.
Tom Pooks and Ludo Rambaud ran/organized things very well, probably one of the most organized festivals I’ve ever been to. I will be playing in London in December, and there are some discussions currently for potentially Turkey ,Thailand and perhaps Japan.
There have been some prospective event offers for Canada however as of yet I haven’t been able to get them into the same month – so when the stars align and they can be in the same month I’ll make the trip from London. I currently also have 4 tracks making the demo rounds, one of which was tested by Maceo Plex – so am hopeful those will arrive at a good location for late 2023 / early 2024.
There is also a slow-burning potential larger vocal release in collaboration with Nihil Young, but that will take more time and happen in due course.
How would you describe your own development as an artist and the transition toward your own style? What is the relationship between copying, learning, and your own creativity?
I try not to overly think about the process per se – I try to enjoy what I am writing and allow that to find its own tone naturally. However lately I’ve found that process has led to interesting results, some great record labels have reached out saying something to the extent “We really enjoy your music but also find it fairly diverse genre-wise, so let us consider a remix but will give some direction regarding the genre to suit the label catalog”.
Do you think that the kind of music you grew up listening to affects the taste of music you develop?
Probably. However, I think the bigger influence, is appreciating a range of genres – so then after a while your preference is not a genre – but rather quality amongst any genre.
How would you describe your sound and style?
Hard to say, that some items have signed for Bar 25 in organic house, some items in melodic techno to Joris Voorns Spectrum & Solees Future Romance, and some items in progressive house to Hernan Cattaneos Sudbeat. There is some range.
When working on new music, do you have a creative process in place or go with it, trial and error, experiment, and see what comes out?
These days I try to begin with the drums and the bass, and the last component will be a touch of synthesizer.
Soon you will have a release, “Vice”, with us. Can you tell us how you came up with this nice track and what our readers can expect?
In a short span of time, I made a small batch of about 3 or so tracks that had a very 80s percussion/drum approach. It’s been a nice sort of seasonal genre experience – while it may not exactly fit into a specific per-say genre I hope it can be appreciated in general.
This release invites you to rediscover the beauty and serenity of the world around you, all while grooving to the infectious beats of organic house. Thanks to Inessa for the great remix she made.
Could you take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work? Do you have a fixed schedule?
Lately, there has been a bit of travel but I will soon block out a month or so and just spend time writing I hope. Generally, on a weekly basis, I put in some hours of writing. But I make sure not to rush to a conclusion, and to gradually come back and edit for different parts of a file/song. I find it is easy to make the main full part of the song. Yet, I force myself to be patient and reconsider multiple perspectives for the build-and-break sequence.
Do you like to work solo or do you sometimes collaborate? What are some of your most memorable professional collaborations?
The longest-running collaboration was with Nihil Young – and indeed even in my solo work, he is still providing me very generous advice and feedback per song in the mixdown process. For me regarding solo or collaboration, it isn’t so much about that in a specific say “transactional sense” but in a wider relationship, as there is a long range of other music-related items I will try my best to advocate Nihil Young for whenever I see a relevant area I can lend a hand in.
Who are your musical or audio heroes and why?
I am not so sure, the list is too long – very long. However these days I work so much on my own music, that a large majority of my time is spent relistening to my own songs and editing them or keeping notes of how I should edit them.
If you could have produced a track of one of your favourite artists, which one would that be and why?
Probably tangerine dream love on a real train, it captured a sort of ambient 1980s sound – but the idea of remixing/editing such material I find to be risky, sometimes it is best to leave things as they are and appreciate them.
Are there any tracks or artists in particular that you are playing constantly these days?
Well, these days I would say at least half of my sets at events are my own songs, I will usually play other artists’ songs only at the tail end of the set and then still add in another one or two of my own songs – so its mostly personal original material. With that said I certainly enjoy/try to play some items from Maceo Plex, Joris Voorn, Solee, Hernan Cattaneo, Nick Muir, Jeremy Olander.
Thank you.