Music
Interview
Talia Rae: “Simplicity can be the hardest to get across”
The rising star talks about her EP Julia and how writing songs about her relationship with her parents posed a big challenge
Big things are coming for Talia Rae. Her sophomore EP Julia is a pop-R&B dream; a deliciously smooth and deeply emotive five-track offering that traverses emotional highs and lows before closing out with two deeply personal tracks – one dedicated to each of her parents. She’s just played these songs live on the road with James Morrison – she’s also previously opened for David Gray and Stevie Nicks and played some of the most iconic venues in the UK, including the Royal Albert Hall. But her dream gig?
“Emirates Stadium,” says Rae, a lifelong Arsenal fan. “Once I play Emirates Stadium, I’ll be like, “Nah, I’m out.””
It’s a goal alluded to her in her music video for title track ‘Julia’, in which she and her dad attend an Arsenal game together, armed with a handheld camera. Simple as it is, the video shares the same qualities as all of Rae’s best work: personal, genuine and moving, and also unmistakably cool. We sat down with the rising star to chat about the EP and everything that comes after.
How was opening for James Morrison?
It so much fun. I played some dream venues, and he’s a proper, proper legend. He’s so nice, and the fans were really cool. It was one of those tours where I didn’t really know what to think before going into it, I didn’t really know how it was going to be, but it was just really wholesome.
I’ve got a few more shows this summer, but I’m really just kind of writing, to be honest, for the next project, I’m hoping to get out to America to do some writing in Nashville, which would be really cool. Maybe LA as well. That’s pretty much it. I’m probably just going to be of a bit of a studio hound.
So you’re already on to the next project?
Yeah, a hundred percent. I’ve got such a backlog. Some of the songs on my EP that I’ve just released, I wrote like two- and a-bit years ago. I’ve got loads always in the works, and there’s some people that I want to work with on the next project… I’m so excited. I always get so excited about the new music. I’m just like, onto the next. I feel like every artist is really like that.
Does it take some of the pressure off putting something out when you already have your mind on the next thing?
A hundred percent, because then you’re already past that moment. Even though it’s new for everyone else. it’s so old for you, because I’ve listened to that song making it, like, a hundred and one times. It’s a bit of a relief when it’s because then I can feel like, “Well, it’s out now, I don’t need to stress about the mix. I don’t need to stress how loud the drums are.” No one gives a shit about that those kinds of things anyway.
When you’re writing so much, how do you go about narrowing it down to five songs for the EP?
It’s a long ass process, really long. I just listen to the song so much and think about how I feel about them, how they make me feel, how the different songs can work with each other. There’s definitely a thing inside an artist that just goes, “This is right. That’s the right song.” Sometimes you don’t know until you put it out, really. I sit down with my team as well and kind of hear what they think, and then if we’re all aligned, then we’re like, “Okay, yeah, that one has to be on there.”
When you started putting Julia together, what sort of reference points were you bringing into the studio?
Adele was quite a big reference. Paula Nutini, Tracy Chapman. In terms of production, early Coldplay as well… For the song ‘Julia’, I think there were in the end like 90-something mixes of the song because we kept just adding loads of stuff, and then going, “No, that’s not right. Let’s take that away.” We tried doing a version with full drums from the get-go. We re-recorded the piano like four or five times. The vocal was the only thing that stayed consistent. That’s literally the only thing. Everything else changed so many times.
Those last two tracks on the EP – ‘Julia’ and ‘If I Were Your Mother’ – feel deceptively simple because they are so personal and raw and emotional.
I’m a proper perfectionist in the studio, and I can spend days on producing one sound. It doesn’t even need to be a whole song. But especially with ‘If I Were Your Mother’ and ‘Julia’, those were definitely ones where I really tried to capture the honesty of what I was feeling, but then to do that is some is sometimes even harder than how I produced ‘Blind In Love’ or ‘Euphoria’ or even ‘Blue’. ‘Blue’ kind of produced itself – that took us like two or three days and it all came together really quickly. But the other ones we had to fight for. To get that honesty across is sometimes harder than throwing loads of production at a screen, because you can’t fake that. You can’t fake the honesty of it.
Producing ‘Euphoria’ was more seamless than creating ‘Julia’, even though ‘Julia’ was so rewarding, but there was so much back and forth. The simplicity of it can be the hardest to get across because you don’t know if you’re doing it right. I hear a lot of like there’s a lot of songwriters that talk about this. Like with Dolly Parton when she wrote ‘And I Will Always Love You’ – that sounds like the most simple thing, but to me, to think of that is just genius.
‘Julia’ is an ode to your dad. Where did that songwriting process start?
I started like writing first verse at home, and the words ‘Julia, let me know when you get home tonight’ just came out. I’d always wanted to write a song about my dad and my relationship with him, and idea of it just really came together quite naturally. I knew I wanted it to be a song about him being a protective father, but a really caring father. Julia became this representation of me.
When did you know that the music video had to involve Arsenal?
I have to say, hats off to my manager, Fred. I was thinking about music video ideas, and I’m a huge Arsenal fan, and my dad’s a massive Arsenal fan. He’s brought me up on Arsenal and stuff. I’m sitting in his office right now and there’s a picture of him and Thierry Henry right in front of me. I wanted to film a video with him and some sort of involvement with Arsenal. So, I was speaking to my manager, and he was like, “Why don’t you like get an old VHS camera and literally just go to a game? Almost like a day in the life type thing of you and him going to an Arsenal match.” And I was like, “That is such a good idea.”
The idea was there before Arsenal won the league or anything, and then obviously Arsenal won the league, and I was like, “That’s so cool! Perfect timing.” It’s such a perfect representation of our relationship, and it’s just real. Like, it wasn’t acting or anything. We were just doing what we would do anyway. I wanted it to resonate with fathers and daughters. And Arsenal fans.
How did your dad feel about being involved? Did he need much convincing?
Oh no, he was he was like “One hundred percent I’m there.” He’s a very proud, Dad.
That must have been emotional for him hearing the song for the first time.
And the last track on the EP is an ode to your mum as well, which is lovely that they both have a song. Which one did you write first?
They were around the same time. To be honest, I never even heard them on the same project when I initially wrote them. That was only quite a recent thing. I felt like it was natural. A heartfelt song about my mum, and then one about my dad. It just made sense to tie them together. And it’s almost like the EP is now like an ode to my family and my parents, I suppose. They’re my biggest supporters.
How early did you know that music was what you wanted to do?
Really, really early. I did Saturday school, and then I did musical theatre when I grew up, and I went to a theatre school when I was like 10. It was really from about 10 that I was like, “I’m not doing musical theatre,” and I think I started writing songs about 13, and then 15 was when I like really took it seriously. I was like, “I want to work with other writers, network, all of that sort of stuff,” and I started studying a bunch of things and artists’ careers.
Do you have a favourite gig that you’ve played at this point?
I played the Royal Albert Hall last March, and my grandparents were there and literally my whole family, and I went to school a two-minute walk from there. It was a full circle moment for me. It was really euphoric.
What are you bringing into the studio right now as you write new music?
Stuff that’s a lot more soul leaning, a few rock influences as well. A lot of Donny Hathaway. Paolo Nutini is the main kind of person I always go back to. Stereophonics, Leon Bridges, Marvin Gaye…
Who do you look up to the most as a vocalist?
Adele, Duffy, Amy (Winehouse)… I’m loving what Sienna Spiro is doing. I think she’s wicked. RAYE, of course, and her songwriting’s just crazy. And I definitely look up to Paolo Nutini. The way that he uses his voice is just so effortless, and I’m always trying to go for that effortless thing, especially with my new music, because that’s the thing that I find the hardest, over singing sometimes. He has this natural coolness about him. You can hear it as soon as he opens his mouth.
What do you want to say on your next project?
I don’t want to say too much in case it changes because things always change. But I’m really trying to story tell more, like write and tell people’s stories and my own story through those songs. A lot of the music that I’ve been listening to lately is about people’s lives. There’s this new artist called Aaron Rowe who I love, and he does this amazingly and inspires me loads. He has a song called ‘John’s Song’, which is about his great granddaughter, I believe, or someone in his family, and it’s just beautiful, the way he tells the story. So I’m definitely trying to do that more.
I do tend to write about other people’s lives a lot, and my relationship with them. But for the next project, I definitely want to look more inward and not be afraid to write about things that I haven’t wanted to speak about yet. I’m just trying to like rip the bandaid off of all of that. So it’s probably going to be a lot more introspective. But then hopefully it will resonate with a lot of people.
Talia Rae will play Neighbourhood Festival in Manchester this October 17 – find tickets here
