Tempo Talks: A Conversation with Talia Grace
THE RELEASE
Talia Grace is an exceptional vocalist and musician from Los Angeles, California. Driven by influences such as Bon Iver, Noah Gundersen, and Sufjan Stevens, she brings to life a set of songs that are truly gut-wrenching while still being hyper-reactive. After beginning her musical journey at the young age of 7, she was writing and recording by the age of 12 years old. While the music draws listeners in, her attention to detail and vulnerability welcome them into her life.
Talia Grace's debut EP, From Under You, is a chilling, 4-track EP about young adulthood, love, and perseverance. Talia's soul stirring vocals and beautiful piano melodies carry the listener on a meaningful trek through heartache, insecurity, and eventual self-discovery. When coupled with the production and guitar of Taylor Webb, this record really takes you deep into the abyss. “Smoke” is a standout with breath-taking strings by Dave Wiley and an atmosphere that absorbs an audience. “Greedy Reminders” shows an incredible display of songwriting and the talent Talia has as a storyteller. We are delighted to have come across this project and look forward to what is on the brink for this amazing artist.
THE INTERVIEW
If you had to create a Mount Rushmore of inspiration, what four individuals molded the artist you are today?
All of my siblings are gifted musicians, but my older brother Taylor has been so important in pushing me to continue making music. He himself is in a band, and he’s one of the best guitarists I’ve ever heard. His discipline and drive has always been inspiring to me, because he’s never not working on music in some capacity. He’s also incredibly honest, so I know that if he think something sounds good, it probably does. A an added bonus, having musicians as older siblings means you get introduced to very good music all the time and from an early age.
Noah Gundersen is my absolute favorite artist. My god. I wouldn’t write music the way I do now if I hadn’t started listening to him when I was 16. I respect how much his music has changed and grown throughout the last 10 years, and I’ve loved everything he’s ever put out. Noah has a way of writing that feels unconcerned with commercial appeal or conventional structure, and I’ve sort of borrowed and adopted a healthy sense of disregard for anything except writing the truth. I recently saw a video where he covers Round Here by Counting Crows, calling it the song that made him want to write music. I hope some day he knows how many people he’s inspired to write.
The American Troubadour himself, Don McLean. The song Vincent is, in my opinion, the best song of all time. The thing about McLean that inspires me the most is the simplicity of his work. There’s nothing too fancy about it, you know? It’s instruments and vocals and the best lyrics you’ve ever heard, and that’s it. I think his music reminds me to keep my work grounded and to be a good enough writer that my writing speaks for itself.
In continuing my obsession with good writers, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is probably the last in the “Holy Trinity” of men who write sad songs that I will spend the rest of my life trying to emulate in some way. Songs by Bon Iver are complex and interesting, and they demand a certain level of attention from the listener. I feel challenged to take more risks in my music when I listen to the songs Justin Vernon writes.
Throughout the production of your new EP, were there specific challenges or breakthrough moments that had a profound influence on the overall direction and cohesion of the project?
I think the interesting thing about the formation of this EP is that the first two songs I recorded were not recorded to be part of a collective work. Lavender Latte was recorded in October 2022 and The Girl Before the Girl was finished by spring of 2023. I recorded them for release as more singles, but I never quite felt right putting them out until I realized they were meant to be part of a larger work, which was months later. I think one of the biggest challenges was trying to determine the direction of the rest of the songs.
By far the most difficult part of the entire project was tackling Smoke. Believe it or not, that song was written five and a half years ago. I knew it had to be a part of this record once it started taking shape, but there was no part of me that wanted to dive back into that time in my life. I sort of recorded that song at the expense of my own wellbeing. My producer actually asked me at one point why I was so hell-bent on putting it on the EP if it was so painful to do. I said this then and I stand by it now: Smoke tells a story that is important to know to truly understand the picture I’m painting in From Under You.
Greedy Reminders is an interesting case, because it was written specifically as the final track for the EP. I knew what I wanted the song to be thematically, but I spent months and months trying to get it right with no success. Ultimately, it was a sort of a chance encounter with the kind of truck my sister’s ex-husband used to drive for work that inspired the whole concept. Then, it just sort of evolved from there and became about a lot more than just sadness and unexpected gut punches of grief, y’know?
I think I always wanted the EP to sound like a diary and tell a story of who I am and why. People relate to that vulnerability, I think; I’ve laid all my cards out in this one. As it took shape, I saw the need to shift halfway through, because I wanted it to hold more weight than just unrequited love songs would have, although those experiences can be painful. I wanted it to be, ultimately, a story of the resilience of the human spirit that leaves you with the same feeling you get when you read something like Emily Dickinsons “Hope” is the thing with feathers.
Can you offer insights into the collaborative dynamics that shaped your upcoming EP, shedding light on the contributions from producers, co-writers, engineers, or featured artists and how their involvement impacted the final body of work?
I try to keep my “team” small, to be honest. I write all of the songs by myself in my bedroom and refine the lyrics, the song structure, harmonies, melodies, etc. until I feel like I have a good sense of the direction I’d like to take in the production. My brother and his bandmate are usually the first two people to hear any song idea that I have, because they provide really valuable insight into blind spots in my creative process.
I am so lucky that I work with a Taylor Webb, a one-of-a-kind producer who is always open to ideas and seems to understand what I want or envision before I even mention it. I met him about five years ago; we’ve collaborated on eight songs now, and he gets a co-writing credit on each of my songs, because they genuinely wouldn’t take shape the way they do without him. He turns my music from something you hear into something you really feel in your body as well. We work from his home rather than a studio, which relieves a lot of pressure to get things perfect right off the bat. Taylor is a sort of rare find in that he produces, mixes, and masters the music, not to mention he’s just a good person.
This particular record features something new in that it’s the first time I’ve brought someone on board to add strings to one of the songs. Dave Wiley provided the strings, and I truly cannot imagine “Smoke” without them. The song was always written to be haunting, and the instrumentation Dave wrote for it just adds to the intensity of it—truly my favorite part of any of my new songs.
Finding collaborators that you trust unequivocally is vital, because it enables you to take chances and be as raw as possible, and I think you can definitely hear that in the finished product of this EP.
Considering the entirety of your EP, what lasting impact or impression do you hope the collection of songs will leave on listeners, both individually and as a cohesive musical journey?
I think the bridge of Greedy Reminders is sort of the “thesis” of the EP, which is why I was so particular about writing it. Ultimately, I am a big believer in the fact that life is terrible and incredible and hideous and beautiful and sad and happy all at the same time. I think at the end of the day, we have the power to choose to believe that life is still good and worth living both despite and because of all of those things. I hope that’s what listeners take away from the collective work.
I hope The Girl Before the Girl serves to make people who relate feel less alone in their experience. I know when I wrote it, I felt like, “Man, there must be something wrong with me,” but I’ve been surprised by how many people have related to it. There’s relief in realizing you’re not the only one. I hope that’s what people take away. (I also sort of hope the people I mention specifically in the first verse listen to it; they would recognize themselves in the lyrics, I’m sure.)
Lavender Latte is so specific to me in my mind that I never imagined any key takeaways, but I think I’m hopeful that people will see it as a sort of cautionary tale. Don’t stay where you’re not wanted. Don’t accept love that you have to beg to receive. You deserve more than that. I think the shift in the last chorus from “how do I ask you” to “I will not ask you” is meant to be a subtle nod to leaving with dignity, not out of defeat, but out of self-respect.
Smoke is a tough one—by far the heaviest subject matter of any song I’ve ever put out. It was written as sort of a letter to the man who sexually assaulted me. I think we tend to mischaracterize perpetrators of this nature as strangers with bad intentions in dark alleys, but that sort of thing is a misguided caricature of what perpetrators actually look like. I hope the grit and rawness of this piece helps people understand how real this issue and its repercussions are. I think it needs to be talked about more in general, so this is my attempt at hopefully creating some amount of discussion around the topic.
I hope that Greedy Reminders feels hopeful to people. Like I said before, it is ultimately the thesis of the record and also my philosophy on life. You’re more than reminders of pain or failure or heartbreak. You have all the time in the world to reinvent yourself if you want to. Little “greedy reminders” of the cruelty of life are everywhere, but so are good things. I hope people come away from this song and record feeling seen, allowing themselves to be sad, and moving forward with hope and something like optimism.
As you look forward, how does the release of this EP set the stage for your future projects, and are there any subtle hints or clues you can share about the evolving musical direction you plan to explore in the coming months?
Well, I’ve already written my next single. I think the next record I put out will be a full-length LP, and I am hopeful that there will be more collaboration. I hope to have a feature or two on my next project. One of my favorite songs I’ve ever written was written as a duet, so who knows!
I think that the last song on this EP is sort of representative of where I’d like my music to go, thematically. I’ve written a lot of sad songs, a lot of songs about unrequited love, a lot of songs about falling apart. I hope to write more songs about how glad I am to be alive after all of it.
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