In the Chair: They just Need You, they’re Pretty Talks

In the Chair is a regular feature on Eventalaide, highlighting artists from across Australia and occasionally overseas. Everyone gets the same questions. It is just meant to be a bit of fun so please treat it as such.

Questions by Geoff Jenke

Bringing together a close-knit group of friends-turned-housemates, the PRETTY TALKS origin story itself stems back to the guys meeting at The Australian Institute of Music. What began as a group assignment with Liam and Tommy soon evolved into meetings at university bars, bonding over shared musical tastes and, ultimately, the trio’s shared desire to craft music to strike people’s emotions and challenge the way listeners perceive life and the world around them. Now firmly dedicated to developing a culture and community of art and self-expression into every inch of their creative output, PRETTY TALKS have arrived in 2022 ready to divulge their soul-searching tunes written and recorded pre-pandemic, wielding their darkly beautiful aesthetic and striking lyricism. With another single waiting in the wings to release in the not-too-distant future, PRETTY TALKS continue to enamor with their bright and eloquent wares, and Hurt Me is a sublime second glance into the band’s ever-growing authentic universe.

As Liam accurately concludes, “From writing, producing and recording the song, to developing, writing, shooting, editing the music video, it all feels like a joyful sigh of relief. It feels like we’ve created a real piece of well-rounded art with Hurt Me. Something that conveys the story in the gritty romantic aesthetic that we wanted”.

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Name: Liam, Tommy, Hadi

Band: Pretty Talks

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What was the first record you bought with your own money and where from?
Liam | Songs about Jane – Sanity (remember that store)
Tommy | Alanis Morrissete – like a dollar store or something
Hadi| Silverchair’s Neon Ballroom – Probably a Sanity? It was too long ago to remember. 

80’s or 90’s Music:
L | Can’t I have both? But if I have to choose 80’s
T | Gotta say the 90s
H| Going with 80’s

What music are you currently listening to?
L | Today I Listened to Beabadoobee’s newish album ‘Beatopia’, Valley, Conan Gray and some Reneé Rapp
T | At the moment a whole bunch of different stuff but mostly Holly Humberstone, Charli Adams and Nate Smith
H| Oly Sherman and The Million’s new tracks. Quinton Brock’s album “My Shadow” and Landon Conrath.

The Best live artist/band you’ve seen:
L | The 1975, I’m constantly trying to kick my addiction to their music and Matty’s on stage Charisma.
T | Gang of Youths
H| Foster the People at Big Day Out. The crowd was absolutely heaving.

Your “In the mood for love” song:
L | We are getting pretty personal, anything by Doja
T | HAHA “Love Me” – The 1975
H| “Gimme Head” – The Radiators

Your favourite Saturday night party record?
L | Tommy’s love making song is my dancing song, idk what that says about us, but I do dance with my hips, ‘Love Me’ and that entire album- The 1975
T | “Oxnard” – Anderson Paak.
H| “Uncanny Valley” – COIN

Your favourite Sunday morning chill out record?
L | “Come away with me” – Norah Jones
T | “Blonde” Frank Ocean
H| Jungle’s self-titled LP

Which song do you wish you had written?
L | “If the World Was Ending” – JP Saxe, Julie Michaels, you can feel every word of that song.
T | “Tuna in The Brine” – Silverchair
H| “Dreams” – Fleetwood Mac

Roger Daltry once said “Rock N Roll has no future”. Do you agree with him?
L | Rock N Roll is just mindset, but will never die.
T | No, rock is evolving and dispersing into other genres now, but there’s still great straight up rock bands like Royal Blood, Maneskin – still killing it
H| I think I’d say something similar to Tommy, rock music never dies, it just changes its outfit.

Vinyl, CD or Streaming?
L | I own vinyl, but stream 99 percent of my music, on the other hand there are some banging songs burned onto CD’s, written by 8-year-old Liam.
T | Vinyl when I’m feeling fancy, streaming every other day
H| I grew up with CDs but I do wish I had a nice record player and vinyl collection.

If you could record or play live with any artist (dead or alive), who would it be?
L | Going toe to toe with one of my biggest ‘Front man’ influences of Michael Hutchence would be amazing.
T | Supporting someone like MUNA would be amazing
H| I think opening for The 1975 is pretty high on all of our lists.

What is the most useless talent you have?
L | I can touch my tongue to my nose, is that a talent?
T | an assortment of percussive mouth noises
H| Palmistry

Your finest recorded moment?
L | I’m quite proud of the vocals on our next single. At the time when we wrote it (a few years ago), I wasn’t super confident in my ability to use my Falsetto, but I think it ended up sounding great (not in a pretentious way)
T | Having any of your songs recorded is just fucking cool
H| This one is tough to pick. We’ve recorded an LP in the previous iteration of this band that I’m still really proud of. But I think every new song we do instantly becomes our new favourite child.

Who is your musical hero and what one question would you ask them?
T | Matt Healy/ George Daniel – “How do you manage the drummer/singer/songwriter duo so well, lol.
L | Same answer as Tommy, I think we both have a huge musical and romantic crush on Matty and George.
H| Flea from RHCP – “What’s your wildest party story?”

Dying, peacefully on your deathbed, what song would you like to hear?
L | ‘Lilac Wine’ – Jeff Buckley
T | “All My Friends” – LCD Soundsystem
H| “Only Ones Who Know” – Arctic Monkeys

Stuck on a desert island for a year and can only take three albums. What would they be?
L | “ILIWYSFYASBYSUOI” – The 1975, “Grace” – Jeff Buckley, “Kick” – INXS, I think with those three, I can cover any emotional situation I would face.
T | “One of These Nights” – The Eagles – for that beach summer vibe. “Grace” – Jeff Buckley – for the moody nights and retrospection. “Crash” – Charli XCX – to dance
H| “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” – Red Hot Chilli Peppers, “Go Farther In Lightness” – Gang of Youths, “Lonerism” – Tame Impala

Favourite all time movie:
L | Across the Universe – Julie Taymor
T | The Place Beyond the Pines
H| The Lion King. OG 90s animated of course.

If you drove an ice cream van, what music would you play?
L | Some Katy Perry for sure.
T | 80’s Hair Metal
H| Straight out funk and soul bangers from the 70’s and 80’s

Best show you have ever played in your career:
We played a gig once under another alias where this guy who was moshing up the front the entire time, closed out the night with a red wine shoey. 

Any backstage incident that makes you laugh?
L | Surely some hair and or outfit incidents
T | Always forgetting at least ONE THING like drum felts, kick beaters, sticks
H| That moment of double-checking that we all look good is kind of endearing.

Neil Young or Paul McCartney?
L | Paul McCartney
T | Paul McCartney
H| Paul McCartney

Who is the nicest person in Rock n Roll at the moment?
L | Tommy’s probably right, but Bono seems pretty nice, I guess.
T | Dave Grohl
H| Watched Post Malone’s Hot Ones episode lately and he seems like a genuinely lovely guy.

What do you hope the next 12 months holds for you?
L | Shows, more music and more music videos.
T | Lots of gigs and a steady stream of music coming out
H| Very, very keen to start gigging and get more music out there. Would love to hear us on the radio in the next year as well.

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Capturing and celebrating all things bittersweet and beautiful in the world, glistening alt pop trio PRETTY TALKS return with an immersive and intensely engaging new single Hurt Me, officially out today.

Showcasing a relationship breakdown soundtracked by glossy pop and retro synths, Hurt Me is also today accompanied by a raw music video that traverses youthful romance and the many harsh realities that can come with the territory, while also drawing inspiration from early 2000s and 2010s pop culture for good measure.

An emphatic follow-up to the band’s lush debut track Need You, which dropped earlier this year, Hurt Me finds PRETTY TALKS welding nostalgia and modernity deep amongst lashings of shimmering and dramatic, angsty pop. Drawing influences from the likes of MUNA, 5 Seconds of Summer and The Band Camino on their latest release, Hurt Me is an intimate, soul-searching gem full of driving basslines, airy reprieves and silken vocals that simultaneously appears affable on its sonic surface while diving into self-exploration and the agonising moments of a relationship gone awry.

As the band explain, “Hurt Me is a snapshot of a relationship in its most tumultuous moments, a relationship breaking down, where neither person is necessarily at fault. The outcome being that one person decides to put everything on the line whilst the other has already mentally checked out. It’s that feeling of “I know we’ve both made mistakes in this, but let’s give it one last chance”. It’s also about the moments of weakness; when you realise it’s not evolving in a positive way and you wish you could pretend it was just how it used to be”.

Hurt Me is out now!