Talk Show have shared a fiery new song called “Leather“, taken from the upcoming EP Touch The Ground. The London quartet’s new record is set to come out on September 23 via Missing Piece, and is produced by Hot Chip duo Joe Goddard and Al Doyle from their Hackney studio. “Leather” was the last song they wrote for the record and the band describe it as the EP’s “dark horse,” it was originally intended to be two tracks but soon became one.
As stated in NME frontman Harrison Swann said of the new track “[Drummer] Chloe [MacGregor] took the lead on this one bringing a big breakbeat style drum part, and we just ran with it. Vocally it felt natural to sit back and let the other parts sit more at the front. With the sharp guitar and heavy bass lines, we didn’t wanna compete with each other, so it helped having small repeating phrases, fitting in the gaps. We were trying to build an atmosphere, something dynamic, rather than tell a story.” Swann then added: “We wanted something that had a bit of bite to it, that was really gonna show what we’d actually been listening to for inspiration. It’s hands down our favourite to play from the EP, and it just feels different. It feels like it really comes alive when we perform it. Whether that’s been at festivals, or small cap venues. I love it.” You can listen to the new single below.
Talk Show made the difficult decision to scrap the music they’d previously spent a year writing and took a new direction. The band expanded their musical horizons beyond the new wave and post punk influences that had shaped past tracks such as “These People”, instead delving into old soul records, electronic music as well as DJ sets on Boiler Room, MF Doom, the Beastie Boys and ‘90s dance music made by the Chemical Brothers and Underworld. They then took their ideas to Joe and Al which led to an open-minded collaboration; with the band excited to be working with electronic music legends, and wanting to be encouraged to push their sonic boundaries.
The first taster from the upcoming Ep ‘Touch The Ground’ was released late last year in the form of the single “Underworld”. Talk Show first worked with Joe Goddard last year on a two-part collaboration with house DJ Eli Brown. Brown shared the track “Trouble”, which Talk Show then moulded their own version of with help from Goddard. Fans can pre-order the ‘Touch The Ground’ EP here.
