Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Fractured Spirits With PIERINA O'BRIEN From DEVIL ELECTRIC

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Fractured Spirits With PIERINA O'BRIEN From DEVIL ELECTRIC · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So I am Pierina, I'm from Devil Electric and we
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: are just about a loburm on this Friday, the twenty
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  Speaker 1: seventh of March, called Talia. So it's the first one
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  Speaker 1: out for a while, which is exciting. Yeah, and that's
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  Speaker 1: sort of the crux of it.
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  Speaker 2: Very nice. Thanks for joining us tonight.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, no, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: My pleasure. So, as you say, Double Electric release your
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: third album, Taliea today March of twenty seven, So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: how you feel about it?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. It's been too long coming, I'd say, I think,
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  Speaker 1: like you know, we we've kind of had this album
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  Speaker 1: for a while, and COVID really impacted out ability to
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  Speaker 1: release it. Essentially, we wanted to release it much earlier.
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  Speaker 1: But here we are. We're fine. In the day is Friday,
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  Speaker 1: which is fantastic. Yeah, and I obviously I can't wait.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm so excited. I love this album. I
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  Speaker 1: love the songs on it. I think I hope everyone
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  Speaker 1: else loves this album, and yeah, I couldn't be more
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  Speaker 1: proud of it. So yeah, very excited.
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  Speaker 2: Like I said, you've been sitting on it for a
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  Speaker 2: while so that the songs become dated in a way
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  Speaker 2: to you or are they still still stand.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of them have been like desperate to release
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and we still play a lot of them. I think
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: it's Yeah, it's interesting, Like, yeah, I think when we
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  Speaker 1: wrote them like for a while there, I sort of
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  Speaker 1: they did feel like we'd sat with them for a while.
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  Speaker 1: We've been with them for a while, and I wasn't
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  Speaker 1: sure how I'd feel when we finally got the album
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  Speaker 1: out and you know, in front of everyone. But it's
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  Speaker 1: been so refreshing. I think doing film clips for them,
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  Speaker 1: talking about them, playing them, all of that stuff just
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  Speaker 1: it reignites that sort of love. And yeah, it was
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  Speaker 1: like we had such a good time writing them. Initially
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  Speaker 1: some of them were like written in the studio and
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  Speaker 1: it was written at the same time as we did Godless,
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  Speaker 1: which is the second album, so you know, we've even
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  Speaker 1: though we've had these songs for a while, it's sort
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  Speaker 1: of closing out a chapter of a bigger story. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that that is sort of, you know, kind
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  Speaker 1: of overs shown the fact that you know, we have
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  Speaker 1: had it for a while and we've been wanting to
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  Speaker 1: release it, but I have been very desperate to get
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: it out.
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  Speaker 2: So cold it dive into the album a bit deeper
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  Speaker 2: musically for us and tell us what you're gone for.
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  Speaker 3: So musically it's an interesting question, like, and I've had
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  Speaker 3: to reflect back on this because it's been you know,
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  Speaker 3: there was sort of this tumultuous.
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  Speaker 1: Period of my life in which I was writing both
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  Speaker 1: of these albums, so Godless Entalia, and like, little did
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  Speaker 1: I know it was going to get profoundly worse or
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: it got better. But yeah, but there was this bookcase
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  Speaker 1: in my lound room and I used to sit in
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  Speaker 1: there every night and sort of you know, tinkering around.
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  Speaker 1: And also you know, yeah, like I was, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: I was going through this time sort of sitting in
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  Speaker 1: my lound room and looking at this bookcase. So I
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  Speaker 1: wrote a lot of the music around sort of the
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  Speaker 1: themes of these different books on the shelf. It sounds
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  Speaker 1: so cliche, but it actually was like a really kind
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  Speaker 1: of nice stimulant for me to look out when I'm
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: trying to write lyrics. And so thematically they're quite similar.
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  Speaker 1: But I'd say all of the most probably painful songs
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  Speaker 1: ended up on Talia. So it is it's quite dark.
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  Speaker 1: It's quite like lyrically quite dark. Quite painful, and particularly
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  Speaker 1: I mean this hereafter the last part of that song,
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  Speaker 1: which is sort of like this monologue that I go
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  Speaker 1: through is probably some of the hardest lyrics I've had
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  Speaker 1: to write from a personal perspective, and it's reflecting back
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  Speaker 1: on not just myself, but you know, other people that
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  Speaker 1: I was around at the time, and also like taking
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  Speaker 1: into account this situation I was in, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: I just it's like this feeling of isolation in this room,
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  Speaker 1: looking at this shelf. It's sort of all wrapped up
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  Speaker 1: in that. It's like a bit of a breath out
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  Speaker 1: in that last sort of I don't know, I think
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  Speaker 1: it goes for like a couple of minutes, that last
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  Speaker 1: monologue in that song, but it's almost like an exhale
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  Speaker 1: of like okay, cool, you know, I've reached this point.
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  Speaker 1: It's time to move on. So yeah, yeah, album actually
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  Speaker 1: kind of ends on a positive note.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that one's not too much for you, because you
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  Speaker 4: did say it is a personal album, But there's songs
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  Speaker 4: on it all up, So I want to go through
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  Speaker 4: an individually and you can tell us a bit more
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  Speaker 4: about each song, if that's all right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll start off with Talia.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Talia is that's about abundance. That's a full
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  Speaker 1: party girl song, like very much. It's a little bit wicked,
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  Speaker 1: like I like to sort of use lyrics that are playful,
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  Speaker 1: and I think that's it. It's like humor, but dark humor,
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  Speaker 1: like it's always kind of you know, the best humor
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  Speaker 1: I think is Gallows humor. So it sort of comes
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  Speaker 1: from that. And you know, it's a very powerful song.
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  Speaker 1: And then when the boys wrote the riff and I
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  Speaker 1: was just like, oh, I can like soar over this thing.
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  Speaker 1: This is going to be fantastic, so I just went
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  Speaker 1: for it. But yeah, and yeah, it's kind of about
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  Speaker 1: just that, you know, the abundance, like terrible abundance when
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  Speaker 1: you push it too far, when you're starting to you know,
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  Speaker 1: kind of when it's not fun anymore, but at the
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  Speaker 1: same time you can't stop. You sort of in a
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  Speaker 1: repetitive cycle. So that's kind of thematically what it's about.
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  Speaker 1: And then you know, obviously it just slams as like
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  Speaker 1: a like a really nice, heavy and kind of a
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  Speaker 1: little bit old devil electric type song. I think in
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  Speaker 1: a way it sort of leans back and think into it.
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  Speaker 1: It's like still an evolution of the band from what
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we have been, but I think it leans harder back
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  Speaker 1: into the traditional sound than some of our other songs,
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  Speaker 1: and particularly you know, our more experimental songs, which we've
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  Speaker 1: got a few on album two. So yeah, that's sort
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  Speaker 1: of Talia in a nutshell. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Nice.
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  Speaker 2: Then you've got jack in Sorry.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell everyone I wrote this about my ex husband.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't. It's because his name's Jackson. But no, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't actually write it about Jackson. But it just so
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: happened that, you know, when we started naming the songs,
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  Speaker 1: we've broken up, so I added it was originally Dylan
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  Speaker 1: jack and I add agil injection to the end of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: but that's yeah, that's kind of my little that's my
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  Speaker 1: it's when I wrote that song, and this was written
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you know, quite a while ago, I was quite like
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  Speaker 1: pissed off at the time. I was finding there was
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  Speaker 1: a sort of you know, I was feeling frustrated with
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  Speaker 1: some of the things that you know, being and not
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to I've never thought of myself as like, oh, I'm
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you know, a female in a in a like metal
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  Speaker 1: doom band, but sometimes you do get some things that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: really like just piss you off. That are like very gendered.
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  Speaker 1: So for me it was that was like my little
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  Speaker 1: Brady song to be like fuck you guys, I was
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  Speaker 1: tough as you. Yeah, and so, but then I just
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  Speaker 1: like attached it to my ex husband. Unfortunately for him,
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  Speaker 1: he's actually a bag.
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  Speaker 2: Dining here to.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so weird yeah, weird noticed is exactly what it
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  Speaker 1: sounds like. It's just like a really and the film
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  Speaker 1: clip which came out today it's quite kitschy looking and
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  Speaker 1: that's deliberately so. And my sister actually did the film clip,
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  Speaker 1: which is amazing. She's like the best to work with,
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  Speaker 1: always manages to make me look great, which I love.
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  Speaker 1: But that's it's just like a yeah, I don't weirdos
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  Speaker 1: is a weird one, and I think that's exactly why
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  Speaker 1: we call it weirdos. It's sort of got. It's like
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  Speaker 1: a random, you know, bunch of thoughts together and then
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  Speaker 1: you know, demanding attention while being kind of Braddy. It's
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  Speaker 1: again it falls into that Brady kind of mindset of
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  Speaker 1: just you know, I don't know, fucking around and like
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  Speaker 1: you know, wanting more, not wanting more, loving attention, hating attention,
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  Speaker 1: all of that type of stuff, which is very much
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  Speaker 1: my personality and a nut shabble. Yeah, so I'm the weirdo.
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  Speaker 3: Of weirdos.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, And we've got when we talk About Nothing?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, So that one I wrote about there's this
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  Speaker 1: car far book and I've forgotten the name of it
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: now because I only ever think about what when we
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  Speaker 1: talk about nothing. So that one's about like a relationship
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  Speaker 1: breaking down essentially. So it's very much, you know, you
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  Speaker 1: straight up breakup, and I think if yeah, listening to
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  Speaker 1: the lyrics, it's it's all that, but it's coaxed in
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  Speaker 1: that like cigarette smoking kind of gritty feel that you know,
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  Speaker 1: I kind of got from from that storytelling. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, that's like the best way I can
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  Speaker 1: describe that one. It's just kind of like a relationship
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  Speaker 1: breakdown essentially, Yeah, which then happened to me, So there
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  Speaker 1: we go. It was a fore telling of my life
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  Speaker 1: to come.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost like I've got to look to my songs
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  Speaker 1: to see what's coming for me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not the case, because the next song that's
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  Speaker 2: what bath you know what that coming?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, I said, Yeah, I've never really that one's
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: obviously because I don't sing in it. It's just like
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful piece of music essentially, like that was you know,
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  Speaker 1: the boys sort of put together. I don't think I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: ever wrote lyrics for it. I think it was always
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: going to be an instrumental and then it sort of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: carried through and yeah, then we got Lex to play
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  Speaker 1: on it. So Lex ced Jesus did the solo over
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the top and he did the vocals, well, the vocal
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: samples that went into it. So it kind of made
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: for this like really kind of interesting bizarro. I always
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: say it's like your joint smoking song, you know, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: kind of it. Yeah, it's sort of this it's it's
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: basically for the boys to shine like they they're amazing musicians.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be about me all the time.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, so yeah, that one, but it's it's
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  Speaker 1: really just you're like, yeah, just like a moment, a
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  Speaker 1: moment on the album and a moment on on side
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  Speaker 1: too of the LP.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we spoke a little bit about this before,
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  Speaker 2: but they are closers with this hereafter.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so that one, that one is, Yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: my like lyrically, my most difficult song to sing is
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  Speaker 1: it's so painful and it's it's that one's about like
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: serious kind of like the themes are really without you know,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: being too pointing in it. They're really about someone who,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: like who was close to me. His father was actually
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: quite addicted to you know, drugs and alcohol. So it's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: it's kind of all about that bit of it, and
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  Speaker 1: it's it's really funny. I was sort of talking to
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  Speaker 1: someone about it the other day. Accessing those feelings about
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: someone else through their eyes is actually it's pretty like
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  Speaker 1: dark and painful. And that was sort of and he
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: had written a book, so that book was on the bookshelf,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and I thought, I might I might as well do
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  Speaker 1: like an ode to him, and but it ends with hope,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: like and the whole point of that is like there's
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  Speaker 1: this kind of moment at the end where it ends
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: with hope. Fortunately that wasn't the case for him. But
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you know, the song itself really is a hopeful song,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and it's in its entirety, but it's a very dark
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: song in you know, it's lyrical makeup. And it was
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: like a really fun song to write because there's such
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: a big change and it's such a long song, like
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: it's our longest song today. It's nine minutes and to
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: go from this fast paced sort of craziness into this
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  Speaker 1: really slow and like almost like like crazy kind of
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: end piece where it like really slows down and I'm
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: just singing, you know, line after line after line. I
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: think there's like three three hundred and fifty words just
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: in that outro alone. It's like, Yeah, it's such a vibe,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it's such a and it's a really fun song to
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: play live. Like playing it live is amazing, like and
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you can feel that everyone feels it, particularly when you
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: get to that last bit. It's it's incredible. Yeah, it's
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite songs. I'm so glad we were
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: we wrote it and we stuck with it because it
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: was a semi difficult song to write, just in the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: way that it's like composed essentially. Yeah.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the album covers so it's it's strangely captivating,
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  Speaker 2: like it features a grainy image of a woman laying
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: cheap down with only half of a face visible, Like, yeah,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: quite striking. What's what's the signify?
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So we had done like all of the last
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: so the first three Albert four so two albums talk
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: about plus the two EPs, so the two Peas and
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the first two albums, they've been photos, yeah, that we've taken.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So we had the first so the to Epe's and
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the first one with me and the band, and then
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we had the second one, which was actually Tom. We
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: did that sort of last minute. We had a big
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: disagreement on what the cover should be and then came
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: up with this solution last minute. So we kind of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: had these like creatures and things as a part of this.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: So we've always thought about the covers as each of
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: them having kind of their own not like a creature,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: but something, you know, like an entity that exists on
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the front of that. And we were like kind of like,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we want to do another photo
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: or if we should do something different or illustrate something.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: And then Beecke found this guy, so Mark the genre
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: in the band, we call him Beak. He found this
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: guy on in Germany. I'm pretty sure he's in Germany
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: just through Instagram, who does like this type of like
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: style of art, and he did some stuff and be
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: sent it to us and we're like, yeah, definitely contact
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: him to see if he does like album covers, and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: he did, so, yeah, he kind of listened. We sent
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: him the album to listen to, and he created it,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you know, with that in mind, and like it's I
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: love it, Like it's amazing. It looks so so awesome,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: like as a full sort of piece, like when you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: open the LP, it's just it's just wonderful. But then
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: it goes so well, we've got these like you know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: got the blood Albert Sorry LP and the acid sort
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: of glitter LP and all of it just looks so
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: like pretty together. It's very Yeah, it's very capturing, and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I feel like it captures the eye and it captures
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the vibe of the album. There's like a little tiny
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: man walking away in it towards this big head Like
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: if you look closely, it's got to these little easter
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: eggs and everything, and I think, you know, it captures
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: all of those feelings that we had within this album
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: like near perfectly. So yeah, we're really thankful that he
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was able to do it and do it like so well,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: like we're the second we saw it, we're like, yeah, approved,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: no more needs to be done.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Very much for your time. The album that Talia is
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: out now, where can you get a copy of it?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So well, like today, so yeah, it's all out today. Yeah,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to be. I'm so excited. I'm so excited
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: to hear what everyone thinks of it. I'm really I
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: don't know, like it's it's been such a long time
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: coming for me, and it's such like it's so personal
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: releasing an album, like it's probably the the best worst
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: feeling in the world. You're so vulnerable because it's, you know,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: something you created. So yeah, I hope everyone likes it.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I love it. I'm excited to see what people think.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to see if people get it. So everyone
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: who does, please post it, will share it on our
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: socials because it's it's it gives it brings us joy.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: As Marie Kondo would say, Yeah,