Formed in early 2010 on the wings of the popular “indietronica” movement, Melbourne’s Strange Talk flew to success by dominating the Triple J Unearthed circuit as well as the release of their debut, self-titled EP, and their ensuing singles of ‘Climbing Walls’ and ‘Eskimo Boy’. Formed by long-time friends Gerard Sidhu and Stephen Docker, the duo innocently set out writing dance and electronic music, before snowballing into full-fledged writing and production of songs under the name of Strange Talk.
“We had a handful of songs finished so we thought it would be a good idea to setup a Myspace, and upload some of the songs we’d done. Within just a couple of days we had a bunch of interest from various managers, labels and publishers.”
Incidentally, the pressures of signing for the release of their debut self-titled EP grew fast, as both Sidhu and Docker were out of their depth when it came to playing in a group and performing live, they were encouraged to become a four-piece and front the image of a fully-fledged band. “Since that point and over the 3-4 years that followed, there were a whole heap of highs and many lows, but more importantly our creative passion for electronic music had been blanketed due to the dynamic shift to the 4-piece band outfit.”
With the addition of Travis Constable and Gillian Gregory on drums, as well as guitar and keys, respectively, the Melbourne quartet since rollercoastered with management and labels, and despite the success of their 2014 debut full-length Cast Away, have returned to their roots, foregoing the idea of their major-label image and instead reverting back to the indie two-piece in the wake of clashing ideas and differences in direction.
“The ironic thing is that in the very beginning we were actually a duo. Trav and Gill are two hugely talented musicians who we both respect greatly and appreciate the flavour they added to the live show. What people weren’t to know is that, to put it simply, they were both session players for the band and not involved in the production/songwriting process.”
Sidhu and Docker would both write their material and bring it forth to the rehearsal room, paid for out of their own pocket. “As you can imagine, when you’re playing 5-6 week tours across the US this became a very costly thing for us to cover, which ultimately lead us having to make some super tough decisions.” Having gone through two managers in the space of a year, things quickly began to spiral out of control, as the group bounced back and forth between labels.
“Like any business, changes and restructures occur, whether it be employees deciding to branch off to start their own business or for whatever reason it might be … We were lucky enough to be put in touch with an incredible management agency in LA, eventually signing on with them.”
However, after a few months it became increasingly clear to the both them and their new management that they were heading in different directions, and they decided that it was in their best interest as a band that they go their separate ways instead of being involved in a project where they weren’t really as passionate about the music as they should be.
“They wanted us to keep writing the music we were known for and we wanted to evolve and write more electronic, less indie music” The two-piece stress that despite everything, the split was very amicable. “We owe them a great deal as they arranged all the writing sessions that helped us find our new sound and introduced us to some amazing collaborators that we’re still working with today.”
After the ensuing whirlwind, Strange Talk fell into place as an independently framed two-piece. “The decision to manage ourselves was something that we never planned for. We were at the point where we had no choice. Finding new management was a band-aid fix.” Coming to the realisation that the idea of approaching new management in hope of a cure-all for their situation was just them going through the motions, they knew things needed to be different. Determined for change, the pair locked themselves away in hope of rebuilding their sound and image, in hope of attracting new management, somebody more suited to their musical evolution as a band.
“The only thing left to do after we parted ways was to tackle things on our own and re-build everything from the ground up. The way we wanted things done.”
Soon romanticised about the idea of self-sustainability, the group fell back into place as an independent synthpop two-piece. They stressed that the last twelve months had been a gigantic financial hurdle, claiming that being independent means personally re-negotiating record deals and treating the brand of Strange Talk as a business venture instead of simply a band. They mentioned that one of their past contracts meant that their record was never released in Europe, resulting in their absence of a European tour thus far.
“This industry stops for nobody and no one owes you a single thing. If you want something you have to work extremely hard for it, which also means making many sacrifices.”
Having come into contact with Wind-Up records based in New York, as well as Cooking Vinyl in Australia, the duo agreed that they had to rebuild Strange talk from the ground up, knowing full-well that the workload would dramatically increase, but the results would be worth all the effort put in. “We were very lucky to have an incredibly supportive label that basically gave us complete creative control, and they luckily shared our vision and allowed us to hire who we wanted within reason.”
They mentioned that one of the pitfalls of being signed to a major label is that if you success doesn’t favour immediacy and your band doesn’t blow up as planned, then you get pushed aside as a flavour of the month. Being independent means getting back what you give, and putting more work in as part of having more creative control as opposed to having a stunted evolution due to a quicker turnaround for music.
Moreover, they mention that the past year has been their toughest financially, having to put every cent from their newly acquired day-jobs just in order to keep their project afloat. Both Sidhu and Docker condemn the mountain of hard work and self-promotion, but wouldn’t trade it for the world, claiming that a lesson in the business and management side of things has made them more capable as musicians, being able to effectively keep a close watch on their spending and how to get the most out of their self-acquired income.
“This industry is renowned for being tough and chewing people up, so if you want to succeed you have to just grind away 24/7 no matter what. We’ve slowly started to crawl back out of the hole we were in due to the past miss-management and frivolous spending carried out on our behalf on the last record.”
Stressing the amount of hard-work that’s required is something that the guys from Strange Talk really want to drive home to upcoming artists that are considering major labels.
“Don’t get dazzled by the bright lights, big contracts and all the big artists signed to them. Make sure you find the right label and team for you that believes in you as an artist and your sound. You want them to be as passionate about your music as you are… The best people for the job might not be your first choice, so keep an open mind and take the time to look around and speak with everyone interested.”
The boys are now on the cusp of releasing their new extended play, ‘E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N’ (Oct 16th), again staying true to their work ethic, locking themselves away in order to continue their musical progression as they finish off their sophomore album and continue to refine their ever-expanding live show, centered around a custom built LED lightning rig that they plan to play in the middle of. They mention that they’ve taken the liberty to remix and play around with some of their older songs, to offer seasoned fans a new experience to go along with their new lighting and live show.
“We’re really excited about the future and have never been as passionate or as driven with our music as we are now, and we hope that is evident in everything that we do.”
Here’s the first taste of Strange Talk’s new EP out October 16th through Cooking Vinyl.
