The Band Explains: Two People - 'Something To Talk About'
We had chat with Australian duo Two People about their new dark pop single ‘Something To Talk About’ and the stories behind the cinematic visuals in the video.
What inspired the story behind ‘Something To Talk About’?
We were reading a bunch of Australian poetry around the time. John Kinsella, Robert Drewe, Tim Winton. We really connect with that kind of imagery. There was a collection of memories we wrote down together, it was one of those ‘sit down and write a song’ moments. The song just came out of the imagery in those memories and some specific feelings like guilt, worry, and boredom. A stillness and angst that was hard to pinpoint.
Are there any behind-the-scenes stories of the recording behind ‘Something To Talk About’?
We worked pretty hard on the production of this track. For some reason it just wasn’t quite sitting right for a long while. We struggled with it. It took on 4 or 5 different forms before we really felt like we had it. In the final version we recorded two bass parts, one bass guitar and a Moog bass, we couldn't decide which one to use so we ended up using both. This is where the song gets it's snarling, driving feel from. One of my other favourite versions was just stripped back piano, vocal and soft percussive brushes. It’s pretty beautiful without all the punch too, a kind of flip side to the coin.
Visually, what inspired the video for ‘Something To Talk About’?
The feeling of the song. We worked closely with director Dimitri Basil on the visuals. We always imagined something really moody and cinematic, we were chatting with him a fair bit, him in LA and us in Melbourne. We started with a mood board and a bit of a brief for him to work with and we ended up flying over to L.A that month to shoot this tense and weird and beautiful car chase. Doing it in L.A against night cityscape was the perfect setting. The idea was to give it a sense of timelessness, an almost dystopian look.
How do the visuals for ‘Something To Talk About’ connect to the song?
One of the key memories we wrote about in this track takes place on the shore at Point Leo. In the lyrics we are tying those physical sensations together with the emotional ones. ‘The throbbing in the summer night heat’. That racing heat and tension is the sensation represented in the visuals by the feeling of being chased or trapped.
Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used in the video?
Tension, escapism, freedom. Another theme we wanted to get across was the suggestion of something larger going on when you’re only seeing a snippet. Like those slow moving feature films. We are really into cinema / noir storytelling and we wanted to treat this clip more like a fragment of a larger story and less like a 4 minute ‘cram it all in’ video clip.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
The video is more so trying to evoke the feeling in the song, there is no direct message. It is more about hinting at ideas and leaving room for the viewer to have their own take, so that it never feels completely whole or resolved, to leave things a little bit unsaid.
Red appears to be a prominent colour for the band - are there any reasons for this? What does the red represent?
We chose to use one strong colour to create a cohesion across all of our visual branding, from live stage lighting to single/album artwork. We chose red because of its warmth. It suits our sound, smoky and searing. It’s also very relatable, very human. None of this neon stuff. That is actually something we are working with and balancing out constantly being into electronic music and being songwriters. How do we communicate the very sensual and very core feeling in what we are doing? We believe the imagery plays a strong part in the music.
Finally, what does music mean to you?
That's a big question. It is an escape. A therapy. A dream. A job. It is what we do. It is my means to understanding. It’s kind of everything, yeah, kind of a big deal.
Feature by Athena Kam