Inspired #152 - Stella Talpo
Stella Talpo’s ability to take the R&B genre and mould it to her will has certainly caught our attention. And her new EP - ‘First Burn’ - is no different, giving the sound a more alternative soul vibe and proving she is the authentic artist we all need right now. She took a moment to talk us about the release and the inspirations behind it.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
Hiatus Kaiyote!!! They're musically and stratospherically on another level and just completely changed the way I listen to music. I love that Nai Palm (lead singer/songwriter) writes and creates these dream worlds and visuals that interweave with her mad melodies. She inspires me to not be afraid to venture into the abstract and never constrict myself to where I think a melody should go. I owe a lot to Nai Palm.
Billie Holiday... she broke my heart the first time I heard, "I'll Be Seeing You", and every time after that. She sings in a way that makes you feel exactly what she feels - she doesn't do it for ego or fame, she really sings because she was born to do it and to survive and it all comes through in these raw deliveries that haunt you. She's taught me that being a vocalist doesn't have to be riffs and belts, it just has to be real to you.
And last but not least, QUEEN BEY. For all of the reasons but most of all because she's not afraid to break down barriers and push boundaries within her genre. She uses her music as a platform, educationally, politically, socially and she's redefined what working hard means to me. She motivates me to be better and to be unafraid of taking space and being extra as fuck and not apologising for it. I struggle with self doubt, naturally, but a dose of Beyonce is all it takes to snap me out of it. She's made it ok to be a part of every part of the musical process: creation, writing, producing, directing, the lot. Also, every record that she releases is so different to the last, which makes me excited to make music. Since she's broken out of the pop mould, she's just creating mad music that represents the culture and the time of its release, it's art.
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
In recent years, I'd say the film that's inspired me the most has to be Christopher Nolan's, Inception. Not just because I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan and worship the creative ground he walks on but because I find it so fascinating that he took 10 years to finish the script. It's really inspiring to hear stories of true labour of love and passion, it makes me want to work on something that hard to experience the sense of resolution and relief at the end of this mountain you've climbed in having created something extraordinary.
I also find it insane that he's managed to extrapolate the complexities of the mind, and the root of ideas that go on to become obsessions and addictions that destroy us, in a visual and chronological way... every time I watch it I'm in awe of his ability to put an idea in our mind the way the characters essentially do in the film. I could go on forever about this hah!
What city do you find the most inspiring?
I have to say I find New York City the most inspiring city I've been to. I can't quite put into words why but I think it's because it feels kind of out of this world. It's history is so new and its home to so many stories and walks of life and worlds, yet it's so condensed. It feels so rich with opportunity and adventure and fervour. It's a really strange and inspiring place, where you walk past a jazz bar and it transports you somewhere else, to another time, another place.
I'd love to say the same about London and don't get me wrong I love London, but it kind of feels like London's set in its ways, it's older, New York feels like its a constantly evolving, shapeshifting ecosystem of dreams . I guess maybe all the movies I've seen growing up have totally romanticised it for me, but I feel alive when I'm there.
Who is the most inspiring person to you?
It took me a while to think about this one, but I have to say AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) is the most inspiring person to me today. She is only 30 years old and has had the cards stacked against her in so many ways but she's appeared in this crazy way and become the woman that I thought I wouldn't be allowed to be when I was younger. It's no secret that we live in a society that silences its challengers, but her eloquence, her strength and her zero fucks for following these nuanced power plays just makes me believe in a better future. She's fighting the fight.
Before she showed up and made it possible in front of my eyes, to speak up, to be fearless, to be a strong woman without being afraid of coming off 'too strong', I thought it was impossible. She opened a lot of doors for me. Funnily enough, I had always wanted to go into politics when I was younger, as an avid debater, but genuinely didn't think there was any point of doing so in a flawed system so watching her do her thing and crumble egos on her way up just brings me to life.
What were your inspirations when writing the EP?
My inspiration for the EP was actually quite sporadic and arrived as pieces of a bigger picture that I didn't realise fit so well together until we listened to the record altogether. I had a few months of just having these visions of the desert and pilgrimage and growth. This idea that one must walk through the desert, through the darkness, to get to the oasis on the other side. I didn't really know this at the time. The whole EP ended up coagulating into this act of political and social rebellion through the act of becoming self-aware.
We wrote lotus first, about burning through the status quo and no longer compromising our happiness for the comfort of familiarity and consumerism. I really didn't know where it had come from but it really is about finding the inner power to walk through your own desert and essentially waking up, in order to be able to have the strength and self-respect to say enough is enough, I don't want to live this way any more.
Each song is representative of one part of the bigger picture: mona is about following our destinies, which I truly believe starts with learning about ourselves and unpacking all the conditioning and crap we've formed around us. shark is about the fear that that kind of choice can trigger, change is terrifying, and an invitation to do it anyway because you have everything to lose if you don't. mamma is my own personal processing and growth, closing a chapter and having a primal cry that was long overdue. babies is a tongue-in-cheek holding-up-of-the-mirror to the people perpetuating this damaging and damaged cyclical society for their personal gain... deep down I think I wrote it both in anger and in hope that it would invite some of these people to realise that they just need to look into themselves and remember who they were as children, before the shit-show shaped them too.
How would you like to inspire people?
I want to inspire people to break out of the limitations they've learnt exist around them. Mainly because I saw what those walls did to me for so many years and how my life transformed when I chose to walk through the fire not around it.
I think the common preconception is that what we know is where we are safest and happiest but really if you are stagnating, in a world and universe that's ever expanding, you're actually moving backwards. I really want to inspire people to fight for their internal freedom from their thoughts and their fears. That's why we feel most alive when we do something crazy or new. Not to say we always have to do that, but my mantra now is, "if I'm scared to do it, it probably means that I should" (disclaimer: I'm talking life choices, I probably will not go swimming with great whites).
A lot of the most amazing people I've met and experiences I've had were ones I almost got in the way of because of my fear. My other mantra now is FUCK IT.