Artist Of The Week #275 - TaliaBle
This week's Artist of the Week is North London rapper TaliaBle, who has just released her debut EP 'All Desires Trouble Us' via PRAH.
All Desires Trouble Us is a theatrical and fierce debut, pushing the boundaries of experimental rap. Opener ‘Live’, a dark and sensuous late night cut, is followed by lead single ‘Pandora’z Spit’ which sees TaliaBle channel her rage into a gloriously glitchy piece that playfully describes the harsh reality of an underground artist: the grit, the anxiety, the risk, the fun and the yearning to be heard, to be seen, to feel safe. Next up, ‘Metal Club’ clocks in at just under two minutes and is about the minds overstimulation, the vices, the distractions, the f*k it punk attitude, the self-destruction. It’s a palate-cleansing dose of energy before the poignant narrative of ‘Problem Solving Pit’ with its bed of warped string samples and freeform double bass, showcasing the rapper’s dark femininity and charisma. The EP closes with the atmospheric ‘Dudette’ and its simple yet addictive hook.
TaliaBle’s 5 track EP All Desires Trouble Us warps the brave ear through a playful dystopia of poetic pain. The whimsical rapper explores storytelling of inner turmoil, the black and queer experience, British youth culture, council house living and fluctuating mental health. TaliaBle poignantly delivers punk rap over electronic, bass heavy sound waves - which unapologetically experiments with glitches and dizzying imperfections.
She took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there TaliaBle, how are you? So your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
I feel like my music career starts now. I’ve had 4 years of exploring my sound and visual language, which meant I wasn’t able to put out music as consistently as I hoped. However with ‘All Desires Trouble Us’ I feel like this sets the bar of what I’m about. I’ve always said my music is a place, and I think it needs to be experienced as a whole, big body of work for people to understand it.
It is called 'All Desires Trouble Us', what is the meaning behind that?
Well, whatever you want to call it - desires, hopes, dreams, goals, passions, wants – sometimes they can be our biggest nuisance. We always feel like there’s something more to achieve. Especially being in London’s creative bubble. A lot of people have that ‘ok onto the next’ workaholic mentality. Rarely celebrating our wins. I’m a feind for that. We often forget the little things in life, the beauty in being in the present. When we’re not quite where we want to be in life, well… that troubles us. The title of the EP was actually said within a podcast I was listening to called Satsang with Mooji. It really rang true to me.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scene stories you can share with us from the recording process?
A lot of late magnum-infused nights at my producer's guardianship. ‘Metal Club’ actually had the most tedious writing experience. It’s by far the most chaotic, janky track myself and Karl have written, but it meant I re-wrote the lyrics 4 times. 4 different verses, 4 different hooks. I was tired of it by the end! Nothing could quite fit and anything I rapped on it felt awkward. The track is still awkward to me but it really reflects how we were in the studio ‘let’s just throw EVERYTHING at the wall and see what sticks’. In the end everything stuck to the wall and we couldn’t make sense of it anyway, so we left it at that haha. That’s why I love creating with Karl though, tracks like Metal Club can be made where we’re in such experimental musical territory that anything can work if we keep our minds open.
What are the key influences and themes on the EP?
I always find this question so complex to answer. Especially with being part of ‘gen Z’ where you’re consuming millions of things, at a million miles per hour, all day everyday. The real question is what isn’t an influence to me? I don’t know if I really have key influences anymore, being overwhelmed is my influencer haha. As for themes though I like to write about London’s nightlife and it’s youth culture and how it effects or informs me and my friends experiences, I like to talk about council house living, and being queer and being a minority and owning my stride and being an artist without a silver spoon and having a mind that never stops talking.
If your EP could be a soundtrack for any film, which one and why?
The Mask with Jim Carrey. My music is unhinged, mischievous, exaggerated, bold, theatrical! I feel like The Mask has that perfect blend of reality and cartoon that I love to channel in my work.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
‘Fidget spins round twist up finger, my menace mind takes time to render, they don’t know I’m an anxious thinker, cos I buss move with style and slickness.’ I love how cheeky and fun this lyric is to deliver but then it has quite a deeper confessional side to it. It’s really an unmasking lyric, which I think is a good practice for me.
Now the EP is out there, what next for you?
The EP took on a more straight forward hard core edge, just to kick in the door on first attempt. Soon I’ll have another project to follow towards the end of the year with a slightly more diverse range of sound, still within the same wacky world but just on a different level. My goal is to get the music around some ears which will introduce me into the festival circuit in 2025. I have a show coming up at Southbank centre with BBC Introducing on 18th July too, which is quite a bucket list moment for me. I’ve spent countless nights wandering through Southbank with my Gs, so I’m sure the gig will end with that nostalgia and I reckon I should take some time to celebrate everything after that too.
