INTERVIEW: Stella Talpo

INTERVIEW:

Stella Talpo

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ONE of my favourite artists of the moment…

the phenomenal Stella Talpo discusses her debut album, MEDUSA. Gaining support from the likes of CLASH and BBC Radio 6 Music, this is an artist who everyone should know about! Across eleven wonderful tracks on MEDUSA, Talpo homes in on the importance of discussing the ugly parts of the human experience, normalising conversation about their existence by adopting sometimes primal, gory imagery, which is intertwined with a palette of twisted Alt-R&B and experimental Pop. Co-written with producer Lewis Moody (CHERISE, 30/70), there is no doubt that MEDUSA is an album that needs to be heard and played several times. It hits you immediately, yet there are layers and elements that will come to you when you pass back through it! I have been speaking with Stella Talpo about MEDUSA and her choice tracks from the album, what it was like working alongside Lewis Moody, what music she grew up around, in addition to what the rest of 2023 offers. I know that the divine Stella Talpo has a…

WONDERFUL 2024 in store.

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Hi Stella. How are you doing? How has your week been?

Hello! I’m doing well thank you – been A WEEK, but we move. When it rains, it pours.

Singles this year such as BONES and DUST have received a lot of praise and support. You are on the radar of stations such as BBC Radio 6 Music and support from The Line of Best Fit, CLASH and others. How does it feel know your music is resonating so strongly?

It has honestly been such a good feeling to know that people are enjoying the music. It’s always a great feeling to know something you worked hard on and is a part of you resonates, but in this instance it felt even sweeter because I wasn’t playing it safe with this record and there was an element of not knowing whether it would land or not. Particularly with songs like DUST, which are quite a change in direction and style for me and don’t necessarily have the formulaic catchiness you rely on as a safety net. I wanted to make the record a little disconcerting and chaotic and gave Lewis (producer Lewis Moody) free license to roll with that; that’s what the record’s about in essence: just being my messy, crazy self and not trying to be polite and accommodate anymore. So to have that be received so well is affirming and wonderful.

Before talking about your album, can you tell me when music entered your life? Were there particular artists who inspired your own journey into music?

Music was a big part of my life from a young age. My mum would play music on the speakers in the morning. I often remember waking up to Whitney or Mariah. Like millions of other kids, I was in love with the Spice Girls and Britney and that whole pop world, moving into Christina, Avril and Beyoncé as their albums began to drop - and I’d attribute my passion for performance to those strong female artists. My discovery of artists who inspired me was very gradual and ever-evolving, and hugely influenced by the people around me. My school therapist introduced me to rock n roll and female artists in that sphere like Alanis and Sheryl Crow. Then once LimeWire became a thing, my tastes and interests transitioned into Elvis into Ella into Nirvana and Guns & Roses. When the iPod and iTunes came out, it was like a whole world opened up…and there was no going back. I didn’t really attach myself to one genre or artist: I went through phases and fell in love with albums instead. Then, as I got older and started carving out my sound a bit more, it was clear that some artists I’d listened to on repeat influenced me more than others, Amy being a major one.

“There’s no feeling like it, and I didn’t think that I had it in me to be honest”

Your new album, MEDUSA, is out now. It is a result of years of experimentation and growth. What was it like hearing the album back for the first time?

I cried. I still cry. It really was my Mount Everest. And in many ways, the idea of toiling away at something, pushing through the sweat, blood and tears was far higher on my ‘dream list’ than any external success markers were. To not only complete a project, but to be uncompromising in its creation and in my decisions. Being honest with myself about when I was letting something slide because it was too hard or I couldn’t come up with a better idea in that moment. And being resilient until I got to that ‘aha moment’, where you feel it is exactly right... it was so f***ing hard. Not to take away the painful reality of actually giving birth, but it felt like I was doing something like that and then suddenly you’re staring this project in the face and you’re like ‘holy sh**, I made that’. There’s no feeling like it. And I didn’t think that I had it in me to be honest. We didn’t set out to make an album. It was called EP2 until Feb or March, when I called my manager and Tom at DeepMatter and was like, “But… what if we do an album?”. I had faced a lot of fears in the making of this record, so listening back to it is emotional because only a year ago I truly believed I wouldn’t even be able to write another song, let alone an L.P., and yet here I am, on the other side, listening to 11 songs that I am so proud to have written. Wild (pun intended).

“We followed the feelings, rather than the thoughts”

Among others, you work alongside producer Lewis Moody. How integral has that relationship and collaboration been regarding the range of sounds on MEDUSA?

If it wasn’t for my relationship and collaboration with Lewis, the album wouldn’t exist. But also, I wouldn’t be the artist I am today. He really saw in me the artist I hoped I would be when I didn’t believe in myself. I can’t really describe it, but his faith in me was crucial to any of this coming to fruition. And his faith in my writing and in my ideas that I communicated in nonsensical ways was unwavering. So much so that he took huge risks in this record too, which I think he really enjoyed having the freedom to do. I asked him, let’s not care about what we should be doing and let’s just follow whatever words and sounds light us up in the process of creating each track. We followed the feelings, rather than the thoughts. He also knows when to push me, and we have a very nurturing relationship in that sense. It’s give and take, and we know when to let the other have the win, or when to give some tough love. Bless him, the patience he had to have with me over the recording of GOOD GIRLS… I can be pretty stubborn and I can get myself tied up in knots, and he just doesn’t accept that because he knows I can do what I convince myself I can’t. He’s basically got the perfect balance of nurturer and take no sh**er that I needed.

MEDUSA is a project that challenge societal ideals and oppressive frameworks through the lens of feminist literature and mythology. Was that always in your mind from the start? Can you explain why it was particularly meaningful and important to take that course?

It was definitely not something I planned for, but unravelled synonymously with what I was learning about myself, the world and my place in it. I think it was particularly meaningful and important to follow the themes that were coming up. That ended up being this world of the alienated self, because I was in the process of coming to terms with aspects of myself that I had hidden away like my rage and my passion, because of the way society has judged these things in women. I hadn’t really ever seen it like that. When I started writing the record, I didn’t know what I wanted to say. Much like a sculptor, as I started chipping away, the project began revealing itself to me. Even the title of the album, and the track MEDUSA/HOLLOW, in fact, had been inspired by a script my best friend had written on this theme of Medusa and the female gaze.

“And I think that is the definition of the record”

The record and the tracks in it are in many ways my own consolidation with the different aspects of myself that I hadn’t honoured, pushing them down as many women have been taught to do in history, and in doing so repressing our intuition and gifts. And all this was again revealed to me because of a book, ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’, which I’d bought after seeing Allysha Joy reading it during a 30/70 music video shoot. All the elements and the inspirations and the words and themes found me somehow, which is something I learnt about creativity through the making of this record.

Do you have a particular standout from the album? A song that is particularly personal or that defines MEDUSA?

The track that is particularly personal is FULL/GROWN for sure. It’s the most honest and authentic song I’ve ever written that wasn’t overshadowed by old narratives, but just was exactly me in that moment. I had had a moment where I was afraid to write it, admitting my fear of ageing and my fear of not feeling like I am where I wish I were. It was a lot to bare but it was real and I wrote it on my own. Following what felt right in the words and the harmony, rather than listening to my head and what it thought would be right. So it’s extremely personal.

However, I think the track that defines the album is MEDUSA/HOLLOW. It is the culmination of all the feeling and rage and desperation that I felt in the industry, in the world, as a woman, as a human, as an artist…and the resolving line at the end “Hollow, until now” is ultimately telling of the transition from being helpless to all these things to owning my power at last. And I think that is the definition of the record.

What does the rest of 2023 hold in store? Will there be any live dates to support MEDUSA?

Yessssssssss. First gig in a year, and the first gig ever playing with Lewis, will be on November 9th @ CLF Art Lounge, Peckham. And then the wonderful Tina Edwards has invited me to play her new curated night at Ninety One Living Room, Brick Lane on December 16th!!! I’m so excited to perform MEDUSA.

Finally, and for being a good sport, you can choose any song you like (from another artist) and I will play it here.

Let’s go with Off the Rails - Shelf Lives xx