Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with an interesting instrumental power trio that combines Prog and Psychedelia, but also much more in their own personal style. We welcome TALC.
Hi, it is a pleasure to have you among our pages, how are you?
Hervé: “We’re delighted to be featured in your magazine on the occasion of the release of “TALC III’, a record of which we’re extremely proud.“
The band has been active for over 10 years, how did the project and the choice of the name TALC come about?
Vincent: “TALC is a story of friendships and musical affinities. Hervé and I have been playing music together since we were teenagers, in various bands. TALC was born around 2009, when Antonin joined Cobalt, the experimental bass-drums duo that Hervé and I had formed. I’d met Antonin at university, and we soon found ourselves talking about music, then trying to make it together. Things clicked, and after a few months of jamming, we decided to try to make our first record. It all came together quite spontaneously.“
Antonin: “The project was also able to take off thanks to the precious trust and support of our label, Musea Records. Now we’re even selling records in Japan thanks to them, something we’d never have dared imagine! Okay, not thousands, but still! (laughs).“
Hervé: “As for the name TALC… We’re often asked where the idea came from. When things started to get serious as a trio, we realized that there were already several bands called Cobalt. So we thought we’d better find a new name that would keep with the mineral theme, and on what started out as a joke, we chose TALC… and it stuck! And no, we weren’t going to use the English name, because « baby powder », frankly… (laughs).“
You offer a mixture of different genres and styles between Psychedelia and Progressive Rock, how did your passion for these sounds come about and what are your sources of inspiration in this regard?
Antonin: “We come from quite different musical backgrounds, to be honest. Vincent has a solo project that mixes electronica and post-rock and he knows electronic music very well, Hervé is more into pop (a big fan of Talk Talk), and I come from hard rock and fusion. It wasn’t easy for us to find common ground, but we did have common references: Miles
Davis, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin… The three of us tried to break out of our habits and musical reflexes to understand where the others were, and invent a common language. It all happened naturally, but it did take a while! Today, we listen to a wide range of music from Earthless, Ampacity, All Them Witches, Lisa Bella Donna, Tortoise, Battles,
Tarwater and Radian, all of which have certainly left their mark on’TALC III‘.”
Your new album “III” was released on January 30, 2025 via Musea Records, how would you describe this work?
Antonin: “It’s the most accomplished of our three albums. We found a tone, a color and a language that were still being sought in the previous albums. We let the tracks stretch out, the riffs and melodies blossom, and… the theme of space imposed itself! Once we’d opened up this imaginary world, we were able to let in all kinds of psychedelic, space-rock,
post-rock, stoner and other echoes. The introduction of analog synthesizers certainly played an important role in the sonic unity and retro-futuristic tone. We wanted the album to feel like a musical constellation and a journey, with echoes from one track to the next, even if each one forms a little planetary system in itself. It’s almost a concept album, in fact.“
Long and elaborate instrumental tracks, how does the creative process of your music take place?
Antonin: “We spent many long hours jamming with the material that one or other of us brought along, before things finally crystallized and, little by little, became obvious. It was at this point that we started writing: it became necessary to structure and organize such long pieces. We wanted to keep the original spontaneity of the tracks – which is also their
psychedelic side – but give it a form, a direction in which it could evolve. From track to track, certain principles also emerged: breaks in atmosphere, changes in rhythmic signature and so on.“
Vincent: “A lot of the creative work also took place during production: adding moog, synths, rhythmic textures or sounds that were sometimes noisy… or even cymbals played with a bow! We sometimes progress slowly in the elaboration of a piece, because we also appreciate this moment when we have the time to step back and refine the palette of colors.“
Even though the tracks are instrumental, is there a theme that characterises the album?
Hervé: “Space! Fascination with the immense sky, with distant stars. We’re always fascinated by the beauty of Hubble images, for example. But it’s not about conquering space (nothing to do with foolish fantasies of colonizing Mars!), it’s more about the beauty seen from Earth, and in that sense, paradoxically, a great attachment to our fragile little planet.“
Many of our readers and your fans wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have plans in this regard for the near future?
Hervé: “Of course, it’s something we love to do, presenting our music on stage! Our next concert will be on March 8 in Lausanne, at Le Rockies, opening what we hope will be a series of dates in 2025. And if any concert programmers are reading this, we’d love to hear from you!“
Do you have any particular anecdotes or memories you would like to tell us about your live experiences?
Vincent: “It was one of the concerts we did to promote our very first record, about ten years ago. The bar owner took us to a restaurant for lunch before the show. He’s a bon vivant, who ordered a bottle and then two of wine, and who also made a point of letting us taste a mixture of pear liqueur and pear brandy at the end of the meal. You can imagine the state we were in when we started the concert! (Laughs) We were fuelled by water for the whole set, and got through it by staying very focused, but we had to fight hard! Since then, we’ve learned our lesson: one or two beers before the show to get you in the mood, but no more!“
Hervé: “I also have very fond memories of a concert in Berlin, in one of those improbable and magical places, a crowded, smoke-filled basement where we played 2 centimetres from the audience, with the amps glued to our backs. It was hot as hell. The atmosphere was great, the audience really great! This place was called Tiefgrund, a hotbed of stoner and psychedelia at the time. One of our best shows!“
Switzerland has come up with interesting artists in the progressive scene, how do you see today’s music scene in your country?
Antonin: “Switzerland had its heyday in prog and kraut rock in the 70s and 80s, with Circus, Krokodil and Galaad, among others. Even today, there are many inspiring bands in the wider prog galaxy, such as Monkey3, Prisma and Hubrys. But there’s no denying that times are tough, especially for instrumental music that’s moving away from traditional formats. Lots of people are proposing musical projects – which is a good thing, lots of people are making music! – but the scene is saturated, especially in a small country like ours with no real popular culture of live music in cafés, bars and so on.“
How difficult, if at all, is it to succeed in today’s world by offering Psychedelic and Progressive Rock sounds?
Hervé: “I don’t think the notion of « success » or « achievement » is adequate: the music business – whether it’s producing music or promoting it through concerts – has resolutely turned towards more « accessible » genres, and doesn’t really offer room for what doesn’t fit into certain formats. What counts for us is to take our compositions where we want them to go – and that’s the only « success » we seek. But this creative requirement can then meet the exacting tastes of certain listeners, of course fewer in number than Taylor Swift fans, and that’s no big deal: a hundred enthusiastic and sincere comments about our music make just as much of an impact as stadiums filled by a mass of indistinct people.“
Technology can be a support as well as take away space from the artist, how do you see this new technological contribution in music?
Vincent: “For us, technology has an essential impact: it allows us to record our songs and produce them largely on our own – giving us all the time we need to fine-tune each composition – without having to worry about how we’re going to pay the salary of a sound engineer. In other words, technology offers more avenues to explore, more experiments to try. However, we remain fundamentally a rock band: the instruments and the people who play them must remain at the center, and we need to hear the humans behind the music, without technology making everything too smooth.“
Antonin: “And I think you can hear that in our sound too, which isn’t as smooth as more mainstream productions. We’ve always insisted on keeping a raw, DIY edge, working a lot with analog equipment, not erasing imperfections. Keeping the tension and spontaneity: for us, that’s also what rock sounds like.“
I thank the band for the interview and wish them all the best for the promotion of their new album and the continuation of their artistic career.
Purchase the new album “III” on Bandcamp: https://talc.bandcamp.com/album/iii
Read our Review of their new album “III” here: [Review] TALC – III