Land of Talk
Land of Talk Share Video for New Single
WATCH + SHARE “NOW YOU WANT TO LIVE IN THE LIGHT” HERE
STREAM + PURCHASE HERE
NEW LP INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS OUT JULY 31
ON DINE ALONE RECORDS | PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE HERE
Link to hi-res photo: https://bit.ly/3fxzXfh | Photo Credit: Joseph Yarmush
“…these tracks get under the listener’s skin…‘I dig deep, why don’t you?’ Powell sings at one point—a line that can double as an invitation to listen closely. Those who answer the call will be richly rewarded by the group’s best album yet.” –The AV Club
(July 15, 2020) – Land of Talk, the Montreal-based band led by Elizabeth Powell, share the video for their plaintive new song “Now You Want to Live in the Light” which Powell calls “a poem set to music. A tender negotiation between the light and dark parts of ourselves.” The gentle track is the fifth single released from the Montreal-based band’s forthcoming album Indistinct Conversations, out July 31, 2020 via Dine Alone Records. Stream and purchase “Now You Want to Live in the Light” HERE, a showcase of the album’s versatility. “In developing the visual image, I anchored myself in the pulse of the song,” explains director Lara Kramer of the video, “I wanted to mobilize in ways we think, feel, and do in our self-confronting states.” Watch and share the official video HERE. Indistinct Conversations is available for pre-order HERE.
“Now You Want to Live in the Light” follows previous singles “Footnotes”, “Diaphanous”, “Compelled”, and “Weight of That Weekend”, which have earned press from outlets including Pitchfork (Selects playlist), Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, Paste, NPR Music (‘NMF’ and ‘Press Pause and Hit Play’ playlists), and Brooklyn Vegan, among others.
All 11 songs on Indistinct Conversations were written by Powell, who also produced and arranged the tracks together with bandmates Mark “Bucky” Wheaton (drums/keys) and Christopher McCarron (bass). The album is a dreamier, more acoustic-driven work than prior Land of Talk releases; it was recorded in Wheaton’s home studio, and has the intimacy of a private document. The songs were created as a therapeutic space where Powell could retreat from the world.
Yet Indistinct Conversations is not an album of numbing out. By drawing back into their interior world while creating Indistinct Conversations, Powell was able to emerge with a stronger sense of self — and more willingness to confront the oppressive structures of the world. This process included embracing their identity as a non-binary femme who uses the pronouns she/they, and engaging directly with the trauma inflicted on them as a “woman-presenting human”.
On many songs throughout Indistinct Conversations, Powell found themself literally using their voice in a new way — including the guitar, which they call their “first voice”. While writing the album, they switched to playing acoustic guitar; an effort, ironically, to take up less space (“I was subletting a place with paper thin walls,” she says), which radically shifted the way their songs were structured. Powell credits the album’s sonic adventurousness to Wheaton, who “pulled me out of premature retirement.”
As Powell stepped into a more authentic sense of self, they increasingly felt comfortable saying more with less, cutting whole swaths of lyrics down to oblique, minimal statements and dropping to a more low-key, almost speak-singing style inspired by Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, or Bill Callahan. “I used to think that as a ‘female vocalist’, as a ‘female singer,’ like…‘gotta sing high! You’ve really got to blow your load in the chorus and show people how high you can go,’” Powell explains. “Now it’s like, What if I get to the chorus and I don’t feel like singing? What if I just kind of want to get something across in very few words? This record is me being a lot more true to what I want to say and how I would want to hear it, not really trying to cater to any preconceived notions of what a woman is ‘supposed’ to sound like.”
That radical self-acceptance, the ability to speak in one’s own voice, is the hallmark of Indistinct Conversations. By digging deep, Powell has found a certainty we all deserve: the realization that their own voice is enough.
Land of Talk’s 2020 tour dates have been postponed to 2021; more info will be announced soon.
Artwork by Regina Giménez
Link to Indistinct Conversations LP Artwork: http://bit.ly/3c4F2u8
Indistinct Conversations tracklist:
1. Diaphanous
2. Look To You (Intro)
3. Look To You
4. Weight of That Weekend
5. Love In 2 Stages
6. Compelled
7. Footnotes
8. A/B Futures
9. Festivals
10. Now You Want To Live In The Light
11. Indistinct Conversations
