By Kreig Marks, October 27, 2020

 

TRR: Whores on Parade. Sounds like a party gone bad from my college days. First off, what’s in the perfume bottle? Describe that fragrance in Rock 'n Roll terms.

TALIA: Ha ha! Alice came up with “dirty blonde fragrance.” I can’t beat that… .It’s always hard for a band to describe their music really, it either sounds cliché or pompous, some even manage to do both.

 

TRR: Nicolas, you’re on the guitar and the voice. Axel, you’re banging on the drums. Alice, even though you’re the female and from my experience with women, probably the common sense of the group, you’re the gutts of the band, the bassist. So, with all that said, who is really the common sense of the band?

TALIA: If Axel were here he’d say “it’s Nick” because he likes to joke about how old I am. Alice says it’s me because, let’s be honest, it CAN’T be Axel and I don’ have a clue, so.

 

TRR:  Looks like Alice wins by default.  You guys have been together since 2008?

TALIA: Actually, I started the band in 2001 with a couple of friends and we split in 2005, but I kept the name cause I originally came up with it and I was writing the music.  Alice joined in 2012, and Axel 2 years ago. Since I started the band we’ve had like 4 different bass players and 10 drummers.

 

TRR:  Damn rhythm section, always the cause of band issues.  Ha.  The first LP, Cockroach Killer, tell me about that. I can’t find anything from it.

TALIA: It was right after I’d split with Nico and Matthieu, with whom I started the band.  We recorded it during the summer of 2006. I’d just got out of a rough period, and I have good memories of making the record.  But what followed wasn’t that great.  We could hardly find a record label.  We went on tour but we weren’t really getting along with each other as a band. I hardly listen to that record, but since we released Whores On Parade, Cockroach has found an audience on Spotify. I listened to it the other day and thought it hasn’t aged that badly.

 

TRR: I'll definitely look for it on Spotify.  The new LP, “Whores on Parade,” great LP from start to finish. Looks like it could be made into a rock opera, with the final song appropriately titled, “End.” Any value to that?

TALIA: Thanks! The running order of the songs on a record has always been important to me as it is for a lot of people who grew up buying vinyl and tapes I guess. When I was a kid I used to listen to music on cassettes and a record was a journey really, you couldn’t put on “shuffle” or “random” or whatever, you listened to the whole thing from start to finish.

 

TRR: Here’s how I’m describing your sound; Kurt Cobain walked into a room with Green Day and Dave Grohl, and somehow, maybe by osmosis, they began to create a new Rock / Punk Rock band called Talia. Then, right before they finish their creation, there’s a knock on the door. Dave answers the door, it’s Joey Ramone. He wants to join the party. Dave announces to the group that Joey Ramone wants to join in. Collectively the group says, “Nope, we’ve got this.”

TALIA:  LOL.  If they don’t get into a fist fight after 3 rehearsals that could work, ha ha! Green Day and of course, Nirvana and Foo Fighters had a huge influence on us. I got into the Ramones later on for some reason, but I remember why I listened to them in the first place. I was 14 and drinking in the street with my friends and this girl that was 20/22 walked up to us saying she got beat up and asked if she could drink some of our vodka. Then, she looked at me and said “I like your style you look like one of the Ramones”. I was actually trying to look like Rachel Bolan from Skid Row who was probably trying to look like Dee Dee Ramone, and I had no clue who the Ramones were. Anyway I borrowed a record from a friend but I think it was one of their later stuff. I really got into them when I heard the first record.

 

TRR: As bands progress, you often hear their sound and style progressing, not always in a positive direction. Listening to Permanent Mid Life Crisis and now Whores on Parade, you have maintained the same direction and sound, which is impressive. Was that difficult or was that the goal of the band, to stick to your roots?

TALIA: I think it’s because we’re basically never satisfied with the records we make, so somehow we always do it like it’s our first one. We never had a producer so we had to do it ourselves with an engineer called Mark Haliday. I learned a lot from him and on the second record I started to do some engineering. Then I learned some more on the 3rd record and then we did the 4th record with Steve Albini. I learned from him, too, and then did Whores On Parade entirely by myself; Charles De Schutter mixed it in Belgium.

 

TRR: So, the band’s roots are from Paris to LA. How did the 3 of you find each other?

TALIA: I met Alice in 2012 and to make sure she was never, EVER gonna leave the band, I got her pregnant and married her in Vegas.

 

TRR: Now that's pretty damn Rock 'n Roll.  So now, as a band, what’s the most Rock 'n Roll thing you guys have done? The Who used to destroy hotel rooms. Axl Rose had sex with a prostitute during the recording of Rocket Queen, which you can hear in the song. How about you guys?

TALIA: I smashed a few hotel rooms, never had sex with Axl Rose, and always thought that Rocket Queen was the perfect song to close a record. More seriously, I think we’re average on the subject.  I have a lot of stories of bar fights, sex with strangers, a few nights in jail which can seem a lot for a regular person, but I didn’t do half of what Nikki Sixx or Ozzy did.  The thing with the so called Rock 'n Roll life style is that it has to come in second.  If your music is shit, I don’t care whether you can drink Slash under the table, I’m still not gonna buy your record or go to your show.

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TRR: Your most favorite live show you’ve done so far?

TALIA: Too many of them, hard to tell really. Playing in LA for the first time was crazy though.  The Whisky a GoGo, opening for Soul Asylum, never thought that would happen, it sure is in the top 5.

 

TRR: What is your best memory as a kid when you think about music?

TALIA: Playing with my high school band. We used to rehearse in the drummer’s cave, his father had fixed something so we could plug the amps but the light had to be out, so we would play with just a small lamp and the light would change with the music, probably because everything was on the same plug. We didn’t have a PA and when we sang we literally had to scream to be heard on top of the drums and the amps.   Add a few beers, the smell of urine and some girls, and you have the perfect teenager.

 

TRR:  I won't ask about the urine.  How are you promoting the new LP now since we’re still dealing with the pandemic and it seems to be escalating again?

TALIA: It’s tough, social media can’t beat being on tour and it sure isn’t half as fun. Can’t wait to get back on the road.

 

TRR:  If you weren’t in a rock band, what would you be doing?

TALIA:

Alice: Writing novels

Nicolas: Trying to start one

Axel: I’d be naked

 

TRR: LMAO! Let’s wrap this up. Anyone out there you’d like to give a shout out to?

TALIA: Too many of them really, and too many think we should when we don’t think we need to. So let’s say they know who they are.

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For further information about TALIA, visit their website or follow them on Facebook.

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