Talker’s new single “Summerlin” is an aching victory. It’s three minutes of soaring grunge pop, a track that leads the listener into the small town of an ex-lover. Celeste Tauchar, the Clark Kent of Talker, shows in “Summerlin” how loss and place are hopelessly intertwined.
Talker injects loss and longing into the song’s setting descriptions, each lyric crafted so that the town she describes is a mirror to her own emotions. The narrator remarks that “it’s never been this cold/this time of year” and “it’s never been this dark.” The sky is empty of stars, and even “the weatherman can’t understand” why the town is suddenly so desolate. The narrator seems to have arrived in Summerlin by accident, five days after the break up. Somehow she has never visited her lover’s hometown before, and now she is forced to wander through alone. As she drives through the unfamiliar streets, the narrator sees her lover’s ghost around every corner: “The streets whisper your name/I’m driving blind/I wonder if you ever/Sped down Vegas drive.”
The soundscape is bare except for the guitar and piano, making room for Talker’s husky vocals. Talker fills the extra space beautifully, her voice rising and breaking in time with the story. Those who are familiar with Talker will enjoy this fresh ballad style, which stands in contrast to the heavy production styles of other recent singles like “Sad Girl.” The music video finds Talker wrapped in a white dress and black lipstick, grieving in the desert.
We had the chance to chat with Talker about “Summerlin.” Here’s what she had to say!
Tell us about your songwriting process for “Summerlin.” How did it differ from your process for other songs you’ve written?
This song was actually unlike any of my other songs when it came to the writing process. It’s the fastest song I’ve ever written, because it was genuinely just me pouring out my heartbreak. I used to write songs like that a lot when I was a kid in my bedroom, but now that I live in LA I do a lot of co-writing sessions and collaborations where there’s a lot of back & forth, agonizing over lines, etc. And I love that! But this was just something that I had to write, whether or not I was going to release it.
How have you evolved as an artist since your 2020 EP Wax?
So much. Wax was definitely a step up in itself for me, but I’ve evolved so much musically and artistically since then. Everything I do has so much more intention behind it and I’ve become one with my music and art more than I ever was before. It’s not a singular thing I create – it’s all a part of me and a reflection of my life. I’m curating my life and this music is the soundtrack to the feelings, the visuals, and environment around me.
What is your favorite lyric in “Summerlin” and why?
“I know I don’t belong here, didn’t mean to pass through // So I’ll just run away, the same way you do.” It encompasses that feeling of unintentionally being somewhere you know you shouldn’t be. Being in Summerlin carried a lot of weight because of the emotions and the memories of that relationship, but even more so because I felt like I shouldn’t be there, that it was inappropriate for some reason. It’s not only feeling upset about a breakup but being terrified that somehow it will get back to that person that you were in their hometown just a few days later.
What artists inspire your own work?
Over the course of making this new music, I was listening to a ton of Kacey Musgraves, The Killers, MUNA, Now Now. Lately I’ve been listening to Japanese Breakfast and Gang of Youths a lot. Basically anything that sounds sprawling and like a huge emotional soundscape. The artwork of María Medem and Morysetta also hugely influenced my new music. I want it to feel like the soundtrack for this visual world.
What do you want listeners to know about this new era of your music?
Everything is part of a world I’m creating. A world that I’m trying to stay in permanently no matter how old I get or where I’m at. And I want my listeners to come into that world and feel fully immersed with me.
