Stream: Talk Time, ‘Desperate Weather’

Kevin Bronson on August 24th, 2018

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“Desperate Weather,” the second exceptional single from new L.A. quintet Talk Time, is a song about climate, although not the stuff of cold and warm fronts and rising global temperatures. It’s a luxuriant wish for … well, a sunnier humanity.

Singer Edson Choi, backed in the band by Mike Nissen, Andrew Smith, John Ransom Tucker and Derek Howa, explains: “I’ve always thought people are interconnected. The more I live and learn about our world, the more I’m convinced it’s not just people — but the universe is a fabric that is all connected, entities that are part of bigger entities, life on this planet, the stars and beyond — we’re all part of the same thing … kind of like the ending to ‘Men in Black.’

“So that’s why when I was addicted to hate-watching cable news for a while, I almost lost my marbles. All of them. It’s not just the negativity, it was the powerful talking heads squabbled over the wrong thing (not unlike the White Walker problem in ‘Game of Thrones’). This song came out of that period, and writing it actually gave me a mantra to use when I feel bummed out by our modern maladies: ‘Keep me strange and awake in this ocean of cells … We all need some help, there’ll be no one else,’ which are the bridge lyrics on this song. I especially like the last part of that because it implies taking responsibility for what you can be better about, and push forward your own evolution as a better human.”

The follow-up to Talk Time’s debut single “Year of Self,” the song seems cut from the cloth of erudite ’80s bands (Tears for Fears have been aptly offered as a comparison) yet seems right at home on the millennial landscape of uplifting dream-pop. The band’s EP, co-produced by Math Bishop (Jacknife Lee, U2, Two Door Cinema Club, the Killers, Silversun Pickups), is coming later this year.

||| Stream: “Desperate Weather”