At long last, talker has finally revealed her new album, Runaway Jane. And the wait was totally worth it. Featuring singles “Strangers,” “Truck,” “Happy Birthday,” and “Gold Rush,” the rising indie star offers a true breath of fresh air to all listeners. Raw, unbound, and unfiltered, talker runs (no pun intended) through themes of feeling like your roots aren’t firmly planted. Despite these feelings, she finds a true home in this sound, showcasing a bright confidence and coziness in her sonics.
She shared with idobi Radio, “I feel so deeply connected to the world I’ve created. And I think that will come through in everything that I share around the album.”
idobi Radio had the chance to sit down with talker, aka singer-songwriter Celeste Tauchar, and learn about her chaotic but authentic album rollout, her unique “free ride” song promo, and much more. Check out the full interview below.
Ahead of the release of “Truck,” you offered a free ride promotion, taking friends and travelers from point A to point B while listening to the new song. What inspired your “Truck” promotion, and what happened during the course of your free rides?
Something that I care about a LOT is having fun with content and promo. I’ve gone through phases in the past where I’m so burnt out and a lot of making content around a record release can feel super isolating. In reality, I want to be hanging out with people in real life and contextualizing my art in the real world, not just online.
So, I thought the truck rides would be a nice hybrid of the two where I could create a really memorable experience for people around the song in person, and then share that online as a glimpse into my world rather than just more singing-to-camera videos. Releasing music is such an unpredictable process, and as artists we have so little control over how our music will be received, so I’ve started putting a lot more emphasis on the process of it all, including the process of making promo materials and having fun with that, caring less about the outcome.
During the rides, it was really cool to have conversations with people about the themes and feelings behind the song. I was able to connect on a deeper level with certain people by finding common ground through the song, and it was really awesome to connect with people in that way when we maybe hadn’t before. And with some of my close friends that I drove around, it was honestly so affirming that they actually knew the words to the song. Cause you never know!
You have many places you call home, between LA and Berlin, and even life on the road. What is one thing you love most about the States and one thing you love most about Germany? Has this notion of home being many places informed your recent music offerings?
I’ve really been spending most of my time in LA lately! But hope to get back to Berlin asap to continue expanding my community all over the place. I love how many driven and whimsical artists I’m surrounded with in my LA community. And I love how vast everything is here – that imagery and feeling of absolute desolate wilderness was a huge inspiration for my record. But conversely, I love how in other places like Germany there’s more of a communal sense with strangers and cities as a whole. You get this in denser cities like New York and Chicago too of course, but there’s a particular freedom in Berlin where you can be your truest self and also walk down the street with a beer on a sunny day and not be breaking the law.
This sense of home and a lack of feeling grounded was really the driving force behind Runaway Jane. In the process of writing this record, I felt like I was in a very liminal space, a transitional period between two moments of my life, but I still haven’t totally put my finger on what that next moment is. And so you just keep running, trying out different versions of yourself, different places, different people, hoping one of them sticks.
How did the creation of your debut LP inform the writing process of your sophomore record?
That process for my first record completely influenced how I approached my second record. For my first album, I really did things the proper way. I recorded and completely finished the music well before I got into choosing singles and dates, and before I made visuals or anything like that.
So, I had the whole project pretty much done before I got into promoting it, which is what most people would tell you to do. And it’s definitely a less stressful way to go about things so you can actually, you know…prepare. But honestly, I was so tired of the music by the time I even put out the first single. And while I was still really proud of that album and excited for its release, I didn’t feel personally connected to the music anymore, or the person I was when I wrote those songs, by the time the album was out.
So for Runaway Jane, I decided to go about things differently. Instead of finishing all the music in advance, I decided to finish a few songs and then start releasing those while I finished up the rest of the record. I had a really clear vision on what I wanted to do for the visuals, and I knew how I wanted to approach the overall themes and promo. So I’ve actually still been finishing this record as the final singles have been coming out. Which I will say, has been…..stressful?
Definitely more hectic than the last time and my poor team has had to be patient with me getting some things to them at the last minute. I don’t think I would necessarily do things exactly this way next time, but I DO feel much more connected to this album at the time of its release than I have with anything in the past. I feel just like the person who wrote these songs, and I feel so deeply connected to the world I’ve created. And I think that will come through in everything that I share around the album.
Which of the new tracks on the record allowed you to experiment/get out of your comfort zone the most and why?
This whole album allowed me to get out of my comfort zone. By nature, the record is meant to be a bit confronting, and to feel really raw and even ugly at moments in a way that’s only capturing the pure emotion of the song. “Gold Rush” was a really fun one to write because we didn’t hold back on any idea and tried to push ourselves to be as weird as possible.
On “Spirals,” I followed every guitar instinct I had…no matter if it made sense or not, which is why we ended up with way too many guitar tracks on the record. And “What If I Change My Mind?” pushed me to write about a feeling that wasn’t fully fleshed out. Literally writing about a question, which was a really interesting challenge. To name that emotion while not yet knowing how it will fully reveal itself.
Grab your physical copy of the record here.
