Interviews

A few quick questions with Eoin French from Talos

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Ireland-based Talos (a.k.a. Eoin French) released his debut album, Wild Alee, in 2017 and after a rather quiet year, he began dropping tracks a few months ago in anticipation of the Far Our Dust, his most recent release. Wild Alee attracted a lot of well-deserved attention in Europe and North America alike, and Far Our Dust is a great progression to that jumpstart. The album is a blend of organic and electronic music, in many ways epic, full of sad and romantic anthems.

French worked with his longtime production partner Ross Dowling (James Vincent McMorrow, Bell X1) on most of the instrumental load on the album. A good share of Far Our Dust, however, was collaborations with the likes of Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Wet), Valgeir Sigurðsson (Sigur Ros, Feist) and Damian Taylor (Bjork, Arcade Fire). While subtle stamps of these multiple artists might come through on the album Far Our Dust is all Talos. In anticipation of this upcoming show in Toronto, we wanted to ask Eoin a few questions…

Quip: Hello Eoin, how are the first few tour shows? 

Eoin French: They’ve been great so far. It’s great to get to finally play some of the new music live!

Q: That’s great to hear! Let’s go back a little though, when did you know you wanted to be a musician?

EF: I think I’ve always kind of loved music really. I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where listening to music was an everyday thing… but I think it was seeing a band called Wild Beasts live when I was in my early 20’s that really made me explore it in a focused way.

Q: How did Talos come about as a project?

EF: I finished up with a band I was in and had a producer in Cork, Ian Ring that wanted to work with me and from there it grew I suppose really.

Q: How very organic! Far Out Dust has been written all over the world, how did that process work?

EF: I suppose it was about working really intensely in these places for shortish periods of time and then bringing what was made back to my studio in Cork and recasting it all into something that felt like an entire, concise piece of music. It was really rewarding in the end because the different spaces made me make in very different ways and forced me to think about what I was making in a different way also.

Q: How long did it take to complete the record?

EF: I started it when I finished the last one so 2 years on and off, I released the Then There Was War EP in between also, but the last 8 months of the process were relentlessly intense.

Q: Wild Alee was a very personal album, is Far Out Dust drawing on your emotions and personal experiences as well?

EF: Ya, everything I make draws on personal experience I think it’s the only thing we can do. If not then it’s not really worthwhile and I think it’s very hard for others to latch onto what you are doing unless you really mean it.

Q: Very true! What’s behind the album name, Far Out Dust?

EF: A number of things. I was reading into the idea of the triptych in art when I started making the album and wanted the name to be one. It’s also kind of cyclical. There is a beginning a middle and end in the title. I also kind of wanted it to reflect a carelessness in a way, and talk into the idea of ephemerality and that things simply pass.

Q: That’s very deep. What can we expect from the live show?

EF: Our live show is really full on ranging from having between a four and six piece. I consciously want it to feel very different from the record in that it’s a communal end to a solitary process.

See Talos live during one of these upcoming tour dates:

12/21 Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick
3/01- Metro, Chicago #
3/02- Danforth Music Hall, Toronto #
3/03- Corona Theatre, Montreal #
3/05- Royale, Boston #
3/07- Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn #
3/09- Union Transfer, Philadelphia #
3/10- Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC #

# with Aurora

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