Featured Artist Interview: Eagle and Talon

In 2006, Eagle and Talon released the criminally catchy EP, Eagle and Talon Cares, a four-song collection that all but begged to blow the band’s sound—serrated guitar riffs tearing through a Casio wonderland of Kim Talon’s sensuous, lip-curled vocals and Alice Talon’s (no relation) crazed, Moe Tucker-cool—open into the Technicolor widescreen of a full-length LP. And, after two long years, they have finally returned with an album that builds on the promise of their debut EP and intense, alluring live shows.

Web in Front spoke recently with the duo about their upcoming album, the pros and cons of duos, and the embarrassment of getting caught listening to your own music.

The Interview

Web in Front: So, it’s been two years since the release of the Eagle and Talon Cares EP, and you’re now in the process of releasing a debut full-length—what can you say about the new LP?

Kim: I don’t know what to say about it because I don’t really know what it is yet. Meaning, now that our baby is born it’s its own person and has its own identity separate from us, you’d have to ask her. Her name is THRACIAN

WiF: How does it compare, sonically, to the Cares EP?

Alice: It seems like a logical extension, I think. The EP was super-stripped down, people kept referring to it as ‘not produced’ or ‘under-produced, and we were like, “what is everybody talking about? this is all we got,” but now we understand. The album sounds a lot… I guess “fuller” would be the word. There’s still the normal drums and guitar stuff, but ideas are more fleshed out. Andrew (from Anchors for Architects) is all over it doing some amazing lead guitar stuff, we plunged pretty deeply into Casio/organ land, I sing a bit more, Kim plays some instruments from the brass family…

WiF: One of the new song, “Hot Caught,” is amazing—it’s such an overwhelming, blurry blast of pop noise. The first time I heard it, I could not get it out of my head for two days.

Kim: Thanks, Travis, I’m glad you like it.

WiF: What caused their to be such a delay in between the two discs?

Kim: It’s a combination of things. First of all, we were stubborn and wanted to produce the record; after meeting with different producers we realized that wasn’t for us. Self-producing can easily add another six months to a project. Then we went through a handful of recording studios, engineers, mixers/potential mixers, we fired people and people fired us…finding the right people to work with was difficult because we’re very particular when it comes to recording. Besides Andrew’s guitars parts, we played everything on the record so that took a lot of time to write and then record…

WiF: Let’s move backwards a bit—how did Eagle and Talon form?

Alice: it seems like we’ve known each other forever, but our initial meeting was through Craigslist and a divorce attorney who was playing bass with Kim at the time. It was about five years ago, we were all living around Fairfax. We had a few rehearsals in my bedroom, and I was pretty terrible at the drums back then, but we kept playing together because Kim was sort of a band novice, too, plus she knew I was “the one.” A couple weeks after we met, she walked over to my house, crying because the divorce attorney had told her he didn’t want to play with me. Anyway, she ended up firing him instead of me.

WiF: I’ve read before that you, at least at one point, didn’t want to be a duo. What kept you from being a trio or more—just not finding people on the same musical wavelength?

Kim: Well, actually, we were playing out with a third—the elusive and brilliant Andrew Haj Jeffords from Anchors for Architects, we have parted ways now but I hope he will come back to us one day—we both adore him. Being a duo is fun and allows us to have more creative control but, sound-wise, we demand more players. But, like you suggested, it’s difficult to find people that we relate to creatively.

eagleandtalon01.jpg eagleandtalon02.jpg

Stream “Dropped Down”

WiF: What other musicians inspire you, both in the past and now?

Alice: I love The Knife, mostly because the girl has a crazy distinctive voice and writes amazing lyrics. I only started to like the music after being reeled in by the other stuff. Joe Tomino, this drummer from Cleveland that I totally wanted to emulate. He’s now in the Dub Trio.

WiF: Who are you listening to, locally and nationally?

Kim: Locally, I’ve been listening to the new Charlie Wadhams EP, Davin Givhan’s “Everything Will Be Fine” and the new Benji Hughes record which should be out soon. As backlash to the nature of the record we’ve been making, I’ve been listening to music that’s the opposite—a lot of neo-soul and hip-hop stuff. Like the new Erykah Badu record, Kanye West and my ex’s friend’s band, Sa-Ra.

Alice: Locally, I listen to the same stuff as Kim, plus the Black Pine and Obi Best (formerly Colorforms). Nationally, Ratatat, Gang of Four, old eighties stuff.

WiF: How did the Cares EP come about?
Alice: It’s actually called Eagle and Talon Cares. We debated about whether it should be Care or Cares, I guess we decided not to be plural… Anyway, the EP was tracked mostly at Sonora and the vocals were done at Woody Jackson’s, a friend of a friend who plays/collects all these weird vintage instruments and plays guitorgan. The one Casio song was done in a guy named Jeff Duncan’s living room.

WiF: Yours is a band with a very distinctive sound, which can often be a curveball to critics—they end up comparing you to an established act as a shortcut. Does it drive you nuts you see Sleater-Kinney references littered throughout Eagle and Talon reviews?

Kim: Well, every band gets compared to other bands, it’s hard to write about sound, so I get why critics do that even though it’s annoying for artists. With the SK thing, I think the critics see two girls yelling and they want to call it something. Those comparisons don’t really bother me because those girls are great musicians and I think the comparisons will probably fade when the new record comes out.

WiF: Are you a duo in terms of songwriting as well, or does one person do a majority of the writing? What is the songwriting process for the band? Has that dynamic changed at all with the recording of the new LP?

Alice: Kim writes a majority of the stuff. New stuff will come like a flood, usually when she’s working out some emotional stuff. Then I throw down some drums and get to veto anything I think is cheesy. I like to say that Eagle and Talon is mostly Kim’s thought world though, except for the Casio stuff which usually starts with me and then is fleshed out by both of us. Basically, we write what we (individually) play or sing. This time a lot of the writing actually ended up happening during the (pretty arduous) recording process. Hope to change that, though…

WiF: Which brings us back to the new LP—is there a release date lined up? I’m really looking forward to hearing it.

Alice: Thank you! I’m not sure if Kim will ever listen to it again after we finally release it. I might because I’m a little OCD like that. It’s really kind of wild how much you have to listen to your own music when you’re making a record. Pretty embarrassing, actually. Like when I go to pick up a friend, I’m usually checking a mix or an arrangement or something, and have to turn off the music before they get in the car. Otherwise you feel like you’re this self-obsessed person who can’t get enough of themselves — which might be true, but you don’t really want to advertise it.

Anyway, the release date is TBD, but we’re aiming for a fall release.

WiF: What are the band’s plans for the future?

Kim: A lot of touring and traveling. I’m itching to get out of LA for a while.

Band Favorites

Alice:

I have a few favorites as far as the recordings go, and I’m pretty sure they won’t be the “hits” if there is even such a thing on our album. There’s this one called either “You’ll Need A Sistine” or “The All Best”—we’re not sure yet. It’s got a lot of organs, Andrew’s doing some jagged shit and Kim’s playing the drums and yelling her head off but not saying that much. It starts off pretty harsh but ends up in a somewhat unexpected place. I like that one. I know we both like “Palm Springs.” That song just sounds sonically right and I like how it goes from languorous to really tumultuous very suddenly. It feels like “mature Eagle and Talon”—more importantly, it’s Kim’s mom’s favorite song.

Kim:

I tend to like the collaborative songs better than the ones I wrote first on my own. In terms of production, those songs are just more interesting to me. I like “Tight Score” which is on the new record and a b-side that didn’t quite make it, called “Teddy.” I think I’m going to finish that song on my own, Alice lost interest in it. It’s a very emotional song about a teddy bear that I’m in love with who cheated and lied and betrayed me.

Rare Tracks

Eagle and Talon were generous enough to allow Web in Front to stream an unreleased track from their upcoming record: “Hot Caught,” a pummeling wash of gorgeous hooks and ominous melodies.

Stream “Hot Caught”

July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Featured Artist Interviews 

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