Golden Mixtape

Have you ever had something you started Monday and totally forgot about by Wednesday? Most of us are those people while artists like Talullah Ruff are able to stick with something for a very long time. She started jotting down lyrics as a kid just entering high school and concluded as a woman in college. Then she took bits and parts to bring together her debut EP, What Is Honest, out August 25. We talked about the making of her honesty, her lead single “I Am Not” and much more in this little back and forth.

Kendra: Were you always into rock music and the rock scene?

Talullah Ruff: Unfortunately not…My biggest idol as a little kid was Hilary Duff before I fell into the Hot Topic, studded-belt, bands (mainly Evanescence, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore). Once I hit eighth grade, I really started my rock education, and buying all of the stuff we were playing at the after-school music program I was in: Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and from there Pink Floyd, Jeff Buckley, Fiona Apple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, on and on and on.

Kendra: Looking through your IG (I’m a snooper) you definitely have this rocking hippy vibe. Does that free spirit flow into your music?

Talullah: When I think of “free spirit,” I think of someone who’s easygoing and pliant, and that’s not who I am (although it’s something to aspire to in some cases). My writing can start out a stream of consciousness, or with a terrible poem that I take pieces from, but then once I have my themes, I love bending my mind to work with words in very specific ways. The act of lyric writing is very specific for me; every single word has a purpose and/or a double/quadruple meaning. Sonically, I’m kind of all over the place.

https://soundcloud.com/talullah-ruff/what-is-honest

Kendra: Now let’s talk about What Is Honest. Was it a conscious decision beforehand to record it all over NYC?

Talullah: To be very honest, it was all due to monetary and time constraints. A bulk of the recording time and costs were consolidated with a 24-hour session in what was essentially a barn-like studio in Brooklyn in the back/attic of an antique store. I utilized my school recording studios whenever there was extra time for projects, and the additions were recorded in dorms, apartments, bedrooms…

Kendra: Do you feel that added something more to the overall sound of the record?

Talullah: It could have taken away from the sound because I wasn’t trying/able to cut a pristine pop record. However, that isn’t the message I’m trying to send or the person I am, so I also think it really fits the songs that they sound imperfect and even oddly placed. In some of my favorite classic rock songs, the heart of it is what’s in the maybe-out-of-tune guitar or the rushed tempos due to fevered excitement, and all the individual textures that you wouldn’t get if everything was smoothed over and put perfectly in its place. So: no and yes at the same time.

Kendra: Now that album has songs on it that span a great deal of time and moments in your life because a high school freshman is a world away from a sophomore in college. How different are the songs lyrically depending on when they were penned?

Talullah: I’d like to think I’m more succinct in my songwriting now. A lot of songwriting to me is wading through the mental throw-up until you have tracks of verbal throw-up and then after wading through it enough times it doesn’t smell anymore and it starts to take shape. If you look at the lyrics on “What is Honest” and “Home is Where the Heart Aches” (which will be on the EP) versus “I Am Not” and “Anger is an Acid” (another song on the EP), the distinction is quite clear. The intentions are more clear on the latter songs than the former.

However, I’m not a big believer in over-refining songs that define an important stage in your life. I’m not the person I was when I wrote those early songs, but a lot of those themes and emotions are still prevalent to me (and I think they could be to other people) and that’s what makes me want to keep them around.

https://soundcloud.com/talullah-ruff/i-am-not

Kendra: How old were you when “I Am Not” started to take shape?

Talullah: I believe I wrote “I Am Not” in one sitting when I was newly eighteen. I remember writing the lyrics pretty quickly and the piano and violin parts coming to me in between.

Kendra: Was that based on an overall idea or one incident in particular?

Talullah: I had a lot of frustrations that channeled into the song; it was about a few issues I was grappling with that I tried to convey pretty bluntly and also metaphorically.

Kendra: So you’ve got the new album out at the end of August, are you going to be touring as well?

Talullah: I’m getting together an EP release show and planning on playing as many shows around here to get people to come before I start venturing out. But it would be crazy to tour at some point.

Kendra: Let’s take it back to when you first started to write back in your freshmen year of high school. If you had to make a mixtape of songs that were shaping your life then, what five would have to be on it?

Talullah:
“Never is a Promise” – Fiona Apple
“Lilac Wine” – Jeff Buckley
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” – The Beatles
“What is and What Should Never Be” – Led Zeppelin
“Try a Little Tenderness” – Otis Redding