Talal is a London based DJ, producer who’s continued to turn heads with his enthralling sound. He’s performed all over the world, including sets at Cream Amnesia Ibiza, ADE and plenty more. His music has also been supported by industry heavyweights BBC, Sirius XM, Judge Jules Global Warm Up, and DJs such as Adriatique, John Digweed, Maceo Plex, Nora En Pure, and Solomun.
Now, this talented artist is making his debut on David Hohme’s ‘Where The Heart Is’ imprint with a mesmerizing single, “Lorean“. It’s fascinating from start to finish, loaded with glistening melodies and driving backbeat, taking a more experimental and downtempo direction than more of his club friendly hits.
We had the chance to ask him a few questions about this release and what’s next for him. Enjoy!
I have been a fan of his Burning Man sets with Robot Heart, Bubbles & Bass, Pink Mammoth etc.. and releases on his label Where The Heart Is + Anjunadeep and Colorize. So over time, I sent over some potential material that could fit within some of the above tones.
Can you talk about the significance of Lorean’s track names?
I am not sure exactly, at the time, it came pretty quickly, for something that fit with the sounds feeling a bit more retro/analog yet accessible.
How important is it for artists to constantly push the boundaries and try new things?
I think in any field; if people get into a cycle, it can eventually become narrowing. So although it takes discipline, a way to keep curiosity alive – is to keep the process of searching for and developing new sounds – separate from writing songs. Doing both at the same time could become very time intensive – but if you allocate time just to find/develop new tones/sounds, and then archive them away in a folder. Then whenever approaching the writing phase – from the start it will be fresh and unique. Inversely, if people become overly identified with one specific sound or genre over time, that could become restrictive.
Which artists or genres influenced your music on Lorean?
I think it was 2 things primarily, one was a vocal track I did for Robot Hearts Further Future Festival (Eighties – Further Future Vocal Mix) – I wanted to revisit at some point that tone, and the trigger that nudged me to allocate some time was listening to The Midnight. A friend in Istanbul Kerem Siral runs some healthy living/lifestyle brands and Artı Eksi a very well produced travel youtube channel – I stumbled into The Midnight from his Instagram stories/videos he puts up for RON Gym in Nisantasi. We talked about missing California, so at some point I felt perhaps I could do more music in that direction.
What’s next for Talal in terms of your music career and goals?
At the moment there are a number of more immediate items in process for music signing/releases and potential events, in April a remix of Lorean by Nihil Young, May there will be a release on D-Formations Beatfreak, July an EP on the French Family Piknik Festival label, a followup release on John 00 Flemings JOOF label, a potential EP with the Istanbul based Future Forward, hopefully some items will make their way towards Denis Alentief of BEON1X / DAR, a potential remix for DJ Macintyres SLC6 label – and various prospective event discussions for Canada, Spain, France, Cyprus, London. Will be playing with Golden Hour at Night Tales in London April 16 and June 11, Ottawa Progress Vibes event at Club Berlin in Canada July 21.
Ideally, I would like from mid-2023 for the music writing/releases to be planned a bit further out in larger segments – and the events planned a bit further out – this could give more space to develop original material. There is a potential larger vocal project in the works currently which may reach the light of day for the second half of 2023, there were some collaborations with Nihil Young and Amy Mayson on the Danish/Norwegian Paperclip/Nomade agency/label one of which just passed 3 million listeners on spotify – so hopefully there is more that can be structured/planned there. I am also in talks often with some friends in East Asia regarding ideas for 2023/2024 to see how things unfold, Jason Swamy of Robot Heart / Wonderfruit / Do What You Love, is gradually exploring some new projects which will be very interesting but of course, take some time to develop.
