It’s not every teenaged band that makes it out of the high school assembly hall and into the country’s best live venues. But have done just that, and in the space of about three years. Even in the mid-2020s, this band are living proof that solid songwriting and determination still shine through.
The Glasgow alternative group have built their sound on diversity – “We constantly change, and I guess that’s part of us,” is vocalist summary. It’s a sound that veers between sweeping swathes of guitar and haunting reverb, with upbeat songs that aim forward with alt-punk drive and reflective tracks that owe more to shoegaze than pure rock. The common denominator is power, whether from the bass lines, the multi-layered guitars or the defiant, attention-grabbing vocals which emanate from Talbot.
Sitting down with , Talbot is joined by bassist . The pair have barely recovered from two tours with Madra Salach (and before that one with Cliffords) and are still riding the wave of their debut EP release. Yet they’re already thinking about a headline tour which will culminate at Stereo in their home city.
“I feel like getting back – I’m ready to go again!” says Talbot. “We came off the tour and wrote a new song – like, immediately – and I don’t think we’ve done that before.”
The group (Talbot, Hare, guitarists and , and drummer ) are close knit: brought together for a Battle of the Bands at high school – where, with what feels like a very good decision-making, they covered RATM’s – but held together by a robust and quickly-formed bond.
“The way it started was more of a ‘Let’s see where it goes, with a proper plan, but I think we’re more structured now, “ says Talbot. “We have some goals as a group that we want to achieve, and I think supporting the bands we have on tour so far is a really good way to start that … it gives us that kind of touring experience, going from venue to venue, and performing consistently.”
“I think we were all just on the same page – we felt it was meant to be,” says Hare. “It’s kind of weird in some ways. There’s so many things that have happened so naturally and organically that makes it feel really meant to be.”
From playing covers, Tanzana moved to writing their own material, working as a group but with Dunn generally providing music ideas from her guitar and Talbot leading on lyrics. The band’s sound gradually evolved and resulted in their first public release: the haunting ‘Covet’, which plays with end-time feelings and the darkness of obsession. That sound felt right, explains Talbot, and finally culminated in a startlingly mature, intense and accomplished EP, ‘Etched In’.
Tanzana’s songs are notably cinematic with the music conjuring swirling visions, bringing dream-like scenes into consciousness. This makes perfect sense given Talbot’s approach to writing.
“I think some things come to me quite visually; I’m a big visual learner,” muses Talbot. “And also, a lot of songs do come from my own experiences but I try to then think outside of that, to kind of create a bigger image.”
Elsewhere on the debut EP, Talbot takes a more straightforward approach: take, for example, the striking imagery of ‘Astar’ where she sings with barely-restrained frustration, “I saw you across the station, sliding doors made your face look funny… I received your letter, I was shocked at what you wrote me”.
“Yeah with certain songs I want to get to the point… like, ‘Ok, I feel this way and I just want to express that.’ And I think there’s room to do that in music,” she says.
During the most recent Madra Salach support tour, where Tanzana played at bigger venues than ever before, adrenaline and energy translated into inspiration. Talbot explains how she found herself, for the first time, sharing an idea for a melody with the rest of the band.
“I don’t really play guitar… I had kind of an idea in my head and I thought, ‘You know what, I’m just going to try’. I have this relic of a guitar – it’s caked in dust – and I started writing this verse,” she says.
‘Etched In’ is still quite new to the world at large, and Tanzana are still getting used to the idea of it being in the public eye.
“I think it’s really interesting to see what people think about it,” says Hare. “It’s interesting to see what specific songs people are drawn to and if everyone has the same opinion or all different. I’m glad there’s a song for everyone on it, you know?”
“I like that ‘This Love is getting so much love!” adds Talbot. “I wrote vocals, part of it, the night before [recording] … I thought, ‘I’m just going to go feeling first’, which I’ve never done before.
After their next run of live dates, the band are planning to spend a week writing at a cottage in the Argyll and Bute Islands, with the goal of producing a body of work (no one is saying the word ‘album’ just yet, but early signs are there).
“It’s a bit of a different approach,” says Talbot. “Yeah. I think it’ll be interesting to do it in a new setting because usually we write in Sarah [Dunn]’s bedroom, because she has a drum kit and that’s where we rehearse,” adds Hare.
Based on the trajectory of Tanzana’s music so far, with their songwriting quickly maturing and evolving, the exact outcome of their remote-cottage writing session is difficult to predict, but sure to be interesting.
“Expect the unexpected… we change rapidly,” says Talbot before Hare sums it up.
“We’re fluid with what we do, and we don’t really put ourselves into a box… so yeah, expect the unexpected!”
‘Etched In’ EP is out now.
Words:
Photo Credit: Victoria Sykes / @vix.visual