Today, we sat down with Talkradio to discuss their inspiration to write music, heroes and much more. Be sure to check out the music of Talkradio below after the interview on Spotify.
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
Not really. Sometimes just by listening to various albums. Often a melody idea turns up in my head while I’m doing pretty mundane stuff, like cooking or even just web browsing. It can also happen in my sleep. A few songs have started from a melody that I woke up humming to myself.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
I started listening to Kiss when I was 6 years old. I remember my mum even doing my Paul Stanley makeup. Over the years it became bands like Iron Maiden and AC/DC, Whitesnake and Van Halen, then ultimately Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Radiohead. I got hooked on The Beatles later on too.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
It’s a bit of a mix. To begin with, I learnt drums in my teens. My uncle was a great drummer (mum’s cousin really) and he was a huge fan of people like Billy Cobham and Ginger Baker. Through my own musical explorations, my heroes were people like Neil Peart, Virgil Donati and Danny Carey. Once I started singing, I was being inspired by people like Bruce Dickinson, John Farnham, Ronny James Dio and, my ultimate hero, Chris Cornell. These days, my influences are purely from a song writing perspective. For years, my number one song writing influence has been Foo Fighters. I’m a huge admirer of Dave Grohl’s ability to churn out melodic hooks like he has a bottomless pit of ideas.
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
Probably the same thing I do now to earn a living. Work as an IT network engineer.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
Firstly, knowing music theory goes a long way, so get music lessons if you can. Secondly, accept your limitations. In my experience, most people won’t be good at it. No matter how many song-writing courses you take, I’ve discovered no-one can teach anyone how to write something memorable or catchy. Regardless of what they say, there is no “formula” for that. If you’re coming up with stuff that your friends are saying they can’t get out of their head, that’s a start.
Music:
