Last updated March 14, 1998
Talk Talk are a pop curiosity. Their last two albums have taken the British trio to the forefront of the European music scene, while they've stayed practically unknown in their own country. However, that could all change with the current success of 'Life's What You Make It'. Singer Mark Hollis chats about his music, videos, and the great outdoors. Mike Morris keeps well wrapped up....
I'm sure there's something positive to be said for strolling round a London park in the middle of winter. And as soon as I thaw out, I'll probably remember what it is. Talk Talk's Mark Hollis has no qualms about walking around in sub-Arctic conditions.
"I like being outside" he says. "After ten months in the studio, with non-stop music, it's good to get out. Especially this time of year. I've just got back from walking round the Lake District for a couple of months. The peace, the solitude.....it's brilliant."
The 'rest' was a well-earned reward at the end of an exhausting year. Six days a week, 15 hours a day ; it's a long time to spend on one project. The resulting album, 'The Colour Of Spring', is due to surface at any minute. And while it has taken time to complete, Mark seems unconcerned that it is now two years since their last work, the 'It's My Life' LP, first became available.
"It doesn't really bother me," he says. "Between the first and second albums there was about a two-year gap, as there is between the last one and this. If you're lucky enough to be in this position, then your main concern should be to make sure it's a good album. It should be done at whatever speed it takes. The second album, 'It's My Life', took about seven or eight months to make and it was obvious before we started that this one would take longer because of new opportunities."
Those "new opportunities" come as a direct result of the group's success abroad. And Mark, modest chap that he is, is more inclined to be grateful for the continental sales, than he is to start grumbling about lack of domestic recognition:
"Oh, it doesn't matter to me, honestly, it really doesn't. I don't even think about it. All I really do is acknowledge what I have got - what the European market has given us - which is the freedom to make a record exactly how we'd like."
Clearly Talk Talk's material is benefiting from this ever-increasing freedom. A lover of more natural instrumentalisation (Mark claims classical composers Debussy, Delius and jazz-hero Miles Davis as influences), the band leader can now afford to get rid of the synths of the last album, in favour of pure orchestration and the occasional choir.
And, the continued development of a song-writing collaboration with the outfit's producer, Tim Friese-Greene, has tipped Hollis even closer to the creation of his 'ideal' sound. It's even brought him a "welcome" hit single in the wondrously optimistic guise of 'Life's What You Make It'. Mark's other ambition is to develop a career as a writer of film music. Luckily, the challenge for chart supremacy does provide opportunity to work with video, a definite advantage. Director, Tim Pope, famous for his Cure videos, amongst others, has been engaged on all four Talk Talk videos so far:
"I know that Popey would agree with me when I say that we both get quite depressed by the way in which videos generally work. More often than not they're looked at as nothing more than an exercise in commercialism. They're so gross in their narrative - and the imagery has such a horrible, heavy sell effect - that they're fast becoming commercials. At the same time television commercials are using more and more music, as well as loads of pop video techniques. There's actually very little to choose between the two."
But Talk Talk really are trying to do something different. Mark explains the thinking behind their latest attempt : "With this one we've returned to the animal reference of our first video, 'It's My Life'. With 'Life's What You Make It' though, we've tried to shoot things in a very filmic, purist way. We wanted, more than anything, to get across the mood of the song. The animals naturally tie in with the theme of life but they're also much more endearing to watch. I don't really believe, just because it's our video, that we have to be in it. Ideally, we would have made a little nature film instead."