This past January, Salim Nourallah began the year on a productive note with “Telegraph Avenue.” Then he didn’t compose anything else for the next seven months. The writer’s block was understandable, given how he’d finished out 2023.
“There was a canceled East Coast tour due to a ruptured eardrum, as well as a slew of other disappointments and losses—not the least of which the passing of two close friends,” says the Dallas-based singer/songwriter/producer. “I entered the year feeling completely worn out.”
At the time, Nourallah was spending most of his time hiding out in the listening room he’d set up next door to his Pleasantry Lane Studio. “Late one night, after a particularly difficult day, I picked up the guitar that sits in my bedroom, and this song came tumbling out,” he says. “I worked on it for a couple of weeks. It helped me get through a tough stretch.”
Growing up in El Paso, Texas, Nourallah spent more than a decade making music with his younger brother, Faris. The two parted ways rather abruptly after 2001’s Nourallah Brothers earned critical raves. Three years later, Nourallah released his well-received debut, Polaroid. Over the next decade and a half, the solo albums kept coming, and so did production jobs. Nourallah worked with Old 97’s, the Damnwells, Deathray Davies and others. He also joined forces with the Damnwells’ Alex Dezen and ace producer/sideman Billy Harvey for NHD, a singer/songwriter power trio.
Knowing he had something with “Telegraph Avenue,” Nourallah sought Harvey’s help, heading to Nashville to record with his friend. “There’s something about the song that feels very stream-of-consciousness, and I wanted the recording to support that,” says Nourallah. “The goal was to keep it relatively simple while also creating a dream-like world—kind of like Nick Drake trapped in ‘Strawberry Fields.’ I knew Telegraph Avenue was a place in California I’d never actually been to. That didn’t matter so much, because it ended up becoming a place I imagined—a place where my memories and future coexist.”
Nourallah sent a rough mix of the song to Jordan Thompson, an Australian musician/videographer who’d done some work for him in the past, including the clip for his last single, “Hold The Sun,” from earlier this year. Initially, Thompson didn’t think he had the time to do it.
“A few months later, he reconsidered and sent me a very detailed storyboard plot,” says Nourallah. “It felt almost cinematic to me. I was duly impressed with the amount of detail and thoughtfulness that went into it.”
We’re proud to premiere Salim Nourallah’s “Telegraph Avenue” video.
—Hobart Rowland
