In conjuring the guerilla-style surreality of the video for Talulah Paisley’s new single, Lyris Faron sought inspiration from experimental singer/songwriter Cooper B. Handy (a.k.a. LUCY).
“A big part of the inspiration came from his video for the song ‘Turbulence,’” says Faron. “He’s one of my most favorite artists of today—someone who makes art on his own terms and trusts completely in his vision.”
The same could be said of Faron, who traces the germ of Talulah Paisley to her high-school bedroom in New York City, where she began posting songs on Bandcamp as diary entries set to music—initially delivered from a nylon-string acoustic guitar. That quickly advanced to the more fleshed-out dance-punk of 2018’s Talulah Paisley’s Baby And The Fuzz. But it wasn’t until the post-SXSW breakup of her band, T-Rextasy, in 2019 that Faron got serious about her evolving alter ego.
“It was at the start of the 30-plus-hour drive back home to New York,” says Faron of T-Rextasy’s sudden demise. “We were crawling out of Austin when we started sharing our own reasons why it wasn’t working for us anymore. I did a lot of daydreaming and looking out the window on the highway. Somewhere in Tennessee, I spotted a truck carrying pianos and took it as an omen to finally prove myself as an instrumentalist.”
And prove she did. Faron plays 15 instruments on Talulah Paisley’s full-length debut, Fool, which is set to drop June 11 via People’s Coalition Of Tandy. For the most part, the album was recorded drummer/producer Nick Kinsey’s Chicken Shack in New York’s Hudson Valley.
“What’s It Like?” was written during Faron’s senior year at Oberlin College. “I wanted so much when I wrote it,” she says. “It’s often my instinct to think, ‘Someday, someday, someday … when I have this, when I do this, I’ll be happy and my life will align.’ This new era has been rather terrifying for me. But it’s good, because it means I’m trying something I truly care about—something that’s real. If you’re making art and you don’t feel some element of fear, you aren’t taking enough of a risk. Never get too comfortable.”
We’re proud to premiere Talulah Paisley’s “What’s It Like?” video.
—Hobart Rowland
See Talulah Paisley live.
