by emily harris
photo courtesy of telltale
The Virginian band Telltale is a true testament to the power of the alternative music scene meeting honest lyricism. The quartet, though at the beginning of their career, know the sound they want to create and are constantly pushing their limits to do so. Their newest single, “Won’t Be Me,” dives into dealing with one’s mental health and the awareness of one’s own influence on other’s lives. Members John Carter, Bryce Marshall, and Travis Slack sat down with us to discuss the single and its outlook on the music scene.
Congratulations on the release of your newest single “Won’t Be Me!” Can you tell me about the backstory of this song and what drove you to write about mental health?
John: “I have been dealing with a lot of struggles within my own personal mental health since I was probably about fourteen. I know Travis can probably attest to that personal struggle also. It’s just sort of something that we’ve seen again and again recurring in the music scene in particular — it’s young individuals who struggle with their self-worth and the image of themselves. And so, I think it’s something that we strive for and write about in all of our music. This is definitely the most poignant track and the one most specifically geared in that direction. I never want to talk about it in a general sense, where it’s like a fad or generic mantras, but I prefer to write from personal anecdotes and personal experiences and hope that people might share those experiences and that the connection can help them in some way.”
As mental health awareness hits home for you as a band, did you feel some sort of responsibility to curate a sound that resonated with fans, and yourself alike?
Bryce: “Something I feel like we always try to do with our music is try to convey the mood of the lyrics. Musically, that’s what every band goes for, but with a lot of other groups it’s like, ‘alright cool, we’re this kind of band; this is what we’re gonna do.’ But we have pop and R&B kinda influences with the grooves and the verse in this track and then in the chorus it’s a more modern rock sound. You know, we don’t want to feel like we’re pigeonholed. You guys clearly want to hear heavy distorted guitars and punk stuff like that all the time. We really wanna make this song as good as possible. At the end of the day, John wrote a great set of lyrics so let’s make a song that’s just as good to match it. So, that way it all kind of builds itself together into something great.”
Did the writing and recording of this song differ from that of your previous releases, including your record Timeless Youth?
John: “Yeah, it definitely did. This is one of two tracks from our first big recording session that started with an acoustic guitar demo. All of the other eight songs were from full band demos that were all sort of curated together. But this one and then ‘Rose’ were actually more sort of singer-songwriter songs to begin with where this was more of a lyrical focus and then some basic chord work in the background to flesh it out and generally structure the song. So yeah, this one is a little different than a lot of the other tracks we’ve done.”
How did the single artwork for “Won’t Be Me” come about?
John: “We commissioned this wonderful artist, Stephanie, who went forward and did the video work for it — she did this really great little animated short to kinda coincide with the theme of the song. The video just resonated so much, that we decided that it made sense to incorporate the characters from that into the artwork itself. So, I think the fact that we used the cloud and the sun is kind of explained by the other visual for it. But basically, it comes from a place of a personal relationship that I experienced where I very much felt like that cloud aspect — I was just genuinely clouding someone else’s sun throughout that interpersonal relationship. In the video, you can just kinda see at the end the sun starts to dim out, and I very much felt that at that time in my life. I almost felt like I was dimming this other individual out. I think that can be perceived in kind of a negative way. When you are in a darker place, you are going to bring the people that you love down. But at the same time, it’s just as important to acknowledge the fact that you are always going to have an effect on those around you. Sometimes you have to focus internally and realize that you need to better yourself in certain ways before you’re able to be with other people.”
What urged you to release “Won’t Be Me” as the end of this Telltale era, especially since sonically it’s very different from your past releases?
Bryce: “This is honestly, in a way, the end of what we’ve had from that last big recording session. We’re in the process of really getting rolling on what is to come. Will there be stuff like ‘Won’t Be Me’ on our next efforts? Most likely. But maybe not. You know? We’re really getting rolling on the whole new batch, the next big session of material here. We did a little something out in LA in February and got about half of a record done. We’ve got some stuff under our belt — a good chunk of material ready — to move forward into the next stage. Who knows what’s really coming out? We’re excited for it. We’re excited to push what we want as a band, what we want to talk about, and how we’re gonna sound. We’ll see what happens.”
Going off of that, your sound is proudly a mix of the newest scene of pop punk and early 2000’s punk. Can you tell me about what influenced your sound?
Travis: “I would say that the diversity of music taste in this band really made it challenging to find our sound at first, but I think if you listen to songs like ‘Rose’ and ‘Won’t Be Me,’ you can tell we’ve kind of hit our stride in that sense. We all came from bands before this — John’s band was pretty heavy, our band was kinda heavy, and then Tim was in an emo-pop band. But, we all grew up in the local metalcore scene. We all grew up going to hardcore shows. I think you can really hear it specifically in Bryce’s parts and in the grit that John puts in. That heavier music has really influenced us, but we love pop music as well, John and I. It’s very diverse, and I think Bryce brings a better edge to it.”
photo courtesy of telltale
Your song lyrics are unequivocally honest as you write about relatable topics that effect not only you, but your fan base as well. How has having honest lyricism affected the following you have?
John: “Our fanbase is very, very close-knit, it is almost like a family style fanbase. We do have a core group of two hundred individuals who are going to buy every single shirt and are going to feel comfortable direct messaging us on the internet to talk about things. I think that’s a pretty cool aspect to have because it is still very early in our careers. So, having those people that have been able to come very close to us through our music will help expand things from here on out. But, I hope to kind of continue in that vain. I am sure as we continue to grow it is going to get harder and harder to maintain relationships at that level and be able to consistently recognize individuals touring halfway across the country. But, I think we’ve always been a band that has kind of strived to make the effort to talk to people at shows and to give them the time and attention that they deserve. If somebody wants to talk to you, who are you to say whether or not you have the time for that. Travis’s sister works at Disney, and they have this really cool rule about hugs, (and I’m not a big hugger, but occasionally people want to) where you’re not allowed to stop hugging until the other person is able to stop hugging. I think that’s a really good representation of our mindset.”
Following the release of this single, can we expect a longer body of work soon?
Travis: “I definitely think we’ll be aiming for something longer, maybe something of a little more sustenance than an EP. But who knows? We wrote these ten songs that you’ve heard thus far as a whole record and then decided we would put out the EP separately from these different tracks. So, everything that we’ve recorded this far sounds like ‘this is a Telltale song,’ so we’re very excited. Now, it’s more about pushing the limit and being better than ourselves.”