The Depths #1 part 2- Celeste Taucher of Talker Talks Being Twentysomething, Not Being Easygoing, Making Music Videos, and More

Let’s talk about Twentysomething, because I’m also 26… help me!

I'm going to be singing that forever, but I just turned 29.

How long have you been holding onto that song?

[Long pause] It took too fucking long to figure out what I was doing. I mean, the song came out when I was 28, so it was two years later.

I do have several jobs including this newsletter, but I have all the things you’re describing in the song.

Welcome to the club. That was another earlier song that I wrote for the record, and that was the first song that I wrote with Daniel Loumpouridis. I was frustrated because I still hadn't figured out what I was doing musically, and I was frustrated with my life. That was definitely an example of just throwing it all at the wall and not over analyzing or over editing and just really having fun with it, especially because in those chaotic times, you must have fun!

You have a million producers on this, can you talk about how you found the producers?

Yeah. I mean, honestly, it was just  through Dan Sadin. We played in Friendship together. He produced the last ep, so he and I worked together a lot anyway. And it's funny because since he moved, we still talk all the time, but I just haven't been up there working with him as much. But I wanted to have the song that we did together on this record, and I love that it's the intro record because it's almost this transitional moment from the old Daniel to the new Daniel Lompouridies. I went to college with him, same with Jon Graber. We had the same rep for a while, and he is just awesome and cool. He was working a lot for a while with Reade Wolcott from We Are The Union. So we just did a session together and had a great time. That was all through living in LA and doing a lot of sessions with a lot of people and ultimately ending up with the team that I have, and the mutuals that I have. Aiden was more random because he lives in Melbourne, but I love him. 

There are a lot of people who worked on it. And I go back and forth with my emotions about that because I'm like, oh should I have one person overseeing [the project] and blah, blah? But that’s me. These are my songs with my friends, and I love writing with people. I love doing sessions. Then I had the same person [Collin Pastore] mix it, so that was the thoroughline.

How involved are you with production? Because I know that the producers just get sole credit, but how involved? Because I think especially in the last song, there's lots of vocal layers.

I'm listing myself as executive producer for the overall, even though it's not going into the track credits with Spotify, which is weird, and I need to figure that out. But yeah, super, involved. I mean, it's all just really collaborative. We're in the studio just throwing ideas back and forth and doing stuff. I play drums on “When it Start”s, which is very random. I'm very hands on. It's just us having fun together.

There’s a connection I noticed from “Old Enough” to “Keep Me Safe” from the last EP - “I just want you to be happy/But I don't know where that leaves me” very similar to the literally, I can't put my foot down, I can't set anything, or our entire friendship falls apart.

Yeah, I mean, you're totally right on that. That's a codependent friendship song.

You mention drowning on both “Wet” and “Old Enough”, but I don't know if that's an accident or that's just a metaphor that's fun to reach.

I mean, I think that it's mostly a metaphor that's fun to reach for, it's funny because both of those songs are about friendships. It's just that one is that codependent friendship feeling, and the other is singing a song for a friend who's going through a really difficult time.

Somebody struggling with chronic health, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so it is interesting because it  puts it in perspective a little bit hilariously talking about those two songs for me, because I'm , there's emotionally drowning, and that is super valid, and you can feel you're drowning in another person, and that is important to talk about. But I got it pretty good, she was drowning in some actually real shit.

It doesn't erase the  thing of intense friendships.

No, not at all. And that in itself is a very, I mean, could have written that song about her too [laughs].

There's a line on this album like I never saw my parents kiss. Which goes back to what you were saying about a corrective experience. As adults, you can't get closer. You just  throw yourself at a person and try to stick.

100%. I mean, it's all of these different spokes on the wheel, and they're all valid, like you said. I mean, I think you have the codependent friendship thing, and then with Wet, it's showing the fact that even throughout that, you still love that person and you want the best for them, and you're going to do whatever you can for them. And sometimes that's a beautiful thing, it's almost showing the two different sides of how beautiful it can be and how toxic it can get. Within that too, you're unpacking your own experiences, your own things that you are subconsciously trying to heal and recreate. But if you are going at the experiences from that perspective and latching onto people, that's not going to do anything. And I feel another thing that I have done historically, romantically, it's very much I have these intense relationships with people because I want that obsession as a corrective experience. We all want that, I guess I can't speak for everyone, but just the thing that you picture in your head, whatever. So there's nothing wrong with that, but it's also important to check in and be like, what is me subconsciously healing my inner child and what is actually healthy.

Wow, we’ve both been to a lot of therapy!

We're philosophizing really hard on this interview. What I'll say is I think that I used to be afraid of having this openness with someone that I don't know that well, or someone where I'm talking about something that will be public or whatever. I don't really know why. I mean, I think maybe I just wasn't ready, but from the perspective of, oh, we've definitely been to therapy and unpacking and all these things,  I didn't intend for the album to line up with me being at this place. It was just a happy coming together of all of my life journeys going on. But I do think it's really appropriate timing where I do feel very much myself and very able to just be upfront about a lot of stuff. Also, it just doesn't matter that much. Why do I care if somebody knows this thing?

Speaking of therapy, “Easygoing” has the Anxiously Attached Version. With everything else we’ve talked about, I have a good idea why it’s called that, but can you talk about it?

Lynx is just a friend from the LA scene, and she has the same manager. And so I was trying to think of people I knew that wanted to do some sort of different version, done that for a few of the songs, obviously. And it was just this funny thing that happened to work out where Lynx was down, and -  her name's Jackie. Jackie was down to just get together and make something. We went to a friend’s studio. And I have a videographer friend who would just come film it because we just want to make shit with people. So we had a really fun time working on that together, and I loved that it was a re-imagining and recreation together, as opposed to her taking the stems and doing a remix.

It was funny because I didn't know, obviously sonically, exactly where we would be going with this new version. I know Lynx is music and her style and mine, and so we  took it into a little combo, but we were like, what if we speed it up and we make it  poppy? We've got these drums, and we're  to really get exactly that anxiety feeling because “Easygoing”, it is very much about anxious attachment, lyrically speaking. And then you get the combination of turning up the burners on the production basically, and having that side of things. It’s funny because I knew that I wanted to work with a female producer, and I had a couple other friends of mine come sing backing vocals.

So right. All these things just  come together naturally. None of it is, I'm going to do that, and then it's going to link to that. It's just life and making shit that's authentic. It's going to end up all  connected. But part of that was because I do feel a lot of the time as women, we are made out to be over emotional or hysterical or asking for too much or whatever. And I am really over that. I've been practicing a lot of communication and being like here's what I need. And I do tend to have some anxious attachment tendencies, and I'm working on that, but just generally speaking, and so I think that there was a combination also of  wanting to have a group of women working on something  this, just  honestly just as a little tribute of we all know what we're doing and we're cool, and we are not cuckoo, and - 

We are, but that doesn't impact our music. 

In a fun way.

Exactly. Have you thought about self-producing next time?

Oh, 100% I do. I've thought about just going in with an engineer and just producing shit myself. The funny thing is, okay, here's the other caveat. I feel  I just don't have the time to get it to the level that I want it to be at. But I also feel  that's a limiting self-belief because from a production perspective, I'm there, it's just some rack gear basically. You know what I mean?

I saw an indie film recently called Hundreds of Beavers, and it’s this live-action slapstick homage about a guy literally trying to kill hundreds of beavers to marry this girl. He only had $150,000 to make this really ambitious movie, and then he leaned into it and it took four years. But it looks incredible.

But I always get stressed where I'm like, I need to start putting out music more quickly after the last thing because of the era that we're in. And there's truth to it, and also not, I don't know. It's a balance. Nobody's expecting me to have a whole ‘nother album ready to go. And at the same time, Chappell Roan, her album came out in September and now Good Luck, Babe is a huge single that she just put out and she's kicking off the New era. And it was seven months ago!

That said, I do want to self-produce more, and I know that I'm capable of it musically.

You made a video for every song on In Awe of Insignificance and it seems like you were heavily involved in this era's videos too, would love to hear how you got interested in that!

I'm super involved - a lot of my videos in the past couple years I've written, produced, directed, and even edited.

It honestly came out of necessity because I didn't have a budget for anything, but I had these big concepts. I'm super lucky that I am friends with a lot of great people in the film and visual world - I literally have a DP living in my driveway lol. During COVID we made “Sad Chick” as a fun project because we wanted to work on something and our little pod was basically a film crew.

But yeah, I discovered a true love for it throughout all of that, and with each video I make, I obviously learn a lot and am able to up my involvement and skill level for the next. I honestly just really love making things and it informs my music as well. Now I've started producing & directing other people's videos and I want to keep doing more of that even as I continue to grow this project!

How does that inform your music?

I’m really visual and I see a lot of the world I’m creating as I’m writing the music. That doesn’t necessarily mean I see a full video for it, though sometimes I do, but it’s more just that I can see the feeling and the aesthetic and maybe the type of night when you’re listening to the song.

I also think that learning so many other skills and getting into art direction and set building and production has stretched my creative muscles to take more risks and be less precious and serious about the music too.

For me it’s so much bigger than just the music or making pieces of content for it. It’s a whole universe and I want everything to feel cohesive and like you are entering the world of the record.