Author Graeme Thomson on the music of Talk Talk: 'They are puzzles and I’m not sure anyone really wants to solve them'
Enigmatic, elegant and experimental, Talk Talk are the latest subject of music journalist and biographer Graeme Thomson. He tells Neil Cooper that the puzzles concocted by the late Mark Hollis and his band have only become more intriguing in the intervening years
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As late 20th century pop myths go, the story of Talk Talk is one of the most mysterious. Graeme Thomson’s new book, In Another World: The Four Seasons Of Talk Talk, digs deep into the story of the Mark Hollis-fronted group who went from glossy synth-pop chart botherers over their first two albums before creating some of the most sublime musical meditations of their era. Over three albums between 1986 and 1991 (The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock), Talk Talk’s core trio of Hollis, bassist Paul Webb and drummer Lee Harris, plus producer Tim Friese-Greene, created a series of lushly crafted and increasingly insular soundscapes before disappearing for good. An eponymous stripped back 1998 solo album by Hollis hinted at things to come. As it turned out, it was a last gift to the world before he withdrew from music entirely.
The silence from all band members only increased the Talk Talk legend, while the death of Hollis in 2019 aged 64 put a full stop on a group that existed on their own terms, without scandal or hyperbole. Thomson’s book honours that mystique while at the same time attempting to decipher the glorious intensity of the music. ‘I just love those records,’ says Thomson, ‘and I wanted to swim around in them. They are puzzles and I’m not sure anyone really wants to solve them. There’s an incredible dichotomy there, in that they were laboured over so intensely and so obsessively, and yet the emotional core of them still comes through. So it’s like trying to work out how they were able to retain that spontaneity and emotional heart while spending months going over every little aspect of the music.’
In Another World is the latest in a series of books by Thomson that includes biographies of Simple Minds, John Martyn and Kate Bush. Like them, this new work is a labour of love borne of personal experience. ‘My first immersion in Talk Talk was hearing “The Rainbow” from Spirit Of Eden coming out of my mate’s speakers in a little room in Bristol,’ Thomson remembers. ‘It just transported me. Part of the book is about me trying to explore the magic that we get when we hear music that speaks to us and how music hits us no matter when it was released. It’s such a mysterious thing.’
In Another World: The Four Seasons Of Talk Talk is published by New Modern on Thursday 21 May; Graeme Thomson talks talks about the book at Topping & Company, Edinburgh, Monday 1 June.