MEET TELENOVA: YOUR NEW FAVOURITE BAND

Every once in a while an artist or band comes along that stops you in your tracks completely. You might hear a fragment of their music on the radio, or a random playlist, and find yourself frantically opening Shazam to reveal the identity behind whatever masterpiece you’ve just stumbled upon. Telenova are one such group that possess that arresting quality, hypnotising you with glittery hooks and killer vocals to boot.

The Melbourne-based indie pop outfit exploded on to the Australian music scene in 2021 with their debut EP ‘Tranquilize’ and they’ve been taking the world by storm ever since. Telenova are joining us at Lion Arts Factory Saturday October 1 in support of their latest EP ‘Stained Glass Love’ and we were lucky enough to chat with Angeline and Josh of the band about all things music.

We could not be more excited for your upcoming show at Lion Arts Factory on Saturday Oct 1, what can people expect from the Telenova live experience?

JOSH: I remember when I was a kid Green Day got asked this question before their show in Wellington and Bille Joe Armstrong said “don’t expect anything and you wont be disappointed”. Even at the age of 12 I knew he was a bit of a wanker but it's kinda true right? However, in saying that we will put on the best show we possibly can for ya, we've put plenty of hours into making it the best we can so you can expect us to be wearing our do-your-best vests.

ANGE: Along with our best vests and the music side of things, we've also been putting a heap of hours and love into the visual show. Can't help but put those filmmaking skills to use in every aspect of this project. We're big on building a show that's a little bit magical and a little bit of escapism. So you can expect that. 

Your latest EP Stained Glass Love feels like the next evolutionary stage from your debut EP Tranquilize, with new sounds and ideas being explored while still retaining that dreamy, soaring quality we’ve come to expect from you. Can you tell us about the change between Stained Glass Love and your earlier bodies of work?

JOSH: I don't think we thought too much about changing the sound or anything, the main thing was we had been a band and spent more time together by the time we wrote the songs on the 2nd EP. The 1st song we wrote together on the 1st day we met was Tranquilize so obviously the sound is going to change after a few years and you get to understand each more and know how much further you can push things. First date is always gonna be a bit tame right?

ANGE: Sound-wise it wasn't necessarily something we thought about as a whole body of work. But definitely in the day-to-day songwriting, there'd be musical ideas we'd want to try that we hadn't before, so inevitably you end up with new sounds I guess. 'Stained Glass Love' is a super guitar heavy song, which definitely veers from the sort of sound on the first EP. We just wanted to keep adding more and trying more. So you end up with new. Lyrically I was personally going through a bit of a harder time during the lockdowns than the relative freedom we were living in during writing the first EP. So I think some of that pain and introspection comes through in the lyrics. 

What’s one thing you want listeners to take away from your music?

JOSH: I couldn't care less what people take away from our music, they can hate it, love it, be indifferent, if I WANT anything it's only gonna bum me out when it doesn't happen so I like to stay neutral when it comes to things like that. Personally I like to make sure everything is the best it can be, I don't like to brush over details or say 'that'll do' so I guess if there is anything people can take away it's that we made it to the best of our ability at that point in time.

ANGE: I think I want people to feel like they themselves have been 'taken away somewhere' when they listen to our music.  

There’s something about the music of Telenova that seems to perfectly articulate an emotion or an experience in a way that sounds like it’s coming from an experienced storyteller. Does all of your song writing come from personal experience or do you ever find yourself writing from other perspectives?

JOSH: Ange and I write the majority of the lyrics together so I think having two different peoples experiences to draw from helps to be able to cast the net wider and for the stories to come from different places. We always try to figure out what the story is about and once we define it the lyrics come a lot easier. There are a bunch of unique perspectives in the songs, different narrators and concepts but of course you are always going to intersperse them with your own experiences. I often think of Ange being the light and myself being the dark and where we meet in the middle is just right.

ANGE: What Josh said, exactly. I also come from a screenwriting/filmmaking background, so narrative form and storytelling structure and theory and building drama - all of that is kind of ingrained in my approach to any creative form. It definitely drives the songwriting for me.  

I recently read that you (Angeline) had previously pursued a career in film before the inception of Telenova. I’ve also seen Telenova’s music be described as “cinematic”, something I definitely feel myself, do you think having a background in film and visual media feeds into the music you’re putting out now? Can you tell me how these two worlds collide, if at all?

ANGE: They definitely collide! I honestly can't separate the two. It's a bit hard to describe, but I do feel like the exact same creative approach or creative muscles or tools from filmmaking are being used when I write songs. My approach to writing a song for me is about envisioning the scene, the mood and tone, the colours, the light and dark, the main character, the interior world and how that interacts with the space and people around them, the climax or pay-off. All of those story and directing elements are at play for me. Then of course there 's the obvious incorporation of my directing background in the creative direction of our live show, or our artwork and music videos.   

We’ll hit you with the age-old question, what’s next for Telenova?

JOSH: Debut record is the main objective at the moment, it's not too far off, we've got plenty of songs written so just need to figure out which ones work together. Ideally we would have a new record out every few years! Writing and touring forever, that's kinda what bands do so I guess it's gonna be plenty of that.

You can catch Telenova live at Lion Arts Factory this Saturday October 1, tickets on sale here.