Interview: Non Talkers

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What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

Marco (M) – As I do not have anyone that is a musician or music related in my family, I never really considered to become a musician myself until late. I guess I always enjoyed singing along to songs that I liked but never really thought that I could play music as well. One of the most inspiring moments a had was to see a busker playing on the streets of Barcelona when I was about 20 years old. I thought by myself, how is it possible that someone that is an unknown artist and on his own can give me so much through a music performance? I want to be able to do the same. Later, when I was 24, I got invited by a friend of mine to start a band after he saw me singing in a contest. I took the idea profoundly serious but he not so much and as I was tired of depending on others to play for me to be able to sing, I have decided to learn the guitar. That was the changing decision for me as I could write songs and perform on my own. From then on it was a vicious circle and I knew that I could not live without playing music anymore. I am not a full-time musician at this moment, but music really defined the path I took in life, all decisions I have made were always grounded on music. It is extremely hard to imagine how my life would be without it. Evita (E) – I can relate to Marco about always singing along to songs that I liked. However, I never thought of becoming a singer until I met Marco.  We were already dating, and he never heard me singing before. At the time when we started living together I remember that he got so impressed when he first heard me singing at home that he invited me straight away to join him performing. If I wouldn’t have dated him I would probably never become a singer because I never thought I was good enough. 

What do you like to do when you’re not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

M – Almost everything daily influences my creativity which I channel into music. Besides concerts, I also like movies and photography. 

E – I like cooking and interior design because it brings another sort of creativity out of me.

How long has your band been around?

We started in 2014 with the name Brantner and with the recording of our latest EP “Pendulum of time” in 2019 we’ve decided to change the name to “Non Talkers”. 

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

We are based in a small town called Caminha in the north of Portugal. It is a very peaceful and beautiful place giving us plenty of inspiration to write music. The music scene in Portugal is not very big and it is mostly centralized in Lisbon which is a downside for us. 

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you.

As we do not have much of a social personality, we like to believe that we express ourselves better through music. 

Tell me about the best and worst shows you have played.

M - We had a couple of good shows and depending on the venue we enjoy exploring different ways to present our music, whether they are small venues where we play more acoustic with a trio or large stages where we perform with the full band. One of the worst shows we had was in one of our favorite theaters around the region where we live, as much excited as we were when we booked that gig as sick I got the day of the performance, so for me it was really a disappointment not being able to enjoy the performance and give my best to the audience and that passed on to the other band members and affected the overall performance.

Tell me about your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you haven't already? As we have mentioned before, we like to perform in different types of venues and formats as long as they have good sound conditions. we think there are too many places to mention here where we still would like to perform. 

If you could play any show with any lineup who would be on the ticket?

Honestly, we find this an impossible question to answer, there are so many artists we look up to and that we would be pleased to lineup with. We will name some of the artists we have been listening quite a lot lately: Jack Savoretti, The Lumineers, Roo Panes, Luke Sital-singh, Mumford and Sons, Kaleo, Kodaline.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band?

M - To join a band with some music influences in common, to stay humble and remember that playing in a band is a team effort. 

E – Try not to expect to much and always be true to yourself  

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

M - To not drop the piano lessons when I was 8 years old. 

E – I would not change anything because all the mistakes I’ve made in life made me the person I’m today. 

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why? 

“Pendulum of time” because it’s a song that makes you think that life is a journey which we can’t really control and passes way to fast. 

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

We really like to perform all of our songs. The most requested one is “Fire burning in my veins”

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

Most of the songs we have written so far started with a melody or a riff and after we thought of lyrics 

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

We like to get across messages that make people think about a certain matter or something more personal that the listeners can relate to. 

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

Wherever there is a group of people sharing opinions there will be disagreements. The most important is to talk about everything straight and with honesty, keeping things for ourselves is the worst recipe for any kind of relationship. We are quite lucky for not having super egos in our band and everyone is mature enough to be able to listen to the others and share their opinions without imposing them.  

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that's coming up?

Conquer the world (just kidding). We are working on our new album and we are overly excited about it as it is going to have a lot of songs that are very personal to us.