FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

TÃLÃ Gets Mystical in the Saharan Desert in Her New Video For "Alchemy"

The Iranian/English producer teams up with Kate Moross for some mad visuals.

From the written words of Richard Farina to the wandering scenes of Jodorowsky's El Topo - and even in the modern mystic photography of Neil Krug - the bleak and elemental vastness of a desert has always fascinated artists across the disciplines.

It's the subject of our latest video premiere from Iranian/English producer TÃLÃ who journeyed out there with London artist Kate Moross in search of a visual accompaniment to her latest single "Alchemy". And, as you can see above, the results are pretty awesome.

Advertisement

The music is another deep step into the cavournous, Eastern inspired electronic sound that she so carefully nurtured on The Duchess EP, and this new track "Alchemy" arrives as her heaviest yet: a spiritual and bass-heavy, Arabian brushed banger. So, with this premiere signalling the imminent release of some new tunes, we caught up with TÃLÃ to talk about this new track and the making of the video.

Noisey: This video is amazing. How was it to film?
TÃLÃ: It was amazing. I think all of us involved in it - when we were shooting out there - found it so amazing. You don’t realise until you’re filming out there that Morocco has so many vast and crazy landscapes.

Was the idea a collaborative effort between yourself and Kate Moross?
Yes, we swapped ideas. I always had the feeling that it should be in the desert. I felt like it just needed to be there. I didn’t care how we made it work, I just knew we had to go to the desert. So, we had some ideas. Do you know the film The Cell (trailer below)? It’s a bad, Jennifer Lopez, sci-fi movie. But the visuals are kind of amazing. It’s proper trippy and surreal looking, so we had that as some of the inspiration. That, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Did anyone initially try to stop you from doing it in Morocco?
Yes, but I was really adamant I wanted to do it there. We did look at other locations, but me and Kate had our hearts set on going to Morocco. She had never been at all, and I’d never been to the Merzouga desert. So, for all of us it was going to be a new experience.

Advertisement

How has the writing of this forthcoming EP been?
I feel like it is evolving naturally in a way that I don’t need to think about too much. When I look at the two EPs, it is definitely growing. There is a similar pool of influences, but I’m interested to see where this sound can progress to. Before the first EP, I was still wary whether people would like it, and I lacked confidence. You get that thing where you’ve had music on your computer for so long, and you know you like it, but will anyone else? Putting it out into the world and letting it go is a scary thing. Doing that and feeling good about it really helped with writing the new stuff.

What were you trying to achieve on this particular song?
At the time, I had made an instrumental idea. I had been listening a lot to the call to prayer - the arabic scales. And the different scales they use. I put some melody ideas down to it, and I thought it would be nice to try and use the scale to freestyle something in that key. It was weird because it was a spontaneous thing. On that chorus section of the song, I just pressed record and went absolutely crazy for like twenty minutes. I was just on loop and trying things, and when it sounded right someone was like “that’s good! do that again!”

That must have looked quite strange…
It was a really weird experience. You had to almost forget you’re in a studio, otherwise you feel stupid. I imagined myself in a desert, or on a cliff. Somewhere elemental. I had to take myself out of that reality. Once that bit came, I knew I was onto something. That became the bones for what came next, and building the rest was quite easy. It was a spontaneous moment that helped everything gel together. I also like that it had no words or a proper chorus to it. It’s something you just feel. It isn’t really saying anything. It takes away the boundary of the normal rules about having choruses. I like breaking those boundaries, especially in pop songs.

How are you going to do that live?
We shall see! I’ll imagine myself in the desert. The live show is literally what I’m doing day in day out at the moment. All I will say for now is that it is just me. I am a one man band.

TÃLÃ's new EP is released via Aesop on November 17th. You can pre-order here.