Land of Talk recently shared “Pwintiques,” the second single off their forthcoming new album Performances, due out October 13th via Saddle Creek. “Pwintiques,” a sprawling and enveloping seven-minute instrumental jam, arrives alongside a hypnotic, Twin Peaks-inspired visual directed by Ana-Maria Espino Trudel and premiering at FLOOD Magazine. “I’m so excited that this is a single,” says Lizzie Powell, who leads the Montreal-based outfit. “It originally started as a minute-long demo when I brought it to the studio. Rena [Kozak] and Laurie [Torres] really brought me out of my shell to expand it. I remember giving Laurie so many drum references like Fugazi, Tortoise, and Trans Am, and she kept on nailing it. Rena cut and edited some of these and built them into an epic whole. She made it into a gargantuan event. The last three minutes feature me and Laurie playing drums together. I loved all these bands when I was younger so this felt like a return or at least a tip of the hat to my teenage self. You can get lost along the way sometimes so it was nice to go back to my roots.”
Of the video, Ana-Maria Espino Trudel adds: “I’ve always loved the aesthetic of Twin Peaks, which is at once campy, creepy and scenic. I wanted to recreate some of these atmospheres by playing with colors, lighting and effects to create a sense of magic and otherworldliness. We were excited to get to riff on the idea of queering Twin Peaks with a nod to James and Donna played by Felicity DeCarle and her girlfriend Éléa Saunier. Lizzie’s enigmatic presence was a perfect counterweight to the cheesy love scene.”
Land of Talk reinvents themself on their fifth LP. Though Performances trades muscular guitar rock for understated piano, the self-produced album is still the most urgent and personal of Powell’s to date. Swooning lead single “Your Beautiful Self” earned support from Billboard (Cool New Pop Songs), NPR Music (NMF playlist), UPROXX (Best New Indie), Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Exclaim!, and more. Performances is available for pre-order here
“I realized right away that I was not feeling electric guitar for this album,” Powell says. “At first, I felt like something was wrong with me: Land of Talk is about guitars and me rocking out. But is that all I am? Can I get away with doing a Land of Talk record without a ton of electric guitar?” Instead of pandering to preconceived notions about their career so far, Powell decided to follow the muse and immerse themself into this new artistic lane. “I would write demos and think, ‘Oh, that doesn’t really kind of sound like Land of Talk,’” they say. “But then I realized that I’m Land of Talk.”
Performances is a defiant and resonant blow against expectations and outside pressure. It’s an LP showcasing an artist without constraints and allowing themself to be radically honest. “The album title is very literal,” says Powell. “I’m performing what’s in my brain but I’m tired of performing femininity for the music industry, femininity in my life, respectability, and vulnerability. I’m trying to grow out of these and break out of these roles in my life.”