Telescreen, the four-piece formerly known as Lucerne Cr., are finding themselves a tumultuous time. Realising they had outgrown their original vision, they announced a name change and dropped a new single Crowded to seal the deal.
We caught up with Nic, Dan, Ali and Matt to find out more about the new identity, what’s coming up on the calendar, and why they couldn’t say no to releasing their debut single on vinyl.
Fresh off a name change, Telescreen had plenty to prove on Crowded. After giving it a spin, we’re itching to know what they’ll come up with next.
HAPPY: Hey all, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
TELESCREEN: Hey, great thanks! Oh you know the usual, work, uni, eat, sleep.
HAPPY: First the elephant in the room – you’ve just changed your band name. Can you walk us through why you felt that was important?
TELESCREEN: Yeah of course. Lucerne Cr. was the perfect name for how we started out, just a bit of a garage band, mucking about and making shit music. But we didn’t really have much of a direction, there was no focal point for the music to go to. Then we played some shows and stuff and everything started to get a bit more serious and we kinda discovered the sort of direction and sound that we wanted to achieve, and so I guess we just decided that it was the right time to say goodbye to Lucerne Cr. and came up with Telescreen.
HAPPY: Tell us about the name. Where did it come from?
TELESCREEN: We pinched the name from the novel 1984. We were playing around with different references to new wave and the ’80s, and we liked the cool dystopian imagery that it evokes. It’s both futuristic and retro at the same time. Coming up with a band name is actual torture but when we landed on Telescreen it was unanimous.
HAPPY: You’ve just released your first single Crowded, which must have been nerve wracking after the change. Are you happy with the reaction so far?
TELESCREEN: Yeah we’re absolutely stoked with how it’s gone so far. We’ve gotten so much positive feedback from our friends and family and it’s just been so great. It’s a big relief that people like it, it’s always a bit nervy just sitting on something waiting to release it. You build it up in your head a lot. But yeah it’s been received really well and we’re keen to get more stuff out there now!
HAPPY: I love that wobble that starts around a minute in. Am I hearing a guitar or synth? Please enlighten me.
TELESCREEN: It’s a pair of guitars actually! Nic had that sound in the original demo and we just kinda threw it straight into the final mix. That was really how we approached the production for the track, trying to keep it as close to the demo as possible. There’s just something magical about those first recordings you know? It’s hard to explain but they’re endearing in a way, and if you can replicate that in the final mix if gives the track a really great edge. We think that’s the most important lesson we learned from working on this song!
HAPPY: The cover art is also pretty incredible. Who did you work with on that?
TELESCREEN: A wonderful human named Sam Ward did the art work for us, he’s a close friend of the band. He’s so easy to work with and obviously a really talented guy. We wanted to go with something that had retro vibes and was vibrant, and he absolutely nailed it. Such a legend.
HAPPY: Crowded is set to be released on a 7″. Can we expect similar things on Love Proud?
TELESCREEN: There’s some intended continuity between the tracks in terms of instrumentation but all in all they’re pretty different songs. Love Proud is definitely a bit wilder… When Nic first wrote it and recorded the demo it was almost done as a bit of a joke, but as we listened to it more we realised it actually wasn’t too bad of a song haha. It fits more into the new wave sound than Crowded does, so maybe that gives you a bit more of an idea of what it’ll be?
HAPPY: Why is releasing on vinyl important to you?
TELESCREEN: I think we all wanted something to actually hold on to. We’re all big music fans and having a physical copy of what we’ve made has us so excited. Its great how easy it is to access music nowadays with streaming and playlists, and that’s definitely how we crack on to a lot of new tunes, but there will always be something exciting and romantic about the inconvenience getting up to flip the album halfway through.
HAPPY: After you knock off the launch at The Workers, what’s the first thing you’ll be doing as a band?
TELESCREEN: Bottle of red probably.
HAPPY: Looking forward to it! Thanks for the chat.
TELESCREEN: Thanks! So are we!!
Catch Telescreen live at their Crowded single launch on May 23rd at The Workers Club in Melbourne. Details here.
Grab Crowded/Love Proud on vinyl here.
