Pretty Talks Hurt Me

Capturing and celebrating all things bittersweet and beautiful in the world, glistening alt pop trio PRETTY TALKS return with an immersive and intensely engaging new single Hurt Me, officially out today. Showcasing a relationship breakdown soundtracked by glossy pop and retro synths, Hurt Me is also today accompanied by a raw music video that traverses youthful romance and the many harsh realities that can come with the territory, while also drawing inspiration from early 2000s and 2010s pop culture for good measure.

 

An emphatic follow up to the band's lush debut track Need You, which dropped earlier this year, Hurt Me finds PRETTY TALKS welding nostalgia and modernity deep amongst lashings of shimmering and dramatic, angsty pop. Drawing influences from the likes of MUNA, 5 Seconds of Summer and The Band Camino on their latest release, Hurt Me is an intimate, soul-searching gem full of driving basslines, airy reprieves and silken vocals that simultaneously appears affable on its sonic surface while diving into self-exploration and the agonising moments of a relationship gone awry, as the band explain, "Hurt Me is a snapshot of a relationship in its most tumultuous moments, a relationship breaking down, where neither person is necessarily at fault. The outcome being that one person decides to put everything on the line whilst the other has already mentally checked out. It's that feeling of "I know we've both made mistakes in this, but let's give it one last chance". It's also about the moments of weakness; when you realise it's not evolving in a positive way and you wish you could pretend it was just how it used to be".

 

Produced by fellow musician and close friend Blake Wares, aka Central Coast singer-songwriter and producer lovemedo, and mastered by Jamie Muscat, Hurt Me is a gleaming and genuine snapshot of the highs and lows of young love; a fact brought vividly to life by the track's accompanying music video. With The Million frontman Jacob Thomas on board as director of photography and cameraman for Hurt Me's brooding music video, Hurt Me was filmed in and around PRETTY TALKS bassist Hadi Ansell and drummer and backing vocalist Tommy O'Brien's previous place in Sydney's inner West, with the location entirely gutted and reshaped to suit the band's ultimate creative vision. And aptly capitalising on vocalist and guitarist Liam Deans' interest in filmmaking and screenwriting, PRETTY TALKS also enlisted friends and actors Anna Baumgartner and Aaron Gee-Gamkreildze to bring the compelling clip to life. Liam reveals, "The Hurt Me music video is aesthetically inspired by the English television show Skins, combined with an early-2010's Tumblr-esque Pinterest board. An emotional, volatile and messy relationship paired with a dirty, youthful abandon. It felt like an honest and real song to write and a beautiful thing to create on film. I scripted, storyboarded, directed and edited the music video, so it was great seeing all my tiny little concepts slowly come to life. We endeavour to build a world around our art and band, so we played with the ideas of hiding Easter eggs and band member cameos throughout this clip, adding another layer of meaning in which we are part of this universe that we build our songs in".

Bringing together a close-knit group of friends-turned-housemates, the PRETTY TALKS origin story itself stems back to the guys meeting at The Australian Institute of Music. What began as a group assignment with Liam and Tommy soon evolved into meetings at university bars, bonding over shared musical tastes and, ultimately, the trio's shared desire to craft music to strike people's emotions and challenge the way listeners perceive life and the world around them. Now firmly dedicated to developing a culture and community of art and self-expression into every inch of their creative output, PRETTY TALKS have arrived in 2022 ready to divulge their soul-searching tunes written and recorded pre-pandemic, wielding their darkly beautiful aesthetic and striking lyricism. With another single waiting in the wings to release in the not-too-distant future, PRETTY TALKS continue to enamour with their bright and eloquent wares, and Hurt Me is a sublime second glance into the band's ever-growing authentic universe. As Liam accurately concludes, "From writing, producing and recording the song, to developing, writing, shooting, editing the music video, it all feels like a joyful sigh of relief. It feels like we've created a real piece of well-rounded art with Hurt Me. Something that conveys the story in the gritty romantic aesthetic that we wanted".   

 

HURT ME is out today

 

 

Pretty Talks Interview

How would you describe your music?

The PRETTY TALKS sound is a collection of bright, shimmery pop production over honest, self-reflective lyrics without a fear of going a little bit grittier in aspects. We love the mix between a polished pop tune and a grimy hard punk song so we like to blur the line between the two sometimes.

Can you tell us about your single Hurt Me?

It was kind of our first venture into introducing pop elements to our music. We worked hard with our close friend Blake Wares (lovemedo) to create a modern, glossy pop track whilst still retaining our focus on emotive lyricism that draws on our own personal experiences. The song at its core is about a relationship in free-fall where no one has done anything wrong but one person is already starting to tune out.

Is there a particular message you hope listeners take from your music?

You know, I don't think we've landed on a particular message to spread yet - we definitely have some songs in the pipeline that deal with a lot of heavier lyrical content and its nice to be able to flex that muscle and intertwine real life events where we feel compelled to take a stand so for now our message is just dance, love everyone and go see a local band.

How has a person or place influenced your music?

Sydney has been imperative to our writing. We feel like it's a bit of a hot thing to say that Sydney does not have a music scene but when you're in the scene, you know of a local band playing every night. Whether its rock, pop, jazz or hip-hop there's shows happening, you just need to find them. And the tight circles we've formed with people in the scene have definitely influenced us, we love collaborating with other Sydney artists when writing.

Which is your favourite song to perform live and why?

We used to perform our next single coming out later in the year in our earlier iteration of this project so I would say that was definitely our favorite song to perform - and the fact that we've carried that tune over and given it a Pretty Talks spin, that's got to be the favorite

If you could have anyone, in the world, attend a show, who would it be?

Quincy Jones

What motivates you most when writing music?

The fact that we all live together and are able to constantly write and play around with things in the comfort of our home has been a huge advantage for us.

Which music/artists are you currently listening to?

A whole bunch of stuff at the moment, we're really loving The Millions new single as well as our good friend JNR.'s new single "A friend" but in terms of mainstream artists there's a lot of Rina Sawayama, MUNA and Beabadoobie in the mix.

How does it feel to hear your song played all over the airwaves?

It's a pretty humbling experience to have anyone listen to our music and we've really appreciated the support and interest we've been receiving.

Was there a moment you contemplated throwing in the towel?

All three of us have been pursuing music for so long that I don't think we've ever really thought about giving up on it at any point. So being able to create these songs together has really helped galvanize our belief in what we're doing.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success?

Right now, with the way the industry is structured, it can be tough for new musicians to get their stuff out there in a way that it reaches the right people, but we're learning how to navigate this as best we can.

What advice do you have for aspiring songwriters or artists?

Get your music out there. It can sometimes feel like it's never quite the right time to release something, but until you let your songs stand on their own feet you'll never be able to move forward.

What's next, for you?

We're really focused on releasing the singles that we have ready to go right now, just making sure we're consistently putting music out there. We're also starting to work on creating an engaging, audio-visual experience for our live show, so expect to see us start to gig in 2023!

Can you share your socials? (links please)

INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/prettytalksband/

YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX2zbuKFiVo6fjhyv9kdXaw

TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@prettytalksband

FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/prettytalksband