"Summerlin" feels like a euphoric release of all of your pent up emotions.
As soon as talker stars to sing you can feel the weight of all these emotions related to a specific place. The way a breakup can haunt physical space and objects is something anyone with a broken heart can attest to. People you care for create associations with things and places you may not have noticed while you were together. It is this bitter vulnerable and helpless experience.
"Five days after an insanely painful breakup, I ended up in my ex’s hometown of Summerlin. Somehow in multiple years of dating, I hadn’t been there before. Even though I had no memories of the place associated with him, everything reminded me of him. Every neighborhood I passed, I wondered if that had been where he grew up. Every restaurant or store, I wondered if he had been there. I was with my friend Lauren at the time, and as soon as we got back to LA, we wrote the song that night in less than an hour. I still have the voice memo from that night where I can’t get through the song without crying."
talker is the indie rock project of Los Angeles-based Celeste Tauchar – or as she calls it, “emo indie rock with glitter all over it”. The name is a nod to her last name, notorious in her family for being misspelled and mispronounced.
Starting out touring and playing for other bands including electro-pop group FRENSHIP, Tauchar quickly gained extensive performance experience at venues and festivals like Red Rocks, The Bowery Ballroom (NYC), The El Rey Theatre (LA), Lollapalooza, and Outside Lands.
After years of touring with Frenship and developing her own artistry, Tauchar began independently releasing music under the name “talker”, which received attention from such notable outlets as Alternative Press, The A.V. Club, NPR Music, Grimy Goods, Buzzbands LA, We Found New Music, and more. Her first singles charted on HypeMachine and were featured on Spotify editorial playlists, all while being independently released and promoted by talker.
After the release of her first EP “Horror Films”, talker began playing frequently across LA and beyond. Deeply rooted in the Los Angeles indie scene, talker has headlined the Hi Hat, the Bootleg Theater, the Moroccan Lounge, and others, and has performed at countless other notable venues including the Roxy and the Echo. In 2018 she toured opening for Yoke Lore, and has opened for notable artists in LA including retro rocker Hannah Wicklund & the Steppin' Stones. In January 2020, she embarked on her first co-headlining tour up the West Coast, performing at venues including San Francisco’s Neck of the Woods and the iconic Crocodile in Seattle.
talker’s second EP “Wax” was released by Common Ground Records in March 2020. Coming out just in time with a few days to spare before the California lockdown began, talker celebrated the release with a set at LA’s beloved Emo Nite at the Echoplex. The A.V. Club named the track "Suck Up" "an absolute riot—Tauchar cinches up her verses so tight that her spring into the chorus is nothing short of ecstatic."
In March 2021, talker released a collaboration with Crooked Teeth called “Light Me Up” that premiered on the World Famous KROQ and charted at #2 on KROQ Locals Only, as well as the Top 20 on the U.S. Submodern radio charts.
Throughout the 2020 lockdown, talker locked herself in the studio with her collaborator & producer Dan Sadin to work on new music, starting with the single "Sad Chick". The song is about the absurdities of our depression and how sometimes it can feel so melodramatic, even if it’s how we feel. The song is a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek acceptance of that reality, saying no, I haven’t changed my clothes in three days. No, I can’t find my keys and haven’t left my house in a while. But it’s also a song of liberation - it’s absolutely okay to feel like this sometimes and just accept things as they are.
