Nul Telexes - Interview

by Darren Aston

published: 9 / 9 / 2020

Darren Aston chats to new Liverpool-based indie/guitar duo Nul Telexes about their self-titled debut EP.

Article

In this new normal in which live music is restricted to Zoom performances, what do we have to like forward too? Well, it appears that Covid has given musicians a creative opportunity to explore new projects and sounds. One such opportunity is Liverpool's Nul Telexes, two lifelong friends who have played together previously under the banners of People/Talk and Oh Well Goodbye. They have just released their eponymous three-song debut EP digitally on Edils Recordings, and will be following this with their debut album on Swiss Dark Nights early in 2021. I met up with Phil and Jay before we did a mini promo shoot to chat about Nul Telexes and the development of the project and its direction. PB: Thanks for agreeing to meet up and opportunity to discuss Nul Telexes.Can you tell me who does what in the band? PHIL: Yeah, that's an easy one as we are a small project. I play guitar and vocals. JAY: And I do the electronics, before we hand it all over to Mike and his magic machine. PB: So. Mike does the sound engineering, I see. Phil, your vocals are attracting a lot of positive comments. Do I hear 80's baritone influences? PHIL: Yes, I heard that. It's my natural singing voice, I guess I always suppressed it when I was singing before in People/Talk and Oh Well Good bye. PB: So, Jay, can you tell me where the name came from? JAY: Yes it was a code machine used in the war to transmit messages to the allied forces. It was a tex message device, PB: Thanks for that. Can we talk about the recording process for the EP? JAY: Sure, we both record our parts at home, then via the net, simply exchanging musical ideas and building the tracks. PHIL: I actually recorded my vocals in my bedroom. We only met up twice in the studio to refine and polish up the arrangement. Then it was over to Mike. PB: Well, the results are very impressive. Are you happy with the sound and the how well it has been received? PHIL: Yes, it's been a big surprise if we are honest,but that's such a bonus. PB: Equally your YouTube channel has been getting a great deal of attention. All three tracks have very strong imagery. How important was that too you? JAY: We feel our music has a landscape quality and we wanted to capture that with the videos. PHIL: We are really happy that we achieved that, especially with the track 'Streetlights Will Tend'. PB: I totally agree. Just one last question! How many songs did you work on before refining the three that made it onto the EP. PHIL: We concentrated on just the three tracks that made the EP. PB: That's an amazing return. I think Neil Armstrong would struggle to match that return with his 97% success rate with his camera strapped to his chest! Thank you. Photos by Darren Aston