Interview with Tally Spear

Tally Spear is am artist from the UK who is making great waves on the UK music scene. Having featured Tally for the first time back in December and having seen her play live in London, I thought it would be great to find out more about the 22 year old singer songwriter.

Hi Tally! We first featured you on Belles and Gals just before Christmas with your single ‘Days Like These’. Can you give us an insight into how the song came about? 

I wrote this song at home in my cabin (literally exactly how you see in the video!) and it’s about the frustrations and pressures we put on ourselves. For me, I sometimes feel a pressure to ‘write a new song today’ — and this pressure kind of blocks me creatively. At the same time, the song is about the fact that we all have thoughts and complications that we can’t or don’t want to share with others.

I was lucky enough to catch one of your live performances in London at the back end of last year. One of the words that I came away with was ‘energy’, which is not an easy ask for a singer songwriter armed with just a guitar. It’s clear you love playing live?

Wow, thank you! I’m really interested and glad that you took ‘energy’ away with you. For a long time I shied away from playing solo gigs – I got bad stage fright and felt like I was being judged. But it got to a stage where (excuse the pun) I either got over myself and went for it, or I just never played gigs anymore. So I just decided to transform the way I approached them and completely let go.

If you had to categorise your sound to somebody who hadn’t heard you before, how would you describe it?

Old-School-Inspired. A real mashup of genres. Pop and Folk meet country who then meet rock, a bit later on.

You have a new single coming out in the next couple of weeks. How exciting is it to have another release out there and what can you tell us about the release?

I’m really excited to share ‘Just Don’t Know’ on January 19th. It’s a real step forward for me as a songwriter, and you can hear a shift in the music since the sweeter sounding ‘Days Like These.’

I’m always intrigued about an artist’s song writing process. Do you have a set method?

I have no set method in writing. ‘Sit with the guitar and hope that something falls into place’ is my only method, really. Something will either come pretty naturally, or it won’t. If I sit trying for hours, there’s no chance.

Which artists have influenced you in your career and who are you listening to yourself?

I’ll be honest, at age 13 I was a huge Swift fan. I was playing all her tunes on guitar and dreaming of being the next TS, (yep those are my initials too.) But as I grew older, I started listening more to The Beatles and Bob Dylan and suddenly, I was a 60s and 70s obsessed, harmonica playing 17 year old. I listen now to everything from punk/rock to jazz and I take inspiration from all of these genres.

You seem very hands on! For example, you designed the cover for ‘Days Like These’ as well as directing and editing the video too. Have you always been this creative?

I’m no artist, but I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting since I was a kid. Creating things is really all I’ve ever done and wanted to do, whether it be a song, drawing, pottery (another childhood love.) The modern music industry is an absolute minefield, but it at least favours independence.

What has been the highlight of your music career so far?

Getting played on BBC Radio London’s introducing show twice in a month.

Tell us a random fact about yourself!

I’m not part of any sort of religion, but if I were, I’d be Pagan!

To finish, tell us about your plans in the early part of 2018!

Explore Dublin, play a few gigs (Sofar Sounds, Apples and Pears, London) release my new single ‘Just Don’t Know’ & play an Unsigned Music Award’s Horizon Session!