In Conversation with Telenova’s Angeline Armstrong on their debut album: Time is a Flower

All photographs taken by the writer

“Cinema for your ears” is the slogan from Australian Indie band Telenova. Their music is a haunting, spiritual, cinematic experience which is brought forth through their expertly crafted songwriting. The group recently welcomed their debut album Time is a Flower, a celebration of Telenova’s explosive start into the music world. 

I had an opportunity to watch them live in London and sit down with lead singer Angeline Armstrong after their whirlwind European tour. We chatted about touring, their debut album, inspirations and what is next up for them.

The band is formed of lead singer Angeline Armstrong, Edward Quinn and Joshua Moriarty. With a background in filmmaking and instrumentalists, the trio met at the APRA AMCOS Song Hubs competition in Australia. With all members having such a diverse background, it's captivating to see how they work together so successfully.

Q: You three have such different backgrounds. Ed and Josh having a ­­production background and Ange you are being in film, how did this work out?

A: I think we got lucky that the chemistry and ingredients we brought as three different people worked out. It’s a lot like falling in love: you have a date with someone, come from three different worlds and there’s something that’s lacking the other person fills. When I met Ed and Josh at the music camp, I would be happy if these guys became my music buddies and we played at a pub in Melbourne once every few months. That would feed my soul.

Q: The last time you were in Europe you were opening. How does opening for an artist differ from your own headline tour?

A: Your own show feels like you’re celebrating the fact that you all love the music and enjoying it together. They’re enjoyable for different reasons and we also get to play massive stages during support slots. As a visual person I’m always imagining what the audience Is seeing. So, when I play little venues it's hard for me as I know the stage and visuals don’t look good and it frustrates me.

Q: I spoke to a fan at the show and they described Your music as haunting and captivating to listen to. How did you create this sort of sound?

A: I think Ed, Josh and I are at our most honest and vulnerable through our music. The haunting thing comes out because we’re honest about our internal worlds through our music. Most people live with inner demons and conflicts especially in Western contexts we cover it up.  We’re willing to wrestle with the conflict through our music, and that’s why it comes out. It's why our happy songs will be tinged with sadness. A song with sad lyrics will come with “boppy” beats. It begins in a place of honesty with the human soul and that’s why it comes out with this weird blend that’s haunting.

Q: And is this personal feeling really important when creating your music?

A: It is important, as an artist I have to back every lyric I write. There is one song I’ve written that is really fun, but I have no idea what it means and it haunts me. It’s called ’Lost in the Rush.’ It’s really fun to play, but the truth is, I’ve got no idea what it’s about. It was done on its own, written and recorded very quickly. And it was good for me as an artist to realise, but I wasn’t satisfied by that process. Even though people really love it live, I don’t think it’s as enduring as a song that’s really deeply rooted in real emotions. The boys would definitely disagree with me, but the feelings of ‘Lost in the Rush’ are representative of me.

Q: When you were promoting your album you cited Mitski, Lana, Tame Impala as key influences, how did this come to be?

A: I was a teenager when we still had iPods, so a lot of the music I’d listen to was given to me on a USB stick with a hundred songs. You’d spot the kids in my year group who were the coolest kids and ask, “hey what are you listening to”? And then they’ll say “I’ll make you a USB”. That was legit my music education, finding kids who were cool and downloading their music.

I think everyone’s favourite era of music is the one they grew up to as a teenager. Lana’s first album came out when I was just out of high school. It was also the big heyday of Indie bands like Vampire Weekend and Arcane Fire. They were all playing massive shows around the world. I wish Telenova existed in that era, because it was when this kind of music was mainstream.

Q: Ruffles are a common theme in the album, where did this come from?

A: Designers around the world have reminisced about ruffles from the romantic era ball gowns. When we were talking about themes of the album; sort of the music being haunting and an exploration of internal conflict and spirituality, these themes came from romantic era art, where the big ruffle sleeves and the fashion was ethereal and elaborate.

It happened during a time where people were rejecting the movement of the enlightenment. We went from a time where everyone believed in God, to when no one believed in God because science is the only thing real. Then the romantic period came along and shifted our thoughts. If we only believe in what we see, what about justice, love, beauty?

The art movement explored all of that. I feel really connected to that time, gothic romantic literature came out! There’s an expression of emotion and spirituality of things you can’t touch and see. And, ruffles came out then! They’re sort of angelic and fairy like style. It was very prominent during that time.

I thought about what’s the fashion style that’s going to be rooted in this album? Well there’s so much rooted in that era, how do I make elements from that era contemporary for the album and ruffles stood out for me.

Q: Who is ‘Margot’ on the latest single?

A: ‘Margot’ isn’t a single person. As a woman I can only speak for myself, but the world of comparison and envy and constantly thinking about other women who are better than you, prettier than you, and have it more together than you, especially in high school is super pertinent.

I was tapping into feelings of insecurity in high school where everyone is cliquey, and a girl is a few years older and more popular. You have this mix of wanting to be her and like her and wanting her to like you and be accepted. But sometimes you see behind the façade that his girl is also just as insecure as you are and looks at everyone else thinking they’re better than she is. It’s a thing we all share.

Q: What is this ‘Power’ you are seeking in this “darkest hour” in the song ‘Power’? I’ve always seen it as a romantic song.

A: I want to first preface this by saying, I think it’s cool because people can have a deep dive on our lyrics but I want people to create their own meaning and interpretation

Josh and I wrote these lyrics together and the “darkest hour” is from the “dark night of the soul” . It's something from one of the saints where you go through this intense period of darkness where you feel isolated and cut off from god. I think we all experience glimpses of this with anxiety and depression or through grief or loss.

It’s about being in a really dark time and nothing will ever be light again. The song is written from the perspective of the flower, everything  that gives you your source and light power has abandoned you.

For me and Josh it’s about a song about humanity crying out to the divine force, about why is everything so meaningless and painful? “Don’t abandon me because I need your power and life”. I’m a Christian and Josh is half in half out, but it means we have interesting conversations about faith and spirituality. Not a lot of people know this about Christians, there are a lot of romantic analogies on how God is a creator and love is his creation.

It makes sense that the song can be interpreted as romantic human love though.  

Q: Can you walk me through the recording process of the Album.

A: I feel like as an artist and a band we’re always ahead of our team, which is a bit frustrating but also positive because it means we’re always so energised to make stuff. ‘Temples’ along with ‘Margot’ and ‘Time is a Flower’ were all recorded ages ago with a guy called Chris Taylor from a band called Grizzly Bear. He’s from a big wave of 2000s indie bands. 

'Temples' was recorded with an Australian guy called Tony Buchen in Sydney. We actually recorded that with him before the rest of the album. It was a song that existed and always existed and there wasn’t an urgency to put it on the album.

Writing an album is so psychological, as artists in the future we can lie a bit saying we wrote this song last week even though they wrote it a year ago. 

Q: You mentioned on tour that you’re releasing a Deluxe in November, what can we expect on it?

A: We’re releasing an extended version! There’s going to be ‘Temples’ - it was always supposed to be on the album. But it’s the funny conversations that happen when there’s so many creative people, like “it’s too long” and “it's your first album” which meant it didn’t end up on the album. There’s a live track of ‘Margot’, which has a real energy and just hits different. It felt like a song which we wanted to give a different side of.

There’s another song which I’m going to speak in French because I speak French called ‘Discotheque inside my head’. Obviously, Discotheque is a French word meaning Club and the chorus came about because Josh and I were laughing about how we love the way the French word sounds. It’s one of the first sentences 13-year-old me learnt, like “Where is the club”? We thought it would be really fun to include that in the album!

And of course there will be some Telenoir remixes done by both Ed and Josh.

Telenova played at “The Lower Third” in London. We’re excited for the extended album and to hopefully see them return to London very soon. Follow them on Instagram @telenovaofficial

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Edited by Julia Curry - Music Editor