Desert of Talking Shadows: ‘I thought, what if I wrote a character that could be in a Wes Anderson movie?’

Orange County, California rock band Desert of Talking Shadows have released their second full-length album, I Thought You Knew, chronicling nights dancing to Iggy Pop, encountering unscrupulous music promoters and being inspired by Wes Anderson.

The band comprises Mikey Qubti (vocals and guitar), Jack Thomas (bass), Detrick Forster (drums), and Kyle Vellanoweth (guitar). Thomas and Qubti met through a mutual friend: ‘I walked around in my class saying “Hey, I need a bass player”, this went on for about three weeks,’ Qubti said laughing. ‘We’ve played together now for seven years. Detrick, our drummer, we met him through our other drummer, James. He bowed out – he likes to jam rather than rehearse stuff – but he hit me up for Detrick and we wrote three or four songs in three hours.’ Their name is an amalgamation of two names they were considering, Desert of Mercy and Talking Shadows: ‘We like that our name sounds like you’re messed up in the desert, that you’re maybe hearing things,’ Qubti said to me last time we chatted.

He describes their latest album as ‘super eclectic and super diverse’: ‘I would say it melds hard rock, funk, soft rock, and a tiny bit of prog,’ he said. ‘Like with the song ‘Broken by Design’, it gets a little bit Mars Volta-y, you know? It’s really showing more of what we can do rather than what we’re more known for, which I thought was exciting this time around.’

‘Jack joined in by following the kick drum, building it rhythmically to where it’s creating a pressure that gets released’

‘The Wringer’ sets the tone for what to expect on the album, exploding with an incredibly hooky, fuzzy riff. It’s powered along by big vocals from Qubti and interesting, unusual chord progressions. ‘Funny enough, there’s not a single chord played by the guitar parts, except the bass in the choruses, they’re all singular notes kinda like Rage Against the Machine playing with the octaves of a note,’ he said. ‘The weird note choices are pretty much based in F# and go a half step up to G for the chorus once then back. The main ascending riff starts at F# and just keeps going up incrementally by half steps until you hit the B note. It actually started with a drum beat. We were jamming in rehearsal and my drummer, Detrick, started to make that funky beat, so what I did next was add that riff. It was super hard to play and sing that riff (laughs), so I gave the riff I wrote to Garrett, our guitar player that was on that album (he has since been replaced by Vellanoweth, who was part of their original line up). From there, Jack joined in following with the kick drum, building it rhythmically to where it’s creating a pressure that gets released. The ending of that song is one of my favourites with that little “da da” riff. It’s more of what we do but with a tiny bit of a twist, with the rhythm of it being so funky.’

It’s a raw, angry and emotive song that could easily be about being put through the wringer in a romantic relationship but which actually turns out to have a very different provenance. ‘That song came out of a festival promoter who kept promising to put us on but nothing happened,’ he said. ‘I was persistent – I was nice about it – but I was on her about it saying: “Hey, we would be great and this is what we could do” and she would keep saying that she’d book us but then she wouldn’t. This is how some people are in the industry. They’ll say one thing and do another. I’m not like that.’

I say that I have heard many similar stories and it’s a frustrating thing to hear in an industry not known for its scruples: ‘I think what would take it to stop is the bands themselves just kind of figuring out a way to go around those specific promoters,’ Qubti said. ‘As long as they’re still allowed to do what they’re allowed to do, they’ll keep doing it. Like in LA, we have the Whisky a Go Go club but you have to pay to play, you don’t get a single dime, and on top of that, they take a percentage of your merch. So not only are you paying them to play but they don’t have a built-in audience. It’s really that you’re bringing the people. It could cost you anywhere from 200 bucks to 500 bucks, depending on how many tickets they ask you to sell. We’ve played the Troubadour in LA, where I wanna say they took a small fair cut but we made good money and they didn’t take a cut of the merch at all. It was a much better experience overall.’

As the track goes: “There’s more than just one answer on how to kick a door wide open but I might need a refund for the method that I’ve chosen. ‘Cos life is predetermined, that’s something that I’m just learning. And you cannot defy me, when I show up in your mirror.”

‘What if I wrote a character that could be in a Wes Anderson movie?’

Other tracks on the album have a sunnier backstory, notably the brilliantly named ‘Samurai Crack’s Restauranté Review’: ‘I was watching a lot of Wes Anderson movies, I love his movies and the aesthetics of everything. So I thought, what if I wrote a character that could be in a Wes Anderson movie? And that’s what came out! At the very end of the rehearsal, I just started playing that kind of funny riff and we wrote the whole song in five to 10 minutes. I love that song because it’s still fun to play it live, I think it’s a fan favourite at this point.’

It’s easy to say why, the song paints such an intriguing picture: “The bourbon and seven can get you into heaven and the music always starts by eight. I was getting my kicks from parlour tricks, lightin’ ciggies on the chef’s hot plate. The owner is a man with a renaissance plan, they tend to call him Samurai Crack.
Bounce a quarter off the wall and if it stands tall, you can try to earn your mojo back.”

It explodes with a Prince-like riff and Qubti rapping before a heavy wall of guitars comes in. It’s incredibly cinematic and evocative and would sit well in a dramatic movie scene. ‘For the character, I wanted something like this guy that has a bar, a real divey bar, too,’ Qubti said laughing. ‘I wanted him to have a secret restaurant on the back where there’s a tiger, behind the tiger is the secret door. So you have to either know somebody or somehow get past the tiger to get into the main room. And like it says in one of the first lyrics, the music always starts at eight, and they spike your drinks. The bourbon and seven could take you to heaven, you know, the whole experience. So when you go in there, it’s really another whole world. They spike up in a good way, they put some kind of psychedelic in there or something (laughs). And then you’re kind of tripping and going: “Oh, this is crazy!”‘

I say I wish it existed and that it would be a cool place to hang out at the weekend and he grins: ‘I wish it existed, too! I’ve been to some cool speakeasies, so I imagine places like this would exist somewhere in the world – or on Mars!’ I ask him what the coolest speakeasy type place is that he’s been to: ‘There is one in New Mexico that is in this liquor store,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘You give them a password and you go in through the fridge – it really looks like a refrigerator. You open the refrigerator and there’s stairs. You go all the way down. I liked that place, it’s very small once you get inside. There was one in Fullerton, CA near where I live and play called The Tribune. It’s not there anymore but it was the best. It was this small room in an alleyway. You couldn’t really see what it was from the outside. I wish it was still there.’

‘Everything we have ever written is always true, either my life or something I’m seeing’

Friends of his have encountered even more elaborate ways to gain access to such venues: ‘Aidan and Nate, a couple of good friends of mine, went to a restaurant in New Orleans and asked there where was a good place to hang out. And they said: “Look, you’re going to give this password to this guy at this other shop”. It started like a wild goose chase. They had to go to four different places and have a piece of paper or something from a certain person (laughs) or ask for a specific person. At the end they got to the speakeasy, it was awesome! That’s one of my favourite things.’

‘Any Blvd’ is one of my favourite tracks on the album, hooking you with its Nirvana-like intro chord and massive “ooh ooh’s” in the chorus. It also turns out to be about the music industry. ‘Everything we have ever written is always true, either my life or something I’m seeing,’ he said. ‘There are a lot of people passing on us for certain things, they’re not seeing the hard work. How the industry is now, they just want you baked and ready to go. They don’t want to do the work to help facilitate the growth. I know we’re on our way, so I just wrote it into a song. It’s saying no matter where it is, on any boulevard in the world, we can do it.’

As the track kicks off: “In California they tried to own ya. Told you it was the only way. Down in Nevada 
they almost had ya. But they were stuck chasing yesterdays.”

I tell him that I love the guitar tone on ‘Any Blvd’ and I ask what guitars and pedals they’re using: ‘That song itself was influenced by The Beatles ‘Get Back’ but the tone was influenced by John Frusciante because I love the Chili Peppers,’ he said. ‘I was using a Strat through my Silver Jubilee Marshall. I’m just going straight through the Marshall on the dirty channel, using the volume knob to clean it up in the verses and then crank it for more gain on the lead parts at the end. So I’m literally going, guitar, cable, amp and getting the rest of the tone from my hands.’ 

There’s one guitar in particular that he would love to get his hands on: ‘If I had unlimited money, I would buy Slash’s “Jessica” Les Paul from him or John Frusciante’s red fiesta Jaguar. Those two are such iconic guitars and I’d respect the history behind them while still creating new history with them on my own recordings and shows,’ he said.

All of the songs on the album tell a distinct story, which is best encapsulated by ‘Canary’, a piano-led ballad about an incredible night out that involved ‘dancing on the roof to Iggy Pop’. The title references allowing yourself to be free and fly. ‘I love that song,’ he said happily. ‘All those lyrics are based on something that happened to me. I met this really sweet girl from New Mexico and she came here and she saw us at a gig that we played in Anaheim, it was big gig for Gibson guitars. We hung out after, and were dancing to Iggy Pop’s Post-Pop Depression (2016), it’s a little mix of Iggy and Queens of the Stone Age. It was just an awesome experience. So I wrote about it but I didn’t know really how I was going to do it. When I sat at the piano, I started to get the melody. That’s when I was like, okay, now it’s going to be a piano song.’

‘We did a couple of takes of that, when I heard it kind of sizzle on the top, like it’s breaking up, it sounds like it’s crying!’

However, around 2.30 minutes in, an enormous and unexpected squealey guitar solo marks a shift, taking the track somewhere else: ‘Live, I probably can’t get it to sound exactly like how I got it on the record,’ he said laughing. ‘Like when I go up high. That one for sure, I know is the DS-2. I just can’t remember if I was playing my Jaguar or my Strat. I remember that we did a couple of takes of that, when I heard it kind of sizzle on the top, like it’s breaking up, it sounds like it’s crying!’

As the track kicks off: “Dreams of New Mexico and all the things that I’ve been holding onto, it’s all but a dream, but that’s the price of being free. Glass eyes only see the past ‘cos reflections stay intact, and you were the only evidence, that I’ve ever had a heart.”

‘Canary’ was partially inspired by rock band Highly Suspect, who I say I haven’t heard of: ‘They’re pretty good. Their first two records were really popular and they’re still going strong right now. The second record is called The Boy Who Died and they have a song on there called ‘Chicago’ that kind of inspired ‘Canary’ because I wanted to try and write something similar but in my own version of my own life. When I write, I always try to come from a place of expression, especially with that song. I never sat down and said: “Oh, I need a hook or something”, I was more just trying to tell my story in the best way possible because I listen to so much music that does that really well, too. We were talking about The Libertines not too long ago, weren’t we? Those guys have got amazing songwriting through the way they tell stories as well. Their new album is fantastic. I listen to it on repeat a lot!’

Growing up, Qubti listened to singers such as Elvis and Michael Jackson courtesy of his mum, before finding Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses: ‘I looked up everything about what they did. Jack loves Primus (a Californian rock band) and Detrick loves Queens of the Stone Age – but he also loves Slipknot!’

‘I think Phil Lynott is one of the greatest and most underrated songwriters of all time’

If he could write a song with anyone dead or alive, Qubti picks Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott: ‘Kurt Cobain is my favourite but actually I don’t think Kurt would collaborate great. I’ve heard that he’s like me, he likes to keep all his babies to himself (laughs). I think Phil Lynott is one of the greatest and most underrated songwriters of all time. I just think the lyrics, the melodies, the guitar riffs and chords, the way he writes sounds like only him. The way that he phrases things, how he’ll make a specific rhyme within one bar. He’ll rhyme on one word or rhyme scheme almost three different times within a measure, most people would only do it once and I find that very unique and interesting.’

Qubti has a list of his favourites, which he starts to scroll through: ‘You know what? I think out of the living, Damon Albarn would be very interesting to write with. I actually have a song with my solo thing that I know one day I want to have him do a piano version with me, ‘cos I just think he would just fucking absolutely take it to another level. He loves to collaborate and he’s one of those people that just doesn’t give a shit and is authentically himself!’

If he could hear one track from the album on a TV show, he is torn: ‘Maybe I would say ‘Broken By Design’ because of the chorus. Or even the bridge, those sections would go over pretty well in some kind of drama show. ‘Canary’ would be really good as well. I think that would be fun to hear in some kind of love scene. They’re about to kiss and you start hearing the piano.’

Qubti has got to meet several of his musical heroes: ‘Robert DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots was really nice,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘He spent a lot of time with me and was really nice to me. Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses and Slash, those guys have been nice to me. I got to play a private show for Slash when I was 19 or 20, so maybe five years ago. When I first started singing, I joined his son London’s band. He’s a really good drummer and they needed a singer. I auditioned and I made it out of a ton of people. One day London said: “Oh, my dad is going to come to a rehearsal, he’s going to watch us play and give us some tips.” So we went and did the rehearsal. It was fantastic. He loved my voice and also my songwriting, he said that my lyrics are really good. I’ve always felt that where I shine really is the songs. I’ll never be Freddie Mercury, you know? But the good thing is there’s only one Freddie and there’s only one me (laughs). There’s only one of everybody and everyone should celebrate their individuality. I’m very proud of the songs on the record.’

Qubti has already worked with some legends, including the American musician and audio engineer Steve Albini, who died in May: ‘Upon meeting him (in 2022), within the first 10 minutes, he said I’d need a pen to write things down for him, so he goes “Are you ready to receive your pen?”, and I wasn’t quite sure what he meant! He then overhand chucks a pen at my face, almost stabbing my eye out (laughs). It barely missed me by like an inch to the left. It was all in jest but that’s when I knew was it was going to be a great session and it’s a moment I’ll always remember fondly of him.’

(Photo credit: Mike Ferrel of FerrelPhotography. )