Interview with Desert of Talking Shadows: ‘A song should have a good melody, it should hit you in the face’

Orange County, California rock band Desert of Talking Shadows will bring out their second album Misato on 16 September.

The band comprises Mikey Qubti (vocals and guitar), Jack Thomas (bass), Detrick Forster (drums), and Garrett Mahler (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 3-4 songs in 3 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,’ he said. ‘We love bands like Queens of the Stone Age, we wanted a name that sounded a bit like that. We can be super heavy or lighter. We’ll be doing more ballads and we’ve just done our first piano song. I’m a big Nirvana fan, a song should have a good melody, it should hit you in the face (laughs).’

‘The album is a perfect circle over six songs‘

Misato – which is Japanese for “beautiful truth” – takes the listener on an emotional journey of highs and lows: ‘It’s a record that delves into many themes such as personal sacrifice in order to achieve success, the power and addiction of escapism, the self-realization of change, and many other emotions,’ Qubti said.

Last month, they released their single ‘Empty Hearts’, which marked their first single from the album and which explodes with an almost heavy metal-like riff which doesn’t slow down even when Qubti comes in on vocals. Around a minute in, there is a dramatic drop, after which the riffs become bluesier and more melodic, giving it the feel of an edgy Bond song: ‘That’s one of my favourite riffs to play, that drop is one of the best parts in the set,’ Qubti said. ‘People start headbanging, it’s the best! It was the fifth song that we wrote for the album but the arrangement was the hardest to write. We’re very proud of it, it’s very different to anything on the old record (Foreshadowing, 2021). This song sealed the album, it hits you so hard. The album is a perfect circle over six songs. It feels like an experience at the end. Everything we write about is the truth in our lives, things I’ve experienced or seen. The lyric “You call that love, I wouldn’t know. I’ll love myself one day, but ’til then, I’ll just let you do it for me, ’til you run out of it yourself” encapsulates the song. It’s about empty people looking for other empty people but nothing is getting filled. People have said the overall vibe/delivery of the song is very Rage Against The Machine but with more of an Arctic Monkeys feel to it, lyric-wise.’

Last year, Qubti started taking singing lessons in a bid to improve his technique: ‘After a show, my voice was in pain, I was using the wrong technique,’ he said. ‘I started seeing Dr. Perez – he worked with Chris Cornell – and he helped me so much. I don’t have to squeeze to get a note anymore. I’m more relaxed. I was strangling it before, it took me forever to get the high notes for ‘Waiting to Die’, now they’re much easier to sing.’

Typically, Qubti writes the lyrics, although he says there is also ‘a song down the line by Detrick’: ‘Everyone puts their part on it, it inspires me to see where other people are coming from,’ he said. ‘I’ll work on something in my room for a couple of days and if I love it, I’ll take it to them and they’ll make it better. Some songs are quick, others take forever (laughs). We tried everything on ‘Empty Hearts’, that was really fun. We wrote ‘Carousel’ in 20 minutes, Jack had this great riff we wrote it around. The song we wrote yesterday is inspired by Wes Anderson, I’ve been into his movies recently. A film can be a great influence.’

‘Once you know your own behaviour, you can understand the world better’

‘Carousel’, which is from their upcoming album, will be released as a single around mid-August: ‘It’s more vindictive, a little darker (laughs),’ he said. ‘It’s about what you do in your life when you realise that what you do affects other people. Once you know your own behaviour, you can understand the world better.’

Growing up, he 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!’

Qubti’s favourite track on the upcoming album turns out to be ‘Automated’: ‘My mom won’t stop raving about it,’ he said, looking really pleased. ‘There’s a minute 30 guitar solo at the end and the vocal performance came out just as I wanted. It’s more sombre sounding, Detrick kills it with the big beat. In the recording process, we wanted it to stand up to the drum sound on Nevermind by Nirvana. Nirvana toured over there a lot, didn’t they? I saw the reunion at CalJam with Krist (Novoselic), Dave (Grohl) and Pat (Smear) and the Deer Tick guy. Joan Jett did ‘Just Like Teen Spirit’ – she was so good! That’s the nearest we’re going to get to them!’ I say that their song ‘Waiting To Die’ has a real Nirvana feel to it, with its grungy, frenetic riffs and he’s delighted: ‘Maybe the melody makes you think of Nirvana,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It’s pretty close to a four-bar, kinda like ‘Empty Hearts’. The song is about some people in my town who feel they can’t do anything. I wanted to inspire people, to build them up.’

‘I like to get a bit poetic with the lyrics’

If Qubti could have a pint with any musician, dead or alive, he is quick to say Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott: ‘He’s become one of my biggest inspirations,’ he said. ‘I think I’m like him, I like to get a bit poetic with the lyrics. I like his personality, he was always joking and super humble. When I go to Ireland, I’m going to go and see his statue (in Dublin).’ He also turns out to be a huge fan of Freddie Mercury and we chat for a bit about how brilliant he was and discuss favourite Queen songs. He picks ‘Love Of My Life’. ‘His falsetto in it is insane,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I wish I’d been able to see him live. When we play, I base my performance on him. I say to myself “Am I Freddie right now or do I need to turn it up (laughs)?” If you see people talking and getting a beer, you’re not doing anything special but if they’re watching you and you get them to clap or sing something back to you in an instant on command, you know you’ve got them hooked. It goes straight to the heart. I saw J. Cole (a German-American rapper) live and some parts gave me the chills, the way the crowd was singing his songs back to him, screaming them out, even. That’s something to strive for.’

They’ve had some hilarious moments together, according to Qubti: ‘There are little things over the years like on of our first earlier shows when we played The Whisky a Go Go (a historic club in West Hollywood) and instead of putting our name ‘Desert of Talking Shadows’ on the marquee, they put the name of our single ‘Dead Fruit’ (laughs). It was very ridiculous but happens to a lot of bands. There’s also little moments in practice quite a lot; there was one movie moment where Detrick said some joke right as I was taking a sip of water and so I did a spit take, unfortunately for Jack, it was right as he walked back in the room and he had my water all over his face! Or another time, where our new guitarist Garrett wouldn’t stop playing his guitar mid-takes in rehearsal and so I turned his amp on standby and just as the sound was dying down, he played some sort of siren guitar thing and it sounded like a real ambulance driving down the street. We all were crying laughing, it was a great moment!’

(Top photo from left to right: Jack, Mikey, Detrick and Garrett.)