Since the release of Los Bitchos’ shimmering debut Let The Festivities Begin! in 2022, the quartet quickly became a firm favorite in the live music circuit. There’s a timelessness to their instrumentally-led arrangements which are reminiscent of the lost musical treasures procured by patient crate-diggers. Their second record, Talkie Talkie further explores and expands upon the kaleidoscopic and multi-faceted compositions that evoke the immediately irresistible rhythms and motifs from Turkish and Latin styles of playing and meld them with equally infectious disco and funk grooves. This collection of songs feel like a celebration; joy abounds in every guitar lick and drum pattern.

Northern Transmissions spoke with Los Bitchos’s lead guitarist Serra Petale and drummer Nic Crawshaw ahead of Talkie Talkie’s release via City Slang this Friday. They discuss their studio preparation, the importance of finding the right producer and what films serve as a perfect visual companion to their latest exuberant body of work.

Northern Transmissions: It’s always so fun to listen to Los Bitchos, your songs always brighten up any situation. You worked with Oli Barton-Wood for Talkie Talkie. How did that collaboration come together?

Serra Petale: His name was thrown out to us by a good friend of ours. We were looking for someone to work with because we had such a great experience working with Alex [Kapranos] with the first album so we wanted to make sure that we found the right fit and someone who was really enthusiastic to work on the music and help step things up a little bit. Our friend KP had mentioned a few names, like Wilma Archer, because I really, really like his work, as well, and then he mentioned this chap called Oli Barton-Wood. Then, maybe only a few days later, I guess he told Oli that we were looking for someone to work with and then we received this really, really lovely and very enthusiastic email from Oli being like, ‘Oh my gosh, I would love to do this!’

We were talking to a few different people at that time, so we just tried out a couple of songs with Oli at RAK Studios in London and it was pretty apparent from the first few hours of us being there that, you know, we realized that he was really the right type of person to get into it. You could just tell when someone’s really involved in the engineering and asking what type of snare you’re using, or should it be tuned to this? When someone takes that type of attention to detail with drums, I’m always like, ‘Yes, I
like that’.

NT: It must be quite a daunting or stressful part of the process to find the right producer to collaborate with. You want to find someone you feel comfortable with, will drive your sound further and also have a great level of care and attention to all the different elements to recording because this is your work and an expression of who you are collectively as a band because if someone doesn’t understand where you’re coming from and where you want to go it can be so detrimental to the final product.

Serra Petale: I’m actually sad to think about that!

Nic Crawshaw: Of course! When we all came away from the studio that first day, we were all just really excited. It’s such an important thing to have someone who gets what you’re going for but also has their own ideas, as well. And to work with someone who’s just really invested and also fun to work with and you feel comfortable with and you feel like you can try stuff out and if it doesn’t work, that’s fine. Yeah, I think we were really lucky with Oli.

NT: Talkie Talkie sounds so much brighter and bigger compared to some elements within your debut Let The Festivities Begin! There’s such an obvious assuredness in your playing across the new songs. Since your debut came out, you’ve toured a lot and there’s been such a buzz about Los Bitchos from fans online, especially about your live shows. I have to imagine that time and your relationships growing stronger and closer as a band, brought so much confidence to the recording sessions for the new material? What was your approach heading into the studio for album two?

Serra Petale: I think, mainly, we rehearsed a lot. Gathering from the debut record, we just knew that we ourselves had to be really, really tight playing the songs just as they were in the demo versions and maybe expecting some changes to pop-up. I think, as well, we’re all a lot more comfortable in the studio and we now know the process of how things will work. We definitely make sure that, you know, whatever happens, even if we’re layering stuff that Josie and Nic have done because they do a bulk of their recording together so that that’s really locked in. I, myself, was more confident going in to record this one from knowing how stuff works after making the debut.

Nic Crawshaw: Yeah, like you say, we played so much and we’ve done so much touring with the first record. So, I think we were all of course more confident and better at our instruments. With the first record, I’d never recorded in such a considered way before. I’d always played in punk bands that would go in and record an album in like a couple of hours! So, I think the first record was just such a learning curve and it was so fun and it was such an amazing experience and then coming into the second record it was, yeah, it was a little bit of knowing what to expect but also having the confidence that if something didn’t quite go how I wanted it to, or how I expected, or if someone was like, ‘Oh, that’s great but what about we try this?’. Or just generally being able to have ideas thrown at you and be able to react and respond without feeling like, ‘Oh, have I done something wrong?’ or being able to really embrace that process of just trying things. That for me, was a real difference with being in the studio this time around.

Serra Petale: I reckon songwriting-wise, as well, the ideas that we had, I mean the direction of production and songwriting generally was a lot stronger in Talkie Talkie. Whereas with the first record, you know, we were really just starting out and you record something and you have this idea of where you know you think it can go. But, this time around, I think we were better able to execute that and steer the ship more ourselves as well as having Oli to drive that for us, as well but I think the ideas were stronger and we were able to convey them in a stronger way, I’d say.

NT: I’m curious to hear about the development of the record’s themes and narrative structures guiding the arrangements. In the accompanying press materials, it mentions that Talkie Talkie is the name of a fictional club where your fans can get away from reality and dance. The songs are so vibrant and dynamic, can you tell me about the songwriting process; how much of it involves individual members coming to the studio with big chunks of arrangements figured out and demoed and how much, like what you were describing Nic of being in previous bands and spending studio time improvising for a couple of hours?

Serra Petale: We are extremely, extremely prepared! I don’t think I’ve really been in a studio situation…Oh, no, that’s a lie, I have a little bit but that’s maybe if I go into someone else’s session to play drums because I can just play some drums along to someone else’s track. I’d say the songs are pretty fully formed before we go in and that’s not to say that there can’t be little changes of beat or…

Nic Crawshaw: We have a pretty big plan.

Serra Petale: Yeah. I’d be pretty hesitant to be like, ‘You know what guys, just give me a couple of hours and let me just rewrite this chorus’.

Nic Crawshaw: We basically had a day per track of studio time as well to really lay down like 90% of it and then we added some little flourishes in Oli’s studio in Peckham after that. But, yeah, we really had just a day per track of time available to us so we had to be prepared.

Serra Petale: Although we did something like in the track “Kiki, You Complete Me”, remember Nic? Oli did a little structural change and there was that little bit that was improvised. So, there are those moments like that in the record, too.

Nic Crawshaw: Oh, definitely. I think when you go in really prepared with the base of each track, you then have that freedom to, later in the day, be like, ‘Should we try this or how about that?’

Serra Petale: Yeah, it gives you the confidence to be able to do that.

Nic Crawshaw: There were definitely, you know, there was drums in the studio that we would maybe even simplify or just work a bit more on the groove once we had all the sounds dialed in because it’s one thing rehearsing drums in a rehearsal studio but then when you’re in a proper recording studio and everything’s mic’d up and suddenly you can really hear what you can do with the sound and actually certain tracks lent themselves to playing a little bit with the groove. So yeah, there were little tweaks like that but like Serra said, when you go in confident with a plan of what you’re going to do, it allows you that freedom without having the pressure of, ‘Oh, but we’ve still got to finish writing this or working on that,’ hanging over you.

NT: Serra, I read that you said, “I love writing songs that people can interpret in different ways. It’s about creating a pace that lets people use their imaginations. To get lost in their own world.” I was wondering, between the four of you in the band, do you have a lot of conversations during the song development stage where you outline particular scenarios you want to encapsulate in the songs? Do you describe the visuals you have in mind for songs with each other? Or does the “let the imagination wander” ethos remain within the band?

Serra Petale: We definitely do that when we’re going into the studio. We like to do that, you know, set a little mood board for each song. That’s something we did with Oli. We definitely did it with Alex., too. I just imagine the opening credits to this 90s soap opera, which I definitely did for the song “Tango & Twirl” on Talkie Talkie, it reminds me of this 90s soap opera that I used to watch with my mom. I think that’s what happens just before we’re going in. Before that, you know, we’re playing and we’re seeing how it feels. We’re seeing if any sections don’t work, specifically. I think those types of motifs come naturally. Say with “Kiki, You Complete Me”, it was always like this comic book Batman intro, you know what I mean? Some stuff just comes really easily to you and then other stuff you might have a bit more of a think of what that song can actually mean or where you want to take it style wise or even production wise.

NT: That makes me think of the song “Talkie Talkie, Charlie Charlie” which has such an instantly cinematic sensibility to it. It really reminded me of the music in 80s crime films set in Hollywood like WIlliam Friedkin’s To Live And Die In L.A.

Serra Petale: Oh, wow. Sorry, I’m just looking this up now. William Defoe! Incredible. Neo-Noir film, I love that. All right, that’s on my list to watch!

NT: It’s amazing, you’ll love it. So much of Talkie Talkie is so incredibly cinematic and I would sometimes think that a fun thing to do while listening to it would be to have it soundtrack a film with the volume turned down on the tv. What film do you think would work really well as a visual for Talkie Talkie?

Nic Crawshaw: Oh, that’s such a good question! I think I’m going to go with something from either the ‘80s or ‘90s.

Serra Petale: I’m going to go with Weird Science. Remember that one? Where two teenage boys make this extremely hot model from a computer. The soundtrack to that film is absolute fire, as well! I mean, the film itself has probably not aged very well, but I enjoy it. The nostalgia of it! Yes, exactly.

Nic Crawshaw: Oh, God, I don’t know. I think because the album feels quite nostalgic, I’m going back to my childhood. I’m almost thinking of like The Witches or something like that!

Serra Petale: You know what, a mix between that and The Never Ending Story works.

Nic Crawshaw: Yeah, or something like set in a high school like Heathers, or something like that.

NT: I know that the ‘80s was a huge inspiration for the record. I believe you were fascinated by the various techniques and the marriage of digital and analog during that era in the studio. Did that infiltrate your own approach and process and recording?

Serra Petale: I think so because you know what kind of sound you want to make. And I think a lot of the 80s sounds, they’re so quintessential to that time. When you hear a track, you pick out the gated snare reverb, big toms, big sounds, maybe even like a drum machine going or something like that. I think that stuff definitely lends itself to that era, which is why the music from that era is like it’s so defined. I think it’s my favorite decade for music.

Nic Crawshaw: In terms of that analog-digital thing, it was nice to include all these kinds of electronic sounds but also still do a lot of the percussion stuff quite over the top. So, for example, at one point me and Serra were just hitting, there were these like wooden dividers in the room, and we were just hitting them with drumsticks at one point, the two of us and just bringing it even back down to really simple things like that. It was that chance of getting to blend everything together.

Serra Petale: Yeah, because we didn’t just want to make an 80s throwback album. That was never our intention. We drew inspiration from that era because, you know, the synth sounds from the 80s are my favorite. I think they sound amazing. Not to say I don’t like a little 90s techno synth, too, but we drew so much inspiration from that era. As Nic said, because we’re blending so much stuff in and, you know, it’s a recording from now, you’re inevitably going to get some sort of new version of that. I think that’s really interesting. It makes it interesting to listen to rather than being like, ‘I remember hearing this like 40 years ago’.

NT: Finally, what songs from Talkie Talkie are you most excited to play for people when you take the record on tour?

Nic Crawshaw: There’s a track called “Let Me Cook You”, which we’ve been playing live, I think we’ve done it like four or five times now. That is a really great one to play, it’s really fun live. It’s a really kind of driving disco track, everything’s just kind of popping off. Yeah, really looking forward to touring with that one.

Serra Petale: I’m looking forward to “It’s About Time”, a jazzy little number that we have.

Nic Crawshaw: Oh, “Open the Bunny, Wasting My Time” I’m looking forward to trying that one out live, as well.

Serra Petale: Yeah! All of them! They’re fabulous.

Nic Crawshaw: It’s just so nice to have all this new stuff to play!

Pre-order Talkie Talkie by Los Bitchos HERE