It took only seconds of strumming and dreamy, dulcet singing for Dreimanis to realize he’d met his muse. He sat listening, dumfounded, dreaming up ideas for what could come to be between the two of them. Clear-headed the next day, he started his search for the stranger from the bar with whom he seemingly shared a soul. He found her; they founded July Talk.
The basic structural facts of rock band July Talk are this: two front people, Leah Fay Goldstein and Peter Dreimanis, surrounded by whiplashing guitarists Ian Docherty and [[bandmember from=2012]Josh Warburton, and double drummers Danny Miles and Dani Nash. For this compulsively DIY, rigorously self-realizing group, the essence of July Talk has always been the tension between precision and chaos.
Audiences need not ask what July Talk’s two writhing frontpeople’s relationship is to each other, but rather what their relationship is to their audience, and to the world. These bodies welcome our gaze, they revel and recoil in it while they furiously push back, asking of us what they ask of each other: please see me for who I am. If we see July Talk as a woman and a man, in opposition to one another, what we are seeing is our own projections upon these bodies.
What goes on between these bodies, all of them, that kinetic, staticky, sticky space, is where the truth of July Talk takes shape. On stage, July Talk unfurls and explodes. July Talk is known by their success at radio and their unmatched live show. Both of these things are true, but neither tells the complete story.
As video directors, their meticulous and masterful visual work has created an entirely unique aesthetic, and propelled them into collaborations with other artists, including Tanya Tagaq, Born Ruffians and Jasmyn. Their pandemic drive-in show presented an emphatic vision of creative direction, with balletic live projections opening new possibilities for coming performances. July Talk’s quieter triumphs, growing in their roles as advocates for industry change and defining their own parameters for safer, decolonized spaces at rock shows with their Love Lives Here posters, now translated into twelve languages, are as important to the band’s identity and humanity.
We can hear July Talk as the contrast of two voices that interject, operate and overlap around one another. We’re not wrong, but it’s not the full story. July Talk is a decade-long dialogue between two people; it is also a continuous conversation with older generations, previous selves, collaborators.
Even in the stark orderliness of black and white, July Talk has always been a work in progress. More accurately, it’s a work of progress, a communal pursuit of limitlessness as a mode of being. For a decade, July Talk has continued in its relentless project to know itself, through its whiskey-soaked blues rock roots on its self-titles debut EP, the 2016 dance-rock infused Touch and its contemplation of connection, or the quietly reflective eyes of their 2020 release Pray For It.
With their forthcoming 2023 album Remember Never Before, the most potently yet inventively “July Talk” album yet, the band returns – changed – to where they began.
Don’t Call Home
July Talk Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Skipping rolling papers
Angel, get inside
This is what you were made for
This town is a broken one
Save the gun for our son
To brave this course of mine
Angel, lock the door
Crawl across the floor
This town is a dirty crime
Don't call home unless it's time
To brave this course of mine
To brave this course of mine
(You know, you know you've gotta)
To brave this course of mine
(You know, you know you've gotta)
To brave this course of mine
(You know, you know you've gotta)
Brave this course of life
You gotta read the bible
Sell for survival
Your mother's angry
Your father's gone
Just be an angel
Drive men crazy
Your vision's hazy
Get on this stage and
To brave this course of mine
(You know, you know you've gotta)
To brave this course of mine
(You know, you know you've gotta)
To brave this course of mine
(You know, you know you've gotta)
Brave this course of life
The song "Don't Call Home" by July Talk is an intense and heavy piece that speaks about a lot of dark themes. The first verse starts with "Angel, take a ride, skipping rolling papers, Angel, get inside, this is what you were made for." The term "angel" could be interpreted as a reference to someone who is pure, kind and good-hearted, who is being asked to leave their innocence behind and accept the harshness of life. The lines "Skipping rolling papers" and "get inside" could suggest that someone is indulging in drugs to escape their harsh reality.
The chorus of the song repeats the line "This town is a dirty crime, don't call home unless its time, to brave this course of mine." Which means that the town is a dangerous place and that the singer of the song is trying to warn someone not to call home unless it is necessary because the course of life that they are choosing is not an easy one. The line "save the gun for our son" could mean that the singer is trying to dissuade someone from using violence to solve their problems.
The second verse talks about the struggles of survival and the singer's family. The lyrics describe that someone's mother is angry, and their father is gone, which suggests that the singer is trying to use the hardships of their family to encourage an individual in the song to fight through life. The lines "Just be an angel, Drive men crazy, your vision's hazy, get on this stage" could be interpreted as the singer encouraging the individual to use their charm and beauty to lure people while they try to find a way out of this difficult course.
Line by Line Meaning
Angel, take a ride
Hop on board and join me
Skipping rolling papers
Leave your troubles behind
Angel, get inside
Come on in, you deserve this
This is what you were made for
You were born to be here with me
This town is a broken one
The place where we live is in a bad state
Save the gun for our son
Protect what belongs to us
To brave this course of mine
We need to face this challenge together
Angel, lock the door
Secure yourself
Crawl across the floor
Be cautious while moving forward
This town is a dirty crime
Our home is not a safe place
Don’t call home unless it’s time
Only reach out if it’s necessary
Brave this course of life
We need to be strong to face what life throws at us
You gotta read the Bible
Take guidance from spiritual teachings
Sell for survival
Sacrifice to stay alive
Your mother’s angry
Your family has its own problems
Your father’s gone
Your family’s structure is unstable
Just be an angel
Continue to be graceful and innocent
Drive men crazy
Use your charm to your advantage
Your vision’s hazy
You’re struggling to see the future
Get on this stage and
Show the world what you’re made of
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Ian Docherty, Peter Goyette Dreimanis, Leah Fay Goldstein, Eamon Michael Mcgrath, Daniel P Miles, Josh Earl Warburton
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Julian Schmidt
on Push + Pull
This is my first song I really caught on to balance because until I got here I already had thoughts but then push and pull drove it home we always do opposite things and as the lyric goes I don't want to wait and I take to much that is just saying so if we split day and night and you like the night all night you take but all day you would have to give back to even it out but when would you sleep? And you don't want to wait either so your scale shifts to causing more harm than you can balance. Nightlife and drugs and booze is just how they explain it because they and well I relate to this concept
Julian Schmidt
on Paper Girl
Well super complicated as usual love them for the music but this is my interpretation he's saying that he realizes he's an extreme person and also that he uses women by lying and hurting them by abuse not physical but abuse is abuse hence the chorus. Now she sings the chorus solo first time more as a warning and info to women cuz if you notice his next line is oh it must be hard to be a pretty girl is dipped in sarcasm. Then ya it's hard to be a girl in society to constantly require good looks and ageing is inevitable. In 3 lines he reflects upon his usury of female insecurity to how it's society that's really damaging women and really like it or not you can't blame males for being like that because it just is the way now that males have an easier time being abusive. I could go more in depth as to society but I digress only thing I want to point out that he's not saying it's not his fault in fact he's being sarcastic to serious so fast to show that's just what it is because blaming humanity is the reality but c'mon that's still why people do blame things we can't affect to not take responsibility so he isn't sorry he's trying to teach that he realized it and is saying by keep away from me that he is bad but doesn't want to be. I'll not make this too much longer but the correlation to money and secrets in your morning drink is that it comforts you in a small dose and you actually want secrets as a addiction just really you moderate it and then it would benefit your desire for those things. However like I mentioned earlier he is an extreme person so if you can't handle his dose of secrets and money which is just a metaphor for potential as money allows us to get things for wrong or right. Her singing along at certain times and solo at times makes sense of you think of the song as it is all about him and she is there to support the lessons involved, and less deeply she's got a great voice plus they always sing together so when you create a song that's using abuse from the male side, well then it being a punk song and her not coming off hurt and whiny I ask you how would you compose it? Love every song by July talks though they all mean alot, if youve read this to the end I'll add one thought all their music leads back to how balance is what the world needs and humans can't do it so we achieve balance by hurting and helping, working hard then being lazy etc. We can't balance all the time so we balance by doing more of one than making up for it. That's you can figure out why human race is destroying the planet because gluttony and luxury are too hard for us to balance out with sacrifice and hardship. If humans were neutral be only way but we are to intelligent and we'd get bored, once survival wasn't important every second of every day that was the beginning of the end
Cheers, Jules Schmidt