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 explores the struggles of someone living in a broken and crime-ridden town who has learned to survive by selling themselves and their beliefs. The lyrics refer to an angel who is encouraged to take a ride and crawl across the floor, possibly to avoid detection or danger. The singer tells the angel not to call home unless absolutely necessary, indicating that they are living a dangerous life and that calling home could put their loved ones in danger.
The lyrics also touch on the singer's inner turmoil and the difficult choices they must make to survive, such as reading the bible and selling their beliefs. They recount how their mother is angry and their father is gone, highlighting the loneliness and sadness that often accompanies such a life. Despite the struggle, the singer encourages the angel to get on stage and brave this course of life, suggesting that music and entertainment are a way to escape from the difficult reality of their daily lives.
Overall, the song paints a bleak and sometimes violent picture of life in a broken town, but also highlights the resilience and perseverance of those who live there.
Line by Line Meaning
Angel, take a ride
Come with me for a journey
Skipping rolling papers
Leave behind drugs and other vices
Angel, get inside
Join me in my world, be a part of what I am
This is what you were made for
You were born to be with me
This town is a broken one
The world is a broken place
Save the gun for our son
Let's save weapons and violence for a different time
To brave this course of mine
Join me on this journey of ours
Angel, lock the door
Close out distractions, focus on me
Crawl across the floor
Be vulnerable and submissive to me
This town is a dirty crime
The world is a corrupt and violent place
Don't call home unless it's time
Stay away from home until it's necessary to be back
You gotta read the bible
Find guidance and hope in religion
Sell for survival
Do whatever it takes to survive
Your mother's angry
Your family may be upset by your choices
Your father's gone
Your family may be broken and missing a parent
Just be an angel
Be submissive and obedient to me
Drive men crazy
Use your beauty and allure to get what you want
Your vision's hazy
You may not be clear on your future or purpose
Get on this stage and
Embrace your destiny and perform your role
Brave this course of life
Follow me and face the challenges of life together
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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