Coupling distorted guitars with alt.pop, Tally Spear has honed her sound brilliantly over the past six years. She tells Kerrang! how she uses music to help process emotions, and why she’s been able to build up her confidence both online and on the road…
‘’Cause I got up / I showed my face / I guess I’m fine / But I’m not the same…’ admits Tally Spear on How Are You, her belted vocals calling from the void. Drenched in grief after her father suddenly passed away in 2024, this power ballad, taken from her recent Bittersweet EP, exemplifies the battle Tally faced to move forward with her life and career.
“I couldn’t focus on being online or doing anything for quite a few months,” she reflects, meeting Kerrang! at home in London. “When there’s moments of struggle and doubt, coming back to honesty and being completely real with what you’re feeling, you can’t really go wrong with that. [Songwriting] is a way of compartmentalising things.”
The title-track’s stadium-sized pop-rock and the muscular power chords of Where Do I Go From Here? are not songs Tally ever wanted to release, truthfully. But the universality of her messaging means they can hold infinite value in the wider world.
“It is about processing emotions, but it’s also about connecting with others,” she elaborates. “[People] hear that, take a piece of me and also find a piece of themselves in the song… and validation in their experiences. That’s what the beauty of songwriting is, for me.”
Raised in southwest London, Tally’s big brother, mum and dad all helped shape her taste, whether it was The Beatles or NOFX. On her own, she resonated with “powerful women in the pop-rock space”, including Avril Lavigne, whose influence seeps into her music. The PVRIS-coded alt.pop of her 2020 debut EP Tally has migrated into a slightly heavier lane over the past six years that will prick up the ears of LØLØ and Olivia Rodrigo fans.
It’s no surprise to find out she’s worked with South Arcade’s Harry Winks, WARGASM’s Sam Matlock and As Everything Unfolds’ Jon Cass. Piano was Tally’s first instrument, and she remains a songwriting purist to this day.
“I’m a bit of a technophobe,” she admits, “and I like to keep focused on the organics of songwriting. Composing melodies, lyrics and being able to take that to someone who understands me.” She’s recently found a synchronicity with Jon and Sam in particular, which push her outside of her comfort zone. It’s gratifying, after a long road to find the right people to hone her sound: “It’s like dating and trying to find the love of your life!”
Tally struggles with the double-edged sword of social media, an industry she’s worked within part-time. Despite multiple interests and spinning plates, she’s realised the need to carve out the headspace and time for her artistry to take centre stage.
“If you really want one area to flourish, you need to direct attention more heavily in that area,” she suggests. “I want to treat [my music career] with the respect that it deserves.” That includes gigging, which she’s gunning to “sink her teeth into” after overcoming the anxiety and nerves that came with her first tour: thrown in at the deep end with a six-week European stint.
Instead of feeling the pressure to emerge with self-assured answers, Tally is finding the joy in figuring herself out, across this eternal “process of experimentation”. She views her story in chapters, with Bittersweet being merely the latest era.
“Every [project] is a debut of some new version of yourself, especially if you’ve gone through quite a lot of different sounds and eras,” she admits. “I’m an indecisive person by nature, and that can come out in my music. There’s been a number of different releases, all with their own identity, and it’s always evolving.”
Tally Spear’s new EP Bittersweet is out now via Nettwerk
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