Nostalgia: it’s a fickle beast, isn’t it? Everyone loves music that evokes a strong sense of days gone by, but stare through those rose-tinted glasses too long and you lose the magic of the present. With their brand new sophomore album, Patina, Toronto-based indie pop band Tallies have found a way to expertly walk that razor-thin tightrope, nodding to their favorite bands of the past while transforming their sound into something tight, bright, and undeniably fresh.
Tallies started in earnest when singer Sarah Cogan, guitarist Dylan Frankland, and drummer Cian O’Neill began collaborating in late 2017. A proto-version of the band began at Algonquin College, when Sarah met Dylan during a music engineering course that saw the two become lab partners. All throughout their career, they’ve dove into the bands that would influence their sound–the Sundays, the Smiths, Aztec Camera–all while adding their own signature elements; Sarah’s airy-yet-arresting vocals, Dylan’s stunning gossamer guitar work, Cian’s astronomic drumming. They got down to business rather quickly, as in 2019, their debuts elf-titled album was released on Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada and Kanine Records in the United States. Solidifying the band’s stature as Canada’s leading dream pop scholars, its mix of upbeat pop hooks and heady, larger-than-life production won the band critical acclaim from the indie underground to the mainstream alike. They began work straight away on a second record, which would prove to be an even more life-affirming endeavor than their debut.
