Chalk Talk's Bittersweet New Single "Bye Anne"

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHALK TALK ABOUT THEIR NEWEST SINGLE.

“Welcome to your new life, it’s a cruel life” sings Chalk Talk in their latest release “Bye Anne.” The song details all of the roller coaster emotions associated with getting older. This coming of age track is perfectly timed with the graduation of 3/4 bandmates. The band has done a lot of  growing over the past few years—and I don’t just mean growing up. From backyard shows to bigger venues, Chalk Talk band members Katie, Nina, Stella, and Fia, have been through it all together. This closeness is evident in their latest track. The cover art is filled with images of items that hold specific memories for the band—a film stub from a movie they saw together, a picture of the park where they filmed their “Homesick on Vacation” music video, the number 12 for all of the years they’ve spent in school. I sat down with Chalk Talk to ask about the song and more. You can read our interview below...in what just might be my favorite one yet!!

HOW IS ‘BYE ANNE” DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES?

Katie: I think there’s more focus in it. 

Fia: It’s way more developed.

Nina: We recorded that song in a day, whereas last time we recorded our entire album in a day.

Katie: So a lot more time went into it. 

WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF MAKING IT LIKE? 

Stella: So much fun!!! 

Nina: We had Chris Goldsmith help us after we won battle of the bands— 

Katie: He’s an amazing producer and has won a couple Grammys so that was cool.

Nina:  We recorded everything separately. With the album, we were running short on studio time so everything was one take. 

WHAT'S THE OVERALL MESSAGE?

Nina: It’s bittersweet. It’s about moving on to the next chapter of your life, but  also being sad about people and memories you're leaving behind. For us, that’s moving on to college. 

Fia: It’s kinda sad, but at the same time it’s good. 

Katie: So it's bittersweet?

Fia: Yes. [laughs]

WHAT’S IT LIKE GOING THROUGH THE PROCESS OF RELEASING A SONG WHILE QUARANTINED? 

Stella: It’s a headache. Fia can explain.

Fia: We had to push the release date back because so many people are trying to release stuff right now. The distributors have the longest cue ever because everyone is putting out music. 

IF “BYE ANNE” WAS PLAYING IN A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD BE HAPPENING IN THE MOVIE RIGHT BEFORE THE SONG PLAYS? 

Katie: It’s would be at the most pivotal point of a coming of age movie

Nina: when a girl is driving down the coast 

Fia: and she’s on her way to her new house or maybe she just graduated high school 

Katie: and she just broke up with her boyfriend 

Nina: but she’s ready to move on to that next chapter.

IF YOU COULD PLAY THE NEW SONG FOR ANY CELEBRITY TO EVER EXIST WHO WOULD YOU PLAY IT FOR AND WHY? 

Stella: I would play it for Obama. Cause you know how they do their summer playlist?

Katie: That’s our goal to be on that playlist. 

Fia: We’ve photoshopped us being on it. 

Katie: or Bob Saget. I’m kidding. We wouldn’t play it for Bob Saget. 

Fia: Our profile picture right now is Bob Saget's face on Niki Minaj’s body.

Nina: I changed it!! 

Fia: Noooo why’d you change it??

WHAT IS THE BOB SAGET REFERENCE TO? 

Nina: We were looking into this talent agency. And the guy there wasn’t even named Bob Saget, it was something completely different, but we thought it was Bob Saget. And so then we just roasted Bob Saget non stop. We had this joke that when anyone signed to this agency, Bob Saget came out of the basement dressed up as them. So we started to picture Bob Saget dressed up as Niki Minaj and as other celebrities. It’s really not funny, but for some reason it is. 

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER INSIDE JOKES U GUYS HAVE AS A BAND?

Stella: HELP but in sign language. 

[they all laugh] 

Katie: We were in San Francisco and we had this really sketchy uber driver.  I got this text 5 minutes before he picked us up that said “your uber driver is deaf or hard of hearing,” and we were like “ok cool.” But then he calls me, and I'm talking to him on the phone and I was like, “wait, how is he deaf or hard of hearing if he was just talking to me on the phone.” So obviously he wasn’t completely deaf. So we get in his minivan and it's just like really weird energy. He has these wind chimes in the back of his car that literally make you want to pull your ears out because every time he stops they go ding ding ding ding…anyway….he is driving like a maniac. He’s honking at people. He has his brights on and it's 11 am. And he was recording us. He says to us “smile, you're on camera.” We were just pressed against the window of his car trying not to lose it. We were still unsure if he was deaf or hard of hearing, and Stella sent the sign language signal for “help” in our group chat. In the photo, the guy signing just has the look of death on his face, and that was exactly what we were feeling at the time. We got out of the cab and we just lost it. 

Here’s the picture for reference: 

Fia: Oh and the curb!! 

Katie: Honestly all of these are from our San Francisco trip. We went just before the Coronavirus happened. We were on our way to Berkley to see our friends who went there and we got this ride share app where you borrow a car and drive it to a new location. It was a car that maybe went 40 miles per hour max. We had no problem getting it when we got to San Francisco, but the hardest part was figuring out where to put it—and you pay based on how long you're in the car. There was this spot on this curb, but I had to make a u-turn to get to it. We were on this big hill—cause it's San Francisco— and I don’t know how to work this car. I go into neutral instead of reverse and I literally almost hit these people walking on the sidewalk. I felt so bad for them because they literally thought I was going to run them over. Anyway, I hit the curb instead and totally scraped up the sidewalk. And we just kept passing the spot where I had marked the sidewalk over and over again— probably 8 times over the next 20 minutes—while we were figuring out another place to park the car. 

WHERE’S THE FIRST PLACE THE BAND IS GOING POST QUARANTINE?

Chalk Talk: The Che.

Nina: We always have the most fun at The Che—playing there and watching friends there. We got to see indigo de souza there as one of our last concerts before quarantine and that was the last place we played too.

WHAT'S ONE SONG YOU GUYS WISH YOU WROTE? 

Nina: Disco Tits - Tove Lo.

Fia: Smoko - The Chats. That is like our hype me up song. 

Katie: The Full House Theme Song

MAKE A FOUR SONG COMING OF AGE PLAYLIST FOR THE READERS. 

Nina: There are way more than four songs on that playlist!!


“BYE ANNE” IS OUT NOW. YOU CAN FIND THE SONG ON STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC. GO LISTEN.