News Prince Innocence: ‘We Were Both Feeling Pretty Directionless’

Talvi Faustmann and Josh Mcintyre are a couple living in and out of different cities, recording music as and when it suits them. And right now they’re on a hot streak. Their debut ‘Lapse’ EP is a work that conveys the energy burst you get from forming a new musical project. It’s excitable throughout, like a fresh-faced youngster seeing the world for the first time. Much of that comes from Mcintyre taking a side-route from his still prolific Little Girls project. While Josh’s songs under that guise were shrouded in every hazy glow available, these Prince Innocence tracks are direct, provocative. They prompt you with distinct memories and first-hand experiences; the sight of cigarette smoke bouncing off the ceiling; the city lights blurring into one on a late-night taxi ride back home. In this Chromatics-style glow they hone in at something special, and while working towards their first full-length we caught up with Josh and Talvi to find out about the thoughts and feelings that went into their debut EP.



Josh, you’ve spoken before about making this project as upfront as possible. What’s your relationship with anonymity? Is there ever value in shrouding music in mystery and having many things left unsaid?
Josh: When transitioning from my previous project ‘Little Girls’ I originally wanted to separate the two as much as possible. With Little Girls, everything was hidden, the music, promo photos my voice etc. When we started working on Prince Innocence I didn’t want to hide behind anything. We wanted the vocals to be high in the mix and for everything to be as sharp as possible. I’ve always been drawn to the idea of mystery in music but with Little Girls I learned that you can only keep that mystery going for so long. I really like the idea of everything being in the forefront.

Is it the case with Prince Innocence that the music itself - not just the band imagery, etc. - is upfront to the furtherest point? Is that something that developed naturally or was it something you wanted to project from the outset?
Josh: It was a bit of both. It definitely happened naturally. At first I was used to creating music that’s hidden behind a wall of sound. A few of the original demos had some of the Little Girls sound to them but after experimenting for a few days the tracks naturally got pushed forward.
Talvi: I think it got to a point too, where I sort of insisted that my vocals get pushed higher into the mix. As much as I have complete respect and admiration for the style of Little Girls, I wanted this to be different.

How do you go from working on Prince Innocence material to working on Little Girls material? Do you have to be in a completely different state of mind for each?
Josh: At this point in my life, I have a definite routine with the way I go about making music. I create all of my music the same way. The only difference with Prince Innocence is that I’m no longer working alone. When we write songs together a lot of the process has to do with proximity. If we’re together in the same city we write songs in a pretty standard format. However several of these songs were written when I was in Toronto and Talvi in Montreal. In those instances we ended up bouncing files back and forth. I’d send her the start of an instrumental and Talvi would write lyrics/verse/chorus etc. Then she would send it back and I would add more or change a few things. We would repeat this process until we have something we’re both happy with.

Many might associate Montreal with the Arbutus records flock and the talented bands that broke out of that scene, but is there more to the city (and Toronto) that isn’t as celebrated and maybe ought to be?
Talvi: I feel like the Montreal scene is doing really well right now. A lot of people are getting the recognition they deserve in a way that might not have been possible before and that’s really satisfying to watch. The creative scene there is really diverse but people are supportive of each other. We have a music video coming out in the next few weeks for the song ‘Golden Hour’ that was directed by Jason Harvey. He has made videos for Mac Demarco, Majical Cloudz and No Joy etc. and we shot it in the Arbutus studio even though we aren’t with that label. So it just goes to show the creative strength of Montreal as a whole and the openness and supportive strengths it has as a community.

I find your music to be very cinematic. It reminds me of bright city lights and dark sweaty basements all at once. Do you have images, stories in mind when you write these songs?
Josh: I’ve always had a romanticized view of night life and wanted to create something that could be both played at a club or sweaty loft party but could also be listened to before you go out or on your way home. For a while I was obsessed with the music I would listen to on my way home from a party riding the subway. I obsessively made playlists of music I wanted to listen to on my way home. I came up with the concept of Prince Innocence around that time.
Talvi: I feel like Josh and I have always had a bit of an obsession with the idea of night life and parties, even if we are referencing feelings of suffocation or disillusionment with it. The content of the album is less based on an abstract theme and is more autobiographical, and came out of a period in both our lives where we were both feeling pretty directionless. I think you can really hear that in a lot of the songs. They are detached and cold and there’s a kind of unresolved frustration there, but there’s also this attempt to convey something really sincere and emotionally vulnerable underneath that.

How do you view the ‘Lapse’ EP? As one seamless piece or a series of individual, striking tracks? I feel like your music could work in both contexts.
Talvi: It’s a bit of both, because the track listing was designed to have a certain flow but at the same time the songs were all written at different times, in different cities and different apartments.

What comes after ‘Lapse’? Have you started working towards an album?
Talvi: We were really feeling things out with this first EP, and while it ended up being pretty cohesive and we’re happy with it, our next album will have a more resolved feeling. There’s a rawness to this first EP where you can really imagine us writing songs in a tiny attic apartment, going out every night, completely broke, trying to get our shit together. Our next album will be made with all analog equipment and we’re working with our manager Jim Anderson. We’ve already recorded a handful of new material in a bigger studio during a mini tour in London and Paris back in March. We had access to some really amazing equipment – Roland TR808 and 909 and a vintage mini Moog that once belonged to Gary Numan.



The ‘Lapse’ EP is out this week via Pretty Pretty Records.