Pictures of Lily 1998 Talvin Singh Interview
Published in Soma Magazine September 1998 Issue
Hello!
A little bit of an unexpected choice for this month’s founding members newsletter: Mercury Prize winner, Talvin Singh whom I interviewed in 1998 at the time of his debut album, OK. The story ran in the September issue of Soma Magazine that year under my pseudonym at the time, Vivian Darkbloom.
There are multiple reasons why I picked this story to share with you. First of all, Talvin has been on my mind this week, which is I realize is weird, because why would he be? It’s not like I had already come across this interview in my archives. I only found it a few minutes before starting writing this. But the reason is that I’ve been listening to Björk because I’m writing about her. Talvin played tablas for Björk and it’s reminding me of an encounter with both of them back in 1995 here in Los Angeles.
In July of that year, Massive Attack—the subject of Episode 90 of Pictures of Lily Podcast (Vintage Edition) and Episode 63 of the Pictures of Lily Podcast—played the American Legion Hall. This was two weeks after my sister Leila was killed in a car accident. That Massive Attack show was my first foray back into my routines after losing Leila. It felt surreal to be at the show and even more so being in the dressing room with the guys. It was here that I first met Talvin as he was part of Massive Attack’s live band at the time. Even though he didn’t know me from before, Talvin noticed that I was not quite alright. He came up to me and asked me if I was okay and I avoided the question. He checked in more than once but then left me alone, but left the option of me going to him if needed, open.
Two days later, we were all at a club, and Björk was there, as was Talvin. At that point, I told Talvin about Leila and he was very kind about it. I never forgot that.
This was three years before his debut album and four years before he collected the Mercury Prize. For this interview, I was flown to New York and interviewed Talvin on a bench in a small park where he was also doing a photo shoot. The stylist did my hair and I tried not to touch it for as long as possible as I loved what he did so much.
Please click on the interview below to see an enlarged version that’s easy to read, or just zoom in if you’re reading this on the web.
