From a natural serendipity honed over several years, the New York synth-pop duo telly was born. Shlee, a Burlington, VT native, and Mix, an LA native, bonded over a love of electronica and a penchant for a maximalist sonic palette. Drawing from elements of dream pop, shoegaze, and electronic pop, their style has often been deemed “dreamy yet danceable,” which they take no offense to. Their latest single, BLINK, is the first offering from their debut EP, aptly named EPISODE 1, foreshadowing a glitchier and hazier direction than their synth-based debut single, Rearview. Call it clickbait, call it short attention span, call it thrill-seeking - the years spent building to this EP were marked by throwing out any idea that didn’t feel intoxicatingly exciting, leaving us with 4 songs that exhibit the duo’s energetic stylistic precision.
What does the band name mean?
We really like the elements of electronic media and also have a soft spot for the English nickname for television.
How'd you first get into music?
We both began musical endeavors at young ages. As we got older, we both played in bands and projects that were pretty different from telly, and after we met we knew we wanted to try something in the direction of electronic pop. The path from beginning musically to where we are now was very long but we both feel it’s important to engage in different genres to see what each style brings out of you.
First concert that you ever went to?
Mix: Matisyahu @ the Greek Theatre in LA
Shlee: Corbin Bleu @ the Champlain Valley Fair 😎
What's your writing process like?
We often start with a singular idea or sound and build from there, or take a full instrumental and add vocal melodies on to that, until we solidify that, and carve lyrics out from there. Once we have a demo, we typically do a lot of edits, revisions, and alternate versions until we land on what we find to be the best version of the song.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
The artists that directly inspire our music are Frou Frou, Jam City, Little Dragon, and Sylvan Esso. But we love a lot of other music too, like Shania Twain and Animal Collective.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be its own thing?
Our philosophy for our own live shows is definitely to deliver as much energy as we can and bring something really engaging and exciting to the stage. Since we perform as a duo with backing tracks, it’s been fun to build out the visual element and sync it with all of the tracks. We currently don’t have too much variation from recording to live versions, but plan to experiment with that more as we grow.
What's up next for the band?
We’ve got our debut EP, EPISODE 1, coming out October 11th with a release show the same day at Gold Sounds in Brooklyn! We’re really excited about getting this out into the world. Hoping to release some more EPISODEs in 2024 as well.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yourewatchingtelly/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yourewatchingtelly