Track By Track: Los Bitchos - 'Talkie Talkie'

Instrumental four piece, Los Bitchos, have shared their rip-roaring new album, 'Talkie Talkie'.

Since debuting in 2019, the band's contagious energy have seen them build a reputation for unmissable live shows as their exploratory take on rock 'n' roll sees them encapsulate everything from 80s synth pop to cumbia.

Formed of Australian/Turkish lead guitarist Serra Petale, Uruguayan synth and keytar player Agustina Ruiz, Swedish bassist Josefine Jonsson and British drummer Nic Crawshaw, Los Bitchos are a truly global ensemble who each bring the musical flavours of their individual culture and backgrounds into their strutting music.

Having played some of the most legendary venues and festivals around the world (including Glastonbury and Coachella), the band are about to embark on another relentless UK, US and Europe tour. With support from label mates Faux Real, the their biggest headline show to date at O2 Forum on 7 November.

Serra: Our opening track goes on a real journey, it starts off very bouncy with the brightness of high lifestyle music. I love the differing guitar tones from each section, the first verse guitar feels like you’re swimming in water and just ends up in a Van Halen rock stew by the end. The idea of the hi’s in the verse came to me first, I sent around a flurrying voice note to the girls asking them to quickly record some hi’s while the idea was fresh in my mind. Our friend Lea, who was with Josefine at the time, ended up sending a 'hey' instead of a 'hi!' I ended up layering and putting on the choruses. Delicious.

Serra: The Grand Theft Auto vibes of this song make me so happy. I imagine just being immersed in a game at night, driving around, solving crime or causing chaos. I love the cool energy of this song driven by that funk guitar groove. It popped in to my head many years ago when I saw a dear friend of ours (Charles) playing on top of a random backing track online and something about that backing track spurred this entire track and of course, I had to give him a shout-out in the title. The synth textures and bass lines remind me of my favourite 80’s pop records, think Debbie Gibson and Simple Minds. The sporadic 'talkie talkie' lines were improvised in the studio which really bring the track into its own, like you’re having a gab to your friends on the phone. 

Josefine: A summery song with a touch of nostalgia. Think ‘Holiday’ by Madonna but Bitchos. It was the hardest nut to crack structurally when working on the album but we’re all really happy with how it turned out! We even snuck in a cheeky arpeggiator in the chorus to make it sounds nice and big which is a first for us.

Josefine: I’d say this is the most playful song on the album. Packed with fast paced ‘action’ inspired by video games, hence the animated game play style music video we did for it. I had lots of fun sprinkling in some slap bass in the second verse.

Nic: This was one of the first tracks we worked on last February when we brought Serra’s demos into the rehearsal room. We played it live a bit last summer, and it evolved again in the studio in November. We ended up stripping the first section of the song right back dynamically to build tension at the start. I definitely imagine myself on a road trip/adventure, fraught with anticipation and unknowns but with an air of excitement and possibility!

Nic: We just released this track and wanted to showcase this more lo-fi percussive side to the album. It’s perhaps the closest track to our first record in some ways. We kept to a percussion groove on the block and cowbell as a base, and added heaps of different percussion layers like bongos, timbales, and even a triangle. The track feels super summery and has a laid back, contented and nostalgic vibe.

Agustina: Our first single, we were super excited to put it out. So fun to play live, jumping and dancing all the way. Music video was such a fun experience too, horse riding, big moons, everything was blue, shiny 80s outfits.

Agustina: Such a fun song to play, off beat synths. The song title came from Serra not opening a chocolate bunny for me, so I told her, "open the bunny, you are wasting my time".

Serra: Definitely the our most jazziest number to date and a bit of an outlier on the album, we always like to throw one in there. It’s super haunting and driving with little shimmers of glitter that sprinkle throughout the track. It’s my favourite composition that took quite a bit of time to work out. The bass line propels the whole song forward like a train and the drumbeat was one of the first Latin grooves I ever learned on the drums and I just love the combination of the two. The guitar lines make me feel really sentimental and it was definitely a time when I was going through a lot of emotional turmoil. I remember feeling really sad and alone around
the time of writing this, I never thought having something to work on like this would be so therapeutic and actually end up being one of my favourite tracks on the album. And of course the cherry on top has to be having Michael League of Snarky Puppy playing almost every bit of percussion we handed to him, the solo break in the middle is just pure class from him.

Nic: Naughty little clove is pure funky joy, from the relentless cowbell jam at the start, it’s full of playful riffs and guitar lines, with this solid, shamelessly funky bass line and drum groove. It’s been one of the harder tracks to nail technically but we love it! When Serra sent this demo through ages ago I was instantly excited about it and couldn’t wait to get to grips with it in a rehearsal room. When it came to recording it, I remember coming back from a groceries run or something and Josie had just worked on this amazing bass line that felt so cheeky but so right for the section.

Agustina: A very nostalgic track, you can dance to it, you can cry to it. Michael League played the 12 string on it and it was amazing!

Josefine: A Turkish disco frenzy. Lots of pumping octaves paired with a solid disco beat, sassy keys and loud guitars. When we play this I always feel like the volume of every instrument being played is turned up to 10. A new personal favourite to play live!

'Talkie Talkie' is out now via City Slang.

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