Symphonic metal musician Talia Hoit recently released her second album, When The Skies Fall. I had the chance to chat with her about how the new record has been received and the challenge of putting her personal experiences out into the world.

Reuel

Hello Talia! I’m very happy to talk with you. How are you doing?

Talia Hoit

Hello Reuel, thank you so much! It’s great to talk with you! I’m doing well, there is so much going on!

Reuel

Congratulations on releasing When The Skies Fall in late August! It’s your second album. How are you feeling about the reaction this album has received so far?

Talia Hoit

It has been very positive so far, I mean you can’t make everyone happy all the time and probably shouldn’t anyway! So there will always be some critics, but for the most part what I’m hearing back about it has been really positive. And it’s opened some doors to really cool opportunities for me and my music!

Reuel

There are songs with very personal themes on your album. Was there one song on this record that was particularly difficult or terrifying to put out into the world, knowing that it was based on your own experience?

Talia Hoit

When you put it that way, I would say all of it is a little scary because not only are people going to judge the songs from a music perspective, but then you know you’re being a bit vulnerable about your life with all sorts of strangers. And I don’t know why we always get so scared to admit that we’re imperfect human beings who have gone through stuff and have feelings about it. It seems like it should be easier than it is. But I’m not really trying to tell my personal story to the world, I’m just trying to share the art that came out of it, and hopefully people will resonate with the music somehow in their own story!

Talia Hoit

If I had to pick just one, I would say maybe Prayer for Rain, because I had recorded a much different version of that song back in 2012, that album is not available publicly now, but I had played that song at some coffee shops and my friends and family maybe had gotten the recording, but some people at the time made me feel like I should be ashamed or embarrassed about that song. When I decided to record it with a professional producer for this album, I think it was probably the song I was most hesitant about doing just because one or two people criticized my life and my feelings and experiences and what I had to say about it 14 years ago. It’s funny how things that should realistically have no lasting impact over you can hang on to your vulnerabilities for so long.

Reuel

Even though many of the themes are personal, the songs still feel so relatable. How do you approach turning your own experiences into music in a way that allows other people to see themselves in it?

Talia Hoit

I don’t think I really had that intention to approach writing songs that way when I originally wrote them, I was just writing more for myself, but it was over time as I was seeing how people were resonating with songs my band Beyond Forgiveness was recording and releasing, that I realized other people might also really resonate with this stuff that I had written personally, which was just hidden away in my personal notebooks and files. That’s what inspired me to pursue recording my songs professionally and doing this solo project in the first place.

Reuel

It’s easy for huge orchestrations to take over a song. When you’re arranging a track, how do you know when it needs more heavy elements and when it’s better to leave the piano on its own?

Talia Hoit

This is a difficult question. I didn’t know how to best arrange these songs, which is why I worked with a professional producer who did the music arrangements. I have this overall vision in my brain for how I want the songs to go, but for the specific details of the arrangements I really needed help. So my producer/arranger, Frank Pitters, really helped a lot with this. I do hear my music a certain way in my head and it’s not always just piano, in fact it’s usually always heavier, but not always in the same way it ends up playing out in the actual sound. It never sounds quite like I hear it in my head, but if it conveys the same mood, emotion, and feel and the right musical arc to the song, then I consider it a success. But the piano is the instrument that I can play to bring the song to reality in a physical sense, so that’s why it’s based in piano. My ongoing personal work is constantly to try and understand what these sounds are that I’m hearing or envisioning in my own brain and how I might replicate that in real life.

Reuel

What things did you do differently on When The Skies Fall compared to your debut, and why did you feel those changes were needed?

Talia Hoit

We actually started recording this album before the Oceans album was released, so we did not have the benefit of any feedback from my first album to incorporate into this one. One of the decisions my producer made was a little change in the guitars. On Oceans, Max had done both the bass and rhythm guitars, and Mat performed solos, but on When the Skies Fall, Mat did all the guitar riffs and solos. He has a bit heavier of a style, so it added a new dimension to the sound. Also, the orchestration vibe was less complex, and we left in more of my original piano parts (some of which may have been transferred to various electric keyboards, but there is a lot more of what I literally played in my demos that comes through). When I started my solo project, my focus was on the songs. I really wanted to bring my songs to their best life as possible, and it was less about me being an artist, I even considered at first if I wanted to just be the songwriter and trying to pitch the songs to other singers. So the first singles and album was really focused on bringing great musicians and producers in to create the full vision for these songs and make up for all that I lacked in not having the skills myself to play all the instruments and things like that. But through the process I realized that it actually is supposed to be more about me expressing what I wrote in my own voice and way of making music, and so more and more am trying to keep as much of me in this as possible even while collaborating with other people so that the music can have the full band arrangement I envisioned.

Reuel

When people listen to When The Skies Fall from beginning to end, what emotions or lessons do you hope they carry with them afterwards?

Talia Hoit

I hope people enjoy listening to it, and then maybe they find a few songs or moments that really resonate with them, and that they let themselves feel whatever it is they’re going to feel about it, but to never get stuck in any sort of despair. The whole underlying theme is the resilience and depth of meaning to all of the loves and joys and devastations that happen in life.

Reuel

Brilliant! Thank you for your time, Talia! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Talia Hoit

Thank you so much! I would just add to everyone reading – thank you for listening to my music, I hope you loved it! And everything is more fun in community with other people, so please check out my social media pages, and get in touch with me through my website. I would love to hear from you!