Taleen Kali Releases New Single “Flower Of Life;” New Album Produced by Jeff Schroeder of The Smashing Pumpkins and Josiah Mazzaschi (Bizou, Light FM, Child Seat)

April 15, 2022

5810681754dada198e063aaf_1010x1122 — Photo credit: James Duran

Taleen Kali is pleased to share “Flower Of Life, the first look at her debut full-length album out later this year. The song debuted on KEXP and is available now at Bandcamp and on all streaming services. Produced by Jeff Schroeder of The Smashing Pumpkins and Josiah Mazzaschi (Bizou, Light FM, Child Seat), the forthcoming album is loaded with sheets of fuzz and swirling guitars, with vocals that amass the range of femme punk to shoegaze siren. Fans can support the album’s release via her Kickstarter campaign.

On the song Taleen says:

‘Flower Of Life’ is about coming back to life after the trials and tribulations of the pandemic and the horrors of the past decade. I wrote this song for us to rage to, dance to, scream to. Now that it’s safe to be together again, we can let it all out. The track has about 10 guitars packed into 2 minutes, which is twice the amount of guitars we’ve ever put on a recording. Flower Of Life is also what I’m naming the album. Here’s to breaking through to the other side…

Hailing from her native Los Angeles, local legend Taleen Kali composes romantic punk songs wrapped in layers of shoegaze, psychedelia, and riot grrrl grunge, creating a cosmic sound that’s dreamy and defiant alike.

Influenced by melodies and imagery from her Armenian heritage and her parent’s birthplaces of Lebanon and Ethiopia, Kali fuses her lineage with sonics of the modern countercultures she grew up embracing, exploring everything from punk and the riot grrrl movement to C86 tape compilations and Brit-pop.

When her band TÜLIPS went out with a bang at their final headline show at The Regent Theater in 2016, Taleen went solo, sharing bills with indie luminaries such as Ex Hex, Alice Bag, Seth Bogart, and touring the country. Soul Songs was Taleen’s debut EP produced by Kristin Kontrol (Dum Dum Girls) and mixed by Brad Laner of Medicine. It was recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood and found Taleen’s riot grrrl ethos maturing into a polished punk sound with noise pop, shoegaze, and new wave influences. Soul Songs was lauded by Stereogum who likened the sound to a contemporary Blondie, BUST Magazine who called it “dark and danceable,” Pitchfork’s Guide to Summer Albums, and LA Weekly’s Best Indie Punk Albums, and was played on KEXP, KXLU, KSPC, KZSC, UCLA Radio, and many more. .

After the release of Soul Songs in 2018, the band followed up with an unplugged version of the album and two covers: “Baby Love” by The Supremes and “#1 Crush” by Garbage in 2019. In 2020 TÜLIPS released 2 unreleased singles from the vaults, “Love Chain” and “Panda,” and Kali also released a 2-song pandemic project called Changing with her TÜLIPS-era producer Greg Katz (Cheekface, LA Font). Kali’s second EP, a soundbath album called Songs For Meditation was released November 5, 2021, the first release on Kali’s own experimental label Dum Dum Records.

In the winter of 2022 Kali and her band entered The Cave Studios to record her debut LP “Flower Of Life” with producers Jeff Schroeder of The Smashing Pumpkins and Josiah Mazzaschi (Bizou, Light FM, Child Seat). The album will be the band’s first foray into releasing a full-length album 100% independently after divesting from their record label in 2020.