Q&A: Telenova Blooms: ‘Time Is A Flower’ Weaves Dark Romance and Alt-Pop Brilliance
INTERLACING DARK ROMANTICISM AND VIVID AESTHETICS – Telenova, the Melbourne-based band, has released their debut album Time Is A Flower, a sleek alt-pop record, fuelled by a warm darkness. While previous EPs carried a delicacy, this release marks a bold evolution for the band, showcasing a newfound confidence and depth that surpasses the delicate introspection of their previous EPs. Time Is A Flower presents a bigger, more assertive Telenova, unafraid to explore faith, hope, pain and beauty with raw honesty.
The universe of Telenova is the brainchild of lead vocalist and songwriter Angeline Armstrong, alongside multi-instrumentalists Edward Quinn and Joshua Moriarty. Their soundscape is an ethereal design – a darkly romantic tapestry threaded with influences of alt-pop, trip-hop, and electronica – all while maintaining a sense of lightness and movement. Armstrong’s voice, both ethereal and grounded, guides the listener through the album’s vivid aesthetics and richly layered sound, embodying the dualities that define the record: light and dark, hope and despair, intimacy and distance.
Self-produced by the band, Time Is A Flower is an album that tackles complex subject matter with a reassuring grin. The lyrics are revealing and conversational, drawing the listener into stories that feel both intensely personal and universally relatable. Each track is a deep dive into the human experience. Themes of faith and hope are woven throughout as questions and musings.
“When we first started, we thought we were making the sort of music people just sit down and listen to on headphones, but it quickly became obvious that it was more visceral than that,” Armstrong says. “Yes, they’re not traditional dance songs but there’s something about them that feels transcendent. There’s so much introspection and thought gone into this record but the message is never just ‘it’s a dark, broken world out there.’”
Time Is A Flower’s sound is anchored by lush production, where shadowy samples and electronic textures meld seamlessly with organic instrumentation. The trip-hop influences are particularly pronounced, adding a layer of cool detachment that contrasts beautifully with the warmth of the melodies and Armstrong’s evocative vocals. This blend of styles and moods creates a listening experience that is both immersive and dynamic, pulling the listener into Telenova’s world and holding them there, spellbound.
Telenova has crafted something truly special with Time Is A Flower. It’s a record that feels timeless yet contemporary, grounded yet otherworldly – a testament to the band’s ability to merge contrasts into a cohesive whole. As they explore the intersections of faith, hope, pain and beauty, Telenova invites us all to linger in the shadows with them, to find the light within the darkness, and to appreciate the delicate balance of life’s many contradictions.
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
JOSH: We’ve dubbed our music “cinema for your ears.” We try to create music that evokes movies in your mind, trying to write stories with lyrics with a lot of imagery. My favorite way to describe our band is Wu-Tang Clan meets Crowded House, 90s hip-hop beats with classic songwriting.
LUNA: You just released your debut album Time Is A Flower and huge congratulations! Time is a Flower is a beautifully evocative title. Can you share the story behind the album’s name and how it reflects the themes explored in the music?
JOSH: It’s named after the title track on the record. It was a song we recorded in London with Chris Taylor the bass player and producer for Grizzly Bear. He’s a legend, it was a real honor to get to work with him.
ANGELINE: When we sat down to curate that songs that would belong on the album I was struck by how many recurring motifs and images had made their way into the lyrics without us intentionally setting out to do that – reflections on the nature of time and our place in it, our human longing for something eternal and lasting in a world that seems so ephemeral. Out of all the songs, the song title “Time Is A Flower” encapsulated that sentiment so perfectly it became fairly obvious that it had to be the title of the album.
LUNA: What were some of the key inspirations – musically or otherwise – that influenced the sound and direction of this album?
JOSH: I’m hugely influenced by Neil Finn, Paul McCartney and the french band AIR, if you know all those artists you’ll definitely be able to hear that in our music. Danger Mouse’s production aesthetic is something Ed and I both love too.
ANGELINE: We all bring different influences and tastes in, but there’s a lot of crossover too. I also just love film score music. I’m a big alt-indie girlie, so Lana Del Rey, Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, Caroline Polachek…a lot of those artists inspire me.
LUNA: I would love to touch more on the creative process behind Time Is A Flower. Can you walk us through a typical writing and recording session for the album? Was there a specific track that came together in an unexpected or particularly memorable way?
JOSH: For the songwriting we work at my home studio in Melbourne. A typical day can start with a coffee break and then Ed and I strap ourselves to the computer or I’ll play piano or guitar. We come up with something vibey and then after a few hours Ange sings over the top and we pick the best melodies and then do some more production. After about five hours we have a decent demo, then we put them aside for a month or so and once we have a bunch, we go back and pick our favorites.
ANGELINE: As the music is coming together, I’m usually on the couch in the studio jotting down lyric ideas and images and feelings that the music evokes – that usually forms the basis for the lyrics or song title as the song evolves.
LUNA: Have you experimented more or taken any risks – either lyrically, sonically or emotionally – with Time Is A Flower since your previous releases?
JOSH: I think things are always changing. We need to be excited about the new songs, so if it feels like we are repeating ourselves, we won’t be buzzed. It’s hard trying to find new things to do but so far we’ve been lucky enough to have enough juice in the tank. “Bird Of Paradise,” the last song on the record, is probably the most audacious. We got a full string section on it which takes things to another level which we hadn’t done before.
Photography Credit: Kid Circus
LUNA: What is your favorite song from Time Is A Flower and why do you love it? Is there a certain lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
JOSH: My favorite song is “January.” It reminds me of Dawson’s Creek or Crowded House. It’s got a classic songwriter feel to it.
ANGELINE: Mine changes but currently it’s “Preamble.” I feel like that song would sit perfectly in some of my favorite TV shows, like Severance – can’t wait for season two! It's so evocative of that world inside your own head.
LUNA: Looking back, what are some of your favorite memories from the journey of bringing Time is a Flower to life?
JOSH: I think working with Chris Taylor in London was definitely a highlight, also recording a lot of the record at Headgap studios in Melbourne was a blast. That studio rules. Fin who runs it is a legend and really brought a lot to the table as an engineer and helped us realize our vision.
LUNA: What are you most excited for listeners to experience when they hear the record in its entirety?
JOSH: I think the flow of the record is really special. I love the way the opening track leads into the start of the record. We have a few recurring musical and lyrical motifs that run through the record. I think it works well as a body of work.
LUNA: You are playing on your biggest headlining tour yet with 40 shows across Europe, U.K., Australia and New Zealand. What are you most excited to experience during this tour?
JOSH: I’m looking forward to Europe. It’s something fresh and exciting, different countries everyday and some great sausages from the service stations! I’m from New Zealand, so it’s always nice heading there too.
LUNA: Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals that help ensure you play your best set?
JOSH: I like to warm up my voice to old crooners. Some Elvis and Sinatra; helps get me in the mood and makes sure the pipes are at their best.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
JOSH: We have started recording album number two so we gotta finish that and keep the ball rolling. Feeling good about where things are at. It’s exciting to have a debut record out!
ANGELINE: We’re super excited about the next record already, after touring Europe and the U.K., it’ll be almost time to start envisioning the visual world for that. I hope one day we get to do a full visual album – we almost got to do that for Time Is A Flower – so TBC whether album number two gets to be that. Already the music feels like an exciting development, just love creating new things and we’re in such a phase of creating right now and exploring and pushing what makes Telenova unique. I love being in this stage of our career!
