That time Mark Hollis of Talk Talk told me all about the video-within-a-video called It’s My Life

By Steve Newton

You may have heard the sad news making the rounds in the music press today regarding Mark Hollis.

The singer-songwriter of Talk Talk, one of the most adventurous and under-rated of ’80s pop acts, has died at the age of 64.

Now, those who’ve read my stuff over the last 37 years or so know that synth-pop is not my forte. I’ve never been big on synthesizers–unless they’re being played by somebody like Tangerine Dream, on the Sorcerer soundtrack.

I’m waaayyyy more of a guitar guy.

That said, way the funk back in 1984 I happened to do an interview with Mark Hollis, because Talk Talk had recently released an album on a major label, and that was how it worked back then. The major label reps would set you up a phone interview to try and help sell a few–or a few million–copies of whatever vinyl they were marketing.

So even though I wasn’t a massive Talk Talk fan at the time, I got on the honker with Hollis and did an interview that turned out to be one of the few ones I did that never actually saw print. Talk Talk never toured to Vancouver, far as I recall, so the story was never written.

In the years since that little chat I really got to like the song that was a new hit single back then, “It’s My Life”. And nowadays I totally love that tune. It’s catchy AF, even without guitars.

So for all those who may be missing Mark Hollis right now, here’s him explaining in great detail the reasons and wherefores for the two music videos he had made for “It’s My Life”.

Have a listen, and sorry that the sound quality isn’t top notch, but it was 35 freakin’ years ago.

To hear the full audio of my 1984 interview with Mark Hollis subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on nearly 300 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with:

…with hundreds more to come