Interview by Lucy Fudge
Since starting her YouTube channel and releasing her first single in 2016, Talia Mar has amassed an audience of over 3 million people across several platforms. The singer-songwriter and content creator is best known for her gaming content, live streams, and pop music, including tracks such as ‘Stay The Night’ – her 2023 collaboration with DJ and producer Sigala, which charted at number eleven in the UK. The music video for her latest release, ‘365’, premiered on YouTube on January 24th, which gained traction immediately when word got out that she made a very special announcement at the end of the video: she and her husband were expecting their first child. Now, three months after the exciting news was shared with the world, Talia is sitting in her extraordinarily pink office, smiling at me through a video call.
Talia is exploring unfamiliar territory with her new single, ‘ENEMY’. “It’s very aggressive and it’s more to the point than I normally am, so expect nothing that you’ve heard from me before,” she explains, before giving an insight into her songwriting process. “[Writing] every song is so different, but for this one, I had the title, and I had the concept, but I had no idea what I wanted it to sound like. Then, one of the other songwriters started playing this guitar riff, which was nothing like my normal music – it was a bit rocky – and it inspired a completely different brainwave, so I just ran with that.”
As a fellow Swiftie, Talia and I must, of course, take a moment to discuss our favourite songs. “[Long Live (Taylor’s Version) is] the one that always gets me in my feels,” she states with an emphatic nod. “I remember when I first listened to [Mastermind], I felt like I was on The Truman Show, and that they’d written this song specifically about me, and they’re letting me know that they know my tips and tricks,” Talia admits with a laugh.
During her recent appearance on the We Need to Talk podcast, she opened up about her experiences growing up, building her platform, and her autism diagnosis in 2021. “The focus I have when I enjoy something is intense, and you need that in a career like this because you’re self-employed, so if you don’t have that want to do it, you’re not going to do it,” she says, outlining how she thinks being autistic has helped her in her career. Instead of trying to desperately fight her way through the maze, her sheer determination and drive helped her to find ways to make the walls move around her, every step strategically planned to help advance her career.
Looking back, Talia identifies her first headline show as one of her proudest moments. “I learned to MD. I wrote out everyone’s parts, to instruments that I didn’t play, because I was so invested.” She explains passionately, “I booked the venue and organized all the tickets and the sales and learnt all these new things just so that I could fulfil what was going on in my brain, and it was definitely one of those moments where I went ‘Oh my god my brain might be different’ but that’s where it benefited me.”
In June 2023, Talia married her long-term boyfriend, Simon (also known as Miniminter on YouTube), in Italy, and it was footage from this day which made up the majority of the ‘365’ music video. “It was actually my husband’s idea,” Talia admits. “We were umming and ahhing about what to do, that maybe my first single back should be ‘365’, and I could release it on our anniversary, with our wedding videos, and then Simon was like, “Oh my God, baby announcement! Throw that in at the end!” But we had to announce the baby before I started showing, so we turned it around really quickly, but it was all down to Simon. I can’t take credit for that.”
The news well and truly came as a surprise for fans, with Talia maintaining on social media that she wasn’t planning on having a family yet. “I never wanted to say it online because I didn’t want the pressure, or people to start figuring it out” she explains, “because I live stream, if I’m not drinking Red Bull or coffee – things that I drink 24/7 – then people will start sussing it out, whereas if I’ve thrown them off the scent, I can get away with these little things that people might otherwise notice. And it worked.” Asking if she’s struggling without caffeine, Talia glances longingly back at her Red Bull fridge, before sighing and saying with a laugh, “I look at it every day and think, one day we’ll meet again.”
“I’m over being pregnant.” she confesses, “I’m now just looking forward to starting little traditions, and just getting to know her, because it’s so weird that there is a human being that I’m growing, that I’ve not technically met yet.” she explains laughing, “And I don’t know anything about (her), so it’s really bizarre. Like you’re renting my uterus, but I don’t know anything about you.”
Talia and Simon are both streamers and influencers and have been vocal about their plans to keep their child away from the cameras until they’re old enough to decide for themselves if they want to be in the public eye. “I’m a wing–it kind of girl. I don’t really have a plan. But we’re in a lucky position, because we both work for ourselves, so if one person has the baby, the other one can stream and so on. And I know my mum’s gonna be super helpful, and his parents are probably gonna wanna be with baby a lot, so we’re just gonna utilise our friends and family a lot.”
“I’m the most disorganised person in the world and I keep saying when the baby’s here I’ll figure it out, but no, I won’t”, she says laughing, “but hilariously it’s all the super organised characters that I find myself relating to the most, Simon always laughs at things that Monica says in Friends, like “Rules are good. Rules help control the fun.” That’s my favourite saying, because it’s true, they do help control the fun. And Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine-Nine as well, not the organisation, but everything else about them, being rule-oriented and loving following rules and like being super to the point, those sorts of characters, I see and think, yeah, I do that.”
Talia has synesthesia, meaning that for her, everything is associated with a different colour. “The word music for me is yellow,” she begins, “and the new song is black and green splatters.” I ask about ‘365’ and she cringes slightly, explaining, “It’s such ugly colours, because three is blue, six is orange, and five is like this burgundy brown and they don’t go well together. The song is blue and green, but the numbers don’t match the music, and it always bugs me about that song.”
I proceed to ask her which song of hers she would want to eat, and she confidently responds, “Forget About Your Ex, because it’s purple and I think it would be crunchy and a bit sour, which is my favourite type of sweet.”
My final, and rather random question for Talia, is what bug she would want to be, and after some thought, she decides a stag beetle. “I’ve always really liked stag beetles. I think they’re cool. They’ve got a hard shell, but a little mushy on the inside, little pincers, like ready to go. But have they ever actually hurt anyone? Probably not.” She says sincerely, with a shrug and a gentle smile.
Authenticity has always been a key part of Talia’s brand (reinforced by her love for live streaming, instead of other, more curated content), and her genuine excitement for her career and growing family radiates through the screen. With only a few months until her daughter’s arrival, the anticipation is ramping up, but Talia isn’t letting that stop her from pursuing her career. Her dedication, focus and enthusiasm are inspiring, and her love for her career and the people around her is indisputable.
Talia Mar’s new song ‘ENEMY’is out now on all streaming platforms. Follow Talia on Instagram to keep up with future releases and her array of other content.
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