he song Run Away to Mars changed Nicholas Durocher’s life. He will perform at the March 24 Juno Awards, where he’s nominated in five categories.
By Nick Krewen
Special to the Star
With a worldwide viral hit in “Run Away to Mars,” a sold-out European tour and five Juno Award nods to his credit, TALK is walking the walk.
It’s been about a decade since Stittsville, Ontario’s Nicholas Durocher, now 28, decided to go all in on his dream of becoming a rock star and Sunday night’s Juno Awards ceremony is, in part, the manifestation of that goal.
“I used to practise my Juno speech before falling asleep,” said Durocher, who will not only perform on the broadcast from Halifax but is nominated in the breakthrough artist, songwriter, single (“A Little Bit Happy”), album (Lord of the Flies & Birds & Bees) and alternative album categories.
“This was like eight years ago … I picked the name ‘TALK’ around 10 years ago and I only really put out music three years ago. So this has been a dream for a long time. I just tried to stay as persistent as I could.”
It was the first pandemic lockdown that fuelled his career. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Durocher was living in Toronto, working odd jobs and spending much of his spare time writing songs.
When he retreated to his parents’ basement in Stittsville, a suburb of Ottawa, in March 2020, he wrote — in 35 minutes — the song that would change his life: an acoustic-driven, catchy ballad with a harmony-filled chorus impelled by isolation and loneliness called “Run Away to Mars.”
“I was in a period of time where I was writing consistently and that’s what I spent most of my time on: writing and trying to get better, making songs every day,” recalled Durocher. “For some reason, when I went back to Ottawa something just clicked. I had words to say for myself that resonated with other people at the time and that gave me confidence.
“With ‘Mars,’ that was the first time I wrote something and right away felt, ‘Oh, this is going to be something.’ It was pretty clear right from the start.”
Released via social media in 2021, “Run Away to Mars” registered 400,000 streams worldwide.
“There was a little buzz and I thought that was what ‘viral’ was,” Durocher said. “Then it took off and it took a whole year and a half to see what viral actually meant.”
Catapulted by TikTok, “Run Away to Mars” jumped to 30 million streams on digital music platforms like Spotify and Apple, earning him a U.S. record deal, topping charts in Europe and South Africa, and reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart early last year.
Since then, TALK has amassed 2.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 129.6 million listens to his first hit; placed his music on the ABC-TV series Grey’s Anatomy; written the theme song for the CBS TV series Tracker and landed on Sony PlayStation video game MLB The Show 2023.
He has also toured Europe and played such prestigious festivals as Lollapalooza, Festival d’été de Québec and the Calgary Stampede. He has opened for Imagine Dragons and Shania Twain, among others, and booked a 26-date North American tour with Young the Giant and Milky Chance.
TALK has just wrapped the first leg of a U.S. tour; his Juno appearance will mark the start of a Canadian jaunt that arrives at the Danforth Music Hall April 22 and April 27 before he heads south of the border for more shows.
Durocher’s recipe for success is simple: inner trust.
“I go on my gut a lot and whatever I hear in my head,” he said. “If I think it sounds good I record it. I grew up kind of on my dad’s music first, so that was Glen Campbell, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Mamas and the Papas, a lot of ’60s Laurel Canyon stuff. That’s where a lot of my love for harmony comes from: all those artists have very strong harmonies throughout their songs and I always add a lot of layers to my voice for interesting harmonies.
“My first loves were Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Coldplay and the Foo Fighters, and there’s elements of them and the ’80s and guitar solos in my music. It covers a pretty wide variety of tones, all sounds like me, but a lot of elements pulled from a lot of different genres makes it unique.”
TALK also brings a bit of glam to his stage persona, sporting stars on his overalls and occasionally wearing cosmetics.
“The Queen/David Bowie/Elton John kind of vibe is something I’ve always loved,” Durocher said. “I think they’re some of the greatest frontmen ever and I try to bring a piece of them with me as well.”
But much of Durocher’s ascension to stardom is due to a healthy mentality.
“When I was young and playing sports, my dad would train me to visualize a lot. So, from a young age, I feel like I’ve mentally prepared for where I’m at, just because I have a vivid imagination and that’s how I process things: think about every scenario, visualize and dream.
“It’s one of my greatest strengths.”