Hi Liz. Wikipedia pages always start with a good descriptive sentence. So let's come up with five adjectives to sum up Land Of Talk.

Let's see... it's a good combination of shy but unfettered... what does unfettered mean? Sometimes words come to me before the meaning because it sounds like a good word. I've stopped using a lot of them, like dichotomy and paradox and paradigm! So ok, shy, unfettered, romantic, nostalgic - in terms of the sound. I'm 28 and people my age and a little bit older are saying, "Aw man, it's like early nineties Sonic Youth, Pixies, PJ Harvey sort of stuff." Which I guess makes sense because that's when I started writing but I'd have thought I'd have progressed since then. But I guess I must really like that stuff!
So let's say: Land Of Talk are shy, unfettered, romantic, nostalgic, hard working, road warriors.

Nice. Going back to your childhood, can you remember the first music that really had an affect on you?

I would say, not many people know about her but, Mary Margaret O'Hara. That album 'Miss America'. My mom had the record. That's the only thing I ever sing in the shower! After that, I listened to a lot of Pixies when I was doing my paper route, when I was about 12. But we just had mixtapes, with handmade artwork where sometimes the song listings got dropped. Now kids have iPods where everything's gonna pop up on the screen so you know exactly what you're listening to but I think back then my tastes were eclectic but anonymously eclectic 'cause I didn't know what I was listening to.

The kids have it too easy. How did you start playing and writing music?

My mom claims it was listening to Stephane Grappelli, the jazz violinist. I was in the car listening to the radio and said, "Mom, I want to do that!" So she enlisted me in Suzuki violin training which was kind of free in ideology, letting the kids do what they want, but I think I still took it further and wrote these long improv pieces and forced my parents to suffer these 20 minute concerts of me just wailing on this whiny instrument! Then I moved to a little university town with a really vibrant music scene and that prompted me to pick up a fretless bass because that was most like a violin. I joined a band and started writing chords on the bass until my friends said, "You should probably just start playing guitar!"

There's something magical about the names of bands people were in when they were young, what were some of yours?

There was Surf Rock Explosion. And then The Valentines and then it just became the Liz Powell Band. Then I was in a band with two drummers called Doppelganger, weird shit. I kind of put down the guitar for five years, music school'll do that to you. It just kills any creative hope you had! I'm sure there are a lot of people who get a lot out of it, I went to school with Sarah Neufeld and Richey Parry from Arcade Fire and they just ate up their studies. But they did electro acoustics and sound recording which I probably should've done. I did jazz vocal and bullshit like that!

Your first album, the superb 'Applause Cheer Boo Hiss', was self-financed. What gave you the confidence to do that?

I think it was by calling the band Land Of Talk, which was based on a phone conversation I had with a friend who was struggling to write his own novel and we started to make fun of everyone in our neighbourhood who was "about to do something big". So we called our little neighbourhood "the land of talk". And it was funny until I realised it reflected what I feared most and that I was obviously living in this land of talk as well. So naming the band that ironically prompted us to be more active and actually do it. But we could only afford one reel of tape, which is why the record is under 30 minutes! And a lot of stuff was just live, we did it all in about two or three days. Sometimes I think a lot of bands would be a lot better if they spent less time in the studio.

There are some we wish would never set foot in one again. Finally, let's bring things right up to date. What are you up to right now?

I'm walking out in, what I call, 'God's garden'. We've got a good friend in Dulwich and he has a gorgeous, heavenly backyard.
But I think I just stepped in a pile of dogshit and I'm in my stockinged feet. I'm going back inside!

God's dog there, marvellous. Thank you Liz.

Hear what the fuss is about at www.myspace.com/landoftalkmtl