Speaking In Tongues interview recorded live at The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth.
We sat down with the band backstage to discuss setlists, influences, and performing Talking Heads classic New Wave sound.
Band Members
Vocals: Jack Challoner
Guitar: Jon Friesner
Bass: Sol Ahmed
Keyboards: Jonny Velon
Vocals: Jodi Ahmed
Drums: Jason Newman
Percussion: Myke Vince
Location & Date
The Wedgewood Rooms, Porstmouth
09 May 2026
Interview Transcript
This is an interview of Speaking in Tongues, playing live at the Wedgwood Rooms, Portsmouth, on the 9th of May, 2026.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. We’re here at the Wedgwood Rooms, it’s the 9th of May, 2026, and Speaking in Tongues are playing this evening. Could you just go around the room and give me your names and the roles that you perform within the band?
Jack: Hi there, I’m Jack Chaloner and I play David Byrne.
John: And I’m John and I play guitar.
Jason: Jason, drums. We haven’t got all the bands here. We’ve got Mike on percussion. And we’ve got Johnny on keys. Sol on bass. Jodie on backing vocals.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. And for anyone that’s discovering the band for the first time, who are speaking in tongues?
John: We are a tribute to the grand music of Talking Heads so we play lots of songs mainly focused we do Stop Making Sense some of the songs off that the film but we do I suppose you could say we do songs from all the areas of the albums that they’ve had out.
Jason: We’ve been together for 20 years we have so we have evolved in our own right.
John: I’ll tell you if you like Talking Heads it’s a great night out if you’re less keen on Talking Heads it’s a great night out It’s still a great night out.
Jack: And I do find that audience members who come along, friends of friends or whatever, and they say, I don’t really know any Talking Heads songs. And at the end of the night, they always go, I knew loads of those songs. So there’s a lot of songs that people don’t think they recognise until they hear it and go, oh, that’s Talking Heads. So, yeah, it’s always good.
John: We do some early stuff, we do some of the later stuff, we do some of the stuff at the end. We do, yeah, we do a real range.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. What first drew you towards the music of Talking Heads?
Jason: Well that was originally started by the founder of the band, a guy called Chris, Chris App-Thomas and he’s a rabid Talking Heads fan and he started the whole thing and he managed to get some other people together who were also fans of Talking Heads and it grew from there so passion in the first place.
Jack: And he left about a year ago.
Jason: Yeah, he left about a year ago, yeah.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. Now with Talking Heads music its been consistent, over the years, quite rhythmically complex, you know the rhythm and the way that it comes together. How challenging is it to recreate that on stage for the audience.
John: I suppose, well, we all come from bands that have either played funk or played Latin. And jazz for yourself, and you could say that I suppose the people we’ve got in the band reflect all those musical choices.
Jack: And they bring those influences with them and it’s great having Mike on percussion because I think that really helps with the….
Jason: And that adds the complexity.
Jack: Yeah its adds to the complexity and the authenticity of it all.
John: Yeah so Sol and Mike they played a lot of that in bands me and Jase we played in loads of funk bands and those influences all come together in that kind of golden period of the sort of Afro beats.
Jason: So I’d say we’re kind of quite comfortable in those genres.
John: Yeah, we like that stuff.
Jason: Yeah, it’s kind of in our wheelhouse, really.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. And how much influence does the… stop making sense film have?
John: Well, that was an iconic film. I would say a lot of people visually refer back to it because it had a particular look, and it was very… Yeah, sort of an iconic moment. But actually, in terms of the band history, it was only a particular moment, and there were lots of earlier stuff that they did, which is quite interesting, a lot of the later stuff, which again, it’s really interesting to dip into. I think we managed to do the full range, I think.
Jack: Yes, I think so too.
Jason: It’s an inspirational film though, I would say.
Jack: Yeah, for sure.
Jason: It’s probably something that everyone can kind of remember as being a standout film, standout performance, standout moment for the band and something for us to refer to as a bit of a blueprint.
Jack: I’ll tell you what’s really nice is to see so many young people come along and they know the songs and they’re singing along and it’s brilliant. So all ages come along, don’t they?
Jason: Yeah, surprisingly, yeah.
Jack: People really like it.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. How difficult, or is it difficult for you to channel that energy of David Byrne into the performance?
Jack: Well, there’s a lot of lyrics to learn. So I’ve been in the band, what, five, six months? Five months?
Jason: It’s a long time, isn’t it?
Jack: No, not really. Oh, I’ll tell you that one. Yeah, anyway, only a few months. So it was a steep learning curve, but now that I’ve learned the songs, I do find it quite easy to just channel that energy even given my age which I not going to disclose But yeah it is a high energy and there always a lot of sweat but I love it and I really get into it and live it while Im on stage, yeah I love it.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. And looking at your website and looking at your upcoming dates Portsmouth feels like it’s the beginning of something that’s going to be moving on now to 2027 by the look of it. Does that carry a different type of energy when you’re moving forward from tonight being sort of like the first night and then knowing that you’ve got these days set for the next several months?
Jason: Yeah, I’d say that we’re looking to possibly add some more material and maybe make some little adjustments to the set because as we go forward it’s going to be nice to know that we’ve got these gigs coming up and to use it as an opportunity to add to the stage.
Jack: And I think that’s all the easier when we do have a gig every couple of weeks or something, you get a bit of the momentum and confidence grows and then it’s easier to add a couple of new tunes and stuff.
Jason: I think it’s just to evolve as well. We like to keep things moving forward so we don’t necessarily keep things rigid if something happens and we go oh we like the way that that happened then let’s try to remember that for next time so we always try and let things evolve it’s important.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. What do you think keeps Talking Heads music so relevant so many decades later?
John: Well you can see how many people have been inspired by it you can see how many people sampled Genius of Love. You only have to see how that music is sort of being hooked on and riffed on by people down the line and the reverence that people still have for David Byrne and his music is still relevant now.
Jason: It’s difficult to put your finger on why though isn’t it it just is one of those things that just seems to, it never seems to get old or get boring.
John: It’s inspirational, he plays risk so the fact that so many of his songs get referred back to by other artists. People will reference David Byrne, people, you know, you could argue that at various points lots of bands started playing funky Afrobeat style because of Talking Heads. You know, you could argue that Blondie took on that from playing in a pop band to suddenly thinking OK no, disco groove that’s where its at. And you can yeah Yeah.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. Is there one particular song in the set where you really feel that the audience does connect? Is there one that really stands out?
John: That’s a lot more sing-along factor, isn’t it?
Jack: It’s Burning Down the House, When I Go Crazy, Psycho Killer, of course.
Jason: This Must Be the Place.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of iconic numbers that people really latch onto and sing along.
Jason: I mean that’s the great thing about this band is that people are involved in it almost immediately and they’re almost singing along from the first bar which is great for us it makes it so much easier.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. What can audiences expect tonight?
John: Oh a good time.
Jack: Definitely a good time.
Jason: At the moment it kind of feels like we’re riding a really good wave we were enjoying every gig seems to be great isn’t it the ending was great and we’re all enjoying the freshness of having Jack in the band because he’s just been brilliant he’s kind of moved things forward in many ways very positive and so you know I think everyone’s enjoying themselves on stage everyone’s just picking up on that.
Jack: yeah it’s infectious I think for the audience and then it comes back again from the audience and when they’re enjoying themselves we’re yeah it’s great.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. have you found younger audiences discovering talking heads through you guys.
John: Oh yeah it’s amazing how it does have a real mix of ages come along and i think that goes back to your question before about how talking heads has inspired generations on the way people refer back to it it’s a reference point musically and so we did get a real a real range of ages coming up.
Jack: that’s a great question yeah.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) Q. Thank you very much gentlemen that has been great is there anything else you would like to add?
Jack You know what I was thinking about on the way down here I was thinking that in this age of social media everyone on their phones AI I think live music is ever more important and I think you know we’ve got to keep it alive I think people really appreciate it.
Jason: So come and see us.
Jack: Come we’re real people.
Bryan (Music Scene Magazine) – brilliant thank you very much thank you.