Self-described as “power-chord nostalgia,” Telecine is a four-man indie rock group from Boulder, Colorado. The members — Filip Casey, Owen Helfer, Andras Szalay and Ethan Patel — originally started making music together earlier this year after they realized each of them knew how to play the instruments that traditionally form a band — bass, guitar and drums. 

Even with only three songs out on streaming platforms, Telecine is actively performing at local venues, and it was not until after their first performance that they began writing original works. Casey described the band’s music as being “a bit of a distorted sound and bringing back early 2000s indie rock.”

While lyrically their songs are “a little absurd,” Casey said they always want to have meaning behind them. Their goal is to get people to feel without taking themselves too seriously. 

Casey and Helfer said their favorite lyric they have written is from an unreleased song, going “If I smoke every cigarette in this gas station/ do a line of dick pills off a losing scratch ticket,” which should give a good insight to the energy this band is going for. 

“Even if there is one part that people are like ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ that’s enough for me,” Helfer added. 

As a very new band, Telecine has played a little over four gigs and has gradually seen more engagement with their music. While a lot of recently started music groups find social media helpful as an outlet for finding new listeners, Casey said their Instagram was more beneficial from an organizational perspective. 

“While we want to have a presence and for people to know what we are doing, we want the focus to be on what we are actually doing,” Casey said, addressing how Telecine is more focused on their music than social media content. They try to maintain their presence without oversaturating their page, which Helfer said can be hit or miss. 

Helfer noted that because social media is hard to predict, posts they think will do well, such as a music video, can end up getting less interactions than show announcements. The benefit Telecine sees in their social media is having an official way to contact venues. 

In the future, Telecine is looking to release an album, at least before the members graduate. All four members are majoring in physics, computer science, aerospace and mechanical engineering, respectively, and Telecine is mostly a passion project for each of them. “It’s all very circumstantial,” Casey said about the band continuing post-graduation. 

With three songs out, Telecine is worth a listen to if you want to see what four STEM majors do in their free time. I personally enjoy “In The Grass,” and am excited to listen to more of their work. Telecine is available to listen to on most streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music. 

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