Music
Fresh List
Ticketmaster Fresh List 2026 – Telekura
We sat down with Dublin-based collective Telekura to talk about their wide net of influences, '90s tele-dating services, and the concept of wonk.
Can you introduce yourselves?
Risa: Hi, I’m Risa.
Rachel: I’m Rachel.
Liam: I’m Liam.
Mike: I’m Mike.
Rachel: And we’re Telekura, Ticketmaster’s Fresh List Artist of the Month.
How did the band start?
Rachel: The band started with myself and Stephen, who’s not here, but he’s very much part of the band. We met a couple of years ago, and we just started writing together. And then over time, we found this amazing group of people, and they came on board the Telekura project, and this is where we are today.
How would you describe your music?
Liam: Oh, we describe it mainly as psychedelic synth pop.
Rachel: A bit of wonk. Wonky.
Liam: A bit of wonk, yeah. It’s a bit of everything put into one, from rock to synth pop. Yeah, it’s all of our own influences mashed into one, really.
Who are your influences?
Risa: Classical musicians, like Chopin. Mainly Chopin.
Mike: Mine would mainly be kind of heavy music. Either heavy rock or metal music, but then I try and bring a kind of MGMT influence to Telekura. That’s the closest synth pop band I can think of!
Liam: Mine is all grunge-based, so Alice in Chains, Nirvana, your usual bits of just modern rock all the way up to punk and everything.
Rachel: And all of this kind of just melds into whatever it is you hear on our tracks… which is where the wonk comes from!
How did you come up with your name?
Rachel: So there’s a video game called Yakuza, and in this game, there’s a side quest, which involves a telekura, and a telekura is a phone-based dating service that was popular in Japan in the ’90s. So it kind of stems from there. And back then (when we started), we were doing a lot of the writing of the songs remotely, so it felt quite apt to have a band name that was really about phones and interacting through the phone, which was how we started.
What would be your dream venue to play?
Rachel: Wembley!
Liam: For me, it’s always been Vicar Street. It’s a dream. It’s-it’s in the distance, I can imagine, but that’s one of mine anyway.
Mike: Mine would be the 3Olympia Theatre. I think, that’s where I’ve seen most of my favourite gigs before.
Rachel: I would love to play in the mountains in Japan, Fuji Rock Fest.
Liam: Oh yeah.
Risa: For me, I’d love to play in The Academy because I’ve been there once. It’s so nice, and I think it’s realistic. We could play there.
Liam: Absolutely, I like that.
Do you have any backstage rituals?
Rachel: Ooh.
Liam: Drink.
*laughs*
Rachel: Pace nervously. Just pace.
Liam: It’s a lot of pacing.
Rachel: It’s a lot of pacing! I have to do a 15-minute vocal warm-up, and then Liam gets annoyed with me.
Liam: That sounds awful! No I don’t!
Rachel: But no, I think we have a pretty relaxed, pre-show.
Liam: Yeah, pretty chill.
Rachel: I think we just need a quiet space to reflect.
Liam: Oh, that’s deep.
Rachel: Yeah, that’s deep.
What has been your most memorable live experience?
Liam: Oh, there’s a few…
Risa: For me, I guess Button Factory. That was the biggest stage we ever played at the time, and also that was the first time that they announced our band name. Like “this is Telekura!” I was like, “wow, we are so big!”. Like it was like (we were) a big star!
Liam: We’re famous now!
Mike: I’d probably pick that one as well. I was actually in the crowd for that one. I wasn’t playing, but it was really cool to see you on that stage, on the big one, and have the big backdrop behind you and everything. And yeah, I thought it was just… you looked serious!
Liam: Looked the real deal yeah. I don’t know what mine would be. It could have been at Opium opening for Nation of Language. That was cool. That was really cool. Really enjoyed that one.
Rachel: Mine was when my guitar pick flew out of my hand, and then I swapped picks immediately without missing a beat.
Who would be on your dream festival line up?
Mike: Would it be a like a bigger known band that’s opening for us, or would it be like a local act or one of our friends?
Liam: Well it’s a dream so…
Rachel: Mitski opening for Telekura!
Liam: I think we would go quite well with LCD Soundsystem, but I don’t know if they’d open for us… We might have to open for them. I would say.
Rachel: I don’t think Mitski would open for us.
Liam: No, I don’t think she would. I think we could get Tame Impala as an opener?
*laughs*
Liam: Yeah, I don’t know who else.
Rachel: Jeff Buckley?
Liam: Oh, who else were we listening to recently? Oh, I can’t think of the name. Synth Pop…
Rachel: Chopin?
*laughs*
How do you approach songwriting?
Rachel: It usually starts with a lot of sounds, just random sounds, kind of thrown together or bashed out on synths, and then the idea of the lyrics or what the song is about, that’s a little bit of stream of consciousness. So we’re always writing, whether it’s just little notes that we leave in our phones, etc. And then it’s a bit of a matching exercise as well with the tunes that we’ve built up over time. So that’s kind of the gist of it.
Who would be your dream collaboration?
Liam: Oh God, we’re clearly bad with famous names.
Mike: I’ll go King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Yeah, because they cover all styles of music, so I feel they’d be able to collaborate with us.
Liam: We could do an Angine de Poitrine little hook up there. That’d be cool.
Rachel: For me, St. Vincent would be a dream.
Risa: I don’t know, like Noah Kahan, like big country, but then you know, mixed with our pop, so (it would) be cool.
Liam: That should have been our festival lineup.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Rachel: For me, in relation to like, making music, it’s, if you’re not having fun, and if you’re not enjoying it, then rethink it.
If you were to recommend people listen to one of your tracks, that gives the best idea of who you are and what you sound like what would that track be?
Rachel: ‘bird watching’?
Liam: Oh yeah. Yeah, I think so. That’s us.
Mike: Yeah. I think it kind of captures everything in one song. Yeah, kind of captures everything about the band in one song.
What has been your career highlight to date?
Rachel: I think opening for Nation of Language is still the biggest one for us. I think Singular Artists as well, like letting us do that-that’s just a huge vote of confidence. So we’re always grateful for it.
Where can fans see you next?
Mike: Our debut headline gig will be in Whelan’s Upstairs, Dublin on the 27 November.
What are your plans for the next year?
Rachel: Lots of gigs. Gig as much as we can.
Liam: Grow to be bigger than The Beatles. I think it’s realistic. I think it’s very realistic.
Telekura play their debut headline show at Upstairs at Whelan’s, Dublin on 27 November 2026.
Artists can submit themselves for consideration for the Fresh List here.
