"Touch-Tone Telephone" is a song by

Lemon Demon Lemon Demon is a musical project and band created by American comedian and musician Neil Cicierega in 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts. Lemon Demon's studio work is performed solely by Cicierega, who is the project's sole official member. Live per ...

, a musical project created by American musician

Neil Cicierega Neil Stephen Cicierega ( ; born August 23, 1986) is an American musician, filmmaker, YouTuber, and animator. He is known as the creator of '' Potter Puppet Pals'', " The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", and various music albums under the ...

. It was released on February 29, 2016, as the second track of Lemon Demon's seventh studio album, ''

Spirit Phone ''Spirit Phone'' is the seventh studio album by Lemon Demon, a musical project created by American musician Neil Cicierega. The album was released digitally through Bandcamp on February 29, 2016, marking his first full-length album in eight yea ...

'', and as a

wax cylinder Phonograph cylinders (also referred to as Edison cylinders after its creator Thomas Edison) are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their heyday (c. 1896–1916), a name which ...

single on May 23, 2023.

Background

In 2009, Cicierega produced a demo titled "Ivanushka", based on the plot of the film ''

Jack Frost Jack Frost is a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. He is a variant of Old Man Winter who is held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, a ...

''. This demo would later be adapted into "Touch-Tone Telephone". Following four years of development, 11 previews of songs intended for ''Spirit Phone'' were showcased in 2012, with "Touch-Tone Telephone" featured as the unnamed penultimate song. The song would release on ''

'' on February 29, 2016. In ''Spirit Phone''s 2018 commentary, Cicierega states that the song's perspective is from "a dedicated caller into a radio show who has it all figured out", calling it a "big rant of preemptive defensiveness and saying you're going to do something without ever doing it".

Composition

"Touch-Tone Telephone" is an uptempo new wave song. It instrumentally features strings, bass, drums, synth, and keytar, with '' the Collegian'' describing its "whimsical sound" as reminiscent of Lemon Demon's fourth studio album, ''Damn Skippy'' (2005). The song's hook contains embellishments of piano and violin underneath Cicierega singing the song's title, with the bridge using a phone ringing sound effect to set up a

crescendo In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation by the performer depending ...

into the final chorus. Following the lyrical end of the song, "Touch-Tone Telephone" closes with a minute of experimental synthesizers, described by ''the Vector'' as "melting into space". Cicierega composed this portion to decompress the song and create a

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...

that transitions into "

Cabinet Man "Cabinet Man" is a song by American pop band Lemon Demon, a musical project created by American musician Neil Cicierega. It appears as track three of Lemon Demon's seventh studio album, ''Spirit Phone'', which was released on February 29, 2016. Th ...

Music video

A music video for "Touch-Tone Telephone" directed by Chris Spargo was released on October 30, 2020. The video stars Tom Wohlfahrt, who dances and acts out the song's lyrics in a room with an evidence board, a

push-button telephone A push-button telephone is a telephone that has buttons or keys for dialing a telephone number, in contrast to a rotary dial used in earlier telephones. Western Electric experimented as early as 1941 with methods of using mechanically activated ...

, and a

projector A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer type ...

. After the creation of the video's concept, filming took four days and production took three weeks, intending to match its close release date to

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

with the paranormal themes of ''Spirit Phone''. Initially released unofficially, it later received approval from Cicierega to represent the song in film festivals.

Awards and nominations

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Oxford International Film Festival The Oxford International Film Festival or OIFF (not to be confused with the Oxford International Film Festival, OXIFF, based in Oxford, England) was established in Oxford, Ohio, US in 2007 by founder and event director J.C. Schroder. Festival his ...

, rowspan="3", Best Music Video , rowspan="3", "Touch-Tone Telephone" , , , - , Birmingham Film Festival , , rowspan="2", , - ,

Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It i ...

Reception

Mashable Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...

'' included "Touch-Tone Telephone" on their 2019

playlist, calling the song one of many "real gems". It additionally received inclusion on

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

" Grimace's Birthday" playlist. "Touch-Tone Telephone" has amassed over 100 million streams across

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, making it Lemon Demon's biggest song.

Personnel

– vocals, instruments, programming, engineering, production *

Mark Kramer Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

– remastering *

Angel Marcloid Angel Marcloid (born September 24, 1984), best known by her main pseudonym and project Fire-Toolz, is an American experimental multi-instrumentalist, record producer, mix and mastering engineer, and visual artist who creates music blending a numbe ...

– remastering * Ming Doyle – cover artwork

References

External links

Lemon Demon official website''Spirit Phone''
on the Lemon Demon Bandcamp
''Spirit Phone''
on the Needlejuice Records Bandcamp {{Neil Cicierega Lemon Demon songs 2016 songs Songs about telephones Songs about telephone calls Songs about conspiracy theories