Songfacts®:

• "Talk To You" explores the emotional aftermath of a long relationship that comes to an end. Sam Fender describes the pain of losing not just his romantic partner, but his closest companion, while wishing they could reconnect.
  
  "It's about the end of a long relationship," Fender explained. "About the regret, the mistakes, and the lessons that come with it. It's that feeling of losing your best friend, and coming to terms with that."
  
  Comparable to Fender's "Seventeen Going Under," which is about fighting your way out, "Talk To You" is about standing in the aftermath, wishing you could go back, just once more, and say the right thing.
• The second verse drops us into a specific scene, the Low Lights Tavern in North Shields, the seaside pub where Fender once pulled pints before being discovered. He's nursing guilt when his ex's uncle walks in, and instead of the showdown he braces for, he's met with kindness.
  
  "I self-flagellated and groveled," he sings, as the uncle quietly tells him to "come back." But then comes the gut punch: "I cheated, and it's over."
  
  This is the first time in the song that the specific reason for the breakup is revealed; Fender's infidelity has destroyed the relationship beyond repair.
• The track features Fender's signature heartland rock guitar style, layered with a rolling piano riff courtesy of Elton John. "I was playing around with the riff and thought, what I need is a really good pianist," Fender said. "Then I thought, hmm... who better than Elton John?"
  
  The two had been friends for years, and Elton loved the idea. "Sam was writing and recording in a studio in West London," he recalled. "He called to say he'd written a song with a piano riff that he thought would sound great with me playing it. I couldn't resist, and it was so much fun."
• "Talk to You" was recorded during the original People Watching sessions at British Grove Studios with producer Marcus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Florence + The Machine) and is included on the album's Deluxe edition. When Fender appeared on Elton's Rocket Hour on Apple Music 1, he admitted he wished the track had made the standard edition of People Watching. "By the time I finished writing, I had basically a whole other album's worth of stuff," he said.