Glam spoke to Temper Trap, the band behind smash hit “Sweet Disposition”, ahead of their Sold Out show at Fat Controller tonight as part of the venue’s 2nd Birthday Celebration.
Thick as Thieves is your first album which features co-writing with people outside the band. Were you initially reluctant or excited about this prospect and how did it come about?
I think we’ve always been open to new ways of pushing ourselves as a band. Early in the 3rd album writing sessions, Dougy took one of our demo’s to Malay, who’s worked with Frank Ocean among many others, and he brought a really unique perspective to the song. From then on we were really open to what other people could bring to our process.
With Joseph absorbing Lorenzo’s role as guitarist, it must have affected your arrangements. How do you find this has impacted the band’s music?
Going back to a four piece has worked really well. It’s made the arrangements a lot leaner and i think that works really well on stage. Joseph really stepped up his playing to take over from Loz and brings his own style to the music.
The Temper Trap etched its way into Australian music culture with your hit single Sweet Disposition, which also went onto have some international acclaim, particularly in the US. What are the benefits and pitfalls of being remembered by many because of that one track?
Sweet Disposition opened so many doors for us and introduced our music to a wider audience all around the world so it’s always gonna have a significant place in our hearts. We’ve played it countless times but the reaction and energy from the audience always make’s it feel special.
You’ve come out of the rich Melbourne music scene, which has produced too many amazing rock bands to list. How did that scene shape the band and what venues did you play when you were cutting your teeth?
Melbourne set a pretty high bar for bands when we were coming up. It meant you had to really push yourself to stand out from the crowd because there were so many fantastic bands playing every night. Jonny and I organized a lot of our own gigs at St Jeromes, and threw parties around Melbourne so we could play in the early years and of course the usual haunts like The Espy, The Tote, 161. We used to drive up to Sydney almost every other weekend too and they really embraced us up there when we first got going.
Fat Controller has become one of the best venues in Adelaide and a joy for many interstate and international bands to play. What do you like about playing indoor clubs and rock venues, compared to big outdoor festivals, like the ones you used to play some years ago?
It’s great to play some more intimate venues again and makes a nice change from the big festivals we played through the euro summer. There’s something about the energy in a sweaty rock club that’s hard to beat.
What can Adelaide fans expect in terms of the setlist this Friday night?
We’ve pulled out a couple of tunes from the early days that plenty of people may not have seen live and there’s a couple of new ones in the set’s we’ve been playing in Sydney and Melbourne. We don’t get to play too much in Adelaide so we’re excited to get out there.
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