The Temper Trap are riding the crest of a wave at the moment. They’re growing their following in the U.S. after a series of successful dates here, a packed SXSW show and some nice airtime on a Diet Coke ad that’s got America paying attention!  Sweet Disposition is riding high on the Billboard Hot Dance Chart, currently  at number #5 an on the rise. We got the chance to speak with Lorenzo from the band last week and are excited to share the interview with you. Check it out!

The Temper Trap Interview

Camille:  For those that aren’t familiar with the band, how did you guys get together and begin making music?

Lorenzo:  We probably got together around 5 years ago and basically what happened was Dougie was working in a clothing store at the time called General Pants and that’s where he met Toby, our drummer, and he kind of persued Toby and asked him if he was interested in playing in a band and Toby was sort of reluctant at the time because he was already playing in another band, but eventually they got together and had a couple of practice sessions with another guitarist.  Then, basically, they needed a bass player and they ran into Jonny one day after work and they asked him to come along to the practice.  He went and that formation went on for about six months and then they went through a couple guitarists and I had been playing in another band that had played at the same venues as them at the time and my band had broken up and then I joined the band later on.  But I had known Toby from the age of 13, so we were already quite good friends, so that’s kind of how we got together.

Camille:  Did you guys always want to make music together?  When you were growing up as a child, was that something you wanted to get involved in?

Lorenzo:  With Toby?  When we were probably about 14 or 15, we used to play Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins covers and stuff in a little rehearsal space at school, but I think it was mainly just to play with someone, rather than actually thinking about being in a professional band.  It was just kind of one of those things at lunchtime we could do, rather than playing football or just hanging out.  For me, personally, it wasn’t really until I was out of school for a few years and I kind of thought, “Well maybe I’ll start a band and try and get some gigs” and then took it more seriously as the more gigs we played came in.

Camille:  You guys had an EP a couple of years ago and then you’ve now gone on and made the album “Conditions”.  What were your inspirations behind the album?

Lorenzo:  We were touring a lot between Melbourne and Sydney and during that time we listened to a lot of music and the albums we were listening to were, like the first Band of Horses record, “Return to Cookie Mountain” by TV on the Radio, “In Rainbows”, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust”, and a few other albums like that.  Those were the kinds of things that were really influencing us at the time and the kind of music that we wanted to make.  We wanted to make light, “epic” is a word that comes to mind, but is probably not the greatest description for it, just a big sound that was deep.  That’s kind of what was inspiring us at the time, those were the kinds of records we were listening to.

Camille:  The word I was going to use to describe “Sweet Disposition” was “epic”, actually.  There’s really no other word for it.  It’s been picked up by everything from the “(500) Days of Summer” soundtrack and now it’s in a Diet Coke commericial over here.  Do you find that’s given you a lot of added exposure?

Lorenzo:  Definitely with “(500) Days of Summer”, it gave us a lot of initial exposure when the advertising for the movie came out, the song was used for that.  Here in the States that definitely helped us, and also in other parts of the world as well, so yeah, I think it was very important.  And even the Diet Coke ad, more recently, has had a big impact on the kind of people that we’re getting out to our shows right now, because they’ve seen it.  Yeah, definitely, I think that that has had an impact on having more people come out.

Camille:  That’s cool.  You were just at SXSW, I think it was your second year over there.  How was the crowd different from the first time- did you have more people this time?  How did you enjoy playing it?

Lorenzo:  The main difference was that people had actually heard us this year.  Last year we were playing to a lot of record executives and a few people in the industry that had heard about us and maybe got a sample of our record from somewhere.  But this year, the people that were coming to our shows were people who were way more aware of our record than they were last year, so that was the big difference.  There were maybe more fans, per se, than actual industry people.

Camille:  When you were out there, did you get a chance to see any other bands play?

Lorenzo:  Yeah, I saw this band called Delta Spirit, which are a really good band.  I saw a little bit of Band of Horses, a little bit of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Local Natives.  The boys saw Warpaint and Surfer Blood and a few other new bands as well.  We saw a bit of stuff, but we were kind of only there for a very short time, so it was hard to get around.

Camille:  There are a bunch of different Australian bands that are making it big in the States at the moment.  Who are some of your favorite Australian bands that we may not have heard of over in the States yet?

Lorenzo:  Well, tell me which bands are making it big in the States because I’m interested.

Camille:  Well, there’s a few like Cut Copy.  Not huge, but in certain circuits.

Lorenzo:  Well, a good up and coming band which have been getting a lot of attention are called The Middle East.  They’re from Townsville, they’re a really good up and coming, young band from Australia that I think could probably do some good things this year.  The staple band that we like are a band called The Drones, they’ve been around for ages and they’re just quite an amazing band.  Sarah Blasko, she’s a good singer-songwriter that’s kind of coming out of Australia.  She’s had three records now, but she’s just starting to make an impact in the UK.  There’s probably a few other bands that I could think of that aren’t coming to me.

Camille:  You guys have been touring and doing a lot of promotion with this release.  Is there anything else that you guys are currently working on?  Are you thinking about the new record yet or are you just focusing on doing what you’ve got?

Lorenzo:  We’re constantly thinking about the next record and individually, I think we’re all making a concerted effort to come up with ideas so that when we finally do get the time to sit down and piece together the record, we’ve got a good catalog of things to work with.  But at the moment, it’s kind of hard with the schedule to get time together in the studio where we’re actually able to get out a structure and cut the fat off the songs and work it out so the four of us can have a say in each song.

Camille:  How does the creative process work with the four of you?  How do you go about writing songs together?

Lorenzo:  There’s no one formula of how we work together.  The most common way is someone will bring in an idea to the studio and we as a band will sit down and flush it out.  We’ll go “Ok, maybe we need to have this type of thing going on here.”.  We use a whiteboard, which I know is a very uncool way of looking at it, but it helps you visualize the song when you’re writing it so you know you have a chorus and a verse and you can kind of piece it together:  “We’ll have two verses and the chorus and then maybe we’ll do the middle eight.”  It kind of depends on the type of song that you’re writing, that’s how we do it together, but some songs someone might have a particular vision and they’ll come in with a fairly solid idea and it’s ready from start to finish, it just needs a few more little things done to it and then sometimes we jam and things will come out of that so it just depends.  However the songs sounds, we just go with it.

This must be something like the third video The Temper Trap have filmed for the epic track Sweet Disposition. I loved the first one also but this one’s great cause you get to see a bit more of the lovely Aussie lads. The piece was directed by Daniel Eskils (Caribou, Boys Noize), and was shot in the band’s hometown of Melbourne, Australia. The band is currently on a North American tour in support of their debut album Conditions. Earlier this week I got the chance to speak with Lornenzo from the band so watch this space for the interview!

Remaining tour dates include:

March 26: Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall, CD101 Low Dough Show
March 27: Cleveland, OH @ Cambridge House at HOB
March 30: Toronto, ONT @ Mod Club
March 31: Montreal, QUE @ The Cabaret du Musee Juste Pour Rire
April 2: New York, NY @ Webster Hall
April 3: Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
April 6: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
April 12: Dallas, TX @ Pontiac Garage at HOB
April 13: Austin, TX @ Emo’s
April 15: Tempe, AZ @ Clubhouse
April 17: Indio, CA @ Coachella

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Sweet Dreams vs Sweet Disposition

These guys are everywhere lately and I love it! They are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve in the U.S. Last week they stopped by The Craig Ferguson Show to perform Sweet Disposition. Check it out below!

Calling all The Temper Trap fans! We’ve got lovely posters (of the above image) signed by the band to giveaway! If you wanna get your hands on one all you have to do is become a fan on Facebook if you aren’t already and leave us a comment saying you wanna grab one. It’s as simply as that! Now get to it!