Interview The Temper Trap: ‘It’s Important To Keep Yourself Entertained’

Second Album Syndrome is a phrase so frequently used that it should perhaps be classified as medical terminology – because, unlike many thrown-around pieces of musical jargon, it is a real issue. After battling through the sky-high expectations of the hype, the huge excitement of the first tour outing, and then managing to put out a decent debut effort, a band is left with another massive prospect – do it all again, but better. It’s not every day you get an emerging guitar band on a small label producing a double gold album in a flourish, and after shifting a cool 800,000 album units and penning the notorious chart-topping ‘Sweet Disposition’, The Temper Trap have the rather unenviable task of living up to ‘Conditions’. The bar is set very high indeed; not that this is a major worry for singer Dougy Mandagi. The run-away success of ‘Conditions’ was “very much an unexpected thing,” he says rather modestly, but despite hearing their music soundtracking everything from indie flick 500 Days Of Summer to the Coca-Cola advert, The Temper Trap aren’t particularly fazed. “The second album is something totally different; its own entity. Whether or not it gets the same reception as ‘Conditions’, I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out soon. I don’t feel any pressure though.”

Despite seeming almost entirely unperturbed by the buzz of expectation around follow-up album ‘The Temper Trap’, the band does acknowledge the need to keep things fresh. “It’s important to keep yourself entertained as an artist,” explains Dougy; “and it’s important to keep the creative juices flowing, not to be stagnant. There’s nothing worse than putting out the same record twice. We’ve managed to move on, but kept the good things about us, about the band and the sound that worked in the last album.” When I ask Dougy about the choice to self-title this second album, and whether - to use the journalistic cliché - The Temper Trap have ‘found themselves’ as a band, he just laughs. “We just couldn’t agree on a name to be honest. There’s a lot of people to please in this camp, so we just decided there was no harm in not naming it.” Album title squabbles aside, The Temper Trap do seem more settled. Bringing in a new member along with different musical directions, the band have also been making the most of producer Tony Hoffer, who has previously worked with M83, Phoenix and Belle & Sebastian. Dougy talks highly of Hoffer for his “freezer,” less polished recording style, and says it allowed the band to “explore something else sonically, to move on from the last record and progress”. On the settling in process for the new keyboard player, the band seem protective and it’s clear he’s now a fully-fledged member of the group. “Of course it changed the dynamic,” Dougy says, laughing, and hastily adding “in a good way” so as not to sound hostile. “It’s always going to stir the water if someone else comes into the picture, but I think he’s played quite a pivotal role in the whole thing. He seems to be adjusting very well.”

The tender, fragile falsetto tones that defined ‘Conditions’ are still very much present, presumably one of the components The Temper Trap wisely saw fit to keep firmly at the centre of the band’s sound. On the debut we had our fair share of grief-fraught lyrics like “Our love was lost / In the rubble are all the things / That you’ve, you’ve been dreaming of,” and that sentiment is also clearly here on the follow-up. Although he finds it hard to pin the album down to one theme, this next record, Dougy says, is about similar things to ‘Conditions’ - but it’s only “half and half” about break-ups this time round. On writing lyrics Dougy explains; “It’s kind of mixed. Some of the songs are break-up songs, but then we’ve got other things going on, like in our song called ‘London’s Burning’. The band, like many Londoners, were trapped in their east London home during the height of last summer’s riots, and the riots, among other things have led towards the band “writing about different themes here and there.”

The Temper Trap have taken a very open approach towards the release of this second album, and European listeners can already hear the first single ‘Need Your Love’ on Spotify, along with stripped back acoustic number ‘Rabbit Hole’. With talk about free streaming destroying the music industry flying round hither and thither, Dougy has his own opinions about whole fiasco. “It definitely has an upside, it means that your music gets to the fans way before you can. People will have already grown familiar with your songs, there’s more anticipation”. Dougy also points out that even though Spotify might effect music sales, it does make selling out rooms on tour a whole lot easier. The new era of social networking does have its perks, and The Temper Trap are excellent at using this to their advantage. With an active Twitter feed manned by two band members, they are very media savvy; with Dougy reasoning “that’s the way that music is heading.” The Temper Trap do seem to value connecting with fans above and beyond other bands though – in fact, despite not feeling pressurised by critics, they really do seem to care what their fans think. Dougy tells me the band are always conscious of “what the fans want; they want to feel like they’re somehow playing a part, or I think they just want to feel closer to the artist and to the whole process.”

Having finished recording ‘The Temper Trap’, the band can’t wait to hit the road. Taking the five-piece across America, Australia, and Europe, before culminating in a headline set at Truck Festival on the little old island of Great Britain, extensive is somewhat of an understatement, but Dougy is characteristically relaxed about the whole thing. “We love touring, we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Writing was good, recording was really fun, but it’s great to finish with that and start a new kind of phase - touring. It’s really where all the fun begins.” “You can expect new songs,” says Dougy before cackling to himself, “but no, seriously, it’s early days but obviously we’re going to do the best that we can to put on a good show. I think this time round people can expect a little more production, we’re going to use more visuals and whatnot.”

What’s next for the band, I ask. In typical Australian fashion, The Temper Trap have got their priorities sorted. “Obviously we’ll move onto another album eventually, but I think we’ll probably just all go off on a nice holiday,” says Dougy. After the huge, and initially unexpected popularity of ‘Conditions’ many bands might be at least a bit overwhelmed, but The Temper Trap seem thoroughly relaxed. It’s nice to talk to a band who genuinely love making music for their fans, and you know what, I think that after a follow up like this, a holiday is extremely well deserved.

The Temper Trap’s self-titled new album will be released on 21st May via Infectious Music.

Taken from the May 2012 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.