If only Rolling Stone magazine could have seen them! Temper Trap singer Dougy Mandagi, guitarist Lorenzo Sillito, keyboardist Joseph Greer and drummer Toby Dundas holed up in a Los Angeles hotel room, not on a wild rock ‘n roll bender, but charged with looking after a newborn baby girl, so bassist Johnny Aherne could treat his wife to a romantic dinner a deux.
Charmingly the indie rockers couldn’t have been happier to take on babysitting duties for baby Stella. “She’s very smiley” says Mangay, his rockstar swagger softening. “We love her, she’s adorable – and she’s actually featured in one of the new songs.”
Indeed the multi-award winning, Melbourne via London, band is back with their second, self-titled album, and their new ‘mascot’ has a starring role in Miracle. After a routine pregnancy scan, Aherne’s wife sent drummer Dundas the recording of the baby’s heartbeat. He dropped it into a song as a gag, and surprisingly it sounded great. “Straight away it worked with the beats and ended up inspiring Dougie’s lyrics,” says the drummer.
They’ve come a long way since they burst onto the musical scene in 2009 with the huge international hit Sweet Disposition, follow by the top selling album Conditions and countless sell out shows around the world. “If you let yourself, you can experience a lot in two years,” says Mangay, “and we did. We went through a gamut of emotions, it was a rollercoaster ride of craziness.”
Fortunately the boys are as tight as ever, bantering with the ease of living in close confines on the road. In fact Greer, a long time touring member, was recently made a permanent member, a responsibility he takes seriously, much to Mangay’s amusement. “There’s probably more of an ownership on everything,” he says, and there’s the responsibility to ‘represent’’. “Be cool,” jokes the lead singer “and make me look good.”
It was the first time Greer had written with the group. After a brief hiatus post-tours, they got together in a London studio, starting with a clean slate and a handful of new instruments to play with. It was obviously a fairly democratic process. “One of us will start doing something and generally if two other people start doing something around it, then it has legs and we start to explore it,” says Mangay. There are always surprises. Mangay remembers an early version of a song now called Dreams, which he was fond of but the others loathed. “You guys said it reminded you of Three Blind Mice,” he says, “That song was huge, it was a hit.” Killing time in between sessions, they had another go, and now its one of the group’s favourite songs on the album.
“Obviously that song did amazing things
for this band
but it totally eclipsed the album.”
The lyrics on this album are darker than earlier songs, which is just the way Mangay likes them. “When I’m happy, I don’t really feel that inspired to write and then if I do have to write, then I’ll try to find some misery somewhere to talk about.” Unfortunately inspiration wasn’t lacking, with Mangay just emerging from a relationship break up when writing. For a moment he looks crestfallen, staring down at his hands adorned with heavy silver rings. Then he looks up: “At least something good came out of it, otherwise it would have been a total waste of time,” he laughs.
Another source of inspiration landed literally on his doorstep. All five live in Hackney, one of the hot spots in last year’s London riots. “It was quite a significant moment and I thought we need to capture it,” he says of the song London’s Burning.
Music critics will no doubt dub their second outing a more mature effort, a deliberate choice on the band’s behalf. “Conditions had quite a broad range of style, this album is even broader,” says Dundas, “we don’t want to limit ourselves to one, just doing the same song over and over.” Of course the ghost of Sweet Disposition lurks but Mangay says he’s not fussed with replicating its success. “Obviously that song did amazing things for this band but it totally eclipsed the album.” This time he’d like people to see the strength in the album as an entirety. Adds Toby: “I think we all feel like there are songs on this record that will knock that song out of the water.”
And they can’t wait to get out and play the songs in a string of shows starting this month. Their live shows are legendary, something they work hard at, rehearsing endlessly. It’s all worth it in the end. “Our job is really easy,” says Mangay “when the crowd gets into it.” Odds are, there’s unlikely to be a problem there then.
Published in Vogue Australia July 2012
WHY DON’T YOU READ:
Delta Goodrem on her highly anticipated new album
