Interview: The Temper Trap
So without further ado, here’s our latest interview with The Temper Trap:Meet You At The Show: So how long have you guys been on the road?
Jonathon Aherne: We’ve actually been on tour for three weeks. Our last show was in Cleveland. We’re doing a show in Toronto tonight (March 30th).
MYATS: Oh, so that will be your first Canadian date on the tour?
JA: Yup.
MYATS: Cool, so how’s the tour been going so far?
JA: Really well man. We’re touring throughout the United-States, and we’ve played in Toronto before and it was such an epic show for us. It was one of our highlights of our last tour. Yeah so the USA has been really cool. We’re getting to see a lot of places and cities I didn’t really knew existed. It’s been a blast.
MYATS: It must be exciting when you look down the list of shows you have lined up and see how many of them are already sold out.
JA: Yeah it’s very surprising to be honest. I mean, I’ve heard that a bunch of the shows are sold out but then you hear the capacities of some of these shows and we’re just like “What!” We played this show the other day that was like one thousand, four hundred and it sold out in a day, so it’s pretty crazy.
MYATS: That’s amazing. Well we are actually a Montreal based website. Have you ever played in Montreal before?
JA: No, but we’re really looking forward to going there. None of us have even been there before.
MYATS: Oh really? I read on your twitter page that you were learning how to make poutine?
JA: Man that would have been our guitarist Lorenzo (Sillitto). He’s the twitter dude. So yeah I guess he must be doing that.
MYATS: Oh okay! Well if you have a chance you should definitely try some while you’re here.
JA: Oh cool!
MYATS: Montreal is renowned for it’s rich music scene. Could you give us some insight as to what the music scene is like in Australia?
JA: The city I live in, Melbourne, is classed as one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world and I think that sort of transcends into the music. The radio plays music from everywhere and it’s very inviting for young bands. There’s a lot of little pubs and a lot of music venues that are still rockin’. Sadly some of that stuff is getting closed down. But yeah we’ve sort of burst out of that.
MYATS: Why are they getting closed down?
JA: There’s this thing, well you guys call it liqueur licensing. Well they’re doing this sort of blanket license that you have to pay a bunch of money monthly to have this license, so all these music venues, places that kids have been going to for you know like 20-30 years, these sort of really monumental venues, some of them are getting closed down. It’s a real pity and quite ignorant. There’s been some protests going on in my hometown at the moment about that. Their fighting for a change in that but yeah it’s a bit of a bummer.
MYATS: Well I’m sorry to hear that. So speaking of the Australian music scene, could you give us some insight on any up and coming Australian bands that haven’t really made it big in North America yet but that you think are destined for success?
JA: Oh man! I’m not sure exactly label-wise what’s happening with these guys but they’re starting to get a lot of label attention, and they’re playing Coachella. They’re called The Middle East.
MYATS: Oh yeah I’ve heard of them.
JA: Yeah, ok. Props to those guys. I’ll give a shout out to them!
MYATS: So let’s talk a little bit about the music. I think it’s pretty safe to say that “Sweet Disposition” is your biggest song, it’s getting played pretty much all over the place. Did you ever think while that song was being created that it would be as big as it is?
JA: No, none of us had any idea that that song would have a response in the way that it has. When that song was written it was Lorenzo, our guitarist that sort of came in with that lick and that song came together really quickly and it was right before we recorded the album. It’s ironic, if we had recorded two months before like we had been planning on, that song wouldn’t have even been on the album. So it’s funny how things like that sort of happen.
MYATS: So do you literally have a line of people banging down the door to try and get rights to that song to put it in their movie or commercial or whatnot?
JA: Yeah definitely. Your thankful and honoured by that, you know that people dig the song. There’s quite a bit of it (laughs), we’ve had to turn down a few things. But also we’ve said yes to a few things as well and that’s really helped us in everywhere we’ve gone around the world. There’s 500 Days of Summer that it was put in, and the Diet Coke ad. How many viewers do they have for the Oscars? I think it’s something like 60 or 70 million or something like that. It’s been quite amazing.
MYATS: I heard that you just shot a new video for the song is that right?
JA: (laughs) Yeah it’s the third video for that song, it’s ridiculous.
MYATS: Why did you guys decide to shoot another one?
JA: We really didn’t want to. The label that we’re with Columbia, was just like “Ah that video’s not right for this market, we need to give you another one”. So yeah, it’s our third video for that song, we’re sick of making videos for that song.
MYATS: Due to the success of Conditions, do you feel any sort of pressure when writing new material that you have to live up to that album and it’s greatness?
JA: Yeah I think so. We haven’t had a chance to get in the studio at all but there’s definitely pressure. We’re all very opinionated and everyone in the band sort of writes the music and everyone plays guitar and you wish that you could just block out everything and hopefully that’s what will happen, we’ll just write a bunch of tunes and let it be what it is. There’s one song on Conditions, “Fader” that was sort of purposely written. Toby and Dougie were like “let’s write a pop song”, so they wrote a pop song, but every other song on the album has been like just us enjoying the tunes and writing. But there’s definitely a pressure and I don’t know how to explain it but we’re looking forward to having an opportunity to start writing again, which actually isn’t going to happen for like nine months.
MYATS: Yeah you guys have a seriously long tour ahead of you.
JA: Yeah along with the stuff that’s on the myspace, there’s a bunch of stuff that’s unannounced. You know it’s pretty much gonna be solid for nine months with heaps of shows.
MYATS: Alright, well congratulations on all the success you guys have had and we look forward to your Montreal show!
JA: Cool thank you, I’ll see you there.
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We would like to again thank Jonathon Aherne and the rest of the band for taking the time to chat with us. Be sure to check out The Temper Trap live tonight at The Cabaret Juste Pour Rire in what will surely be a great show. Tickets are $15.00 in advance and $17.00 at the door and can be purchased online here.
