Jun 10, 2016
Today, The Temper Trap has released their third studio album, Thick As Thieves, which features the hit single “Fall Together.”
The Australian rock band with core members Dougy Mandagi (vocals), Jonny Aherne (bass Guitar), Toby Dundas (drums), and Joseph Greer (keyboards and guitar) are looking to bounce back after a three year break since their last album.
While the guys are adjusting to the changes from the departure of former guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto, after first listen of Thick As Thieves, I think they have adjusted quite well, and are in a good place.
I recently caught up with the guys before their San Francisco show to briefly get some insight on their new album (see below). The Temper Trap is currently out on a world tour in support of the new album, so be sure to find them at a city near you. Click here for tour dates, and click here to watch their Late Night with Conan O'Brien performance of “Fall Together.”
How did the “Thick As Thieves” become the name of the album?
Toby: Dougy had it as one of the songs, and then terms of it becoming the album title just kind of felt like a really good summation of the three or four years of things we’ve gone through. Our old guitarist (Lorenzo Sillitto) left, and some of the pressures that were around making the album since the last. There's this kind of idea of band of brothers that go through certain experiences and bonding together, which is what happened, and have made us even stronger friends over those three years. And 'Thick As Thieves' sums that up perfectly.
So it’s been about three years since the last album The Temper Trap, and you are gearing up to release your third album Thick As Thieves. It seems that a lot has happened over the course of those three years with notably the departure of former guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto. I’ve learned that 'Hope' and 'Passion' are very important words in your lives, and therefore your music. Toby has a tattoo that says, “Hope is when we feel the pain that makes us try again,” and Dougy once said, “Passion to me is what makes me feel alive; the one activity that makes you feel most alive and fulfilled.” With the departure of Lorenzo, among other things, how did you move forward after that, and manage to keep that hope and same passion alive, which ultimately created Thick As Thieves?
Dougy: Passion for me to play music isn't really that hard to get, because I’m not good at anything else(laughs). Well, I can’t speak on behalf of everyone, but certainly for me there was never a moment of “Oh he quit, um, maybe we should just call it a day.”
Toby: I mean, we were all surprised. I actually thought he was joking at first.
Dougy: You did?!
Toby: I mean, there were a lot of changes going on in his (Lorenzo) life, like he was about to get married, have his first child, and yeah, he was just on a different path I guess.
Maybe it was sort of a blessing in disguise where it perhaps brought you all closer together in that 'band of brother' sense?
Dougy: I wouldn’t say blessing in disguise, but we just reevaluated things. You know, when bad things happen to you, you don’t have the power over external things happening to you, but you have the power in how you react to them, and how you go from there. I think we kind of reacted in the best way possible. We looked at each other to see how do we keep going and what do we do musically in order to keep this going.
In addition to that, there’s always pressure to create a new album. Not just pressure from within, but from the outside. We work with business people at the end of the day, and there’s always pressure the as well as fans, you know. So you just have to learn how to navigate your creative urges and your desires to create one thing. There’s always expectations from other people and what they want you to be, but you can’t please everyone. Hopefully you can please some of them.
I read that you’ve changed your songwriting methods for this album, moving from ideas during jam sessions to a more streamlined process of forming songs from various members inside the band as well as outside. You’ve even linked up with Frank Ocean’s Producer, Malay, as well as Justin Parker (Lana Del Rey, Rihanna, Skrillex, Ellie Goulding) and Pascal Gabriel (Kylie Minogue, Ladyhawke, Dido, Goldfrapp). What sparked the deviation?
Dougy: I went to LA to do these writing sessions just to kind of be in a different environment. I wasn’t even necessarily writing for us, but I was in these sessions that management and the record labels hooked up to actually write for other people to be honest. I did a session with Malay and played him a demo that we had done for the song called “Summer's Almost Gone,” and he was really vibing on that, so we ended up working on that. That was a really fun and positive experience. I guess from there it kind of just snow-balled and we ended up doing more writing sessions for the band.
Joseph: There was always that jam session element and internal writing, but it was more about adding in a new element to the mix that we hadn’t done before. After the experience that Dougy had, it just showed us that at the end of the day that if we can get a good song, it doesn’t matter which way we go about it. I think allowing ourselves to be open to this idea of working with other people just added another element of creating a new song, and growing as well. Every time we work with someone new, we always learn something from them; how to write or different approaches to write. But yeah, this has been super positive for us.
Toby: I feel like as a band, we’ve always said the idea is boss, who ever it comes from you know. We all mess around on each others instruments, and with Lorenzo leaving, we all play guitar, and we understand the DNA of the band. We love song writing, so it’s kind of lovely to work with other people, but yeah, branching out has been super positive for the most part.
I’m a huge fan of remixes, and I’ve seen that you guys have recently posted a few remixes of “Fall Together.” Any particular favorites?
Dougy: Yeah, while most of the remixes are label suggestions, there’s one that’s a bit closer to heart and is by a band called The Very Best.
What’s one thing you would like people to know, learn, or take away from “Thick As Thieves”?
Dougy: For me personally, you know when you hear something and ten years down the track, you come across a situation that takes you back to the past, because there was a soundtrack to it, its kind of like that, I’d love for these songs to be the soundtrack to peoples moments in life. I think that’s one of the beautiful things about music that really connects you.
Toby: Me and Jonny went and saw At The Drive In last night, and it was such that feeling. It took me straight back to when I was listening to Relationship of Command, and when I was travelling a lot when it came out. It reminded me of all those memories and really came out strongly.
Jonny: We even moshed.