New York duo Tempers are about to hit a milestone with their third album, ‘Private Life’, so we thought we’d check in to see how they’re doing pre-release.
Howdy! How’s life treating you?
Eddie: Hello! We’re being well-treated by life. We just played a show here in New York, our first in a while, and it felt great. Getting ready for our album release on the 25th of this month, and we’re very excited.
My first question just had to be, how on earth did you react when you found out your Facebook account was hacked by a gardener?
Jasmine: It was shocking, and terrifying to realise how dependent we are on these monolithic structures that can disappear at any moment. Those feelings of alienation were considerably tempered by the absurd and delightful nature of the hacker – a florist in Vietnam. Why they thought our band page would be a good platform for selling flowers is beyond me – maybe they heard our song ‘Strange Harvest’?
How has living in the city that never sleeps (NYC) influenced your music?
Eddie: Certainly the energy and architecture of the city have a big effect on our ways of being in the world, and that of course seeps into anything we create. But in some sense, the city influences our music less and less as time goes by; making music is actually a refuge for us from the social and civic overload you experience here.
We are not concerned with fitting into a box, just being authentic to where the muse takes us next.
Last year, you released the concept album, Junkspace, in collaboration with architect Rem Koolhaas, revolving around mall culture. Where did this idea come? How did Koolhaas help in the creation and production of the tracks?
Jasmine: It was born out of conversations I had with a friend about the connection between architecture and music. She had just interviewed Rem Koolhaas about the psychology of consumer spaces, and thought it would be an interesting idea to explore the mall as a symphony. Rem Koolhaas wrote a seminal essay called ‘Junkspace’ where he brings the architectural tropes of institutional spaces to life in a kind of sinister poetic way – water fountain, fake palm tree etc. I thought it would be cool to write an album from the perspective of those objects, and then the album as a whole would encompass a kind of living mall space. Rem agreed for us to use excerpts of her interview with him in between songs, and he really likes the album!
Your soon-to-be-released third album, Private Life, shows Tempers change from post-punk to hauntingly beautiful dream pop, how did you fall into this new style?
Jasmine: There’s a variety of musical landscapes on Private Life, not excluding post-punk, but also incorporating some dreamier meanderings. I think a consistent theme with Tempers is the interplay of sensuality and hard edges, but we have always moved around genres to explore this – there are two acoustic songs on our first album, Services, whereas Junkspace is an electro synth-pop shopping mall. We are not concerned with fitting into a box, just being authentic to where the muse takes us next, and that seems to vary song to song.
It feels like Private Life is the result of our really understanding how to capture what we want to do, want to say.
The album cover gives us a quick peek into a glowing room, why did you choose to feature this? Does the image tie into themes of the album?
Eddie: We came across the image, a photo by Elsa Bleda, while still working on the album. We knew it would be called Private Life, and the photo perfectly linked the album’s themes and aesthetics. We’re outside looking in, aware of a life behind the curtain that we can’t access; at the same time, these songs seem to take place within the privacy of that blue room.
Also, on the cover, and in your music videos, we also see subtitles of the band name – what does this show? Is this a new form of commentary by the band?
Eddie: The subtitles are imagined dialogue taking place within that room: it’s a conversation we don’t quite understand, as if we’re just passing by, picking up a fragment. It reinforces the inner and outer worlds of the cover, the inability to understand just what’s happening inside a space you can’t inhabit.
You’ve got fans buzzing after releasing some singles from the album, are you excited to get your first album out there? What’s it like letting of of something so personal and close to your heart?
Eddie: This is our third LP, and for some reason I’ve always thought our third album would be a kind of milestone, personally at least. It feels like Private Life is the result of our really understanding how to capture what we want to do, want to say. Releasing it doesn’t really feel like letting go of something, it’s more like it only actually becomes something tangible and concrete once it’s out in the world.
What is it like travelling and touring and spending all those great memories with your bandmate? As a duo, have you gotten closer through your trips together?
Eddie: It’s really cool to have had these thousands of experiences that only one other person remembers. I would love for an outside observer to document our travel habits – we’ve developed some systems over time that have become subconscious. Like it’s an unspoken fact that we’ll have Wienerschnitzel in every German city, and veal sausage in every Swiss city – it’s a veal band. We’re also quite different from each other, but travelling together is totally harmonious.
Finally, what’s the plan for the rest of the year?
Jasmine: We have some fun shows coming up in November – Guadalajara, Mexico City and then Freakout Festival in Seattle. Also, lots of touring next year, which is very exciting.
Tempers’ third album, ‘Private Life’ is out 25 October 2019 – listen on Spotify and Apple. Get the prit volume of our magazine HERE.
