Temples Interview

It would be fair to say that Temples have seemingly come from nowhere. Since forming in 2012, they uploaded a few tracks on YouTube, signed to Heavenly Recordings, toured with Kasabian and The Vaccines and released their debut album in February that entered the UK Top Ten in its first week. We spoke to frontman, James Bagley, to discuss their incredible rise, guilty pleasures and having drinks with Noel Gallagher.

Hi James, how are you?
I’m good, thank you. How are you?

We’re great, thanks! Have you been busy since dropping your debut album, ‘Sun Structures’?
Busy would be an understatement! There’s been days full of things to do whether it’s a show, radio, TV, interviews, or just touching base with home.

What does the title ‘Sun Structures’ refer to?
It’s the fifth song that we wrote. We came up with this phrase that meant something like, with the sun being this thing that we rely on and a structure being associated with something that’s manmade, a shadow might be caused by a structure, but you wouldn’t have a shadow without a sun. It’s two worlds colliding.

The record came out pretty quickly since you only formed in 2012 and you’ve garnered a lot of attention from big names in the business; how have the last couple of years been for you?
Musically we had an idea of what we wanted to do and how we wanted the record to sound, and self-producing it was something that we wanted to do. It’s been a learning curve with regards to playing the shows and making them as sonically pleasing as the record, if not more. We live it day by day and we try to get better as a band. I guess when we start working on the next album, we’ll try to get better as writers and beat what we’ve done on ‘Sun Structures’ because we’re not lazy people!

You said that you wanted to self produce it and you did a lot of the recording in your bedroom; was there any pressure to change your way of working after being signed to Heavenly Recordings?
There was a little bit, not necessarily from the label because Jeff and Danny both loved the first single, ‘Shelter Song’ and they put it out as it was. We knew it wasn’t a demo because it’s always been “this is how it is”. If we were going to rerecord it, it would pretty much be the same thing. We had a few people saying “we should go and do the drums and rhythm section in a studio” and I remember very clearly I said, “I don’t agree. Just give us the money that it would cost to hire the studio, we’ll buy some mics and an amp and we’ll do it ourselves, because we can probably get a better sound by just trying”. From a production point of view, I thought I had enough experience to get close to a professional sound and I still stand by that. I think it’s a professional sounding record and it’s turned out really well.

Were they convinced?
In about ten seconds! When they got the track back, they didn’t have to say anything. I think it happened quite organically and we’re not bullshitters, so we knew that we could get the desired sound. We understood what it was that they didn’t think was quite right with the particular song, and we spent a day on it and sent it back and all was good – as we thought it would be!

Noel Gallagher described your emergence onto the scene as more important than an Oasis reunion; did you know that you had the support of such a prominent figure?
We knew from word of mouth and he came to our Lexington show with Gem from Oasis and we had some drinks with them afterwards. I didn’t expect them to be any different to how they were. Musicians are very alike and they have years on us experience-wise and certainly career-wise, but it doesn’t change the way you talk about music and the way you get excited. It gave us a little bit of a confidence boost, but it didn’t make us work any less hard. We just keep pushing ourselves.

Did he give you any words of wisdom?
He said to Adam, our keyboard player, “I don’t think you should stand up and play because I don’t want to see your legs dancing around.” He’s since stood up even taller and done a metaphorical fingers up to that! Unless you’re Ray Manzarek of The Doors, it’s hard to sit down and be important on stage, and now Adam plays rhythm guitar as well, so it makes sense for him to stand up. He didn’t take offense; he thought it was quite funny and very Noel.

So talking of gigs, you toured extensively in the UK last year with support slots for Kasabian, Suede and The Vaccines. Was it daunting to be playing before such respected bands?
I guess it is; if you care about what you do, there’s a certain degree of daunting-ness. There are nerves and you want it to be good and come from the right place and not be an act. We had to get into the right sort of mind space before going on. It’s always hard performing before a band because it’s their fans and you’re trying to steal them! It’s definitely worthwhile and a good experience and makes our own shows a little bit easier because now, we haven’t got to win people over; they’re already on your side and all you have to do is take them to the place they hope they’re gonna go when they come to see you.

Are you guys a revival of the Psychedelic Rock that once was or are you something new?
This is always a hard question to answer without making it sound really simple. All it comes down to is the production. Our songs are essentially Pop songs in the classic sense. If you think Pop from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, where there was a stylistic quality whether it was Abba or Bowie, the song is the most important thing to us. We haven’t ripped off any songs; these are all new songs and new melodies. The sound we desire is a ‘60s ilk, and we love those sounds because they had a very true essence to them and rawness. If you go and see any band live, there’s going to be an element of distortion and echo. We didn’t want to create a studio album that sounded very clean and obvious that it was made on a computer. At the end of the day, we were recording on a laptop. We’re writing songs about modern day experiences, other ones are more from a poetic point of view, and some are fictitious. We never wanted to do pasticcios ‘60s music. The drums and the bass come from our love of Motown. I’d much rather hear that we were an inception of that rather than a drum machine and a synth bass in the Dance world – at this stage anyway!

You’ve already booked dates for an Australian tour this May; is it your first time visiting the country?
Yes, for all of us.

Will you have any time off to enjoy the activities on offer?
Most probably not! It’s great to take a photo and tag where you’ve been. It’s like a preview of all these places that you could go on holiday. I see it like that because you stumble upon places – we did in America and certainly in Japan – and I’m sure we will in Australia. I’ve got a few friends that moved there so it will be cool to see them.

What can ticket-holders expect from your shows?
It’s hard to say… We’re going to play our songs off the record! There’s a limitation of recording that you can’t play like you can in a live area. Hopefully it will be an even more emphasized version of the record. Certainly there will be elongations of songs; just mix it up and do it gig by gig.

Do you have a guilty pleasure to listen to?
Yeah, it’s a very guilty pleasure and it was an accident. I heard it on the radio and it was Beautiful Stranger by Madonna. It’s ridiculous because it was made for the Austin Powers film. I just think it’s a brilliantly produced track and a great Pop song. If it’s not Madonna then it’s probably Dancing Queen or any Abba really, but that’s not really a guilty pleasure, that’s just a pleasure.

Have you covered anyone else’s songs?
We worked on a Bowie cover for NME but it actually got cancelled because they didn’t get the mixing desk in to record the session. It was a track off his new album, called ‘Where Are We Now?’ but we sped it up and the tempo was kind of slender. We were really looking forward to recording it, but we didn’t get to do it. Generally, we don’t do covers; we might do on another occasion. We played a lot of Pink Floyd in rehearsals, but I don’t think we’ll cover them.

What do you think is the worst thing to happen to music in the last ten years?
The worst thing is people listening with their eyes and not with their ears. They’re very informed by the way that they see things; whether it’s in the media, or the way that a band looks or just words that are written down to inform them about a band. People need to listen with their ears and maybe close their eyes – not if they’re driving in a car – but just listen and make up your own mind. It’s changed a lot over the years.

Thanks James!

By Charlotte Mellor