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Temper Trap
Musically
there’s a world of difference between the four pop savvy radio friendly
songs which comprised The Temper Trap’s debut release, their self-titled
EP, and the ambitious grandeous ‘Conditions’ album which ended up
conquering the world. The difference is evolution, maturity - and learning
to live and make full advantage of Dougy Mandagi’s powerful and emotive falsetto vocals.
The
story of The Temper Trap starts with Indonesian-born Dougy.
His guitar playing country music fan father introduced him to artists like
Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Growing up Dougy
played in bands and sang in the church choir with his uncle, a classical
guitarist, and aunt, a pianist. It wasn’t enough to keep Dougy from eventually travelling, from Indoesian island to island, to Hawaii, and ultimately
to Melbourne in 1999 where he earned money as a busker – sketching portraits
for $25 a shot – only singing occasionally – as well as studying fashion
merchandising and marketing.
During
those early days on Melbourne’s streets Dougy
befriended a young 13-year old son of a missionary who was keen to learn
how to play guitar. Dougy helped him out. Dougy and , Johnny Aherne found they had music and a spiritual upbringing
in common and formed a bond – never imagining the future they would end up
sharing.
Before
that could eventuate, a few years later Dougy found himself working at the same urban clothing
store as drummer Toby Dundas, described also as a “walking music
dictionary”. They decided to form band. Dougy
called on his buddy from the streets Johnny, recruiting him to play bass, an instrument he’d never played before. After a period
of intense rehearsal they started making the rounds with a second
guitarist. They wanted to calling themselves Temper Temper,
but finding
a Milwaukee band already using that name reluctantly settled on Temper
Trap. One, two guitarists later it was Toby’s turn to be able to introduce
an old friend to the line-up. He’d known Lorenzo Sillitto
since he was 12 when they’d shared a childhood passion for skateboarding.
That friendship had developed to jamming out cover songs in a garage
and playing in a handcore punk band together. The
latest departure on guitar coincided with Lorenzo’s availability. The Temper
Trap which recorded the debut self-titled album EP was in place.
New
Zealand keyboard player Joseph Greer became a touring member of The Temper
Trap in March 2008. He worked in the same clothing store as Dougie and Toby and they initially asked him to join to
help fulfull some Sydney dates. He’s been a
member of the band ever since, and contributed to the sessions for the
debut album.
There
was a lengthy gap between the EP and the album, hard to make the best of
playing those four EP songs gig after gig, but they’d caught the ear of
English producer U.K. producer Jim Abbiss (The
Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Adele, Kasabian,
U.N.K.L.E), who completed the band’s album in
March 2009 in a final London Session after 4 weeks recording the bulk of the
album in Melbourne in late 2008. On the eve of the release of ‘Conditions’
in Australia in June 2009 the band relocated from Australia to a shared
flat in East London.
‘Conditions’
achieved Top Ten status in Australia, spending over a year on the sales
chart ultimately achieved platinum standing. The album was released in the UK two months
later and The Temper Trap would be named by the BBC on its top 15 Sound of
2009. Two high-profile appearances at important industry showcases, at London’s
Musexpo in October 2008 and South by Southwest
the following March cemented the band’s international standing.
The
single "Sweet Disposition" appeared in the Zooey Deschanel
film ‘(500) Days of Summer’, which helped the band increase its following in America.
In
November 2010, to satisfy the demand for new music the band packaged
‘Conditions – Remixed’ The Temper Trap’s debut long-player reworked through
new and hard-to-find remixes and filtered through the band’s personal
playlists.
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