STACK NZ Jun #74

FEATURE MUSIC

sudden slide into a romantic half-time beat near the end, with choral voices. “It was probably one of the first songs that we worked on, and it was just Dougy with an acoustic guitar,” says Greer. “We had this person re-create a mellotron, but it’s new – it’s like a digital version but by the same creator as the original. But to be honest, quite often it happens that the most basic thing you come up with is the sound you want to use. When you try and recreate it, it doesn’t have the same character. You can do so much with so little.” Mendagi agrees: “Sometimes you get into the studio with producers and whatnot, and people are all about using vintage gear and this and that. You end up plugging in and you play the guitar and you go, GarageBand sounds better.” The choral effect did involve a weird contraption that emitted frequencies based on which random knob you decided to press or turn. “You just record heaps of samples of f-cking around with the thing,” Greer laughs. “We trigger it live,” Mendagi says. Greer laments that it doesn’t look very dramatic on-stage, and Mendagi suggests a confetti cannon every time a knob is touched. It’s a spectacular idea, but not something The Temper Trap need to invoke its effects – Thick As Thieves will do that on its own.

I sang it; it sounded like dogsh-t. If it ain't broke, don't fix it

MUSIC

TheTemper Trap: Joseph Greer, Dougy Mandagi,Toby Dundas, and Jonathon Aherne

Thick As Thieves by The Temper Trap is out June 10 via Liberation.

it, but I always wanted Johnny to sing it. But the labels were like, ‘What if it’s a single, and then it’s the first single, and that’s Johnny? People are going to get confused, so you should sing it,’ and I sang it. It sounded like dogsh-t. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Another which sits in the middle of the album’s divide is Summer’s Almost Gone , which is filled with enchanting keys and an awesome,

the gorgeous Riverina ), and more detailed, introspective tracks towards its tail such as What If I’mWrong and the delicate beauty Tombstone . The latter's dynamic touches are completely unexpected (particularly for such a songtitle), and its lyrics are delivered in an almost half-spoken style. “It’s not me!” Mandagi exclaims triumphantly of those vocals. “It’s Johnny [Aherne, bass guitarist]. I attempted

THE COVER CUBS Y ou might think the album cover’s striking image –

‘cause we wanted to come back with us on the cover: this isTemperTrap, bang, we’re back!” Mandagi says. “Then during a meeting one day we were looking for an image for the single Thick As Thieves , and I said ‘Johnny has an Instagram photo that he took years ago in Hackney,

of these kids wearing wolf masks, and I think that would be amazing.’ I showed Steve, the Art Director, and he said ‘Can that be your album cover?’” “I think

two children in hairy animal masks with their little claws up and bared, which seems to fit so perfectly with the album’s title – was artificially set up. “We went through all this trouble of doing all these photo shoots of the band,

he asked them ‘Can I take a photo of you?’ they didn’t say anything, they just nodded with the masks on.”

it was Halloween and these kids were running around,” Greer adds. “Apparently when

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