Temples as a group have a long standing reputation as chameleonesque, every project and every album represents another flash of inspiration, another glowing, grooving adventure that always exists solely on its own terms as a brainchild of the influences behind it.
When a group approaches their fifth album there can be pressure to reinvent the wheel, a certain sense of pressure to explore new ground but on their newest album, Bliss, there’s been another frantic shake-up and the end product couldn’t feel more satisfying, Temples are reinterpreting dance music to fit their own desires ending up with a whirlwind mix of late 90’s dance music warped by psych-tinged riffs pushing the entire project into overdrive.
Opening track ‘Jet Stream Heart’ is the perfect indication of what the group set out to achieve on this album, and once the blistering pace is set there is absolutely no hold up. Whereas ‘Vendetta’ feels like the most crystallised version of the Temples formula.
Bliss is a monumental album, crafted and shaped by a group who had absolutely no intention of compromising on their own creative freedoms, ringing true with the confidence of a band who totally believe in what they set out to make.
In conversation with 1883 Magazine, lead vocalist James Bagshaw discusses the creative vision behind Bliss, going back to their earliest musical roots, and the confidence that comes with a group making the record they have always wanted to make.
Hey James, for the creation of Bliss did you feel yourself reconnecting with music that you enjoyed growing up, especially that rave or late 90’s dance inspiration that runs through the project?
That’s especially true for the track ‘Vendetta’, it’s full of music that I would have listened to when I was a kid. I wasn’t there in Ibiza growing up but I would hear it coming through the wall of my brother’s room.
Once a few tracks had come together it felt like it informed the completion of the rest in a way. We never wanted to capture a carbon copy of that era, but more so a feeling of that era.
Even if you weren’t on Ibiza beach in the 90’s I think most people can relate to that ‘shit night out’ feeling that ‘Vendetta’ conjures up.
You can definitely feel the tension of one of those nights through the song. It’s a universal feeling not defined by a specific era. We all go out and have good nights and shit nights, sometimes your mates piss you off, sometimes it’s the best night of your life. And we tried to bottle that feeling up into one song.
There’s definitely some homage to fantastic groups like Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, and the Prodigy on this record, what do those groups mean to you as a musician?
What I love about Massive Attack in particular is that every sound is considered. There’s never a stock sound, it’s always unique. I just love the attention to detail.
Does everybody in the group have the same influence in music, and if you do have different palettes how do you bring those together for a record?
There’s definitely shared interests, and then there’s examples where over years of working together on records I will never convince anybody that it should be a reference for the sound. On the track ‘Fantasy Realm’ we tried this talking over the verses approach to the song but we ended up thinking “this just sounds like The Pet Shop Boys”.
I can’t imagine talking on a song with my Kettering accent, I would need a romantic London accent for that. We all try to push each other in different directions and when it works it pays off.
When you produce a record like ‘Bliss’ where the end result is very much pushing you into a new orbit, does it feel like you have to do it for yourselves first?
You have to make music for yourself first right, that is just part of being in a band. Maybe if you write advert music you are doing it for somebody else. [laughs]
At this point in our career I can safely say we might not be doing a crazy John Cage record, we still want to make songs that connect with people, but the song has to connect with us as a band and as people first.
Where does this album sit amongst your other releases?
There are moments of quintessential ‘us’ especially with ‘Jet Stream Heart’, that could be from a lot of our previous work. It’s our most forward-looking record, I’d say it has the least amount of ‘Temples tropes’ in it. Every song feels guided by a feeling, our most unique record and our most forward-thinking.
To use the words “forward thinking”, can you point to a track that best fits that mindset?
‘Vendetta’ is my favourite Temples song, when I first heard the final mix I thought this was better than I thought it was going to be, and that is not a feeling I get very often. That song to me, sums up what we do as a band. I love the way it captivates a feeling, and it touches upon that melancholy, that sense of euphoria that’s at the heart of the record.
If you could go back to yourself at the moment you had just released your first single, what would you tell your younger self now with the fifth album to be released imminently?
I wouldn’t believe that we had lasted as a band for over ten years. I would tell myself to enjoy the occasion, the big festivals, the big TV appearances. Because in the moment you never take it in and it’s almost entirely too much to process. Treat everything like it’ll only happen once, but it might happen again! See how the record goes first laughs].
Bliss is out June 26.
Interview Tobias Furlong
Photography Jimmy Fontaine
