Five Minutes With The Peep Tempel

The Peep Tempel, Melbourne's most intriguing lycra wearing larrikins, released their third LP, Joy, last week and already it stands as one of the strongest Australian rock albums of the year. From tales about lonely miners and corrupt constables, through to scathing attacks on the mainstream media regime; the punk trio swing between thoughtful storytelling and angry examinations of our surrounding world on Joy. Sonically, Joy sees The Peep Tempel traversing between balls-to-the-wall punk bangers, Aussie pub-rock anthems and even melodic slow jams - the Melbourne rockers experimenting with a range of weird and wonderful sounds across the record. With their national album tour kicking off at the start of next month, we thought we'd better take some time to chat with The Peep Tempel's marvellous frontman Blake Scott about Joy, its many mysterious characters and the band's epic video for recent single, Rayguns.

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So Joy is your third album - what are some of the biggest changes you guys noticed going into this record?

We’re a better band. We play better and have more of an idea about what we are trying to achieve creatively.

How did it feel writing Joy? Did things flow together pretty smoothly for you guys, seeing as it was your third crack at writing a full-length? 

All albums present different challenges. I’d like to think we navigate them better these days. Joy was a much smoother ride than Tales. As mentioned, I think we have improved as a band and were more invested in this record and taking things in a fresh direction.

Can you tell us about some of the characters that we'll meet throughout the new record? 

Joy is less character driven than the first two records, though we have a few new faces. There is corrupt constable lamenting his dissent into the darkness, and his subsequent banishment to a station in the backblocks of South Australia. There is a wedding on a dingy which involves a paranoid - yet elated - groom and his ex-roommate as a celebrant. The bride’s name is Ange.

The album opener is titled Kalgoorlie, what can you tell us about the story behind this track?

Not much really, just a few Kalgoorlie clichés whacked together to bring to life a pissed and lonesome miner.

Joy features organ, piano and 'spanner on steel' - are there any other instruments or sounds that appear across the record that were new to The Peep Tempel? 

We sample a diesel engine and some galahs for Constable, there are some backups done with helium balloons on Neuroplasticity. We blew up a couple of amps, and I think some of their dying gasps made it on.

The video for Rayguns came out a couple of weeks ago and it's an absolute belter, who was the brains behind that one? 

Nick Clifford and Charlie Sarroff from Truce Films hatched the concept. The editing skills and eternal patience of Luke Dickinson brought it to life.

Was that video a lot of fun to film? It certainly looks it.

It was for us, we did a few hours in front of the green screen under Nick’s direction, and then just waited for poor old Luke to emerge from the edit suite. Easy peasy.

I can already envision the crowd shouting along with you: "The regime is coming, and they're all on ICE!", when you play Rayguns live. Do you think that tune might become a bit of a fan favourite? 

Hopefully, It’s always nice to have a bit of a sing-a-long. Unfortunately, we’d never heard of Flacca, otherwise we’d have put the regime on that shit, seems much more terrifying.

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/760660-Flacca-the-drug-from-hell-(meth-bugs-are-real)

Are you guys psyched to be hitting the road for the Joy Album Tour in November and December? It looks like those shows are going to be huge.

Yep, psyched. It’s been a while since we set out on a great adventure and we have big plans for maximising our, and your, enjoyment. Would have been nice to get to Broome though.

What’s happening once that tour wraps up for the end of the year/beyond?

We have some exciting stuff coming up early next year, maybe a trip to the States. Just waiting to be let of the leash regarding announcements for the Oz summer. A week-long residency in Margaret River would be nice.

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