After a brief hibernation during the winter, Melbourne rockers The Peep Tempel will return to the road in September, their first stop being the Stonecutters mini festival in Adelaide.
Frontman Blake Scott is looking forward to returning to Adelaide to see some of the other bands who will be playing the event with them. “I know Horror My Friend, I don't really know that many of the other bands other than those guys, and they're a great band. We’ve done a few shows with them and they're lovely people, but yeah I’m looking forward to it. I've had a quick listen to who else is playing and there's some good stuff, it's going to be a good night I reckon.”
Blake and the rest of the guys have had plenty of experience on the road; back in 2012 they had the opportunity to tour Europe, which according to Blake was an amazing experience. “It’s a different world you know; I think people appreciate [music] a little more over there as a whole.
“You get treated a lot better by venues than what you do over here, I mean not that we get treated badly over here, but we were just surprised by the hospitality of the venues and the people, they were just so into what we were doing and helpful and hospitable.”
The fact the band's second album ‘Tales’ didn’t get an official release in Europe, yet they were still able to attract a healthy turnout at their shows is testament to the band's reputation in underground circles. They have already attracted a cult following of music lovers in Australia who are looking for something that is largely absent from commercial radio. “The people who come to the shows are similar everywhere; most of them are really cool people who like to go out and see original music.
"I mean we're not a commercial band, so the people who are coming to our shows are obviously in some way or another searching for music that's a little bit different from what's being fed to them, essentially.”
The Peep Tempel are known for their narrative style of lyrics, with a lot of their songs based upon distinctive characters, that for the most part, Blake has dreamed up from his own imagination. He maintains that none of the characters are based on anyone real. “I’ve never done that lyrically.
“I guess you do soak things up; it's probably memories that aren't really at the forefront of your memory, you just sort of pull them from somewhere or a sound will set off maybe an experience or maybe someone you know who is in that moment, but certainly not directly inspired by anyone really.”
When asked if he has a favourite character from either of their albums, Blake has to think for a moment. “Probably Lance off our first album. The song 'Lance', the character in that, even though it's probably not as descriptive, I think that song really sets the atmosphere better than any of our other songs, it's very ambiguous lyrically but I get the clearest picture of a character from that song. For me, he’s like this dude who has delusions of grandeur, heading into some sort of revolution that's quite possibly not really happening anywhere other than in his head.”
'Lance' is also one of Blake’s favourite songs to play live. “That’s just my all-time favourite song of the band, I don't really know why we kept going after that, it should have been the point where we said, 'I’m happy, now we can stop',” he says with a laugh.
Written by Mardi Reason
The Peep Tempel Tour Dates
Fri 18 Sep - 170 Russell (Melbourne)Sat 26 Sep - Stonecutters Mini Festival @ Freemason's Hall (Adelaide)
Fri 2 Oct - Yah Yah's (Melbourne)
Sat 3 Oct - Cherry Bar (Melbourne)
Sat 12 Dec - Meredith Music Festival
