The Peep Tempel

Formed by singer-songwriter Blake Scott and drummer Steven Carter, who were neighbours at the time, they were later joined by bassist Stewart Rayner. Their 2014 release Tales marked a breakthrough for the band, pushing them into the realm of triple j airplay – something Scott attributes to their resonating hit ‘Carol’.

“Triple j certainly exposed us to a wider audience, but ‘Carol’ was probably the only track they’ve played a number of times. We’ve cut our teeth more so with the local and independent stations. I don’t know where triple j see us in their demographic, but they seemed to like ‘Carol’, and we’ll see what happens in the future and whether they pick anything else up. One thing we did notice was the difference between crowds as soon as we started getting that triple j airplay – it widened the demographic of our shows and tours in a big way.”

The experience of this larger audience and foray into the mainstream is something The Peep Tempel have taken into the studio with them for the recording of their third album, due out later this year.

“This new record doesn’t feel as as ‘rock’ as the last, especially topically, where the last album was quite Australian,” says Scott. “I like my music to be quite rough and loud with the feeling that it may fall apart at any minute, and I think we achieve that vibe with a mixture between intent and maybe a lack of chops on our instruments.

“We’ve written most of the album, which we’re looking to record in March,” he continues. “We’ve left it a bit late – we don’t really know where we’re doing it yet, but we’re happy with that part of it being reasonably spontaneous. We haven’t finalised the structures of a lot of the songs as much as we would have in the past, and we’re planning to have a little bit more time in the studio to try and capture the creation of the songs as opposed to the last few records, where we really knew what we were doing with each song as we went into record them. Hopefully that works out well – it could be dangerous, but we’ll see what happens.”

At the very least, Scott and co. are sure the album will have a different personality than its predecessors.

“This album seems to be a little more laid-back – there is still some of the faster and more raucous stuff in there, but maybe we’ve started raging gracefully, because there’s a lot more groove-based stuff in there. I do feel that we are a better band compared to the last two records – as a band playing together and also in our creation of material, I think it’s much better than it has been in the past.

“People change, things change, you have different sorts of outside influences and I think you develop together as a band. Sometimes it also comes down to mood. We went through stages when we were coming up with this laid-back, groove-based material, and then a couple of months later we came up with some more faster stuff. I’m not really sure why this album has taken on a different feel, but it’s just kind of the way it’s evolved – it just feels natural. You just have to hope that the audience comes with you. Hopefully they’ll dig it.”

It seems safe to say that fans will applaud whatever it is The Peep Tempel put out in 2016, after the band was awarded the coveted ‘Boot’ at Victoria’s Meredith Music Festival late last year. The Boot is a Meredith and Golden Plains tradition whereby the audience members hold their shoes up to the skies in appreciation of something that goes above and beyond expectations. In 2015, the honour came The Peep Tempel’s way for their performance of ‘Carol’.

“That was pretty cool,” says Scott. “I never thought we’d play to that many people, for one, and then secondly we were pretty happy with our time slot, and then to get The Boot was a real buzz. The adrenaline was definitely going and hairs were sticking up on the back of my neck. It’s just such a great festival and all of the band members have been there a few times, and to be a part of it and get that kind of reception was absolutely fantastic. It was sort of like Christmas for us.”

Peep Tempel fans who missed out on that fabled Meredith performance will get their chance at redemption as the band heads up to Sydney this week. Scott speaks fondly of Sydney, especially its smaller venues.

“Newtown Social Club was amazing last time we played there and it was the best turnout we’ve had up that way. We’ve done a lot of shows in Sydney where we might do two shows in one night and there’s nothing better than playing the smaller venues where you’re on the ground with the crowd, like upstairs at The Bank. We always like getting up to Sydney – the weather’s always a little bit better than Melbourne.”