One Peep show you won’t want to miss

The Peep Tempel have been making a splash with their second album.
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The band formed as a two-piece in 2008 with singer-songwriter/guitarist Blake Scott and drummer Steven Carter and released their first single, Thank You Machiavelli, in 2009, followed by Fatboy the next year. The band enlisted recording engineer Matthew Duffy to play bass for the recording of their self-titled debut album, before recruiting Stewart Rayner as permanent bassist in late 2011.

The first recording with this line-up, 2013’s Modern Professional EP, was well-received, and as the band’s sound has evolved they have made a slight departure from the anxious, jittery energy that permeated most of the songs on their debut album. Although Tales has received almost universal critical acclaim, with several songs gaining high-rotation airplay on Triple J and earning the band a slew of new fans, Scott admits to experiencing some self-doubt during the recording process.

“We weren’t very sure with this record,” Scott admits. “The first record was a lot easier, probably felt a lot better. This record was still very enjoyable to make but there was a lot more hardship.

“When we made the first one we’d sort of get what we thought was a comfortable tempo and then we deliberately bumped up all the songs a little bit, just to give them that real, strung-out, nervous energy, whereas with this one we really tried to settle with the groove a little more and try and work with that and enjoy sitting in the pocket and giving ourselves a little bit more space lyrically and just seeing where that went. There was a point halfway through it when we were like ‘hey, we’ve got to get back on our bike, this is all a little bit slow’ but I think we’ve got a good mix there.”

Despite their success, music is still a part-time thing for The Peep Tempel.
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The songs that make up Tales are narrative-driven stories populated by characters that could fairly be described as coming from the wrong side of the tracks. The songs come across like the aural equivalent of short films full of wannabe gangsters and ne’er-do-wells: There are the rebels without a cause from Getting’ on By, low-level crims on tracks such as Big Fish; and the almost creepy, unrequited love and unattainable desire that features on Carol and Don’t You Love Me Joan? This begs the question: Does Scott spend a lot of his time in the company of undesirables?

“There are different interesting characters that I guess have sort of littered my life over the years,” Scott chuckles. “I just guess I pick up on things like that and I guess I watch, I’m a bit of a voyeur. There have been certain people … this one guy had a pub around the corner from me and a couple of brothels. I used to call him Gary the Villain, because he was a villain. I guess he was probably one of the first real villains I ever met, he’s dead now. Some of the people I would meet through him and some of the stories he would tell, he’s one example of people who have been associates to me, through either drinking at a bar or something else.

“The music has always sounded like parachute trackies and gold chains and shuffling along in a hurry but probably not going anywhere, but you’ll work it out on the way if that makes sense. There was a lot of that around where we were rehearsing and that sort of thing and it’s just developed from there.

“I guess sometimes we have to be very careful that we’re not crossing that line and actually just being bigoted. At the same time we’re just trying to have fun and to us it’s almost like a film. These little stories we’re telling are like little short films that we’re telling in song I guess.”

Despite the lavish film clip that accompanied Big Fish, which featured an underground poodle show, Carol ended up being a somewhat unexpected radio hit, narrowly missing out on scraping in at the tail end of the Triple J Hottest 100 in January and making the shortlist for the APRA Song of the Year.

“It doesn’t really surprise me that that’s the one that’s gone the best,” Scott says. “I guess in retrospect more I’ve thought about this but it is stuff like ‘You’ll be my spade, I’m your bucket’ — real simple. People just like things nice and simple, especially these days. People can sing along with it easily, I guess it’s got a bit of humour with it and look, I think it actually sounds pretty good. But I know what you mean, I thought if a song was going to have some sort of success it would probably have been Getting’ on By but it’s interesting that that’s the one people have chosen. I’m actually pretty happy about it because it’s a pretty grotty rock ’n’ roll song and we don’t hear enough of that these days, especially on the airwaves.”

The Peep Tempel are dynamic live and have garnered quite a following.
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Despite the relative success the band have experienced over the past 12 months, music is still a part-time gig for the band.

“I guess in a sense we’re still weekend warriors but it’s much better now,” Scott says. “Melbourne’s always looked after itself but coming to Sydney and coming to Brisbane, it takes time and it’s taken a few years but now we’re doing better venues and getting better crowds. Even as recently as late last year we were still doing stuff like two shows in a night in Sydney — packing everything up and running down to another venue. That sort of stuff’s cool but it certainly wears you out. Now a lot of cool offers are coming through and people are really taking an interest in it, it makes it a lot easier. It’s not a problem that we’re still working and that sort of thing, I don’t mind working, it’s good. It keeps me out of trouble. It’s a lot easier since this record’s come out.”

The Peep Tempel have a well-earned reputation as a powerhouse live act, brimming with energy and intensity, and when Scott is asked what the uninitiated can expect from the band’s live performance, he says “it’s just good rock ’n’ roll music”.

“No matter how much you have to drink or anything like that, you’ll still be able to move and dance; it’s that sort of music.”

Peep Tempel play Miami Tavern, Gold Coast, on May 15 and Brightside, Fortitude Valley, on May 16

Originally published as One Peep show you won’t want to miss
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