INTERVIEW: Alfie Templeman
Photograph by Lillie Eiger
DECEMBER 16TH, 2022 | BY MICHAEL IZQUIERDO
For his first headlining tour in North America, Alfie Templeman considered it to be a success, being able to co-headline with best friend and singer Thomas Headon, connecting with fans and even being stuck in a snowstorm for three days. The UK singer-songwriter was disappointed he had to cancel his Chicago show due to the snowstorm because he wanted to try the city’s iconic foods.
Now, Templeman rests in his Bedfordshire home, catching up with family and friends during the holidays and beginning the early writing stages of his second album. Templeman spoke with us and dived into everything from tour life, the creative process behind his debut album Mellow Moon and how he gets over stage fright — you’ll want to hear this one.
One thing I always like to start off by asking is, what’s one thing — aside from your music — that’s made you happy or brought joy into your life recently?
At the moment, it's reconciling with family and friends and seeing people again that I missed a lot. So, I'd say that for sure, being back with my girlfriend and with my parents at home. Feeling grounded once again, because touring, you can kind of go a bit off the rails and forget how to be grounded.
Do you have any plans while you’re back home?
I'm seeing a lot of shows actually. I mean, the rest of the band, they're kind of fed up with going to gigs but I’m still pretty excited. I actually planned some already. I'm gonna see Stereolab on Saturday (Dec. 3), which will be fun, and I saw Alex G a few days ago. I've been enjoying seeing gigs and got a few more lined up. And then I'm just looking forward to the comfort of Christmas as well, just getting all cozy and watching films.
This tour marked your first headline tour in North America, what has this experience been like for you, and what have been some of your favorite moments during your stops?
Yeah, it was really cool because it's our first headline tour and we were on a tour bus for the first time as well. So, the level of sleep went up quite a lot, which is nice. You know, that just helps with playing better. I feel like we got over jet lag a lot quicker than last time because we were just sleeping more, we felt a bit more active. We had a fridge on the tour bus, so we're eating healthier. Last time it was like, ‘oh, we've only got like 10-15 minutes until loading or soundcheck so we need to grab something quick.’ And if you grab something quick, it's normally gonna be unhealthy.
It was really good. I mean, we definitely ran into a few problems. The run started off really clean, everything went well and then when we got to the East Coast, we actually ran into a snowstorm in Buffalo. We got stuck for two or three days and didn't have much food between us. You couldn't drink the tour bus water, so we had to put it into a kettle, fill it up in a bowl and then leave it outside in the snow. We would say who we were going to eat first out of the band if it got that desperate. Luckily, there was this one dude that came out to find us. And he was like, ‘oh, we got a warehouse down the road if you want any cheese.’ We kind of lived off cheese for two or three days which is quite funny.
So the run was really cool. It was lovely to meet people as well. We were doing a co-headline run with Thomas Headon, who's another musician here in England. Yeah, we basically share a lot of fans. The way I see it, it's like a Venn diagram: we share a lot of fans but also he had a lot of fans himself and I had a few myself. It's like we gained a lot more fans from each other. The next time we do a run, whether it's a support tour or whatever, it's just nice because we've probably built a bigger fanbase in the states. It's still very new to me, like playing in the states but I really enjoyed it. The crowds were definitely different from England. I feel like people here maybe just listen a little bit more sometimes.
It's funny that you mentioned the snowstorm in Buffalo, NY because I was supposed to see you perform at your Chicago show, but you had to cancel because of the snowstorm.
I really wanted to go to Chicago because I wanted to go to Portillo's and shit, to get one of those hot dogs man.
What were some of your favorite songs to perform live on your North American Tour?
There's one called "Things I Thought Were Mine" that we've only just started playing; although it's a couple of years old and it's really fun. I don't know whether it's just because we've only just started playing it but it's got such a fun groove to play live, so the novelty of playing it hasn't really worn off yet. Also, we've got one called “Eyes Wide Shut” that's a brand-new song. I'm really excited that it has been going down really well live. It's really funky. It's really quirky. It's really weird. I love that weird pop song.
Could you discuss what your album Mellow Moon is all about?
Mellow Moon was made between when I was 17 and 18 years old. It was kind of growing up, realizing a lot more about your head and coming to terms with yourself a little bit more. I feel like it was that bridge between my early music where I was just whacking out songs really quickly and then my music now where I'm taking a little bit more time, especially with this second album. I thought it was like a really nice bridge into me talking about my mind. I'm not going too deep with anything, but it feels like the right start in order to take me to the next place. A lot of it was written inside my bedroom and I was just messing around on different instruments and experimenting with stuff – trying to record drums, mess around with synthesizers and stuff. It was a fun album to make. I made it through the lockdown. It was quite interesting to have more time to spend on it. There was no kind of pressure to finish it off. All the songs came from different places, different times.
What is your favorite lyric from the new album and how come?
"Do you ever feel like a shadow running through the ground?" I feel like that's a cool lyric that's from "Take Some Time Away." I guess the reason I like it so much is that sometimes you can just feel so oblivious to what's going on with yourself. And I feel like sometimes I just morph into a second version of myself. It's like I come out of my own body and I don't know, it's hard to describe, but I sometimes just feel like I'm not even present. It's like I'm on autopilot and there's just me controlling myself. I'm on stage or I'm making a song and I don't even realize I'm doing it until later. Sometimes I just feel like a shadow of myself and it's like later on I've morphed back into me and come back together.
You discuss in your song "Folding Mountains" that it's about knowing you're not having the best day, but climbing the mountain to get through it. When you have those days, what best helps you get through them now?
For me, I think it's that kind of imposter syndrome thing, comparing yourself to other people too much. And I think you have to cut yourself some slack and you have to say, ‘there are eight billion people on Earth.’ It's like ‘bro, like, you're not always gonna be like the center of attention. you're not always going to be the main guy.’ You kind of have to be like, ‘give yourself a break. I've been busy. I've been doing a lot of stuff recently. I can just chill for a bit, like relax.’ You have to remind yourself don't just rush into things too much and don't worry about what you're doing. Spend some more time on things you'll feel proud of. Also, I used to rush songs a lot and then release them and then not feel proud about them later on. So now, I spend more time on them and it actually makes me feel a lot prouder when I work on things slowly. It's things like that that helped me creatively feel better about myself and in general really.
Could you walk us through your creative process for writing and producing a song? Do you have any personal routines?
It always changes I think. Recently, I've definitely been spending more time on lyrics. I feel like with this second album I'm working on, which I'm working on very, very slowly,I want to make sure every lyric means something to me and that's hard. I feel like my brain is bad at describing exactly how I feel sometimes, so in order for me to do that successfully, I think I really need to take a step back and look into things slowly rather than rushing them. With the music thing, it just comes naturally. I don't really know how I do it half the time. I normally just start with baselines funnily enough because I really like the bass and I feel like if you get a catchy baseline, that can elevate the song really quickly.
I have a song called "Wait, I Lied" where I think the main thing is the baseline. There are a bunch of other songs that I've done like this new one "Eyes Wide Shut" where the baseline is also the main thing. And then I mess with the drums as well. I'd say I'm mostly a drummer and guitarist, so I'm really proud of trying to record real drums on my songs. So, I'll try and do that as well as possible. And then I'll add the guitars afterward. I feel like they fill in the gaps. They're like the scattery bits on top. And then I just mess around on Logic. I like to sit there for hours like EQing a snare. And then I'm like, ‘oh man I actually need to add some synthesizers on this.’ It's like filling in the void and sprinkling the little bits of magic on top. And then somehow I'll figure out how to make the lyrics kind of fit into the melody and then Bob's your uncle basically comes together.
Guitar has always been your go-to instrument when creating music and performing, what would you say has been your favorite guitar(s) to play? And How come?
Most of the time, at least live, I play this Fender Stratocaster because I'd say it's one of the most versatile guitars and you can just make it sound good for anything. It sounds good for soloing. It cuts through really well for playing rhythm guitar as well. But, I mostly play lead guitar live anyway, so I solo quite a lot and the strap just sounds really nice. I also play a Jazzmaster quite a lot now, Fender Jazzmaster, which also does the job really well. And then if I want to show off this guitar – it's like a double neck. It’s really heavy. That one I've only played a few times live, it's more for pictures. It's cool because that's like a 12-string so I use it at home quite a lot. I've been using it for the next album. But it's also like a pain in the ass to tune because it has 18 strings.
If you had advice for anyone wanting to begin playing guitar, which one would you first recommend? And what tips would you give them?
I'd say the first guitar I mentioned, the Fender Stratocaster. But you can get a Squier which is like Fender's other line of guitars. They're called Squire Stratocasters and they're really cheap. You can get one for like 150 bucks, maybe even less.
I'd say that the best thing to do is learn the basic chords, so G D, A, E, and C. Go from there and just get a capo so you can switch out more and you can trick yourself into thinking that they're different chords because it sounds different. And then, mess around with melodies, just don't be afraid. Literally, half the songs I write I'm just accidentally playing notes and I'm like, ‘oh, that sounds good.’ Just Voice Memo the hell out of it if you're trying to write songs through it as well. Just put your phone down and Voice Memo stuff and figure out how to play it again later.
What goes into building a good relationship with other producers and artists in order to trust to make music with them? Especially with a personal project like Mellow Moon?
For me, when I started off writing more personal songs, I wouldn't go in the same room with another producer. I'd produce it myself like at least the bare bones of it and then just send it online and not look at it, that kind of thing. I think to be fair, that kind of helped me because then the producer will come back and say ‘oh, I really dig this song. I really like it. Here are some things that I thought might make it sound cool.’ And then you kind of go ‘oh, okay, so this person is chill with it. Like, I don't have to be scared’ and then I'll be like, ‘Oh, I'll do an actual session with them in person.’
I feel like the power of the internet is pretty cool. You can write a song online with people, which I don't typically do. But I'll send people stuff and say “what do you think of this kind of thing?” And if people dig it, then it gives me more confidence to go and see them in person and do something with them.
Could you tell us any crazy tour stories you’ve had?
Apart from getting snowed in for three days, I mean when we played New York, we had in-ears and when we went on stage, we couldn't hear anything for like half the set. So, Adam, my drummer, was having to follow my foot and the computer to know if he was playing in time or not and we all just stood on stage like ‘oh my god, this is so awkward.’ We couldn't hear ourselves at all, so we were listening to the sound going outwards in order to actually not fucking ruin our gig.
Has anyone given you any good advice while on tour or was there anything that stuck with you?
I mean, the funniest thing I always do when I get really nervous, is... this is such a stupid thing to say, but I'm just like, "oh, everyone shits." If I get too nervous, I'm just like, "everyone shuts like it's fine, just pretend everyone's naked or something." And it's fine. I can play a show like it's chill because that just makes you feel more at ease.
In terms of good advice I've had, I mean watching Thomas play made me feel less nervous because I feel we're quite different but quite similar in the tour bus in a way that we're quite quiet. We kind of do our own thing. So, when it comes to him, he's quiet but then you get to the show he's all of a sudden full of life and going crazy on stage. That made me feel a lot better and it like made me want to go a bit crazier on stage and give it some more oomph and go for it. I thought that was really interesting to see because I still get stage fright quite a bit sometimes.
Years ago, you mentioned you wanted to become an A&R and producer, scouting young talent and giving them essentially the exposure and platform you've received. Have you been able to experience doing some of this work so far, and can you talk about what that has been like for you?
When we did our UK run, I decided that I'd get a new band opening up each night, each show we played. I feel like that's the closest I've come to being an A&R. It was really cool. I just put up a Google Doc and got people to put in submissions. And then, I've just found new bands each night so it was really cool to meet people. And you know, hopefully, I might get to work with some of those bands as well. Next year, I've got a few I'm hoping to write for people, maybe doing a bit of production. At the moment, I'm trying to just focus on producing my own album though, so I'm definitely more focused on writing because producing takes up a lot of time; whereas with writing, you can just do a session. You can go into a studio and work with someone and just figure out a song on a guitar. I'm really looking forward to doing that more. And it's also really cool because you get lots of bands reaching out saying they want to write songs with you.
You’ve had lots of success and growth this past year, what are your plans moving forward in 2023?
The main thing really is I definitely want to keep releasing stuff next year. I've got plans to release new music, but at the moment, I'm just very much in the process of writing new stuff and figuring that out. And to be fair, I haven't got any shows lined up, nothing like that at the moment. It's very much time to write another album kind of thing. I just got off tour, it's time to rest up and then figure out what to do from there.
Is there anything you'd like our readers to know that I didn't ask today?
We'll come back to Chicago, I promise. I'm kind of pissed off that I couldn’t make it. So, if you're out in Chicago, you guys, just hang on, hold on. Maybe we'll do a one-off gig. I really wanted to get over there and try some deep dish even though I know Chicagoans don't eat that.