“The second album obviously didn’t have any major hits like Sweet Disposition,” he says, “but like I said before, it’s done relatively well, even if that’s not as well as the first. For me personally – and a lot of people might beg to differ with me on this – I’m more proud of the second one than the first. I like it a lot more.”
When I ask why this is, he tells me that the second album came from a place more personal than the first. “I think one of the great things about music is that you can play the same song to five different people, and they’ll all take something different away,” he says. “I get that people really latched onto the first record, and to songs like Sweet Disposition and Fader, but on a personal level, I feel more connected to the second album. It’s a bit more personal, lyrically, and musically, it represents more of what I wanted to do.
“Obviously, it has done better in some markets than others,” he continues, “but you have to really love what you’ve made and believe in it, and the rest is a bonus. If other people connect with it, that’s great, but you’ve got to be able to sleep at night knowing that you’re proud of what you’ve made.”
The Temper Trap are still hungry for success, and a support slot on Coldplay’s Australian tour of last year opened their eyes to the possibilities. “That was great,” Mandagi tells me. “It put us in a whole new ballgame to play in front of that many people, and play stadium shows, which we’d never done before. It gave us something to aspire to – we’d love to be playing at that level ourselves one day.” The band came away from the experience with a few new tricks up their sleeves. “I think one of the great things about Chris Martin is his interaction with the crowd,” Mandagi says. “And I learned a lot about how to engage with them. I mean, obviously the music does what it does, and that’s what people are there for, but in those times in-between the songs, it becomes more intimate. You’re breaking down barriers between you and the crowd.”
The Temper Trap will soon return to Australia to play the final round of show for their second album, and Mandagi is cautiously optimistic. “Hopefully we’ll end on a high note, and not cock it up,” he says with a laugh. The band are already working hard on a third album, and have written a lot of new songs, several of which will be coming out during these Australian shows.
“We did a whole month of song writing in LA before the Future Music Festival shows earlier this year,” he says, “and in-between shows on that tour, we had a little sting in Byron Bay that Corona was kind enough to let us use their amazing house on the waterfront at Byron Bay to write songs in. We had a little recording set-up there, and just worked on a whole lot of songs. It was amazing.”
Sweet Disposition was an undeniably massive hit for the band, and I ask Mandagi if he feels any kind of pressure to come up with another similar song. “There’s always pressure,” he says, “but you’ve just gotta block it out. That’s not a healthy way of approaching music. I grew up listening to pop music, that’s what I love. I like all kinds of music, but I don’t think there’s any …” he pauses, to consider his words. “We’re not going to be putting out a 15-minute song with a crazy intro, put it that way. We’re not an avant-garde band, so we’ll always write pop music. Whatever form the music takes, it will always be pop at its core. So yeah, we’re not worried about writing the next Sweet Disposition. If it comes, it will happen naturally – we just have to ignore the pressure.”
BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
