A QUICK CHAT WITH KAV TEMPERLEY

Can you tell me a bit about your inspiration for your single ‘’Machines of Love and Grace”?’

 The song was written and recorded over the past two years of the global pandemic and explores the intimate relationship we now have through our phones. You can be having dinner with someone on face-time while locked down in your apartment which is kinda beautiful and amazing, yet we live in a world where most people feel like they don’t exist unless they’re posting on social media. I’m not passing judgement but rather just starting an important conversation.

What are your influences and how do they affect your songwriting? 

My influence was really me trying to unpack the last two and half years in artistic way that didn’t sound like I was reeling off a fact sheet of everything we’ve been through. So by necessity, I had to use whoever and whatever was right in front of me. Everything was recorded at my studio in Fremantle utilising musicians who are local, you can hear some really cool percussion on the song and that’s because one of the people I share my recording space with is a world class percussionist.

What’s the creative process like for you?

Because this is a solo album that I’ve been working on there’s a lot of sitting in a room by myself going around in circles until I find what I’m looking for. I use the computer to build up ideas and then I have to cull that all back until I arrive at a place that feels good. Some day I’m like “this is the greatest thing I’ve created, I’m a genius, my name will live on for eternity with all the great!!!” and then other day I’ll say to myself “this is the worst thing I’ve ever written I guess I’ll go get a job at McDonalds because that’s all I’m qualified to do”

If you could change something about the Australian music industry what would it be? 

I would like to see large funding put into the hands of the state music bodies and given out to musicians to tour and make records. In WA we have WAM, they should have the power and resources to distribute funds in a meaningful and realistic way

What do you think life would be like for you if you didn’t have music as an outlet? 

I'm a compulsive story teller. When I was young I would tell the tallest stories you could possibly imagine. So luckily I was given an outlet in music to tell those stories. I imagine I would be happy continuing to tell those stories in whatever form I can.

Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with?  Why?

I would love to collaborate with any of my favourite authors - Margaret Atwood, Haruki Murakami or Kazuo Ishiguro. I would love to help tell a story that sits outside the traditional album in whatever form that would take

 What’s your advice to young people who want to make a career for themselves in the industry? 

Find out what part of the industry you love and then do your 10,000 hours. If you find that you just like writing the songs or that you love being in the studio and pressing record or that you are great at bringing different artists together? Then try and recognise that and do it. There are so many things to do but you have to make sure you love it because there will be many hours of unromantic unpaid work involved, but like they say, if you love what you do, then you never work a day in your life.

Who’s the most interesting person you’ve worked with/met? 

A couple of years back I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in a project called Vast. Myself along with some amazing artists and musicians such as Bernard Fanning, Paul Dempsey, Olympia, Stormy Mills, Glenn Richards (the list goes on) all headed up to an abandoned gold mining town in the north of western Australia called Cossack. We set up make shift studios and by the end of the week we had recorded an album that you can hear on Spotify etc. One day, Scott Wise a musician and luthier knocked on the door of the abandoned school house where I had set up shop, he had in his hand a small instrument that he’d just made out of a piece of found wood, he plugged it in to an amp and started jamming, it sounded amazing so I pressed record, that jam turned into a song called “Sugar Stone High” I found out later that Cossack was where my great great grandfather Sandi Beaton had discovered gold which is the reason why my family stayed in WA and didn’t move to South Australia

Favourite hangover cure?

coke and a burger

Any plans for a tour on the cards?

Yes, we have a big Eskimo Joe tour on the cards for later October where we are going to play two of our albums Black fingernails Red Wine and A Song Is A City back to back.

and then after that in November I’ll hit the road playing solo supporting my album, Machines of Love & Grace which is due to come out mid-September