In early 2022, when I first talked to Alfie Templeman, the world hadn’t fully recovered from the pandemic yet. Alfie was at home in his room, showing me his record collection via Zoom. We chatted about Prince, who was approximately the same age as Alfie when he released his first album. And it is no coincidence that this is one of the topics we come straight back to, when we meet again. This time in person, in the same room, we talk about his new album „Radiosoul“. And the Funk vibe is omnipresent on this album. But at the same time, the album is just as fast paced and beautifully messy as having a conversation with Alfie himself.
When I heard „Eyes White Shut“ for the first time, I instantly thought: Did you listen to a lot of Prince when making this record?
I did! Yeah! Oh my God, I love him. He’s one of my favourite artists ever. Mostly „1999“ and Sign ‚o the Times“, „Lovesexy“, that kind of stuff. All of the eighties stuff. I don’t particularly like eighties music, but I think he’s fucking genius.
With a lot of his music I actually tend to forget that it was the eighties.
He’s kind of everything, isn’t he?
We stray, as you tend to do, when you’re chatting with Alfie. He tells me stories about his sound guy, who also used to work for Prince, and how annoyed he was when his last cheque didn’t come through, after Prince suddenly died. We end up watching videos of the guy on Alfie’s phone. Apparently, he too loves Germany. „Oh God, I think this is the video where I throw up in the toilet as well!“ he shrieks at some point, but there it is. Too late: I have seen it. He goes on to tell me how they ended up flooding their hotel room. The moral of the story: don’t mix Jaegermeister with whisky.
How did we get from Prince to this?
How did I get from Prince to our hotel being flooded? It’s so random, isn’t it? (And somehow, straying away from this, we end up talking about Jungle.) Jungle are amazing! They are on top of the world now, which is great. I recorded a lot of stuff with one of the guys from Jungle, Tom. He’s lovely. But recently he’s been getting so busy. He’s also had two kids in a year. I go over to his studio, I go there at one o’clock, and by three o’clock he has to end the session to pick his kids up from the nursery. A two hour session! We managed to record some guitar though.
But that brings me to this: I love how collaboratively you worked this time. It’s such a difference from the last time I talked to you. You told me you were doing everything by yourself back then.
Yeah, that’s it exactly. Everything was just in my bedroom. I did a few sessions afterwards. There were 14 songs on the album. I’d say nine of them I probably did all by myself. But even then, when I did collaborate with people, most of it was still online. And I was still producing most of it. I don’t know – I felt a bit restricted in terms of my production style. Especially recently, after we toured „Mellow Moon“, we came back and I was like: I don’t really know what to do now! I didn’t want to have the same sounds really. When you’re producing you’ve got the same kind of sound bank, you have the same kind of guitar sounds that you‘re going to use and drum pieces and stuff. I felt like I had to work with other producers, still write the same kind of songs, but also get a different taste to the work. It just felt more refreshing.
I mean, you are so young. And you are so incredibly skilled and so independent in your working process. It’s just such a good experience to see what others have to offer.
Absolutely. I learned a lot. Now that I’ve done this album, I think I’m ready to go back to producing stuff myself quite a lot. There are six producers on the record. I’ve learned enough for me to feel like I can go to the next phase and try different things myself. All of my favourite artists are the ones that do it themselves. Like Prince! He was so talented. It’s weird with Prince, because no one actually realises how talented he was, because his songs shine through more than the actual fact that he played everything himself. Same as Kate Bush. She wrote most of her first album when she was like 14. She wrote „Wuthering Heights“ when she was 16. I don’t know how you do that. Lyrically as well! That’s my thing, I’m not really good with lyrics. Until recently at least. When I write lyrics, it comes out of experience. I don’t really fantasize. I can’t write stories very well. I’m better at just actually telling personal things in my lyrics. And this album is good for that.
I really cherish it when young artists like you take inspiration from these legendary artists. I know a lot of people my age who fear our legends will be forgotten one day.
They won’t. Just have integrity. That’s the main thing. Forever, since music existed, it’s gone through so many different formats. Vinyl came in, then CD, then we had MP3 players. Now everything is being digested through TikTok and stuff. Things come and go, but the thing that remains is artistic integrity. And just the idea that true artists want to make good albums and good music. That stands the test of time, whereas TikTok and social media, to me, probably don‘t as much. I think music is music, I only approach it at that face value level.
How do you discover new music?
I’m lucky enough to have friends that have amazing taste in music! So I get a lot of recommendations from him.
Alfie points to his friend and bandmate Jos. They start nerding out about their different tastes in music, how they discover new stuff while driving in the car together. I find out the two have been making music together since they were literally kids, around seven years old. The day before we sat down for the interview, they played a little showcase together. It was just the two of them accompanied by a drum machine that played the same beat over and over, while they hacked at their guitar and bass and seemed to effortlessly make it sound like a whole band. The chemistry is undeniable.
Honestly, sometimes I just go to a record store and just buy anything. If I see a cover… I just buy stuff and hope that it’s not crap. Some of them are really cheap, one pound or so.
Alfie laughs, like he tends to do a lot. We start nerding out about when I was a kid and we used to do just that. Spend the whole afternoon in a record store, pick out covers we found interesting, sit by the counter and listen to a whole pile of records. And then, if things were going well and we had enough pocket money, maybe we’d buy one. Alfie dives in as if he was a kid from the eighties. With him you can never tell whether he’s more of an enthusiastic kid, discovering everything for the first time, or an old soul who has seen it all.
And did you discover some good stuff this way?
Yeah, mostly drum beats and stuff, which is really good for sampling sometimes. A friend of mine, Dom, he’s got billions of cheap records. He puts them on a turntable. It connects to his computer, his interface, and he samples them. I think that’s really cool. I’d like to do more of that as well.
So cool that these things still persist these days. Like sampling from a record…
Oh yeah, it’s a big thing, still. Growing up, we were really into J Dilla and how he completely rewrote like drums were played. (Alfie starts beatboxing and showcasing a number of different drum beats.) His ones sound more like falling down the stairs. But for some reason there‘s something about it that’s just really satisfying. I kinda messed around with that on some of the songs on the record. There is one at the end called „Run to Tomorrow“ and the beat is like… (Alfie starts beatboxing again) It’s really weird. Yeah, he was the one who turned sampling into a really big art form.
I’m wondering right now if the world isn’t actually lost. Or if we are just a bunch of nerds together in a room.
I think we are the minority really. Normally I feel a bit weird walking down the street. Luckily in London, where I live, there’s tons of crazy, wacky people. Everyone in South London is a bit of a nut job. (To Jos) Like you. Where I grew up, it’s a very small village: there wasn’t much going on. I had to discover most of the music myself. But living in London, I discovered so many types of music and stuff. To be honest, after the pandemic, we played a lot of shows, but I never really went to any live concerts myself. I was really bad with noise as a kid. So after the pandemic lifted, and especially since moving to London, I discovered a lot of music through going to concerts and stuff. The best feeling is when you go and see a band and you end up liking the support band more. You become the biggest fan of them, and you forget the actual band that played (laughs). But also we’ve been upstaged at our own gigs! There’s been people that have been way better than us.
Alfie starts telling a story about the one time they went to Japan and found themselves upstaged by their own support band, who played their first (and only) actual gig that day. Then about how he once played guitar for Declan McKenna at the Royal Albert Hall and fell down because the floor was so slippery. And then about how they supported The Wombats in Australia and went so see wombats at the zoo the next day. He is so good with these little stories that come floating out of him in a constant stream of consciousness. The room is constantly buzzing with laughter, and most of the time he is the one who is laughing the loudest. It’s incredibly infectious.
Isn’t it crazy to be back in the midst of live, after the pandemic? I remember when I last talked to you, we were still in lockdown and you were sitting alone in your room.
It was really overwhelming at first. I think everyone was on tour. After it got lifted, I think it was pretty intense for fans of live music. They were like kids in a candy store. So many shows happening! Which ones do I go to? For us as well, in 2022, that was our first big touring year. That was when it first went back to normal and we could go everywhere. We ended up playing a hundred shows that year. It was very intense and afterwards I was really, really tired. I couldn’t write music. But sometimes you have to do something like that. Play a hundred shows and just realise: Oh, I‘m burning out. This time around, I’m releasing the album first and then just chilling out. And then I’m gonna tour. Last time I released the album and we were doing two shows a day. We were touring and promoting the album at the same time. But we just got through it. We were knackered, but we kept up with it.
Do you think this album would have been the same it is now, if it wasn’t for these experiences?
I always wonder that. I think naturally I’ve always wanted to push myself as much as possible. So musically I think I would still have experimented just as much. I think it’s more the topic of the songs. I feel like there certainly was a special kind of energy on this album. That whole contrast: it was a very specific experience and feeling. A bunch of emotions. So I think it would have been different. I think, in a weird way, the last couple of years made me a better lyricist. I was definitely very hyper to get back into the studio. The first half of 2023 I was really bored. And I just couldn’t produce anything good. So as soon as I got into the studio, I was going crazy. I just wanted to do as much as possible and really push myself. I think that’s where you can hear it. It’s in the energy of playing the instruments. The album goes everywhere – there’s lots of different genres I mess around with. So much has changed in the last couple of years. My musical taste has changed and developed quite a lot as well. I became a better player as well.
Eventually we’re told that our time is over. Alfie is sad. He could have gone on for hours, he says. When we say goodbye, he’s standing in the streets outside the building in his yellow shirt, waving until we are finally out of sight. It’s good to know he will be back in Germany at the end of the year to play some shows. Otherwise I would be really sad too.
Alfie Templeman live:
29.11.2024 Köln, Luxor
02.12.2024 Berlin, Cassiopeia
03.12.2024 Hamburg, Molotow SkyBar