Troubling Times

Bands usually like to subtract. You know the deal. Three schoolmates dropping beats turns into two once success looms. A ring-in is added. Creative differences are touted. Stress is blamed. It all falls apart, and the next E! True Hollywood Story is born.

Rarely do bands add. An extra bassist? Another guitarist… wait, the original is still with the band? What? Then again, it kind of makes sense when a band goes from a one-man outfit to a five-piece. It all began back in 2011, when Brisbane singer/songwriter Thomas Calder started crafting songs in his home studio, and in just over two weeks recorded his mini-album, Bleeders, under the moniker of The Trouble With Templeton. And then BOOM. Unforseen but deserved critical acclaim followed, forcing Calder to take stock of his lonely boy situation and pull together a band.

Enter Hugh Middleton (guitar), Betty Yeowart (keyboards), Sam Pankhurst (bass) and Ritchie Daniell (drums).

“I think part of the reason I did Bleeders on my own, was because I hadn't really met the right people,” explains Calder.

It turned out to be the best decision Calder had ever made. The first offering from the new outfit was the eerie Six Months In A Cast, which nabbed the group third place in the International Songwriting Competition's 'Rock' category.

“I know what I want in a song,” stresses Calder, “and I'm not necessarily democratic about my music. Not in like an arrogant way. It's just… it's about me wanting to express what I do best, and I think that up until Bleeders I hadn't really met anyone that I trusted, or liked what they did enough to hand my songs over to them.”

As it happens, Calder found that in his new band members, who, he admits, have even given him a much craved for musical freedom that he couldn't entertain before.

“I feel a lot freer when I write songs now. With Bleeders… I kind of made one sort of album and obviously being myself I know that's not the only type of music that I make. But people didn't know that, and so the album was quickly kind of lumped into a 'folk'-sounding kind of category, and I had never considered the music folk in any way, but that's great that some people did. But with this album, I thought having already established that kind of genre and showing off that side of my music – I don't really need to worry about how people categorise it.”

The final fruits of their collective labour is Rookie – The Trouble With Templeton's first studio album as a 'complete' outfit. And for all his undemocratic musings, Calder was decidedly remarkably democratic when it came to recording the album: “I don't think there has ever been a moment in the history of the band where I or anyone else didn't like what the band was doing. It becomes like, an extension of yourself… but a better extension of yourself, one that is much more talented than you.”

Hardly.

The band were helped along by producer Matt Redlich, who's also worked with the likes of Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Ball Park Music and the ethereal Emma Louise.

“It's that thing that I was talking about before,” begins Calder, “I'm very cautious about letting go of control with my music – but it's really easy when you're working with someone who you know is on the same page.”

Redlich's fingerprints are all over Rookie. From the echoed, bleeding guitars on the triple j favourite, You Are New, to Like A Kid's rambunctious yelling – all topped off with a scrappy, luscious acoustic sound.

“Rookie is a lot bigger and a lot more expansive than Bleeders. It's more what I had originally wanted to do with my sound. This time, I've also got a lot more to listen to and to get lost in because I didn't play every instrument. I think now the sound is just a lot more experimental, and a lot more daring,” Calder suggests before stopping short and correcting himself. “Not that Bleeders wasn't daring. What I mean is… that was never the main point of the record. I think now we're just a lot more in your face and confidant.

“Wow,” he continues, “I feel like I'm gonna come across really arrogant in this interview, but that's ok. I'm just really passionate about my music, and I'm really proud of this one [Rookie].”

And it seems he's not the only one. The first single off the album, Six Months In A Cast, nabbed the iTunes Single of the Week in Australia and NZ on its release in September last year, and climbed to #4 on the Independent Radio Chart. The album's second offering, Like A Kid, is racking up some considerable airplay on triple j, not to mention scoring a heap of praise from reviewers, including Drum's Lorin Reid, who called it “seriously addictive”.

Their latest single, You Are New, is a cacophony of subtle, symphonic notes paired with Calder's rousing vocals. But for Calder, picking a favourite is akin to the Judgement Of Solomon: “They're all my babies. I love them all equally,” he stresses, before a little, subtle nagging sees him confess a particular fondness for the slowed-down sorrow of Flowers In Bloom.

With so much praise so early, Calder could be forgiven for feeling the pressure ahead of Rookie's release on August 2. Not so, he insists: “Yeah, no. I don't really worry about stuff like that. Of course we always really appreciate when people like our stuff, but it definitely doesn't affect the way we make our music. I only ever feel pressured to be true to ourselves and to do what we want to do, and I think that's a big part of why people respect and like the band, because we're not trying to be like anyone or anything else.”

The band will be riding high on the coattails of Rookie's release in embarking on a tour that Calder promises will showcase their sound in a completely different light: “I think we're a lot more rowdy… wait, no, a lot more energetic than people expect us to be,” he laughs. “We really get into it.”