Temper CityIf you're a music-lover there's a good chance you might have found yourself bumping a little bit of Temper City recently.
A Los Angeles-based trio comprising three Israeli writer/producers – Eytan Peled, Chen Kordova, and Aviv Barenholtz – the group have only existed as Temper City for a comparatively short time, but you can find their fingerprints all over music released across the past decade.
International electronic acts like Zeds Dead and Dimitri Vegas feature their talents, while they've also found themselves working across the fields of television, video games, and more.
This year, however, it all changed. Having been working on their own music for some time, the trio's early creative sessions resulted in a track called Self Aware.
That's the one you might have heard of. After all, it currently boasts more than 430 million streams on Spotify alone, and it's been hovering around the Australian top ten – sitting at No. 12 on the ARIA charts at the time of writing.
Rising to fame as viral TikTok sensations, the group have since found themselves taking their sound to the live stage, with their acclaimed single and their celebrated catalogue of as-yet-unreleased tunes seeing them appear on stages the world over.
Now, their recorded output has increased by 100%, with Temper City releasing their latest single, Reverse Psychology, today.
In celebration of their massive success and rising profile, The Music spoke to Temper City about how everything came together, how they created Self Aware, and what's next (including those all-important Australian tour plans).
The Music: For those not yet aware of the Temper City story, how did the group come together? How do you describe your sound?
Temper City: Chen and Aviv have been best friends since the age of 12 and have been making and producing music together for over a decade. Eytan and Aviv first met at an open mic bar seven years ago (Eytan singing, Aviv on drums). About two years later, the three of us had our first session ever, felt an immediate connection, and booked a flight to LA together just two weeks after officially meeting.
We started out couch surfing and writing and producing for other people, spending five years grinding behind the scenes for artists and television/sync projects like Zeds Dead, Dimitri Vegas, Fuerza Regida, Riot Games, and Barns Courtney.
Eventually, we realised our strongest work happened when we were just in a room writing together without expectations, leading us to focus on our own project and form a full band (with Eytan singing, Chen on guitar, and Aviv on drums).
We describe our sound as a raw nostalgic cinematic indie rock/pop sound with a modern electronic twist. It blends the grit and swagger of early 2000s indie rock (think Arctic Monkeys) with the melodic synth-driven energy of mid-2010s alternative like The Killers and Foster The People – built with zero AI, just the three of us playing live instruments in a room with raw energy.
TM: When it comes to the music-making process, what's the goal? Is it to have fun, to craft some pure bangers, or something else entirely?
TC: Every session and song is a different unique process and usually inspiration starts from a personal conversation or little jam in the beginning of the session. The songwriting goal is deeply tied to honesty, vulnerability, human connection, and writing lines that people from different cultures can emotionally resonate with from many different angles.
For us, producing and songwriting is like a form of therapy and being best friends and roommates, we always aim to write from real experiences and what's sitting on our hearts.
Eytan studied some psych and neuroscience, and we all like to approach songwriting like we're solving a problem or mapping out the mental gymnastics of complicated, messy human behaviour, and multiple perspectives on the same situation.
Plus, as former producers, we always look at how a song will translate live on stage, making sure it has massive energy while staying true to our nostalgic alt-rock roots. We really obsess over a chorus that feels like an anthem when approaching a song.
TM: This year has undoubtedly been a big one in terms of the success of Self Aware, but how did the song come together? Was there a vision in mind for how you wanted it to sound?TC: Self Aware actually exists because an artist cancelled a session with us at the last minute! It was roughly the second song we ever wrote together for the project. We spent an entire day on it (from 11am to 6pm) obsessing over every line and structure.
Our vision was to make something timeless with massive live energy. When the chorus melody finally hit, we caught it on a voice note – you can hear us screaming "this sounds like a hit" in real time – and the words "self-aware" just locked right into the melody.
It's a special song for us as we made it just the three of us from the songwriting all the way through to mixing and mastering it ourselves.
TM: How did it feel to release it? For a debut single, there's obviously some slight fear about sharing music with the world, but was there any of that at play?
TC: After years of writing for others we felt eager and as ready as we can be to launch our own project.
Releasing the song was honestly surreal. We opened a TikTok with 0 followers to tease the song two weeks before releasing the song without too many expectations.
We’ll never forget the morning after, we woke up (we live together) and all screamed from our rooms in disbelief seeing that the snippet became viral overnight with thousands of videos that people made with the sound and hundreds of thousands of views on our video.
We always believed in Self Aware needing to be the first song out of our album (which we actually finished recording before even thinking about releasing a single) but never expected it to happen so quickly. We were mentally prepared for a slow burn and a gradual, step-by-step build.
We actually filmed and edited all our own content for the whole album before releasing the song and are very happy that we have a project that feels cohesive to us that was created in a completely expectation free mind space.
It’s been a life-changing experience for us and it feels really good and reassuring that a song we made with just the three of us has now passed more than 400 million streams on Spotify.
Now that we performed the whole album for people around the world on our first tour we feel very excited and confident for the project as a whole.
TM: When did you start realising that people were actually paying attention to the track?
TC: It took off way faster than our initial slow-burn plan when we started teasing snippets on social media in January. I think seeing videos of people from all around the world singing the chorus on social media before the song even came out helped us realize something is happening here.
The response to the teaser content was immediate, leading to thousands of pre-saves and about 80 meetings with different labels before signing in February, followed by the official release.
TM: How has the success of the track on platforms like TikTok impacted things for the group? Is it validating, inspiring, or something else?
TC: It has been incredible. Our shared dream as musicians has always been to make top global songs and reach as many people and hearts as possible. It's extremely validating and exciting to fulfil our childhood dreams together.
Seeing listeners mirror our personal vulnerability and turn a private moment from our lives into a universal shared experience has been deeply rewarding.
TM: There has been some amazing chart success as well; top 40 in the US, top ten in many countries, and currently sitting at No. 12 in Australia. How has this felt? Is it surprising to see the music translating to so many different cultures and countries?
TC: It’s the best feeling in the world. We’ve always wanted to see the world through music and dream to perform in as many countries as possible.
Seeing it translate across so many cultures and countries is a surreal testament to how a personal, honest moment can resonate everywhere and how much we have emotionally in common as humans.
TM: How has the live experience been? There have been solid crowds, but what have the highlights been so far?
TC: It’s been incredible creating core memories together across the world. Our first tour was half headline shows and half opening for acts we love such as Lewis Capaldi in Milan and Muse in Summerfest festival in Milwaukee.
Standing on stage with your best friends and performing your music in front of tens of thousands of people and feeling them connect to it is an unbelievable experience and we are deeply grateful for it.
Our headline shows were so special to us. It's one thing seeing numbers on a phone and a completely other thing seeing it in real life and feeling that personal connection with our fans (some of which turned up to our shows dressed in Temper City outfits).
We made sure to meet all the fans at the end of each show and hear which were their favorite songs out of the album. We feel we have the best fans in the world and love the community we are building. Seeing the crowd singing our unreleased songs was also something we will never forget.
TM: What's next on the itinerary? (We'd be remiss not to ask if Australia is on the bucket list, too!)
TC: Yes, Australia has definitely always been on the bucket list! Right now, our itinerary includes a mini-tour starting in October centred around our first major festival show at Austin City Limits and lots of radio promo tours. We want to set it up so we can perform in as many countries as possible next year.
Our main focus is to roll out the album so we can sing it together with the crowds next year, nothing beats that feeling.
TM: Reverse Psychology is out now, of course, but what's the current plans moving forward? Are you working towards an EP/album, taking over the world of music, etc.?
TC: Our debut full-length album is already completely finished and will come soon. We have a series of follow-up singles planned as part of that broader rollout, leading into our first headline US tour. With Full Stop Management, Thirty Knots, and Interscope mapping out our international expansion through 2027/28, we're ready to take this worldwide heading to Europe by early next year and hitting major global festivals.
We also plan on continuing to produce and write songs/produce for other artists, which is something we absolutely love and will never give up on. We love collaborating with other producers, songwriters, and artists, and always learning and improving.
Temper City's Reverse Psychology is out now.
