With so much new music floating around the interwebs, sometimes it’s hard to dig a little deeper and find out more about a promising artist.
That’s why The Profile is breaking it down for you. The Pitch takes care of the nitty gritty factual bits, The Plot serves as a Q & A with the artist, and The Plug is where you can go for more.
The Pitch
Tempura Nights are Alan, Jay and Alana, all of Brisbane band heritage, specifically Go Violets (RIP), Major Leagues, and the Good Sports. The trio met each other at the back of the same club, probably. But they’re not clubbers. Alan is a “reformed hippie-slash-IT wiz”, Jay is a “chef school dropout” and Alana is a “big dumb banker.” The band have been playing as a three-piece for not too long. Keep your eyes peeked for a Tempura Nights EP due this year.
The Plot
Hometown: [Alana]: “I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, with a mother that loved MPB (popular Brazilian music, a genre of contemporary Bossa Nova) and ‘80s American oldies. Seriously, that’s all she let us play on the radio. My older sister was the rebel that started listening to Brazilian rock/rap (Pato Fu, Titãs, Skank, Gabriel o Pensador) and I just kind of loitered in her room at the time. In terms of Anglo music, her first CDs were The Cranberries, Oasis, just a variety of whatever we’d pick up from MTV’s top 10. I moved to Brisbane when I was 21, started writing for street press, and fell in love with local music.”
Influences: [Alana]: “I’ve been listening to a lot of bands with girl singers, but I kind of automatically get drawn to that, I guess. So stuff like Speedy Ortiz, Tacocat, Joanna Gruesome, Slutever, Upset etc., inspires me a lot.For our upcoming EP we collectively have different places we’re coming from, but the general idea I think is to make fun of white people. I hope we don’t offend them. The other two are inspired by morning brews.”
[Alan]: “Morning coffees, they get me going.”
[Jay]: “Morning codeine water.”
First song you ever wrote: [Alana]: “I wrote ‘Runner’ for my old band Go Violets.”
Favourite local act: [Alan]: “Teen Sensations, big fan of the surfin’ and the swayin’.”
[Alana]: “Love Signs. They got guns.”
[Jay]: Blank Realm. They’re my neighbours, their dog is cute.
Favourite local venue: [Alana]”Black Bear, because they have a cherry bearded door dude called Guy.”
Dream collaborations: [Alana]: “In the subject of cherries, I fucking love this band called Cherry Glazerr, they’re a trio of youngies but they’re very sexy. I wouldn’t mind “collaborating” with them, if that meant touring together. Also I recently worked with Patience and John from The Grates in their home studio and that was definitely a dream collaboration for me.”
[Jay]: “Stephen Malkmus because he’s like, one of the best lyricists of our time.”
Dream rider: [Alana]: “I asked the others about this question, they said “a bottle of scotch and some ciggies” so I’m just gonna go with that. Sometimes, you dream of your dream rider and then when you get it, there’s just too much cheese. And it’s hard to eat it all in one sitting.”
Best gig you’ve ever been to: [Alana]: St Vincent, Deerhunter, Girls, most of them at The Zoo.
[Alan]: Animal Collective at The Enmore Theatre. Holy mother of pearls. So good.
Venue Or Festival you’d love to play: [Alan]: Austin Psych Fest, that would be incredible.
The Plug
The band are about to release a video clip for their first single R.I.P. CHIX, and their debut EP ‘The White Whine’, will come out mid 2014, followed by a tour.
In the meantime you can catch Tempura Nights supporting BAD//DREEMS in Brisbane for their All Ages Rocking Horse show.
Sat 7 June – Rocking Horse Records, Brisbane QLD, 1PM, All Ages. Facebook event.
To keep up to date you can follow the Tempura Nights on Facebook and Bandcamp.
