Culture
Twin Temple talks about using vintage recording techniques to make the kind of record they’ve always wanted to hear
By: Nicholas Kobe
Posted on:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOUB) – Since their 2017 debut, Twin Temple has captivated audiences by topping the melodies and hooks of ’50s and ’60s rock ‘n’ roll with lyrics about their ‘devout Satanist’ beliefs.
The married duo, Alexandra and Zachary James, began their climb as a consistent opener for theatrical Swedish gothic rock band Ghost before building a loyal following of their own. Their 2018 debut album Twin Temple Bring You Their Signature Sound… Satanic Doo-Wop was recorded quickly but with precision, capturing the duo’s distinctive sound.
After years of touring, they released their sophomore album, God Is Dead, last year. It continues the themes of their debut while embracing vintage recording techniques to enhance their devilish take on American pop music.
On Friday Twin Temple plays TempleLive at the Columbus Athenaeum (32 North 4th Street). WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe interviewed the couple ahead of that performance. Find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
Nicholas Kobe:
If you had to describe Twin Temple in one sentence, what would you say?
Zachary James:
“Satanic doo-wop.”
When people think of music that’s considered “Satanic,” a lot of times people go to something like heavy metal. Why combine those themes with “doo-wop?”
Alexandra James:
Yeah, I mean, Zach and I have always really loved horror movies and the macabre and all things kind of “gothic,” the darker side of life. We definitely have a little bit of gallows humor, and we also love classic American music. We call it “doo-wop.” It’s snappy to call it that, but really, the last record leaned pretty heavily into the girl group sound. The record before that was kind of more all over the place. We had Latin influences, jazz, blues, and maybe a bit of country.
Really, everything in the project is a reflection of our own personal interests. It’s just that nobody before us combined horror theatrics with The Ronettes. Twin Temple was really just a project born out of love, and it was something that just thrilled me and Zach to make. It’s sort of like the ultimate record you hope to find in the back of a dusty bin of a record shop. The ultimate score would be some cool, goth Dolly Parton record or something.
Zachary James:
And it just so happens to resonate with others. So that’s great for us.
You are touring right now. What’s the vibe been like at these Twin Temple headlining shows?
Zachary James:
Yeah, I mean, they’re definitely our favorite shows. There’s nothing like a headline show. Being able to present the full show as we would like it to be seen and the turnout, all the fans, have been great. They always show up in really great costumes.
Alexandra James:
Our fans are so cool. I mean, we definitely make it known that our goal is to create an inclusive environment where all the weirdos like us can come together and have a fun time.
Speaking of touring – theoretically, is there anything that would be kind of your “dream” thing to pull off on stage?
Zachary James:
Pyro and oldies.
Alexandra James:
I wouldn’t mind driving a ‘59 Cadillac out on stage. Maybe a pair of black horses. I’ve always wanted to be burned at the stake – again – on stage, as well.
You said: “burned at the stake again?”
Alexandra James:
Yes. Again. That’s been happening quite a lot in my lifetime.
Now that God Is Dead has been out a little over a year, how are you feeling about it?
Zachary James:
I’m still very proud of that record. I still like that record. I mean, the process was very different than the first record.
Alexandra James:
It was fun to make. It was kind of a labor of love. It was very labor-intensive compared to our first record, like Zach was saying. But I feel like the real magic kind of happens on stage as well. That’s where everything kind of comes alive, and we get to play around with the songs.
What about God Is Dead specifically made it more labor-intensive than the first record?
Zachary James:
Well, the first record was recorded live in an afternoon with a full band in a room, just live the tape. Whereas the second record, we wanted to do something different. So the two of us just basically locked ourselves in the studio for, I don’t know, six months or something, and just worked on it every day. And we overdubbed every instrument, one at a time. We still tried to keep it as live as possible by doing single takes, but it was not done live as in a group, together, all at one time. So that was very different.
There’s a lot more production on the second record, layering of instruments that was not done on the first record. With the first record, I’d say on average each song had something like eight tracks, whereas with the average song on God Is Dead there are probably like 30 tracks, and they’re all blended together. So maybe sometimes you can’t tell, but there are a lot of nuances in that production.
Alexandra James:
Yeah, I mean, we were kind of going for this necrotic Phil Spector “Wall of Sound”- type thing where you might not hear it, but every bass is doubled and then we’ve tripled it with piano and then doubled that. So just the bass you’re hearing is probably four to six tracks. We drove ourselves a little crazy trying to make it literally as period-correct as possible.
We went down this rabbit hole of how Hal Blaine achieved all of his sounds. We even found his exact sleigh bell and bought that. We sourced it for the record. It was just a lot of trial and error as well because there was no manual on how to create those sounds. It was a lot of just listening and experimenting and trying to get it. We spent so much time making a real lo-fi record littered with sleigh bells in mono. After we got the recording, we ran it through a bunch of tape emulation and tape saturation and tape sounds to make it sound kind of like this overloaded, lost gem from 1962, like something from Gold Star Studios or something from a girl group you’ve never heard of. So yeah, a lot of work went into making it sound like really old and degraded.
Absolutely. And is that sound, is that always the vision you’ve had for Twin Temple, and is that something you think you’re going to keep refining? That process of making it old and unrefined?
Zachary James:
No, it’s what we wanted to do in that moment, and that’s kind of how we operate. We just kind of follow the muse and wherever that takes us. But there’s definitely nothing keeping us to any kind of preconceived idea.
Alexandra James:
I think if anything, the vision for Twin Temple is to just kind of do whatever it is we want, whatever it is we’re feeling in the moment and not really worry about how it’s going to be received or marketed. We’re really just making these records for ourselves. That was what we wanted to do at that moment in time to see if we could, and we had a blast every time we uncovered a new gem of how this music that we love was made. It was such a high, and it’s kind of just taking a beautiful car apart down to each of its parts and being like, “wow, that’s how that Cadillac was put together.”
So it just gave us a more intimate understanding of a certain period of music that we love. So, I don’t know what’s up next for us – well, I do know, but I can’t tell you – but I can say we tend to not want to repeat ourselves.
Zachary James:
We have a specific pool we’re drawing from as far as references, but that will continually change.
When you talk about having this well of influences that’s gradually expanding, what kind of makes you think, “okay, this kind of fits the ethos of Twin Temple?”
Alexandra James:
We don’t have any rules. It’s just sort of like, “Hey, this is cool, this is exciting. What is this?” We just love music. At the end of the day. It’s just certain things, they get inside you, and they touch you. When you hear something you love, it’s just like, is there anything more magical or transcendent than when a song just “gets you”? So we’re just kind of always on the hunt for that feeling.